Moral disengagement is a process whereby the self-regulatory mechanisms that would otherwise sanction unethical conduct can be selectively disabled. The present research proposed that moral disengagement might be adopted in the endorsement of asylum seeker policies in Australia, and in order to test this, developed and validated a scale in two studies. Factor analysis demonstrated that a two-factor, 16-item structure had the best fit, and the construct validity of the scale was supported. Results provide evidence for the use of moral disengagement in the context of asylum seekers as a means of rationalizing conduct that may otherwise be sanctioned.

Characteristic affect may influence the development of resilience. Higher levels of resilience may in turn decrease the likelihood of individuals developing symptoms of depression. All first year psychology students (N = 217) were recruited in this longitudinal study to examine whether resilience mediates the relationship between characteristic affect and symptoms of depression. One hundred and seven students completed survey measures at the start of a semester and again 3 months later. Results indicated that greater negative affect predicted worsening of depressive symptoms over 3 months, while greater positive affect predicted a lessening of depressive symptoms over 3 months. Resilience fully mediated the effects of positive affect on change in depression and partly mediated the effects of negative affect on change in depression. These results are interpreted in the context of a hierarchical model of affect and the Broaden and Build Theory, which may explain how resilience arises from positive affect and mediates between affect and symptoms of depression over time.

Background: Selective mutism is a rare childhood anxiety disorder characterized by a consistent failure to speak in certain social situations where speech is expected, despite fluent speech in other situations. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to investigate the efficacy of psychological interventions for selective mutism in randomized controlled trials (RCTs).
Methods: Five RCTs with a total of 233 participants were analysed using a randomeffects model. A quality assessment of the included studies revealed that psychometrically sound measures and treatment manuals were used across all studies.
Results: The results of the analyses showed psychological interventions to be more effective than no treatment, with the overall weighted effect size of g = 0.87, indicating a large mean treatment effect. This effect did not significantly differ with whether only selective mutism specific or nonselective mutism specific measures were included in the analysis.
Conclusions: These findings provide support for the efficacy of psychological treatment for selective mutism. Future research could examine the effects of the successful treatments identified in this meta-analysis when compared with a psychological placebo or another bona fide treatment.

When a student paper states that performance anxiety can lead to sexual impudence, we might laugh. When a dissertation uses the expression 'It is argued' more times than we can count, we might cry. High-quality written communication is important at all levels of psychology education and in most fields of employment related to psychology. Accordingly, the APA's Task Force on Undergraduate Major Competencies (2002) named effective writing skills one of the top goals for undergraduate psychology education. Despite the importance of written communication, the quality of student writing in psychology courses, even at the graduate level, is often so low as to make academics despair. Although writing skills are not usually the focus of psychology courses, we believe that instructor efforts to improve student writing can be beneficial regardless of the course topic. We provide below a list of strategies we use to help our psychology students improve their writing skills. The strategies are based on psycho-educational principles such as instruction, prompting, modeling, and reinforcement. In addition to actually improving writing skills, these strategies aim to increase motivation for writing improvement. We see enhancing motivation as the key to helping students because students themselves can find ways to improve their writing if they try. Also, with high intrinsic motivation, students will continue to strive to improve their writing after they finish any particular course. We also help students learn specific writing rules. We believe that helping a student learn just one writing rule (e.g., noun-pronoun agreement in number) can lead to a lifetime of improved writing.

This study examined the effect of an expressive-writing paradigm intervention designed to increase emotional self-efficacy in employees. Participants in the intervention condition with lower pre-test self-efficacy scores showed significant increases in self-efficacy. Further, participants in the writing intervention condition showed increased emotional intelligence and positive affect, and decreased workplace incivility perpetration compared to participants in the control writing condition. Overall, the results indicate that an expressive-writing intervention may be an effective strategy for increasing positive workplace outcomes.

The present study examined relationships between the meta traits of stability (Alpha) and plasticity (Beta) with trait emotional intelligence (EI) and other-rated task performance. One hundred and eighty participants provided information regarding stability, plasticity, and emotional intelligence. Participants' task performance was rated by four peer observers. Both greater stability, composed of characteristics relating to emotional stability, agreeableness and conscientiousness, and greater plasticity, composed of characteristics relating to extraversion and openness, were associated with higher emotional intelligence and better other-rated task performance. Higher trait EI was associated with better task performance. EI was a significant mediating path between both stability and performance and between plasticity and performance. The findings support the utility of the EI construct. Additionally, these findings are congruent with a theoretical hierarchical structure of personality; in which meta traits provide a basis for the development of more differentiated traits, such as EI, which then impact behavior.

This study assessed the effectiveness of training leaders in behaviors that satisfy meeting attendees’ psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Three managers who regularly lead meetings with their work-groups participated in the study. The study used a research design of multiple baselines across groups and began with baselines ranging over three to five meetings. Group leaders then received a session of behavioral skills training with a role-play component, followed by post-training assessment over three to five meetings. The final assessment occurred one month later. Leaders reported the number of recommended leader behaviors they used prior to training and at subsequent meetings. Group members anonymously completed ratings of (1) the extent of their psychological need satisfaction, (2) their satisfaction with each meeting, and (3) how productive each meeting was. Meeting leaders showed significantly more use of the recommended behaviors after training than before training. Member ratings indicated a significant increase in need satisfaction, satisfaction with meetings, and meeting productivity after the training of their leader. Significant positive effects remained at a one-month follow-up. The findings show that training leaders in needs-focused behaviors to use in running meetings can be used to satisfy attendee-needs and to improve meeting satisfaction and productivity.

Trauma can have far reaching effects – even for those who experience it indirectly. Compassion fatigue, which often occurs for caring professionals who provide support for traumatized individuals, involves symptoms of secondary traumatic stress and job burnout. Anticipatory traumatic reaction is a future-focused form of distress arising from media reports and social discussions of disasters and large-scale negative events. The current study aimed to investigate the relationship and interactions between these two conditions, both stress responses arising from secondary exposure to trauma. A cohort of 48 youth workers completed measures of secondary traumatic stress, burnout, compassion satisfaction, general distress, and anticipatory traumatic reaction. Anticipatory traumatic reaction magnified the relationship between secondary traumatic stress and general distress. Mediation analysis showed that general distress connected secondary traumatic stress with burnout. Moderated mediation analyses indicated that anticipatory traumatic reaction interacted with general distress in connecting secondary traumatic stress with burnout. The results suggested that youth workers’ levels of depression, anxiety, and stress may help link secondary traumatic stress to burnout. High levels of anticipatory traumatic reaction may exacerbate distress, potentially putting youth workers at greater risk of burnout. Longitudinal and experimental studies should clarify the interactions between anticipatory traumatic reaction and compassion fatigue and determine if anticipatory traumatic reaction can facilitate burnout for people in other occupations. It will be important to identify interventions to mitigate this form of distress.

This research experimentally investigated whether virtual reality experience can prompt greater empathy and whether greater engagement with a virtual reality connects this virtual reality experience to empathy. Randomly assigned participants viewed a documentary featuring a young girl living in a refugee camp either in a virtual reality format or in a control two-dimensional format. Results indicated that the virtual reality experience resulted in greater engagement and a higher level of empathy for the refugee girl compared to the control condition. Greater engagement was a process connecting the virtual reality experience to empathy. Virtual reality has the potential to influence interpersonal emotions such as empathy.