English summaries (05/2014)
The role of family background in peer selection and peer acceptance
The aim of the present study was to examine the role of children’s family background in peer selection and peer acceptance and rejection. The participants were 1 017 children and their mothers. Teachers rated children’s social skills, whereas information of peer selection and peer acceptance and rejection was obtained using a sociometric peer nomination procedure. Family background was explored by investigating the number of favorable and unfavorable family factors. The data was analyzed using path modeling. The results showed that children resembled their peers in regard to social skills and unfavorable family background. A favorable family background was also found to protect children from peer rejection. Furthermore, social skills were found to mediate the associations between children’s family background and peer selection and peer acceptance and rejection.
Keywords: childhood, peer relations, peer selection, peer acceptance and rejection, family background
What is to be learned in psychotherapy? Experiences of short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy and solution-focused therapy
This article focuses on learning as one possible element of change common to all psychotherapies. The study aimed to find out what kind of objects and processes of learning appear in the context of psychotherapy.
The research method was theory-oriented content analysis. The research was based on interviews of eight women who took part in the Helsinki Psychotherapy Study. Four of them took part in short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy and four in solution-focused therapy. Half of them had recovered from their symptoms of depression by the end of therapy (SCL-90-GSI < 0.7); half had not.
On the basis of the interviews, objects of learning in psychotherapy can be learning how to participate in psychotherapy, learning to know and understand oneself, learning new perspectives towards oneself and others, learning self-agency, responsibility and life-managing skills and learning ways to manage depression. Based on this study learning can be seen as one core element of psychotherapy processes.
Keywords: short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy, solution-focused therapy, learning, qualitative research
Power priming and the perception of a victim of injustice
We examined the effect of power on the perception of a victim of injustice. Using the Galinsky, Gruenfeld and Magee (2003) method, participants (social science and economics students; n = 114) were randomly assigned to high power, low power and control conditions and asked to assess the feelings and personality of a victim of injustice depicted in a realistic vignette, and to respond to Moorman’s (1991) justice measure. Power priming did not affect economics students, but social science students in the low power condition saw the victim as warmer than in the high power condition. Power priming did not affect the perception of a victim’s feelings, her personality or the importance of interactional, procedural or distributive justice, which was higher for social science students for the first two dimensions of justice. In forthcoming studies it is worth taking into account that the effects of power priming vary according to the participants and situations.
Keywords: power priming, organizational justice, emotions, personality traits
References:
Galinsky, A. D., Gruenfeld, D. H., & Magee, J. C. (2003). From power to action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(3), 453–466.
Moorman, R. H. (1991). Relationship between organizational justice and organizational citizenship behaviors: Do fairness perceptions influence employee citizenship? Journal of Applied Psychology, 76(6), 845–855.