Australian Journal of Psychology最新文献

Objective: A common tendency among humans is the devaluation of remote, larger benefits in favour of immediate, smaller gains, a phenomenon known as temporal discounting. Exercising for health necessitates focusing on long-term health benefits while minimising perceived obstacles. Recent studies have demonstrated that experiencing nature may reduce the discounting tendency. We conducted a behavioural experiment to investigate whether exposure to natural environments could decrease temporal discounting, thereby enhancing the inclination to walk for health.

Method: In total, 140 participants were randomly assigned to view images of either natural or urban landscapes. They completed a measure of discounting and participated in a pedometer-based task. In this task, the selection of a meeting point at a greater or lesser distance, along with the additional distance walked, were used as indicators of health-oriented walking behaviour.

Results: Participants exposed to natural settings were more likely to choose a distant meeting point for returning the pedometer and engaged in greater additional walking than those exposed to urban settings. Temporal discounting played a mediating role in these effects.

Conclusions: These findings offer an explanation for the reduced propensity towards health-related exercise among urban residents, and provide a novel strategy for promoting exercise motivation in contemporary lifestyles.

Objective: Anger in crowds can be dangerous and lead to violence. Accurately assessing anger in crowds can be difficult, and people tend to overestimate the average intensity of a crowd's anger relative to an individual's anger (i.e. the crowd emotion amplification effect).

Method: Across three experiments, we investigated the emotion amplification effect in crowds (versus individuals) displaying angry facial expressions. We also investigated the influence of gender, race, and alcohol cues as influences on this effect.

Results: In two of the three experiments, we replicated the emotion amplification effect and found an interaction with race. Participants overestimated anger in White crowds more so than anger in Black crowds, but overestimated anger to a greater extent for Black individuals more than White individuals. There was also a main effect such that participants overestimated anger for men relative to women in both individuals and crowds and in both races.

Conclusions: These findings highlight the bias to overestimate anger in White crowds, men, and Black individuals. These findings may affect policies around policing and crowd control.

Objective: Delay discounting refers to the devaluation of future rewards as a function of time. Previous studies proposed the relationship between time perception and delay discounting in ageing, while there is a lack of evidence about the effect of different dimensions of time.

Method: This study explored the effect of delay length (1-day, 1-month, 6-month, 1-year, 5-year), time framing (delay, date) and time estimation (internal clock) on delay discounting in younger and older adults. Seventy younger adults and 57 older adults completed the delay discounting task and time estimation task.

Results: Results suggested the effect of age, but there were no effects of delay lengths and time framing on age differences in delay discounting. Meanwhile, internal clock predicted delay discounting in older adults, with higher discounting correlating with more internal clock variability.

Conclusion: Age differences in delay discounting may not be due to the effects of delay lengths and time framing, but rather to variations in the internal clock among older adults.

Objective: Research indicates that socioeconomic status (SES) influences developmental outcomes, particularly in language, executive functions, and intelligence, though findings have been mixed. This study examines the relationship between academic, cognitive and intellectual abilities in a cross-section of children at two age levels in low-SES vs. high-SES schools.

Method: We administered a computerised battery of tests to 46 children in Grade Two (youngest 6.9 years old) and 67 children in Grade Six (oldest 12.4 years old) across four primary schools from low-SES and high-SES neighbourhoods. The test battery comprised two academic ability tests, five cognitive ability tests, and two intelligence tests.

Results: In Grade Two, the low-SES group showed disadvantages on all measures except the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task and Choice Reaction Time. In Grade Six, while academic differences persisted between SES groups, cognitive differences were limited to the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task, where the high-SES group performed better than the low-SES group.

Conclusions: Though our results pertain to cross-sectional data using neighbourhood indices of SES, our findings contrast with previous research showing broad and pervasive disadvantages associated with lower SES. Future research should further examine the potential differences and similarities in developmental outcomes across SES groups using longitudinal methods.

Objective: Young Australian males 15-to-24-years-old have a high prevalence of mental health disorders and suicide but are least likely to seek professional mental health support. Most help-seeking studies fail to consider young males who are disengaged from mainstream education. This research aims to gain an enriched understanding about mental health literacy and help-seeking from the perspective of young rural males disengaged from mainstream education.

Method: Participants included sixteen males aged 15-to-24-years. All participants had disengaged from mainstream education and had experienced disadvantage. Qualitative methodology was employed using reflexive thematic analysis to analyse interview transcripts and develop themes.

Results: There were four major themes and three subthemes: 1) contextual influence, with subtheme of cultural influence; 2) a spectrum of knowledge with subtheme of subjective threshold; 3) battling stigma; and 4) genuine connection, with subtheme of redefining service models.

Conclusions: This research provides the first known insight into the help-seeking perspectives of young rural males disengaged from education. Their narratives, highlight that help-seeking is valued yet action remains ambivalent and hindered by understandings of mental health literacy, stigma, and service models. For these young men, genuine connection that honours their context and experiences is more important than demonstrating clinical expertise. This research offers practical suggestions for tailoring mental health services to meet the needs of young rural men disengaged from education.

Objective: Use of measures by practitioners in mental health (MH) is a cornerstone of evidence-based practice and essential to high-quality service provision. Session-by-session measure use, known as Measurement-Based Care (MBC), has been shown to improve treatment engagement and outcomes, yet little is known about the use of measures or MBC in Australian child and youth MH practitioners. This study surveyed Australian child and youth MH practitioners to examine the frequency of measure use, what outcomes are measured, and what facilitates measure use.

Method: This survey included Australian practitioners (N = 205) working in child and youth MH.

Results: Most practitioners reported using measures at some stage during treatment, but around 1 in 7 did not use measures at all. Only 10% used measures for every session or most sessions, which is characteristic of MBC. Symptom severity was measured by 84.3% of practitioners but only 35.6% measured goal attainment and 16.7% therapeutic alliance. The top facilitators of measure use endorsed by practitioners included free measures, better platforms to administer measures, and briefer measures.

Conclusions: There is room for improvement in the use of outcome measures by Australian child and youth MH practitioners, and specifically in the use of MBC, which may improve client engagement and outcomes. Implications for the implementation of MBC are discussed.

Objective: The motivation to leave a legacy for future generations and society's continuity is an important aspect of adult development. However, the shorter time horizon that comes with ageing might lead to prioritising more immediately rewarding goals than long-term society-beneficial (e.g., climate-proactive) goals. This study investigates the role of nature exposure and future time perspective, as well as their joint interplay in the context of social and ecological generativity across adulthood.

Method: In total, 115 individuals aged 18-85 years (M = 38.10 years, SD = 16.53 years, age-range 18-85; 67% female) participated in an experience sampling study and reported their future time perspective and social and ecological generativity at the baseline, and nature exposure in their daily situations.

Results: The results of the analyses using aggregated data set showed that nature exposure facilitates the concern for future generations and the environment in middle-aged and older (but not in younger) adults with shorter future time perspective.

Conclusion: Nature exposure can be used to enhance motivation for societal involvement in middle and older adulthood, which in turn could contribute to the well-being and sustainability of future generations.

Objective: Aboriginal Elders have supported Aboriginal health and wellbeing for generations. Aboriginal Elders also play an important role in guiding those who work in health systems to work in culturally safe ways. The Cultural Exchange Program was developed to encourage reflexivity among non-Aboriginal researchers (N = 6) through experiential learning and relationship building with local Noongar Elders (N = 5). This paper examines the transformative impacts of this program for both the Aboriginal Elders and non-Aboriginal participants.

Method: The Cultural Exchange Program was developed through an Aboriginal Participatory Action Research (APAR) approach. The Elders and researchers had active involvement and influence over the research process and interpretation of data. Themes were co-created through the APAR approach, including a reflexive thematic analysis and feedback loop.

Results: For the Elders, the program promoted a desire to educate and bring about change, facilitated healing through truth-telling, and led to experiences of cultural respect. For the non-Aboriginal participants, the program evoked deep respect for the Elders and their knowledges, surfaced unsettling colonial realities, encouraged an inwards reflection, and motivated social justice change.

Conclusions: These results highlight the transformative and healing experiences which can exist at the intersection of reflexivity, truth-telling, truth-witnessing, and relationship building.

Objective: The Essential Network (TEN) is a blended care mental health support service for Australian health professionals. We conducted a series of semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders and researchers to understand health professionals' needs, canvas suggested changes to TEN, and examine methods of improving service uptake.

Method: Nine semi-structured individual or group interviews were conducted with 10 TEN stakeholders (external stakeholders) and eight interviews were conducted with 18 researchers or related roles with experience implementing or evaluating mental health services for health professionals (internal experts). De-identified transcripts were thematically analysed using an inductive and deductive approach.

Results: Participants highlighted the need for confidentiality, with mandatory reporting concerns being a key barrier to health professionals engaging with mental health services. External stakeholders viewed digital services as advantageous due to accessibility and anonymity, although both groups noted that concerns around effectiveness were a barrier to engagement with digital services. Both groups agreed that peer endorsement was key to implementation.

Conclusions: Digital services were viewed as promising, but best employed alongside person-to-person options in a blended care format. Services that address the unique workplace culture of healthcare, including stigma and systemic barriers to help-seeking, can create effective and scalable support for health professionals.

Objectives: In Australia, psychological measurement and testing is a core competency for all registered psychologists. This study aimed to provide a current perspective on the views of Australian psychologists in the use of psychological testing given the lack of recent Australian research.

Method: Psychologists (N = 821) completed online a demographic form and the European Federation of Psychologists' Associations (EFPA) questionnaire on Test Attitudes of Psychologists - Modified (EQTAP-M), refined for the Australian setting. Constructs addressed in the survey included test appreciation, training, technology-based testing, attitudes to test use, and self-rated competence. The sample mean age was 50 years, with 84% over 34 years and 20% being males.

Results: Attitudinal differences, based on demographics and practice endorsement area, were examined. Partial support was obtained for the factorial model of previous EFPA studies. There was no difference in attitudes based upon the gender of the psychologists, but older psychologists reported less favourable attitudes and lower competence for psychological testing. Psychologists holding endorsements in organisational psychology, neuropsychology, and educational and developmental psychology indicated more positive testing attitudes and appreciation than other areas of practice. The application of technology in assessment was identified as an area that warrants further investigation and training.

Conclusions: The outcome has theoretical and practical implications for professional bodies and educational institutions that develop policies and training programs relevant to psychological measurement and testing.