Life, Social Studies, and the Pursuit of Happiness: Using Classroom-based Multicultural Democratic Education to Challenge Conservative Notions of Civic Education

Bok (2010) argues civic understanding could improve student happiness by improving perceptions of politics and government, but the state of civic education in public schools keeps this from happening. This study argues that this notion of civic education is conservative by exploring Bok’s premises, social studies, and civic education.

My Rules for Success

Success means something different to everyone. It can mean wealth, power, happiness, or a hundred other things. There are all kinds of success and all kinds of ways to achieve it. I know bus drivers who are as successful as bankers; I know anonymous computer programmers who are now more successful than some of the biggest sports celebrities. Success can take many forms, but the ingredients for success are basically the same

Twelve certain men: The impact of emotional appraisals on juror decision-making

Our jury system is predicated upon the expectation that jurors engage in systematic processing when considering evidence and making decisions. They are instructed to interpret facts and apply the appropriate law in a fair, dispassionate manner, free of all bias, including that of emotion. However, emotions containing an element of certainty (e.g., anger and happiness, which require little cognitive effort in determining their source) can often lead people to engage in superficial, heuristic-based processing. Compare this to uncertain emotions (e.g., hope and fear, which require people to seek out explanations for their emotional arousal), which instead has the potential to lead them to engage in deeper, more systematic processing. The purpose of the current research is in part to confirm past research (Tiedens & Linton, 2001; Semmler & Brewer, 2002) that uncertain emotions (like fear) can influence decision-making towards a more systematic style of processing, whereas more certain emotional states (like anger) will lead to a more heuristic style of processing. Studies One, Two, and Three build upon this prior research with the goal of improving methodological rigor through the use of film clips to reliably induce emotions, with awareness of testimonial details serving as measures of processing style. The ultimate objective of the current research was to explore this effect in Study Four by inducing either fear, anger, or neutral emotion in mock jurors, half of whom then followed along with a trial transcript featuring eight testimonial inconsistencies, while the other participants followed along with an error-free version of the same transcript. Overall rates of detection for these inconsistencies was expected to be higher for the uncertain/fearful participants due to their more effortful processing compared to certain/angry participants. These expectations were not fulfilled, with significant main effects only for the transcript version (with or without inconsistencies) on overall inconsistency detection rates. There are a number of plausible explanations for these results, so further investigation is needed.

Influence of gender and life stressors on longitudinal depression treatment outcomes among older primary care patients

Purpose: Depression in older females is a significant and growing problem. Females who experience life stressors across the life span are at higher risk for developing problems with depression than their male counterparts. The primary aim of this study was (a) to examine gender-specific differences in the correlates of depression in older primary care patients based on baseline and longitudinal analyses; and (b) to examine the longitudinal effect of biopsychosocial risk factors on depression treatment outcomes in different models of behavioral healthcare (i.e., integrated care and enhanced referral). Method: This study used a quantitative secondary data analysis with longitudinal data from the Primary Care Research in Substance Abuse and Mental Health for Elderly (PRISM-E) study. A linear mixed model approach to hierarchical linear modeling was used for analysis using baseline assessment, and follow-up from three-month and six-month. Results: For participants diagnosed with major depressive disorder female gender was associated with increased depression severity at six-month compared to males at six-month. Further, the interaction between gender and life stressors found that females who reported loss of family and friends, family issues, money issues, medical illness was related to higher depression severity compared to males whereas lack of activities was related to lower depression severity among females compared to males. Conclusion: These findings suggest that gender moderated the relationship between specific life stressors and depression severity similar to how a protective factor can impact a person's response to a problem and reduce the negative impact of a risk factor on a problem outcome. Therefore, life stressors may be a reliable predictor of depression for both females and males in either behavioral health treatment model. This study concluded that life stressors influence males basic comfort, stability, and survival whereas life stressors influence females' development, personal growth, and happiness; therefore, life stressors may be a useful component to include in gender-based screening and assessment tools for depression. ^

Twelve Certain Men: The Impact of Emotional Appraisals on Juror Decision-Making

Our jury system is predicated upon the expectation that jurors engage in systematic processing when considering evidence and making decisions. They are instructed to interpret facts and apply the appropriate law in a fair, dispassionate manner, free of all bias, including that of emotion. However, emotions containing an element of certainty (e.g., anger and happiness, which require little cognitive effort in determining their source) can often lead people to engage in superficial, heuristic-based processing. Compare this to uncertain emotions (e.g., hope and fear, which require people to seek out explanations for their emotional arousal), which instead has the potential to lead them to engage in deeper, more systematic processing. The purpose of the current research is in part to confirm past research (Tiedens & Linton, 2001; Semmler & Brewer, 2002) that uncertain emotions (like fear) can influence decision-making towards a more systematic style of processing, whereas more certain emotional states (like anger) will lead to a more heuristic style of processing. Studies One, Two, and Three build upon this prior research with the goal of improving methodological rigor through the use of film clips to reliably induce emotions, with awareness of testimonial details serving as measures of processing style. The ultimate objective of the current research was to explore this effect in Study Four by inducing either fear, anger, or neutral emotion in mock jurors, half of whom then followed along with a trial transcript featuring eight testimonial inconsistencies, while the other participants followed along with an error-free version of the same transcript. Overall rates of detection for these inconsistencies was expected to be higher for the uncertain/fearful participants due to their more effortful processing compared to certain/angry participants. These expectations were not fulfilled, with significant main effects only for the transcript version (with or without inconsistencies) on overall inconsistency detection rates. There are a number of plausible explanations for these results, so further investigation is needed.