<p> BDSM (Bondage/Discipline, Dominance/Submission, Sadism/Masochism) has become more widely known as a common, nonpathological interest (Holvoet et al., 2017; Powell, 2010). However, there is still much stigma associated with romantic relationships within the BDSM community, the most deviant of which may be the 24/7 Dominant/submissive (D/s) relationship in which a Dominant partner is permanently in control of a submissive partner (Dancer, Kleinplatz, &amp; Moser, 2006). The current study investigated different types of issues that may arise given the 24/7 D/s dynamic in order to better understand romantic relationships involving BDSM and the. Participants involved in 24/7 D/s relationships, other relationships involving BDSM, and relationships that do not incorporate BDSM were included and compared in this study. It was found that 24/7 relationships did contain significantly less equity than other types of relationships, and that people in other forms of BDSM relationships had the least amount of traditional gender role beliefs. Overall, the current study is one of the few to incorporate quantitative data regarding this population, and provides further information regarding the different types of relationships in the BDSM community.</p><p>

<p> Very little research has analyzed the conjunction of religion and self-disclosure. Following the previous research conducted by Gregory II, Pomerantz, Pettibone, and Segrist (2008), in which results showed that participants were more willing to seek treatment from a psychologist who identified with one of three major religions (Christianity, Islam, and Judaism), as opposed to a psychologist who identified as an atheist, this study also aimed to focus on the impact of a therapist&rsquo;s religion on prospective clients. While remaining true to the previous study, this experiment not only looked to expose the client&rsquo;s preference towards therapists&rsquo; religion, it equally accounted for the degree of devotion to said religion influencing the client&rsquo;s choice of therapy. Results concluded that different from that of the Gregory et al., (2008) study, participants were just as willing to seek treatment from a psychologist who identified as atheist as they were from a psychologist who identified with one of the three major religions, regardless of participant religiosity or the religiosity of the therapist. Implications of these findings suggest that regardless of psychologists&rsquo; religion or religiosity, self-disclosure of such is of no significance.</p><p>

<p> Anxiety and depression are some of the most common forms of mental illness. About 66 percent of the population diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder will also be diagnosed with a form of depression in their lifetimes (Kaufman &amp; Charney, 2000). While historically anxiety and depression have been seen as inherently separate conditions, recent research has indicated that the two disorders may be more closely linked. Watson and Clark&rsquo;s (1991) tripartite model explains that the comorbidity rates of the disorders and overlapping symptomology could be due to an underlying, shared factor that they called negative affect. Eysenck, Payne, and Santos (2006) found evidence to suggest that anxiety and depression may be temporal manifestations of the same disorder which they called negative affect in reference to the tripartite model. Two other studies have since found evidence for this temporal differentiation (Pomerantz &amp; Rose, 2014; Rinaldi, Locati, Parolin, &amp; Girelli, 2017). Results of this study indicate that there is evidence to suggest a temporal component as a potential associated factor which could help determine whether anxiety or depression manifests in individuals with high levels of negative affect.</p><p>

<p> If a therapist does something that offends a client, should the therapist apologize? What if the offensive act is an ethnic or racial microaggression? The first question&mdash;regarding the potential uses of apology by therapists in general, has received very little attention from researchers. Thirty years ago, Goldberg (1987) discussed the topic and suggested that the use of apology by a therapist was unnecessary unless the therapist made a blatant, objective error such as overcharging the client. To the researchers&rsquo; knowledge past discussions of therapist apology have not addressed the notion of microaggressions or even multicultural psychology more broadly. The purpose of the current empirical study is to address that issue by measuring perceptions of a therapist who does, or does not, apologize after committing an ethnic/racial microaggression toward a client. </p><p> Participants will read one of six vignettes, developed with guidance from Sue (2010), and respond to survey questions immediately following. The researchers hypothesize that vignettes that portray the therapist apologizing after the microaggression will elicit more favorable attitudes about the therapist than comparable vignettes that include the microaggression with no apology. It is also speculated that the control condition (no microaggression is committed) will elicit more favorable attitudes toward the therapist than either condition in which a microaggression is committed.</p><p>

<p> Occupations involving vigilance performance (i.e., sustained attention in monitoring for rare environmental threats) are known to experience vigilance decrement, a decline in performance over time. These occupations are known to be cognitively and emotionally challenging, giving rise to harmful effects for employees in them and presenting safety implications for the welfare of others. The current study investigated mindfulness as a potentially viable intervention to alleviate outcomes of vigilance demands: stress and mental demand. A mindfulness induction was compared to an unfocused control condition in which both were administered during a break from a vigilance task, specifically, a baggage screening task. Ultimately, findings did not reveal positive effects for the mindfulness intervention, leading to reservations about its viability in a vigilance context. Moderation analyses revealed that baseline levels of stress and mental demand may have impacted one&rsquo;s ability to derive benefits from the mindfulness intervention. Finally, though the intervention failed to take effect, promising findings emerged for general levels of trait and state mindfulness across participants, independent of condition. Implications and future research directions are discussed. `</p><p>

<p> Researchers have identified that angry rumination may mediate the association between mindfulness and aggression. The current investigation aims to replicate and extend prior work by including a clinical sample of partner-violent men and by focusing on intimate partner violence rather than aggression aimed at an unspecified other. This investigation tested the hypothesis that angry rumination would mediate the association between mindfulness and two forms of intimate partner violence: emotional abuse and physical assault. Study 1 consisted of 237 undergraduate students (74.68% identified as women, 24.89% men, and 0.42% other; 1.69% identified as American Indian/Alaskan Native, 34.18% Asian-American, 19.41% Black/African-American, 11.39% Hispanic/Latino, 1.27% Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, 37.13% White/European-American, 6.75% Other; <i>M</i>_age = 21.18) and Study 2 consisted of 132 men (0.69% identified as American Indian/Alaskan Native, 3.37% Asian, 34.03% Black/African-American, 12.50% Hispanic/Latino, 0% Pacific Islander/Native Hawaiian, 32.64% White/Caucasian, 4.86% other, 4.17% multiethnic/multiracial; <i> M</i>_age = 35.98) who attended a community-based treatment program for the perpetration of IPV and completed measures prior to treatment. Angry rumination mediated the association between mindfulness and emotional abuse in both samples, but angry rumination did not mediate the (proposed) association between mindfulness and physical assault in either sample. It is notable that mindfulness was significantly associated with physical assault in the clinical sample, but that it was not significantly associated with physical assault in the undergraduate sample. Analyses continued to indicate that angry rumination statistically mediated the association between mindfulness and emotional abuse above and beyond demographic control variables in each sample. Analyses also continued to indicate that angry rumination did not statistically mediate the proposed association between mindfulness and physical assault above and beyond demographic control variables in either sample. Findings support recent efforts to tailor mindfulness-based interventions to target emotional abuse and highlight the importance of further investigating angry rumination and mindfulness in the context of IPV.</p><p>

<p> <i>Objective:</i> Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS) and Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder associated with Streptococcal infections (PANDAS) are relatively new diagnoses steeped in interest and debate. While much of the research has been conducted in the medical &ndash; particularly neurological &ndash; field, little has been researched through the psychology field. Despite the fact that symptoms consist of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), tic and movement disorders, Autism Spectrum features, and more, the psychology field appears to be lacking in educating psychologists of PANS/PANDAS. This lack of knowledge puts children at risk as the presentation of symptoms look similar to purely psychiatric disorders. Having this knowledge is important as the treatment for PANS/PANDAS differs significantly from the psychiatric treatments for the symptoms. A wrong diagnosis can lead to delays in treatment, putting children at risk for further possible neurological damage.</p><p>

<p> The role of sponsors in 12-step programs is an area of research that has received little attention. Although research has suggested that sponsors play an important role in maintaining sobriety through 12-step programs, there is limited information as to what factors make sponsorship effective. The 12-step model is widely utilized in the United States, making it important for us to understand what aspects lead to increased rates of abstinence. Sponsorship has repeatedly been shown to increase sobriety outcomes. A thorough examination of the qualities that make one sponsor more effective than another is greatly needed. This study created and validated a new measure to examine quality of relationship a person has with his or her sponsor in a 12-step group. A Principal Components Analysis (PCA) determined that the questionnaire had two components, with Support being the stronger component. Two versions of the questionnaire were developed with version 1 (N = 136) being more robust than version 2 (N = 133). The questionnaire was able to establish reliability and validity and may serve as brief measure of quality of relationship between sponsor and sponsee.</p><p>

<p> The provisional construct &ldquo;moral injury&rdquo; has been proposed as a means to recognize the impact of certain stressor events commonly encountered in war, yet excluded from the current definition of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), especially the psychological consequences of moral violations, whether experienced as perpetrator, witness, or victim. Although frequently co-morbid and exhibiting similar symptom syndromes, there is at the present time no clear means by which to conceptualize the relationship moral injury and PTSD. Drawing upon resources from diverse disciplines, including contemporary neuroscience, dynamical systems theory, cognitive psychology, and psychoanalysis, this dissertation addresses this conceptual gap by first proposing a model of psychological health as the integration of information processing in the mind and in the brain&mdash;alternatively conceptualized as the integration of &ldquo;the self&rdquo;&mdash;as well as corresponding general theoretical models of psychological disorder and psychological trauma as the impairment of this integration. On this basis, this dissertation then proposes an integrated theoretical model of both moral injury and PTSD, including the relationships between them and their associated symptom syndromes. The implications of this model for clinical care and further research are also briefly considered. </p><p>

<p> Psychology researchers have been gathering information regarding the positive effects of forgiveness, demonstrating that they contribute to better overall physical and emotional wellbeing. Individuals who have suffered a transgression can remain in a place of destructive anger and resentment for years. Long-term, these negative states can have deleterious effects emotionally, physically, and socially. Understanding how to help those who are suffering move past their victimization can have a positive impact. It is therefore important to conduct research to better understand forgiveness through the lived experience of individuals who have experienced some form of victimization. Using evolutionary psychology as the theoretical framework, the motivations for revenge and forgiveness become clearer. The goal of this multiple case study was to examine an individual&rsquo;s process of forgiveness and how it was achieved following the experience of a significant transgression. Nine participants agreed to participate in an in-depth semi-structured interview; this purposeful sample of individuals who had suffered either criminal victimization or interpersonal betrayal, and who had gone through the forgiveness process were selected for this study. The data analysis plan followed Braun and Clarke&rsquo;s six-step thematic analysis guide to classify, analyze, and report the themes that emerged from the data collected. The findings highlighted the processes whereby forgiveness is achieved, A total of six themes were identified: forgiveness perspectives, resentments and anger, safety, motivations, mediators, and resilience/personal growth. The most notable mediators in the process of forgiveness among participants were compassion/empathy and receiving an acknowledgement or explanation/sincere apology from the offender. In conclusion, this research attempts to bring about positive social change by supporting practitioners in helping the populations they serve, as well as further other important research on forgiveness.</p><p>