Students studying at universities in England have been defined as customers by the government since the introduction of student tuition fees. Although this approach has been rejected by educators, there is a lack of empirical evidence about the extent to which students express a consumer orientation and its effects on academic performance. These issues were examined in the current study by surveying 608 undergraduates at higher education institutions in England about their consumer attitudes and behaviours in relation to their higher education, their learner identity, and academic performance. The analysis revealed that consumer orientation mediated traditional relationships between learner identity, grade goal and academic performance, and found that a higher consumer orientation was associated with lower academic performance. Furthermore, responsibility for paying tuition fees and studying a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics subject were associated with a higher consumer orientation and subsequently lower academic performance. Implications for academic performance are discussed.

This study evaluates the implementation of Safewards on an assessment and treatment unit (ATU) for people with an intellectual disability. There are no previous studies evaluating this model in this context and previous research has focused largely on acute mental health services. The ‘Patient–Staff Conflict Shift Report’ was used at baseline for 1 month and 1 year later, after all the interventions had been implemented, to evaluate the impact of Safewards. Significant reductions were found in conflict and containment measures used within the service after the implementation of Safewards. Staff who led on the interventions were also asked to give feedback on their experiences, the challenges they faced and how they would like to move forward. Safewards was generally seen as a positive approach by the team. Limitations of this study are highlighted and suggestions for future research are made.

Recent research has shown that a group-level analysis can inform our understanding of school bullying. The present research drew on social identity theory and intergroup emotion theory. Nine- to eleven-year olds were randomly assigned to the same group as story characters who were described as engaging in bullying, as being bullied, or as neither engaging in bullying nor being bullied. Participants read a story in which a bully, supported by his or her group, was described as acting unkindly towards a child in a different group. Gender of protagonists and the bully's group norm (to be kind or unkind to other children) were varied. Identification affected responses to the bullying incident, such that those who identified more highly with each group favoured this group. Moreover, children's group membership predicted the group-based emotions they reported, together with the associated action tendencies. Implications for understanding the processes underlying bullying behaviour are discussed.

Recent research has suggested that bullying behaviour may be understood as a group process, where those involved act in ways predicted by social identity theory (Ojala & Nesdale, 2004). One relevant phenomenon is the black sheep effect, whereby individuals evaluate deviant members of their in‐group more negatively than that of an out‐group. To examine this process, a study was conducted (N = 60) in which 10‐ and 11‐year‐old children were randomly assigned to a high‐status, peripheral or irrelevant group. They were then read a scenario in which a member of the high‐status group bullied a person outside the group and was supported by other high‐status group members. It was found that assigned group membership affected judgements of the acceptability of the bullying behaviour and the likeability of both (a) the high‐status group and (b) the high‐status group member. Specifically, evidence of a black sheep effect meant that high‐status group members showed less liking for the high‐status group member than for the high‐status group, and believed that this member deserved greater punishment than the high‐status group as a whole. Peripheral group members differentiated between the high‐status group member and the high‐status group in terms of liking but not punishment, while members of the irrelevant group did not make a distinction on either measure. Implications for the conceptualization of bullying are discussed.

Attempting to understand how humor styles relate to psychological adjustment by correlating these two constructs fails to address the emerging understanding that individuals use combinations of humor styles, and that different combinations may be differentially associated with psychosocial adjustment. Indeed humor types have been identified in adult samples (Galloway, 2010; Leist & Müller, 2013). The main aim of the study was to explore whether similar humor types are evident at a younger age and whether these types can be distinguished in terms of children’s psychological and social well-being. Participants were 1,234 adolescents (52% female) aged 11-13 years, drawn from six secondary schools in England. Self-reports of humor styles and psychosocial adjustment were collected at two time points, 6 months apart. A cluster analysis was performed using the child humor styles scores at Time 1. Four humor types were identified: ‘Interpersonal Humorists’ (high on aggressive and affiliative humor, low on self-defeating and self-enhancing humor), ‘Self-Defeaters’ (high self-defeating humor, low on the other three), ‘Humor Endorsers’ (high on all four humor styles), and ‘Adaptive Humorists’ (high on self-enhancing and affiliative humor, but low on aggressive and self-defeating humor). ‘Self-Defeaters’ scored highest in terms of maladjustment across all of the outcomes measured. Our analyses support the presence of distinctive humor types in childhood and indicate that these are related to psychosocial adjustment

This study indicates that the influence peer groups have on bullying may be tempered by the introduction of a cooperative normative context to the school setting.

Children's responses to bullying are context related; they will vary depending on the specific bullying episode. The aim of the present study was to explore whether children's responses to bullying vary depending on the gender of the bully and victim and the type of bullying portrayed. In total, 437 children aged 9–11 years from four primary schools in the UK took part in the study. Each child read a story about one child bullying another. There were 12 different versions of the story, varying the type of bullying (verbal, physical, or relational/indirect) and the gender of the bully and victim (i.e., male bully—female victim, female bully—male victim, male bully—male victim, female bully—female victim). Each child was randomly allocated to one of the 12 stories. After reading the story the children then responded to a series of questions to assess their perceptions of the victim and bully and situation. Overall females liked the bully more than males; females also reported liking the female victim more than the male victim and females were more likely than males to intervene with a female victim. The bullying was viewed as more serious, more sympathy was shown to the victim, and there was a greater likelihood of intervention when the incident involved a female bully. There was less liking for the bully if the situation involved a female victim of physical bullying. The findings are explained in terms of social identity theory and social norms about typical male and female behavior. Aggr. Behav. 40:359–368, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

This study assessed the concurrent and prospective associations between psychosocial adjustment and four humor styles, two of which are adaptive (affiliative, self-enhancing) and two maladaptive (aggressive, self-defeating). Participants were 1,234 adolescents (52% female) aged 11-13 years, drawn from six secondary schools in England. Self-reports of psychosocial adjustment (loneliness, depressive symptomatology, and self-esteem) and humor styles were collected at two time points (fall and summer). In cross-lagged panel analyses, self-defeating humor was associated with an increase in both depressive symptoms and loneliness, and with a decrease in self-esteem. In addition, depressive symptoms predicted an increase in the use of self-defeating humor over time, indicating that these may represent a problematic spiral of thoughts and behaviors. Self-esteem was associated with an increase in the use of affiliative humor over the school year but not vice-versa. These results inform our understanding of the ways in which humor is associated with psychosocial adjustment in adolescence.