For Better and For Worse: Differential Susceptibility to Environmental Influences

ABSTRACT— Evidence that adverse rearing environments exert negative effects particularly on children presumed "vulnerable" for temperamental or genetic reasons may actually reflect something else: heightened susceptibility to the negative effects of risky environments and to the beneficial effects of supportive environments. Building on Belsky's (1997, 2005) evolutionary-inspired proposition that some children are more affected—both for better and for worse—by their rearing experiences than are others, we consider recent work on child vulnerability, including that involving measured genes, along with evidence showing that putatively vulnerable children are especially susceptible to both positive and negative rearing effects. We also consider methodological issues and unanswered questions in the differential-susceptibility equation.     

For God (or) country: the hydraulic relation between government instability and belief in religious sources of control

It has been recently proposed that people can flexibly rely on sources of control that are both internal and external to the self to satisfy the need to believe that their world is under control (i.e., that events do not unfold randomly or haphazardly). Consistent with this, past research demonstrates that, when personal control is threatened, people defend external systems of control, such as God and government. This theoretical perspective also suggests that belief in God and support for governmental systems, although seemingly disparate, will exhibit a hydraulic relationship with one another. Using both experimental and longitudinal designs in Eastern and Western cultures, the authors demonstrate that experimental manipulations or naturally occurring events (e.g., electoral instability) that lower faith in one of these external systems (e.g., the government) lead to subsequent increases in faith in the other (e.g., God). In addition, mediation and moderation analyses suggest that specific concerns with order and structure underlie these hydraulic effects. Implications for the psychological, sociocultural, and sociopolitical underpinnings of religious faith, as well as system justification theory, are discussed.     

运气均等主义理论:证成与反对

运气均等主义理论是当今平等理论争论的焦点问题之一.人们关于运气均等主义的争论可以分为"外部之争"和"内部之争"两个方面:运气均等主义的外部之争是争论运气均等主义本身"能否证成"的问题,而运气均等主义的内部之争是在认同运气均等主义基本信条的前提下,争论应该以"什么的平等"来体现它.实际上,就平等理论关注的对象而言,运气均等主义错置了关注的重心,与平等主义政治运动相脱节,已经走进了死胡同.运气均等主义要实现自我救赎,应扩大其关注的范围.     

When We Were Comrades Together: A Note on the Language of Assessment

From a psychoanalytic perspective, the assessor is seen as more than a gatherer of data; he or she is viewed as a source of information independent of the tests as well as a potential vehicle of change. To effect these functions, the assessor needs to pay close attention to the language he or she uses in interaction with the patient. In this article, I present a case and then discuss it in terms of the role of language in the assessor-patient relationship: specifically, how the language used facilitated the establishing of a working alliance, the promoting of a meaningful dialogue, and eventually led to a deeper understanding of the patient.     

Evaluation of A Single Presentation Format For Education About Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Disease1

This study explored the efficiency and effectiveness of a single presentation format for education about human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease. Pretraining and posttraining questionnaires assessing knowledge and risk assessment were given to police officers attending a two-hour seminar on HIV disease. A one-way ANOVA was used to compare posttraining scores of 42 officers who attended the seminar one year ago with the pretraining scores of 63 officers currently attending the seminar, some of whom had attended the seminar one year earlier. Significant differences were found on knowledge items (p < .05). Post hoc analysis revealed no significant decline in knowledge scores after one year, while pretraining knowledge scores for those who had attended the seminar before were significantly greater than for those who had not. No significant differences were found on risk assessment items, suggesting that beliefs about on the job risk have become part of the officers' common culture.     

Consultation: A New Strategy For CETA

Program changes inherent in the CETA concept have markedly decreased the effectiveness of previous program management and liaison strategies. Some reasons for this decrease and a new set of skills for working at the interface between prime sponsors and subcontractors and/or the regional offices are presented. These skills, formulated within a consultation model and based on solid behavioral strategies, are one way to increase CETA program effectiveness.