The development of children’s sympathy,moral emotion attributions,and moral reasoning in two cultures

The current study investigated the development of children’s sympathy, moral emotion attributions, and moral reasoning in two cultures: Chile and Switzerland. One hundred seventy-six children in two age groups (i.e., 6 and 9 years old) were asked to report their sympathy. Moral emotion attributions and moral reasoning were measured using two hypothetical moral transgressions (i.e., omitting a prosocial duty, stealing from another child). Younger Chilean children reported higher levels of sympathy than younger Swiss children. Across cultures, older children attributed more moral emotions than did younger children. Younger Swiss children used more moral reasoning following judgements about rule violations than did younger Chilean children. The findings are discussed from both a developmental and cross-cultural perspective.     

The development of co-representation effects in a joint task: Do children represent a co-actor?

When two adults jointly perform a task, they often show interference effects whereby the other’s task interferes with their own performance (Sebanz, Knoblich, & Prinz, 2003). The current study investigated whether these co-representation effects can be observed in young children. This phenomenon can be used as a criterion for adult-like joint action in children, which has been under debate in existing literature due to the difficulty in identifying what mechanisms underlie the behaviours observed (Brownell, 2011). In Experiment 1, two children performed an adapted Bear Dragon task (Kochanska, Murray, Jacques, Koenig, & Vandegeest, 1996), where children were required to point to a picture when instructed to do so by one puppet and to inhibit pointing when instructed to by the other. In the Same Task condition, both children in a pair were asked to respond to the same puppet, whereas in the Different Task condition, they were asked to respond to different puppets. Children made more errors in the Different Task condition than the Same Task, suggesting that they were experiencing interference from their partner’s task rule. In Experiment 2 children in Different and Same task conditions began with the same task as in Experiment 1 and then switched which puppet to respond to. Switch costs were lower in the Different task condition, consistent with children having already represented the alternative task rule on behalf of their partner during the pre-switch phase. Experiment 3 replicated the effect of Task in a novel computer-based paradigm with children between 4 and 5 years, but not younger. These data provide the first direct evidence that children as young as 4 years co-represent a partner's task during a joint activity, and that younger children may not be capable of co-representation.     

Reliability and validity of the PL-C Quest,a scale designed to assess children’s self-reported physical literacy

BackgroundThe Physical Literacy in Children Questionnaire (PL-C Quest) was developed to assess children’s perceived physical literacy. Pictorial items assess 30 elements within four domains (Physical - 12 items, Psychological - 7 items, Social - 4 items and Cognitive - 7 items). The aim of this study was to assess the reliability and construct validity of the PL-C Quest in Australian children aged 7–12 years.MethodsIn 2020, Australian parents and children were recruited via social media (Sample 1: n = 80) and panel sampling (Sample 2: n = 589). Parents consented online, completed demographic details and children completed the PL-C Quest online. Test-retest reliability was assessed in a sub-group of Sample 1 (n = 59). Internal consistency and construct validity [Structural Equation Modelling (SEM)] were assessed using combined samples. A Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) SEM was tested based on the hypothesized structure of four subdomains and a higher order factor of physical literacy.ResultsMost parents were born in Australia (78%) and had a university education [University (61%), Trade (16%), High school (15%) and less than High school (8%)]. Children (59% boys; 40% girls; 1% other) had a mean age of 10.1 years (SD = 1.7). Physical literacy did not differ by age, but children of tertiary educated parents had higher physical literacy levels. Test-retest values (Mean = 15.8 days apart) were adequate to good [overall: ICC = 0.83, physical: ICC = 0.80, psychological: ICC = 0.76, social: ICC = 0.66, cognitive: ICC = 0.75]. Internal consistency values were as follows: overall: α = 0.92; physical: α = 0.82; psychological: α = 0.75; social: α = 0.72; cognitive: α = 0.77. All items except two loaded on sub-domains above 0.45. The final model had an adequate fit (SRMR = 0.043, CFI = 0.92, TLI = 0.90, RMSEA = 0.045).ConclusionsResults indicate the PL-C Quest has acceptable test-retest reliability and construct validity. Further research could seek to explore validity in children aged 5 and 6 years of age and in other cultural contexts.     

Mathematical modeling of the effects of ‘capability’ and ‘intent’ on the stability of a competitive international system

In international relations theory, there is a long history of Richardson-like modeling of the evolution of military capability. Usually, such models are deterministic and predictive and do not allow for the representation of the transition from competitive peace to shooting war. More recently, models have been developed which attempt to represent the evolution of relationship between nations. The relationship between nations, varying from friendship to hostility, is taken to be synonymous with the intent of nations towards each other, varying from good will to malice. Generally, these relationship models do not include capability though common sense would indicate that capability and mutual intent should profoundly influence each other. A model is presented here which combines these two fundamental attributes of international relations and attempts to represent the outbreak of war in the world system by the onset of deterministic chaos in the extended model.On leave 1994–95 at U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, Washington, D.C. 20451, U.S.A.     

The effects of dimensional naming upon children’s performance in a modified optional shift problem

In a modified optional shift paradigm, shift and test tasks were administered concurrently to 120 second-grade children. Ss required, during shift learning, to verbalize the values of the previously relevant dimension showed an increase in reversal responding in the test task, whereas those required to verbalize the values of the previously irrelevant dimension showed an increase in nonreversal responding. The results are in good agreement with predictions made from an extension of Hull-Spence discrimination learning theory.     

The contribution of temperament,popularity, and physical appearance to children’s happiness

The relation between the happiness of 9–12 year old children and their temperament, popularity, and physical appearance was examined. Participants included 432 children and their parents and teachers. Happiness in children was assessed using a self-rating scale, parents’ ratings, teachers’ ratings, and the Happiness and Satisfaction Subscale of the Piers-Harris Children’s Self-Concept Scale 2 (Piers-Harris 2) [Piers, E. V., & Herzberg, D. S. (2002). Manual for the Piers-Harris Children’s Self-Concept Scale, 2nd ed. Los Angeles: Western Psychological Services]. Estimates of children’s temperament, popularity, and physical appearance included parents’ ratings, individual items on the Piers-Harris 2, and three domain scales from the Piers-Harris 2: the Freedom From Anxiety Subscale, Popularity Subscale, and Physical Appearance and Attributes Subscale. Children’s happiness was correlated with and predicted by ratings of their temperament, popularity, and appearance. Demographic variables did not account for appreciable variance in children’s happiness. The results parallel the common finding that internal factors (e.g., personality), but not external factors (e.g., demographics), predict adults’ happiness.     

‘The tables have turned’: Sport,emotion & the passive counter-politics of youth citizenship

This article considers the intersections between sport, emotion, and youth citizenship. I explore the emotional dynamics of citizenship of young people, in relation to sport, and within the context of liberal immigration polity in Singapore. In this qualitative study, I conducted video-elicitation written interviews (VEWI) with twenty-two Singaporean youths to understand the multiple ways in which young people negotiate and conceive of their citizenship through emotion, specifically in relation to an emotionally charged sport space. With the 2010 Moscow World Table Tennis Team Championships as the focus of this study, this article explores young people's ‘emotional subjectivities’ of citizenship to make sense of their strategies in articulating resistance through a form of passive counter-politics to top-down power relations of citizenship governance in Singapore. An emergent spatiality of emotional citizenship in relation to spaces of modern sport is identified, contributing to debates in geography and beyond.     

The ‘Gray’s Elegy’ Argument, and The Prospects for the Theory of Denoting Concepts

Russell’s new theory of denoting phrases introduced in “On Denoting” in Mind 1905 is now a paradigm of analytic philosophy. The main argument for Russell’s new theory is the so-called ‘Gray’s Elegy’ argument, which purports to show that the theory of denoting concepts (analogous to Frege’s theory of senses) promoted by Russell in the 1903 Principles of Mathematics is incoherent. The ‘Gray’s Elegy’ argument rests on the premise that if a denoting concept occurs in a proposition, then the proposition is not about the concept. I argue that the premise is false. The ‘Gray’s Elegy’ argument does not exhaust Russell’s ammunition against the theory of denoting concepts. Another reason Russell rejects the theory is, as he says, that it cannot provide an adequate account of non-uniquely denoting concepts. In the last section of the paper, I argue that even though Russell was right in thinking that the theory of denoting concepts cannot provide an adequate account of non-uniquely denoting concepts, Russell’s new theory does not succeed in eliminating the occurrence of all denoting concepts, as it requires a commitment to the existence of variables that indirectly denote their values. However, the view that variables are denoting concepts is unproblematic once the ‘Gray’s Elegy’ argument is blocked.     

The ‘Scandal’ of the Lubavitch Rebbe: Messianism as a Response to Failed Prophecy

In June 1994, the Lubavitch Rebbe, believed to be the Mosiach (the Messiah) died. Counter-intuitively, this failure of prophecy gave birth to an extreme messianic movement within the group, dividing it into two antagonistic factions (messianists and anti-messianists). This article examines the Beis Menachem, a messianic group whose members believe that the Rebbe is not dead; some even believe that he is God. We argue that this strong messianic response was predictable, given the influence of four factors that prior analyses suggest are important in determining whether a group will survive the failure of a significant prophecy: (1) the ways in which the prophetic milieu is prepared, (2) the nature and extent of the preparatory activities people engaged in, (3) the nature, speed, and thoroughness of the response of group leaders to a failed prophecy, and (4) the level of social support available for those who remain faithful to a prophecy. Emphasis in this study is given to the first and fourth factor; it is argued that the diachronic study of groups like the Lubavitch provides new insights into the ideological, organisational, and situational conditions that facilitate the successful management of dissonance and thus the persistence of unusual beliefs.     

‘Theory of mind’ development of Pakistani children: Do preschoolers acquire an understanding of desire,pretence and belief in a universal sequence?

Research on “theory of mind” (TOM) suggests that a grasp of the mind develops universally and sequentially, but both these claims require testing in different cultural groups. Study 1, involving 72 preschoolers, showed the expected developmental transition on false belief tasks; 3 year olds were below statistical chance, while 4 year olds were at chance, representing a lag behind Western children. The same pattern of at chance (pretence, desire and belief) and below chance performance (false belief) was replicated in study 2 with 77 preschoolers (3–5 years) and corroborated the lag identified for some Asian countries. This deficient and varied timing of TOM performance is consistent with theories (social constructivist) supporting the role of social factors in TOM development. Moreover, significant inter-task correlations corroborate the need to broaden the research focus beyond false belief tasks.     

Exploring the perceptions of Greek counsellors’ and counselling psychologists’ professional identity and training experience,through the lens of the first alumni graduates of a Greek state University

The field of Counselling as a profession and that of Counselling Psychology is a relatively new and developing discipline in Greece. As in other European countries, it is only in recent years that this postgraduate training started to be delivered by a state/national University Institution in Greece. The present study focused on attempting to capture the qualitative experience of the first two cohorts of graduates from the first postgraduate programme in Counselling and Counselling Psychology delivered by the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in collaboration with the Democritus University of Thrace. This data was collected via two focused group interviews using a thematic analysis approach which facilitated the immersion of the following main themes: motivating factors (for choosing such discipline), reflections on placements, the role of personal development, the evolving professional identity, issues of professional recognition, opportunities for employment, vision for the future. In conclusion, the participants expressed the opinion that the provision of such a postgraduate programme by a Greek University was delivered in a rigorous way with high standards and has equipped them with the reflexivity and critical thinking required to build their professional identity and influence the developments still to come.     

Similarity among tasks is the key to show generalization of cognitive training effects in Alzheimer’s disease: a case study

Cognitive training can allow patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) to reinforce individual cognitive abilities. In the present case study, we investigated the generalizability of trained cognitive skills to novel tasks, and their stability over time.

One AD patient underwent a structured cognitive training using the GEO (Geographical Exercise for cognitive Optimization) task, whereas eight AD patients underwent a control cognitive intervention. Participants’ performances on the GEO task, on a similar untrained cognitive task, and on a different untrained cognitive task were recorded before and after the intervention, and at the follow-up. On both the trained and the similar untrained tasks patients’ and controls’ performance significantly differed from one another. Our preliminary evidence shows that a cognitive training could allow patients to improve and maintain their performance not only on the trained task, but also on a similar task.     

Day-of-week mood patterns in the United States: On the existence of ‘Blue Monday’, ‘Thank God it's Friday’ and weekend effects

There are many beliefs about the patterning of positive and negative mood over the course of the week. Support has been found for ‘Blue Monday’, ‘Thank God it's Friday’ and Weekdays versus Weekend effects, although in relatively small studies and often with student samples. Using telephone questionnaire data from a large national survey (N?=?340,000), we examined day-of-week (DOW) effects on positive and negative moods. Unlike prior studies, we also tested the potential moderating effects of four demographic variables on DOW. Strong support was found for better mood on weekends and Fridays, but there was minimal support for a Blue Monday effect and no differences were observed between Saturdays and Sundays. Demographics moderated some DOW effects: DOW effects were diminished for older and retired respondents, but there was little DOW difference by gender or presence of a partner. DOW is associated with mood, but not always in ways we believe.     

Parents’ influence on the development of their children’s ethnic intergroup attitudes: a longitudinal analysis from middle childhood to early adolescence

This study investigated to what extent parents’ intergroup attitudes influence the development of their children’s ethnic intergroup attitudes (i.e., ingroup bias), and which socialization factors moderate this influence. We report on a four-year longitudinal study of 213 children (M_age = 7.94) and their parents conducted in Eastern Germany. Findings showed significant interindividual differences in children’s developmental trajectories, which could, in part, be explained by child gender, socio-economic status and parental attitudes. The influence of parents’ intergroup attitudes was moderated by parenting style and parental similarity in attitudes both of which, our findings suggest, can make the transmission of parental attitudes more likely.     

Polemics and Proverbs: Religious Controversy in England, ‘German Lips,’ and the Character of a Genre

ABSTRACT

This article firstly reconstructs the usage and meaning of the early-modern English proverb ‘as just as German’s lips.’ It demonstrates that the meaning of the proverb, which has never been authoritatively established, can be ascertained through its frequent appearance in the context early-modern religious polemics in England. The study then argues that the proverb’s presence in, and subsequent disappearance from, printed literature is inextricably tied up with epochal cultural changes in England. These are reflected in the increasingly pervasive use of the vernacular for formal controversial theology and in English notions of social standing and intellectual credibility. It lastly suggests a possible source for the origin of the proverb under discussion.     

The relationship between motor performance and parent-rated executive functioning in 3- to 5-year-old children: What is the role of confounding variables?

It is generally agreed that motor performance and executive functioning (EF) are intertwined. As the literature on this issue concerning preschool children is scarce, we examined the relationship between motor performance and parent-rated EF in a sample of 3- to 5-year-old children with different levels of motor skill proficiency, while controlling for age, gender, socio-economic status (SES), and attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptomatology. EF was reported by parents of 153 children (mean age 4 years 1 months, SD 8 months; 75 male) by means of the Behaviour Rating Inventory of Executive Function–Preschool version (BRIEF-P). Parent-reported ADHD symptoms were assessed using the Hyperactivity-Inattention subscale of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire3-4. In addition, the children performed the Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2 (MABC-2). Several weak to moderate relationships were found between the MABC-2 Total Score and the EF subscales. Once other variables such as age, gender, SES, and ADHD symptomatology were taken into account, the only BRIEF-P subscale that was associated with the MABC-2 Total Score was the Working Memory subscale. Compared to their typically developing peers, children who are at risk for motor coordination difficulties (⩽the 16th percentile on the MABC-2) performed poorly on the Working Memory subscale, which confirms the results of the regression analyses. The at risk group also performed significantly worse on the Planning/Organize subscale, however. This is one of the first studies investigating the relationship between motor performance and parent-rated EF in such a young age group. It shows that the relationship between motor performance and EF in young children is complex and may be influenced by the presence of confounding variables such as ADHD symptomatology.     

Using a touch screen paradigm to assess the development of mental rotation between 3½ and 5½ years of age

Mental rotation is an important spatial skill. However, there is controversy concerning its early development and susceptibility to intervention. In the present study, we assessed individual differences in the mental rotation abilities of children between 3½ and 5½ years of age, using a touch screen paradigm to simplify task demands. A figure or its mirror image was presented in 8 different orientations, and children indicated in which of two holes the figure would fit by touching one of the holes on the screen. Task instructions were varied in three conditions, giving the children the opportunity to gather manual or observational experience with rotations of different stimuli, or giving no additional experience. Children’s error rates and response times increased linearly with increasing angular disparity between the figure and the hole by the age of 5 years, but 4-year-olds were found to respond at chance for all angular disparities, despite the use of a touch screen paradigm. Both manual and observational experience increased the response accuracy of 5-year-olds, especially for children already performing well. However, there was no effect on 4-year-olds. Results point to an emerging readiness to use mental rotation and profit from observational and manual experience at age 5.