Antisocial Behavior: Exploring Behavioral,Cognitive, and Environmental Influences on Expulsion

We investigated the role of three significant potential contributors to antisocial behavior (ASB)—behavior, cognitive, and environmental influences—and their impact on expulsion. The following measures were administered to a community sample of antisocial adolescents: nonverbal ability and working memory, behavioral profile (rated by the social worker and self‐rated), and environmental background (socio‐economic background and family structure). The data indicated that their working memory performance was in the average range; however, group means were significantly lower in the nonverbal ability test. Although social workers' assessments of the adolescents' behavior were closely related to their self‐reports, it was the latter that was best able to correctly classify those who had been expelled from their non‐expelled ASB peers. Environmental background did not appear to have a strong role in expulsion rates. The results are discussed in the context of persistency of ASB and ways forward to provide support and intervention for adolescents. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

发展情境论——一种新的发展系统理论

发展情境论（Developmental Contextualism）是发展系统理论体系中的一种具有代表性的理论。该理论认为人的发展是通过发展中的个体与其所处情境间的持续交互作用实现的,个体的发展变化过程在本质上是或然渐成性的。该理论不仅更系统地概括了影响人发展的时间和空间因素,而且在交互作用观点的基础上提出了循环影响的研究取向。同时,发展情境论认为人的可塑性特点为干预个体的发展提供了可能,并进一步提出了干预的思路,即通过建立和调整个体与所处情境的拟合优度模型来实现个体和所处情境的积极发展。     

Personal,Interpersonal, and Situational Influences on Behavioral Self-Handicapping

ABSTRACT

This study explored the combined effects of personal factors (participant sex), interpersonal factors (experimenter sex), and situational factors (performance feedback) on two forms of behavioral self-handicapping. Participants received non-contingent success or failure feedback concerning their performance on a novel ability and were given the opportunity to self-handicap before performing again. Behavioral self-handicapping took the form of (a) exerting less practice effort (practice) or (b) choosing a performance-debilitating tape (choice). Men practiced least after failure feedback and chose a debilitating tape if they were interacting with a female experimenter. Generally, across all participants in both choice and practice conditions, high performance concern and the presence of a male experimenter led to the most self-handicapping. Results are interpreted in terms of self-presentational concerns that emphasize a desire to impress or an awareness of the female or male experimenter's acceptance of self-handicappers.     

Individual and Environmental Influences on Chinese Student Creativity

Primarily using self-report questionnaires and psychometric tests in a sample of 357 Chinese high school students, this study examines how both individual and environmental factors can independently predict student creativity as measured by three different methods, including two product-orientated measures (story completion and collage making), two divergent thinking measures (circle task and picture completion), and one self-report inventory on divergent thinking attitudes. Two different types of theoretical models — the cognitive approach and confluence approach — are compared and contrasted. Based on previous research, this study uses the confluence approach to investigate the influences of individual (i.e. intelligence, personality, motivation, thinking styles, and knowledge) and environmental (i.e., school and family environment) factors on creativity. The results have confirmed the major hypothesis that both individual and environmental factors play decisive roles in Chinese student creativity. Implications of these findings are discussed. This paper also calls for a serious consideration of research on environmental influence on creativity and various mechanisms of this influence.     

神经科学领域百年教条被打破引发的思考和启示

有关成年脑组织神经元再生的研究是当前神经科学研究的热点内容。相关的研究使得成年脑神经元不能再生“百年教条”不断受到挑战并最终被打破,这一历程体现了科学理论发展的一般规律和特点,给我们带来许多有益的思考和启示。     

Genetic and Environmental Influences on Media Use and Communication Behaviors

A great deal of scholarly work has explored the motivations behind media consumption and other various communication traits. However, little research has investigated the sources of these motivations and virtually no research considers their potential genetic underpinnings. Drawing on the field of behavior genetics, we use a classical twin design study to examine the genetic and environmental influences on nine communication behaviors. Our findings indicate a substantial portion of the total variance in media habits can be attributed to genes, as much as one‐third of the variance in some instances. Mass communication scholars would benefit by paying closer attention to heritability when thinking about the causes as well as the consequences of media traits in contemporary society.     

Evolution, Behavior Principles, And Developmental Systems: A Review Of Gottlieb’s Synthesizing Nature-nurture: Prenatal Roots Of Instinctive Behavior.

Gottlieb's developmental psychobiology book provides a base for reexamining the place of the experimental analysis of behavior in the life sciences. His experimental program demonstrating the critical function of the environment in the development of a species‐typical behavior helped force an acceptance of probabilistic epigenesis, the acknowledgment that the developmental genome‐environment system is fully interactional. (Indeed, nature vs. nurture is deader than a doornail.) The repercussions for evolutionary biology and the roles and categorizations of genes, behavior, and environment in behavior‐environment relations are explored in light of current knowledge, including specific implications for the experimental analysis of behavior.     

Environmental Influences on Ethical Decision Making: Climate and Environmental Predictors of Research Integrity

It is commonly held that early career experiences influence ethical behavior. One way early career experiences might operate is to influence the decisions people make when presented with problems that raise ethical concerns. To test this proposition, 102 first-year doctoral students were asked to complete a series of measures examining ethical decision making along with a series of measures examining environmental experiences and climate perceptions. Factoring of the environmental measure yielded five dimensions: professional leadership, poor coping, lack of rewards, limited competitive pressure, and poor career direction. Factoring of the climate inventory yielded four dimensions: equity, interpersonal conflict, occupational engagement, and work commitment. When these dimensions were used to predict performance on the ethical decision-making task, it was found that the environmental dimensions were better predictors than the climate dimensions. The implications of these findings for research on ethical conduct are discussed.     

Genetic and Environmental Influences on Personal and Rhythmic‐Motor‐Activity Tempo in Children: A Twin Study

In this study, we investigated the degree to which genetics and environmental factors influence the tempo and tempo stability of rhythmic motor activity in young children, using a twin study design. A total of 116 twin children, aged 4 years, were asked to strike two small clash cymbals together in a cyclical manner, in three phases. In the first phase, children were asked to maintain a comfortable personal tempo of rhythmic motor activity (spontaneous motor phase). In contrast, in the other phases, children were required to synchronize rhythmic motor activity in response to the timing of a stimulus tone, or a memorized tempo. Large additive genetic, although negligible shared environmental influences, were observed in the spontaneous motor phase. However, environmental factors were estimated in the other two phases, while the additive genetic factor was nearly zero. These results indicate that the extent of genetic and environmental influences on individual differences in rhythmic motor activity can be modulated under different situations.     

Social Behavioral Goals and Reimbursable Developmental Activity Strategies

This article is designed to assist new practitioners and those returning to activity group work to develop behavioral goals which are reimbursable and socially developmental across five levels of participation. It presents examples of activities appropriate for five levels of social group development. In addition, it provides an example of an activity group protocol directed toward a specific group level. Finally, it includes suggested strategies for activity group leaders in schools, clinics, and hospitals.     

Genetic and Environmental Influences on Achievement Goal Orientations Shift with Age

Students engage in learning activities with different achievement goal orientations. Some students pursue learning for learning sake (i.e. mastery goal orientation), some are driven by gaining favourable judgement of their performance (i.e. performance approach goal orientation), and others focus on avoiding negative judgement (i.e. performance avoidance goal orientation). These goal orientations are linked with academic achievement, and troublingly, students report decreasing levels of goal orientations across the school years. However, little is known concerning the mechanisms that drive this decline. In a large (N = 891 twin pairs) cross‐sectional genetically informative sample (age = 8 to 22 years), we found that older students reported lower goal orientations. Then, we identified shifts in the magnitude of genetic and environmental variance in each goal orientation. For example, variance in mastery goal orientation was primarily associated with environmental factors during the elementary school years. As students entered high school, genetic influences increased, replacing shared environmental influences. Finally, we situated these findings in the larger nomological network by testing associations with psychological constructs (e.g. personality and cognitive ability) and contextual variables (e.g. parents, schools, and peers). The development of academic motivation is complex with many interconnecting factors that appear to shift with age © 2019 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Understanding the Point of Chimpanzee Pointing: Epigenesis and Ecological Validity

Abstract— Pointing has long been considered to be a uniquely human, universal, and biologically based gesture. However, pointing emerges spontaneously, without explicit training, in captive chimpanzees. Because pointing is commonplace in captive chimpanzees and virtually absent in wild chimpanzees, and because both captive and wild chimpanzees are sampled from the same gene pool, pointing by captive apes is attributable to environmental influences on communicative development. If pointing by captive chimpanzees is so variably expressed in different rearing environments, this suggests that pointing by humans may also be attributable to situational factors that make pointing effective in certain developmental contexts.     

Differential Genetic and Environmental Influences on Reactive and Proactive Aggression in Children

While significant heritability for childhood aggression has been claimed, it is not known whether there are differential genetic and environmental contributions to proactive and reactive forms of aggression in children. This study quantifies genetic and environmental contributions to these two forms of aggression in an ethnically diverse urban sample of 9–10 year old twins (N = 1219), and compares results across different informants (child self-report, mother, and teacher ratings) using the Reactive–Proactive Aggression Questionnaire (RPQ). Confirmatory factor analysis of RPQ items indicated a significant and strong fit for a two-factor proactive–reactive model which was significantly superior to a one-factor model and which replicated across gender as well as the three informant sources. Males scored significantly higher than females on both self-report reactive and proactive aggression, findings that replicated on mother and teacher versions of the RPQ. Asian–Americans scored lower than most ethnic groups on reactive aggression yet were equivalent to Caucasians on proactive aggression. African–Americans scored higher than other ethnic groups on all measures of aggression except caregiver reports. Heritable influences were found for both forms of aggression across informants, but while boys’ self-reports revealed genetic influences on proactive (50%) and reactive (38%) aggression, shared and non-shared environmental influences almost entirely accounted for girls’ self-report reactive and proactive aggression. Although genetic correlations between reactive and proactive aggression were significant across informants, there was evidence that the genetic correlation was less than unity in boys self reported aggression, indicating that genetic factors differ for proactive and reactive aggression. These findings provide the first evidence for varying genetic and environmental etiologies for reactive and proactive aggression across gender, and provide additional support for distinction between these two forms of aggression.     

Common Genetic and Environmental Influences on Major Depressive Disorder and Conduct Disorder

The evidence for common genetic and environmental influences on conduct disorder (CD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) in adolescents was examined. A sample of 570 monozygotic twin pairs, 592 dizygotic twin pairs, and 426 non-twin siblings, aged 12-18 years, was recruited from the Colorado Twin Registry. For the past year data, there was a significant correlation between the genetic influences on MDD and CD and, for the lifetime data, there was a significant correlation between the genetic influences on MDD and CD, and a significant correlation between the nonshared environmental influences on MDD and CD. Our results suggest that some genetic factors will increase an individual's vulnerability to both MDD and CD in adolescence.     

Talent Development as a Multidimensional, Multiplicative, and Dynamic Process

Recent empirical research has challenged the common belief in the existence of talent, suggesting that exceptional performance is entirely the product of nurture rather than nature. However, this research has been based on a simple conception of what talent entails. Rather than involving a unidimensional, additive, and static genetic process, talent may instead emerge from a multidimensional, multiplicative, and dynamic process. This latter possibility is described in a two-part model that combines multidimensional and multiplicative inheritance with dynamic development. The first part of the model handles domain specificity, profile heterogeneity, the distribution of individual differences, familial heritability, and domain complexity. The second part explicates early- versus late-bloomers, early signs of talent, talent loss, and shifts in the domain of talent. The resulting model has crucial implications for how best to gauge the impact of nature in the development of talent.     

Environmental and Individual Influences on Australian Students' Likelihood of Staying in School

In this longitudinal study, the author examined environmental and individual influences on the likelihood of Australian adolescents staying in school. Participants were 6,778 Anglo Australian, 350 Asian, and 472 European students (mean age = 14.7 years) who were in Year 9 when the study began. The analyses indicated that adolescents from middle social status backgrounds and Asian families were more likely to stay in school than were those from lower social status backgrounds and Anglo Australian families; academic self-concept, achievement, perceptions of environments, and aspirations had a large independent association with staying in school; and there were significant differences in relationships among the aforementioned variables for adolescents from different ethnic groups and among those who decided to stay in or drop out of school.     

认知评价对主观情绪感受和生理活动的作用

围绕认知评价对情绪的作用, 针对传统认知评价实验方法的缺陷, 本研究改进认知评价的操作方法, 以情绪片段为实验材料, 以事先的评价背景替代与观看同步的评价策略, 以生理指标与情绪自评反映情绪变化, 考察41名大学生的认知评价对负性情绪的影响。结果发现, 持有利于情绪调节评价的个体, 负性情绪感受降低, 皮肤电反应减弱, 但心率无变化。研究表明, 认知评价影响个体的主观情绪体验, 并在一定程度上抑制负性情绪所致的生理唤起的增高。     

Genetic and Environmental Influences on Adolescent Rumination and its Association with Depressive Symptoms

Rumination is an important cognitive vulnerability for adolescent and adult depression. However, little is known about the aetiological origins of rumination, as well as its association with depression. Adolescent rumination (self-report) and depressive symptoms (self- and parent-report) were assessed in 674 pairs of same-gender Chinese adolescent twins (11–17 years of age). Females accounted for 53.7 % of the sample. There were significant correlations between self-reported rumination and self-reported depression (r?=?0.41), as well as parent-reported adolescent depression (r?=?0.22). Genetic influences were significant and modest on all three measures, ranging from 24 % to 42 %. The three measures were also significantly influenced by shared environment, ranging from 20 % to 28 %, and non-shared environmental factors, ranging from 30 % to 56 %. Moreover, the genetic correlations between rumination and depression were significant (within-rater: r _g?=?0.99; cross-rater: r _g?=?0.59) and largely accounted for the phenotypic correlations (within-rater: 68 %; cross-rater: 77 %), while non-shared environmental correlations were also significant (within-rater: r _e?=?0.26; cross-rater: r _e?=?0.12) and accounted for the remainder of the phenotypic correlations (within-rater: 32 %; cross-rater: 23 %). The shared environmental correlations were non-significant. No significant gender and age differences were found in aetiological models. These findings suggest that rumination may be an endophenotype reflecting genetic risk for depression.     

分离遗传与环境对儿童发展的影响：介绍一个新颖的研究方法

本文介绍一个可以用于研究遗传与环境互动的新颖方法。此研究收集了上千个4~10岁儿童的数据。这些儿童的出生都借助于不同的辅助受孕技术（Assisted Reproductive Technologies）,包括试管婴儿、精子捐赠、卵子捐赠、胚胎捐赠及代孕技术。本项目通过妇科（助孕）医院收集被试的行为数据,包括家庭互动、养育方式、父母婚姻质量、家庭成员的心理健康及经济状况等。本文选择性地介绍一些分析的结果,以彰显这种设计在分离遗传和产前产后环境对儿童发展的贡献。首先,我们比较了“助孕”儿童与“自然孕”儿童在父母冲突、父母对子女敌意以及儿童抑郁症状之间关系的异同。其次,我们比较了这两组儿童在父母抑郁症状、家庭关系质量以及儿童抑郁症状之间关系的异同。再次,本文介绍了这一可分离遗传与环境因素的研究设计。最后,我们讨论了这一设计对发展心理病干预及预防的意义