Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater: The catharsis hypothesis revisited1

Boys between the ages of 9 and 10 participated in one of three experimental activities. One involved movement and aggression, the second movement devoid of aggression, and the third minimal movement of a nonaggressive nature. Aggressive fantasy decreased in the aggressive movement and minimal movement groups but increased in the nonaggressive movement group. The results are consistent with a cathartic view of the functional relationship between aggressive behavior and aggressive fantasy when the effects of movement and completion of an aggressive response are considered. This study supports the notion that the enactment of an aggressive goal response is essential to the occurrence of a cathartic effect and points up the importance of controlling for movement in investigations of the relationship between aggressive fantasy and aggressive behavior. An additional, exploratory investigation of daydreaming suggests that children who are high in aggressive fantasy are likely to daydream more frequently than children low in aggressive fantasy.     

Gene–environment interdependence

The modern understanding of genetic influences, of environmental effects, of mental disorder, and of heritabilities is noted. The practical utility of finding susceptibility genes with a very small effect is questioned. The empirical findings and implications of developmental perturbations, epigenetics, gene–environment correlations and interactions are then discussed. It is noted that the genes involved in gene–environment interactions may be concerned with susceptibility to all environments and not just adverse ones.     

Identifying the interaction of maternal sensitivity and two serotonin-related gene polymorphisms on infant self-regulation

During infancy, orienting and gaze aversion serve as major self-regulatory mechanisms and play an important role in the development of deliberate self-regulation and control. The present study examined the interaction of intrinsic factors (MAOA-uVNTR and 5-HTTLPR gene polymorphisms) and extrinsic factors (maternal sensitivity) on early infant self-regulatory behavior. We assessed 5-HTTLPR (ss + sl versus ll) and MAOA-uVNTR (3 and 4 among boys, and 3/3, 3/4, and 4/4 among girls) polymorphisms, determined maternal sensitivity during mother–child free play, and coded infant self-regulatory behavior (i.e., orienting shifts in a temperament test) in 281 six-month-old infants. We found that infants who experienced a lower level of maternal sensitivity and had the short allele of 5-HTTLPR variants and the 3/3 MAOA-uVNTR polymorphism displayed lower self-regulation capacity than did those infants with a higher level of maternal sensitivity. This finding suggested a modulatory role of maternal sensitivity. Moreover, these findings are consistent with the genetic vulnerability hypothesis, which states that beneficial environmental factors serve as a buffer against harmful genetic predispositions during child development.     

The baby and the bathwater: 'Professionalisation' in psychotherapy and counselling

The current rush to professionalisation in the field of counselling and psychotherapy, and some of its deleterious effects, are examined. The parallels between this process and the experience of psychoanalysis in the USA in the 1940s and early 1950s are demonstrated, quoting from contemporary critics; and comparisons are drawn with the American phenomenon of managed care. An account is offered of what is happening in terms of the sociology of professions, suggesting that 'expert systems' are being substituted for 'local knowledges—skills and wisdoms which cannot be fully systematised. The argument that this process is for 'the good of the client' is considered and rejected. Finally, some thoughts are presented about the likely future for counselling and psychotherapy, arguing that the victory of professionalisation and expertise is unlikely to be complete.     

Letting the baby out with the bathwater: Reflections on counselling,counselling psychology and psychotherapy in Britain

This paper responds to key points raised in Launagani's article (this issue). In particular, it focuses on the effectiveness of therapy and questions whether or not therapy is dangerous. Also it considers the future of counselling, counseling psychology and psychotherapy and predicts that therapies that do not adapt to brief or time-limited settings may become relegated to private practice. Treatment manuals based on techniques and strategies and not particular therapies will be developed which may include recommendations for the type of interpersonal approach required for different clients. It concludes that due to pressure of work, members of the therapeutic professions will have less time to sit on committess in support of their professional bodies.     

Response to commentaries on discussion paper Gene–environment interdependence

There is a high measure of agreement on the key issues concerning gene–environment interdependence. Contrary to arguments on the need for direct exact replication of findings, it is suggested that “robust” replication using the same constructs is needed. RCTs have an important role for testing for environmental mediation but cannot be used for environmental risks in childhood that show G×E in relation to adult outcomes. Instead, greater use needs to be made of natural experiments. Experimental methods are needed to study biological mediating mechanisms and these should include both animal models and human brain imaging studies. In addition to further research on G×E, further studies of gene–environment correlations are required. Many challenges remain but the future for gene–environment interdependence is bright.     

A note on measurement issues in type A research: let's not throw out the baby with the bath water

It has been suggested that researchers rely exclusively on the structured interview (SI) to assess Type A behavior instead of using objective self-report measures, because the SI is the only prospectively validated instrument currently available. This article considers the costs and benefits of relying solely on the SI to measure Type A behavior. Although using only the SI would assure that researchers measure, in a relatively unobtrusive fashion, actual Type A behaviors known to be predictive of heart disease, it would dramatically increase research costs, impede longitudinal studies of changes in Type A behavior, reduce the validity of statistical conclusions, restrict the convergent and discriminant validity of the Type A construct, and ultimately inhibit our ability to improve accuracy in predicting heart disease. A set of recommendations is proposed for improving the quality of measurement in Type A research.     

On throwing out the baby with the bathwater: A reply to Black and Wilensky's evaluation of story grammars

A number of criticisms of a recent paper byare made. (1) In attempting to assess the observational adequacy of story grammars, they state that a context-free grammar cannot handle discontinuous elements; however, they do not show that such elements occur in the domain to which the grammars apply. Further, they do not present adequate evidence for their claim that there are acceptable stories not accounted for by existing grammars and that the grammars will accept nonstories such as procedures. (2) They state that it has been proven that under natural conditions children cannot learn transformational grammars, which is a misrepresentation of the learnability proofs which have been offered. (3) Most important, they take an unduly narrow approach to story understanding by claiming that people only understand story content and do not have knowledge of story structure which is useful in comprehension or memory. Counterevidence from the literature is cited which indicates that such knowledge is both useful and used, and a number of methods for assessing the psychological adequacy of structural models are discussed.     

Behavioral genetics and development: Historical and conceptual causes of controversy

Traditional, quantitative behavioral geneticists and developmental psychobiologists such as Gilbert Gottlieb have long debated what it would take to create a truly developmental behavioral genetics. These disputes have proven so intractable that disputants have repeatedly suggested that the problem rests on their opponents’ conceptual confusion; whilst others have argued that the intractability results from the non-scientific, political motivations of their opponents. The authors provide a different explanation of the intractability of these debates. They show that the disputants have competing interpretations of the concepts of reaction norm, genotype–environment interaction, and gene. The common thread that underlies each of these disagreements, the authors argue, is the relevance of potential variation that is not manifest in any actual population to the understanding of development.     

Commentary Research on gene–environment interdependence: Honing the tools and examining the angles

The insightful overview by Sir Michael Rutter (this issue) on gene–environment interdependence comes about 10 years after the breakthrough Science publications on gene–environment interactions (G×E) involving the MAOA and 5-HTT genes by Caspi et al. (2002 Caspi, A., McClay, J., Moffitt, T. E., Mill, J., Martin, J.Craig, I. W. 2002. Role of genotype in the cycle of violence in maltreated children. Science, 297: 851–854. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 2003 Caspi, A., Sugden, K., Moffitt, T. E., Taylor, A., Craig, I. W.Harrington, H. 2003. Influence of life stress on depression: Moderation by a polymorphism in the 5-HTT gene. Science, 301: 386–389. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Since then, a field of research has burgeoned that has produced replications as well as intriguing new evidence of gene–environment interdependence. At the same time, however, the field has witnessed a growing scepticism about the relevance of studying gene–environment interactions and has seen replication failures (see Duncan & Keller, 2011 Duncan, L. E. and Keller, M. C. 2011. A critical review of the first 10 years of candidate gene-by-environment interaction research in psychiatry. American Journal of Psychiatry, 168: 1041–1049. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Risch et al., 2009 Risch, N., Herell, R., Lehner, T., Liang, K.-Y., Eaves, L.Hoh, J. 2009. Interaction between the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR), stressful life events, and risk of depression: A meta-analysis. Journal of the American Medical Association, 301: 2462–2471. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Against this backdrop, we comment and elaborate on several of the key issues raised by Rutter, and suggest some directions for future research on G×E. Specifically, we discuss (1) replication issues; (2) the crucial role of experiments in understanding gene–environment interdependence; (3) current unknowns with regard to differential susceptibility; and (4) clinical and practical implications of G×E research.     

Associations between young adult romantic relationship quality and problem behaviors: An examination of personality–environment interactions

This longitudinal study examined person–environment interplay by testing interaction effects between adolescent personality type (i.e., overcontrollers, undercontrollers, and resilients) and young adult romantic relationship quality on young adult delinquency and anxiety. The study employed six waves of longitudinal questionnaire data collected across 10 years from Dutch youths. Results showed that support from romantic partner was related to a relatively stronger decrease in anxiety in young adulthood for overcontrollers than for resilients. Moreover, higher negative interaction with romantic partner was related to a relative increase in delinquent behaviors for undercontrollers, while no such links emerged for overcontrollers and resilients. This study highlights the importance of considering the interplay between personality characteristics and environmental–relational factors when examining young adults’ developmental outcomes.     

Dopamine and serotonin systems modify environmental effects on human behavior: A review

The relative influences of genetic and environmental factors in the development of human behavior have been a long‐term topic for an intense debate. Recent behavioral genetic studies suggest focusing on the joint effect of genes and environment, and especially on the life‐course developmental interplay between nature and nurture. Vulnerability to environmental adversities and sensitivity to its benefits may be conditional on genetic background, and regarding psychological outcomes, these kinds of gene × environment interactions may be of higher importance than direct gene–trait associations. In our recent series of studies, we have shown that different variants of serotonergic and dopaminergic genes may moderate the influence of environmental conditions on a range of psychological outcomes, i.e. temperament, depression, hostility, and educational attainment. These studies suggest that depending on their genotype, people may be differentially sensitive to the environmental conditions they encounter. In the light of these results it seems highly plausible that the effects of genes may become evident only when studied in the context of environmental factors.     

Parental behaviour and children's creation of imaginary companions: A longitudinal study

This longitudinal study examined whether parenting quality, parental behaviours and children's temperament at 6 months of age predicted children's creations of imaginary companions (ICs) at 44 months of age. At six months, parenting quality and parental behaviours were measured using the Parent-Child Early Relational Assessment, and the frequency of mental-state references made during mother–infant interactions was recorded. Temperament was assessed using the Revised Infant Temperament Questionnaire. Parents then completed questionnaires assessing whether their children had ICs at 44 months of age. The results revealed that only the approach characteristic of temperament marginally predicted children's IC status. Results of the parental measures showed that parents of children with ICs were more likely to attribute mental states to their child and to refrain from intruding in their child's behaviours than parents of children without ICs. The results indicated that parental behaviours are important for children's creation of ICs.     

Progress in the Molecular-Genetic Study of Intelligence

ABSTRACT— The past decade has seen a major shift in the genetic study of human intelligence; where classic studies aimed to quantify the heritability of intelligence, current studies aim to dissect this heritability into its molecular-genetic components. Five whole-genome linkage scans have been published in the past year, converging on several chromosomal (or genomic) regions important to intelligence. A handful of candidate genes, some of which lie in these genomic regions, have shown significant association to intelligence and the associations have been replicated in independent samples. Finding genes brings us closer to an understanding of the neurophysiological basis of human cognition. Furthermore, when genes are no longer latent factors in our models but can actually be measured, it becomes feasible to identify those environmental factors that interact and correlate with genetic makeup. This will supplant the long nature–nurture debate with actual understanding.     

Developmental course of the temporal relationship between gaze direction and vocal production in typical and Down's syndrome infants

This study was aimed at examining the temporal relationship between gaze and vocal production behaviour among typically developing infants, infants with Down's syndrome, and their mothers. If gaze–voice timing behaviour is an organizing principle of communicative interaction in typical population, then studying it should provide insight into how children with Down's syndrome and their mothers use this temporal relationship to structure their exchanges. Forty-four mother–infant dyads (22 dyads with a Down's syndrome child and 22 with a typical child) were observed. The developmental course of timing pattern was not different between DS and typically developing infants from 4 to 19 months (DA). Insofar as the timing patterns differed between DS and typical infants at 20 months, this could be explained by their differing level of language acquisition. With the use of language, the timing patterns will reappear equal in the both populations. Results suggest that (i) the children's behaviours could be partially explained by the behaviours of their mothers. The mother–child dyad would be the mould that shapes the child's future sociolinguistic skills, and (ii) for the two populations, the timing-pattern changes could be explained by the emergence of language.     

Optimizing Expression of the Common Human Genome for Child Development

Molecular biology has moved the gene-environment issue in behavior genetics to how and when expression of the human genome is triggered and maintained. How does environment influence gene expression? How many genes are expressed in producing a given behavior? The genome is a data bank and does not automatically create a working brain. The body and brain grow well when (a) endocrine hormones initiate and promote the expression of genes, (b) nutrition is sufficient to sustain the production of proteins, and (c) stress does not suppress gene expression. The growth of brain synapses also requires appropriate neural stimulation. To study gene expression, it is essential to view the complex biology of the cell from a system context that includes the entire genome plus the biological and psychological environments. Optimizing geneexpression for child growth can be achieved by a balance of medicine, nutrition, and appropriate physical, educational, and psychological environments.