Post-concussive Signs and Symptoms in Preschool Children: A Systematic Review

Neuropsychology Review - Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is common in children aged?<?5 years, however, less is known about their experience of post-concussive signs...     

The formal pace of Sesame Street over 26 years

Television producers often use a high rate in the succession of visual and auditory features in their programs to attract the attention of viewers. In this study an attempt was made to measure the formal pace of television programs by scoring the rates of an extensive set of formal visual and auditory characteristics. Sesame Street was chosen as a focal point because this educational program--with its high pace--is very successful in its competition with the majority of commercial programs from which children can choose to watch at home. The analyzed material consisted of 49 Dutch episodes of Sesame Street broadcast between 1977 and 2003. The formal pace characteristics of separate program items from Sesame Street could be reliably established. Factor analysis indicated that clear pace factors were (a) "editing," consisting of a frequent use of different types of shots (total shots, medium shots, and close-ups) combined with a large number of cuts and (b) speech rate. Over a period of 26 years, the pace of editing increased: the mean number of cuts increased from about 4 to 8 per minute. The mean speech rate decreased from 175 to 139 words per minute.     

离异家庭儿童发展性研究综述

随着世界各国离婚率的提高,离异家庭对儿童发展的影响已经成为众多学者研究关注的焦点.文章着重介绍和分析了离异家庭儿童发展性研究的进展、离异家庭儿童心理和行为问题的产生机制以及离异家庭儿童发展的影响因素和作用机制.最后对公共政策的制定提出建议.     

The Voices of Therapists and Children Regarding the Inclusion of Children in Family Therapy: A Systematic Research Synthesis

In 1970, Nathan Ackerman challenged the field of marriage and family therapy to actively involve young children in the family therapy process. How has the field of marriage and family therapy responded to his challenge? Using a systematic research synthesis to review and critique the non-empirical and empirical literature in the area of children in family therapy, the author discovered that the field of marriage and family therapy has not responded to Ackerman's challenge in the way he may have hoped for nearly three decades ago. A summary of the literature's findings is provided and recommendations for future research, as well as implications, for the field of marriage and family therapy are discussed.     

人间佛教的百年回顾与反思——以太虚、印顺和星云为中心

人间佛教是近百年来海峡两岸中国佛教的主流趋势,也是近十多年来海峡两岸学术界都非常重视和热烈讨论的焦点问题之一。本文针对相关讨论,以太虚、印顺法师和星云三位公认的人间佛教思想家和实践家为代表,探讨了人间佛教百年历程中的若干重要问题,阐述了百年人间佛教三个历史座标的历史联系及其各自的特点,指出太虚是现代人间佛教运动的开创者和思想家,印顺法师是现代人间佛教学术理想的提出者和佛学家,而星云是推动现代人间佛教运动发展的最重要的实践家。     

Couples and Diabetes: A 30-Year Narrative Review of Dyadic Relational Research

Diabetes is a chronic condition that affects both members of a couple. However, relatively few studies have focused on the entire couple system as the unit of observation when examining the psychosocial impact of this disease. This narrative review examines the literature between 1980 and 2010 that uses the couple as the unit of observation. A total of 49 articles were identified for review. Articles were grouped by their central themes or outcomes: (1) sexual functioning, (2) relationship adjustment and support, (3) culture and spirituality, (4) treatment/education programs, and (5) diabetes as a risk factor. Research and clinical implications such as increasing the utilization of dyadic analytical strategies and the importance of assessing illness burden from each partners’ perspective are discussed. Identified benefits of incorporating the couple dyad for future research and clinical practice included: (1) understanding the influence of variables such as a non-diabetic partner and gender have on diabetes adjustment and management, (2) the role disease severity and management of diabetes by the partner living with diabetes has on spousal support and non-diabetic partner emotional wellbeing, (3) the interdependent nature of couple outcomes in the areas of adjustment to sexual dysfunction, perceived illness burden, and couple satisfaction, as well as, (4) disease as both an individual and a shared experience among couples.     

Multiple Roles and Well-Being: A Study of Mothers of Preschool Age Children

The relation of well-being to involvement in multiple roles was examined in a study of 134 Caucasian women. All subjects were married and mothers of at least one preschool child; 50 were also paid workers. Two indices of well-being were used: (a) self-esteem; and (b) satisfaction with one's current role pattern. No differences in level of well-being were found between the employed and nonemployed groups. Findings were discussed in relation to theoretical perspectives on multiple role involvement.     

Children Who Murder: A Review

Despite considerable research on juvenile homicide, pre-adolescent homicide offenders have received less attention. This paper reviews the existing literature on preteen murderers in order to characterize the current state of research knowledge about this population, and draws on some of the work on adolescent homicide as well. The analysis of this literature considers historical context, methodological issues, previous attempts to classify youthful homicide offenders, and predictors of preteen homicidal behavior. While there is a high degree of heterogeneity within this population, several developmental similarities emerged across cases that were associated with the perpetration of homicide by preteens. A high percentage of preteen homicide offenders come from homes characterized by physical abuse, domestic violence, poor or absent parenting, and overall instability. Gun availability may have been a facilitating factor. Support for different etiologies of preteen versus adolescent homicide is weak. Recommendations for future research directions are offered.     

The Relationship Between Creativity and Conformity Among Preschool Children

The current study investigated the relationship between creativity and conformity based on the work of Starkweather (1964). The subjects were 45 preschool children. Creativity was assessed using the Multidimensional Stimulus Fluency Measure (Moran, Sawyers, Fu, & Milgram, 1983), an original thinking task. Two forms of conformity were assessed: social conformity and impersonal conformity using the Starkweather Social Conformity Test and the Starkweather Form Boards Test respectively (Starkweather, 1964). Starkweather's hypothesis of a curvilinear relationship between conformity and creativity was found for the social conformity task (X² = 11.69, p < .01). The findings support the hypothesis that highly conforming and highly nonconforming children do not score as high on creativity measurements as their freedom of expression (i.e., not following a rigid pattern of conforming/nonconforming) counterparts. Chi‐square analyses revealed significantly more children in the high creativity and freedom of expression group as compared to the low creativity and conforming/nonconforming children. That is, significantly fewer children were found in the low conformity/low creativity cell and more in the low conformity/high creativity cell than were expected by chance. No differences were found for impersonal conformity, perhaps due to the insensitivity of the instrumentation to assess conformity. It is concluded that freedom of expression may be seen as an important personality trait in the identification and nurturance of creative potential and problem solving in young children.     

学龄前儿童握笔姿势的发展性研究

以握笔画圆为测查任务,考察了学龄前儿童握笔姿势的发展趋势及特点.结果表明3.5-5.5岁是儿童握笔姿势的迅速发展期,大部分儿童在5.5岁发展到成熟的握笔姿势,5.5-6.5岁发展相对平缓.学龄前儿童握笔姿势的发展趋势表现为自然阶段和过渡阶段握笔姿势的减少,成熟阶段握笔姿势的不断增多.中美儿童握笔姿势的发展趋势基本一致,但是中国学龄前儿童使用成熟阶段握姿的比率要低于美国儿童.     

The Effects of Feedback on Perseverative Errors in Preschool Aged Children

Research using the Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS) showed that young children are usually able to sort accurately by an initial rule but are unable to switch to a new rule when the two rules conflict. In 2 experiments, the DCCS was modified to study the effects of feedback on 3- to 5-year-old children in a problem-solving task. In Experiment 1, half of the children in each of two age groups (36 to 44 months and 52 to 60 months) were administered the DCCS task using the standard (no feedback) procedure and the other half received feedback on their post-switch responses. Children who received feedback were able to categorize according to the new (correct) rule, whereas the children in the younger age group who did not receive feedback continued to perseverate. Experiment 2 with 3-year-olds replicated the results from Experiment 1 but found that children's successful performance with feedback on the card-sorting task did not lead to improved performance on the post-switch phase of a subsequent DCCS task. Successful performance under conditions of feedback in both studies implies that 3-year-olds are capable of shifting their response mode from one rule to an alternate rule under conditions that offer clear guidance. Poor performance on the standard version is interpreted to be a reflection of the inability to monitor their own task performance in the absence of clear contextual cues.     

我国3～6岁儿童个性类型及发展特点的研究

该文在以往中国儿童个性结构研究基础上,以问卷调查（n=927）方式,将层次聚类和迭代聚类两种方法结合起来,同时采用理论分析等方法最终确定我国3～6岁儿童的个性类型包括认可型、矛盾型、拒绝型及中间型四类。其中认可型属于积极个性类型,矛盾型和拒绝型属于消极个性类型。研究表明,中班到大班阶段是幼儿个性发展相对重要的时期。男女幼儿在多个个性维度及大部分具体特质方面存在着明显的性别差异。     

中国心理测量近二十年发展的述评与思考

心理测量近年来取得了突破性进展,同时被广泛应用于社会生活许多领域.目前,(1)国内修订的智力量表主要集中在韦克斯勒智力量表及瑞文测验上.(2)在各种功能的量表中,以智力、人格测验量表发展得较为完善.(3)应用于教育领域的学习能力测验量表在能力量表中占的比重较大.(4)随着人们对心理健康的重视,用于心理发展和心理治疗效果诊断的临床医学量表日渐增多.(5)儿童心理量表发展很快.(6)国内自编测验的形式绝大部分是问卷形式、文字形式.量表可按其深度分成三个层次,中国心理测验要想取得国际影响力,必须在编制有深度的、本土化的量表上下功夫.     

A Review of Social Discounting: The Impact of Social Distance on Altruism

The Psychological Record - Altruistic choice is influenced by the relationship between the person making the choice and the recipient, and such relationships are based on an intangible quality...     

The Social Behavior Scale for Preschool Children: Factorial Structure and Concurrent Validity

The aims of the present study were to examine the factor validity of a new social behavior assessment - the Social Behavior Scale (SBS) - using exploratory (sample 1, n = 169) and confirmatory (sample 2, n = 127) factor analysis, and to test factor invariance across gender in a sample of Italian preschoolers. The concurrent validity of the SBS was examined with measures of peer nominations and observed interactions (sample 3, n = 277). Findings confirmed the three-factor structure of the SBS: Emotional Competence, Social Engagement and Aggressiveness. Multigroup analysis provided evidence of factor invariance across gender. Concerning concurrent validity, results confirmed a great association between teacher-rating SBS and the other concurrent measures.     

The Third Person Effect: A Critical Review and Synthesis

This paper reviews research on the third-person effect--the perception that communications exert a stronger effect on others than on oneself It is concluded that the third-person effect is a reliable and persistent phenomenon that emerges across variations in question order, format, and wording. The effect is also more situationally specific than originally believed, as illustrated by evidence of first-person effects in response to socially desirable messages. Self-enhancement biases, although not the only processes that underlie the effect, provide a parsimonious explanation of message-desirability recruits. Other delimiting conditions such as social distance are critically reviewed, evidence for behavioral effects is discussed, and methodological shortcomings are noted. Six directions for research are articulated.