The role of the shared family context in differential parenting

This article examines the role of the shared family context in understanding differential parental treatment of children. Child-specific and family-context predictors of differential parental positivity and negativity were examined using multilevel modeling in a population of 8,476 children nested in 3,762 families. Child age was the strongest child-specific predictor of positivity and differential positivity. Lower socioeconomic status (SES), marital dissatisfaction, and larger family size were associated with higher levels of differential positivity. There was evidence of potentiation when risks were combined. Children's temperament was associated with parental negativity and differential negativity. The strength of this association was moderated by SES. Mixed-gender sibships in families with marital dissatisfaction and children in single-parent families received the highest levels of differential negativity. The findings are discussed in the context of shared and nonshared environmental influences on development.     

Mother- and daughter-in-law relationship within a South African context: Influence of family systems

This study explored family system influences on mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relationships in a South African setting. A convenience sample of 20 mothers-in-law (age range from 40 to 86) and 20 daughters-in-law (age range from 20 to 60) were informants. They had been in a mother- and daughter-in-law relationship for at least six months. The participants completed open-ended interviews on their relational experiences in the context of family. Data were analysed applying Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Five family system relational context themes emerged: positive mother- and daughter-in-law relationship, conflicted the mother-son relationship, historic experience of the mother-in-law with her own mother-in-law, and partnership in upbringing of grandchildren.     

Rapid enumeration within a fraction of a single glance: The role of visible persistence in object individuation capacity

The number of items that can be individuated at a single glance is limited. Here, we investigate object individuation at a higher temporal resolution, in fractions of a single glance. In two experiments involving object individuation we manipulated the duration of visual persistence of the target items with a forward masking procedure. The number of items as well as their stimulus–onset asynchrony (SOA) to the mask was varied independently. The results showed main effects of numerosity and SOA, as well as an interaction. These effects were not caused by a generic reduction of item visibility by the mask. Instead, the SOA manipulation appeared to fractionate the time to access the sensory image. These findings suggest that the capacity limit of 3–4 items found in object individuation is, at least partially, the consequence of the temporal window of access to sensory information.     

The role of context and timeframe in moderating relationships within the theory of planned behaviour

This study examined the moderating effect of context and timeframe on the predictive ability of Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) constructs. Three hundred and eighty-three students completed TPB measures either in a campus bar or a library and were randomly allocated to one of three timeframe conditions: tonight, tomorrow or next week. There was a three-way interaction such that the subjective norms of participants in a bar were more predictive of their intentions to binge drink that night, whereas the subjective norms of participants in a library were less predictive of intentions to binge drink that night. This research provides empirical evidence that ignoring context may result in underestimation of the importance of normative factors in binge drinking. It also suggests that other research utilising the TPB needs to take greater account of the impact of context of data collection, which has been neglected to date.     

The role of context and timeframe in moderating relationships within the theory of planned behaviour

This study examined the moderating effect of context and timeframe on the predictive ability of Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) constructs. Three hundred and eighty-three students completed TPB measures either in a campus bar or a library and were randomly allocated to one of three timeframe conditions: tonight, tomorrow or next week. There was a three-way interaction such that the subjective norms of participants in a bar were more predictive of their intentions to binge drink that night, whereas the subjective norms of participants in a library were less predictive of intentions to binge drink that night. This research provides empirical evidence that ignoring context may result in underestimation of the importance of normative factors in binge drinking. It also suggests that other research utilising the TPB needs to take greater account of the impact of context of data collection, which has been neglected to date.     

Reactions to tokenism: The role of individual characteristics in shaping responses to token decisions

When only a handful of members from a disadvantaged group occupy positions of power, they are considered tokens. Previous research suggests that observers tend to consider tokenism as an egalitarian practice. Given its ambiguous nature, we hypothesized that reactions to tokenism would be shaped by individuals' sensitivity to inequality. In Study 1, we showed that women (vs. men) and individuals low (vs. high) on social dominance orientation differentiated more between a token and an egalitarian decision in the context of gender‐related practices. Similar findings were observed in Study 2, which involved gender and feminist identification as independent variables. Additional support, particularly for the role of social dominance orientation, was found in Study 3, which involved an ethnic token. Together, results demonstrate the role of individuals' chronic sensitivity to inequality in shaping their reactions to token practices. Theoretical and practical implications regarding the effect of tokenism on individuals' evaluations and responses to inequality are discussed. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The role of explanation in categorization decisions

Research into the role of explanation on the categorization process has yielded conflicting conclusions. Some theorists stress the importance of explanation, arguing that explanations provide a causal structure necessary to the categorization process. Others discount its significance, arguing that explanation is neither necessary nor sufficient for categorization. Experimentally, explanation has shown modest success in accounting for some categories but not others. Across three experiments, we test whether the central features of a category are the ones that capture the most explanatory structure. The objectives of the current study are threefold: to determine the importance of explanation in natural kind and artifact categorization; to understand the implications of feature correlations as they relate to explanation; and to further delineate the benefit of explanation outside of a functional role. Experiment 1 demonstrates that explanation plays a more dominant role in artifact versus natural kind categorization. Experiment 2 provides evidence that correlated features are neither necessary nor sufficient for categorization. Moreover, it demonstrates that, in the absence of correlation, people still rely on explanation for artifacts but not for natural kinds. Experiment 3 tests to what extent functional information underlies explanation in artifact categorization. We demonstrate that functional relations are not necessary for explanatory‐based categorization. Our results, coupled with previous evidence, suggest a dichotomous role for explanation‐based categorization. On the one hand, explanation is virtually ignored when categorizing biological kinds; on the other, explanation fosters artifact categorization. Implications for categorization and category‐specific disorder are considered.     

The role of impulses in shaping decisions

This paper explores the extent to which decision behavior is shaped by short‐lived reactions to the outcome of the most recent decision. We inspected repeated decision‐making behavior in two versions of each of two decision‐making tasks, an individual task and a strategic one. By regressing behavior onto the outcomes of recent decisions, we found that the upcoming decision was well predicted by the most recent outcome alone, with the tendency to repeat a previous action being affected both by its actual outcome and by the outcomes of actions not taken. Because the goodness of predictions based on the most recent outcome did not diminish as participants gained experience with the task, we conclude that repeated decisions are continuously affected by impulsive reactions. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Illicit drug-related psychopharmacological violence: The current understanding within a causal context

This study reviews past research on psychopharmacological violence associated with illicit drug use within the criteria for causality. There appears to be prior evidence suggesting that illicit drug use and violent offending are related in certain circumstances; and other studies conclude that illicit drug use may be correlated with violent victimization. However, those studies that also adequately assessed temporal order do not strongly support an offender-based psychopharmacological link; and those that explored violent victimization are limited and inconclusive. More importantly, there are very few criminological efforts that assess the impact of illicit drug use on violence while also controlling for alternative individual-level causal explanations such as hormonal influences, genetic factors, variations in substance metabolism rates and intoxication decay, psychological functioning, concurrent alcohol and/or other drug use, gender differences, and illicit drug dosage. We offer suggestions for improving future assessments of illicit drug-related violent offending and victimization including capturing dosage and purity data, gauging temporal proximity of offender and victim intoxication relative to violent outcomes, and separating psychopharmacological factors (e.g., offender motivation and victim vulnerability) from economic and systemic circumstances.     

The role of context in contextualism

According to a view widely held by epistemic contextualists, the truth conditions of a knowledge claim depend on features of the context such as the presuppositions, interests and purposes of the conversational participants. Against this view, I defend an intentionalist account, according to which the truth conditions of a knowledge attribution are determined by the speaker’s intention. I show that an intentionalist version of contextualism has several advantages over its more widely accepted rival account.     

The pseudohomophone effect: The role of visual similarity in non-word decisions

The pseudohomophone effect, that is, the finding that non-words that are pronounced like words (e.g. MEEN) take longer to reject in a lexical decision task than other pronounceable non-words (e.g. NEEN), has been used to support the hypothesis of phonological receding in lexical access. The lexical decision experiments reported here matched pseudohomophones to control non-words that were as visually similar to words as were the pseudohomophones. For both normal and aphasic subjects, reaction times to reject the pseudohomophones were no longer than those for the visual controls. However, the pseudohomophones did take longer to reject than other pronounceable non-words which were not as visually similar to words. The results suggest that most previous findings of the pseudohomophone effect result from the greater visual rather than phonological similarity of the pseudohomophones to words. The absence of a phonological effect on the non-words in the present study implies that phonological coding is an optional rather than a slow, but obligatory process.