Does the level at which cognitive change occurs change with age?

Increased age in adulthood is associated with systematically more negative cognitive change, but relatively little is known about the nature of change at different ages. The present study capitalized on the hierarchical structure of cognitive abilities to investigate possible age differences in the level at which change operates. Reductions in the longitudinal associations between test scores when across-time relations were specified at different levels in the hierarchical structure were used to infer contributions to change from the level of abilities and from the level of a general factor. Although the pattern of influences varied across different cognitive abilities, the results revealed little or no age differences in the relative contributions to change from different levels in the hierarchy.     

Is a change in work motivation related to a change in mental well-being?

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of changes on work motivation and the effect of the changes on future mental well-being. This prospective study comprised 577 employees who were followed up 18 months after a comprehensive baseline measurement. The response rate was 81% for the baseline and 72% for the follow-up. The results show that both negative and positive changes in work motivation over time (18 months) were related to exhaustion. A similar correlation was found between negative changes in work motivation and depression. The results show that employees with a decreased level of work motivation had a higher risk of experiencing more exhaustion and depression in the future. Thus, investing in activities to promote work motivation may be an effective means of preventing long-term sick leave for stress-related mental illness and of providing energy for successful career advancement.     

Time to contemplate change? A framework for assessing readiness to change with offenders

An improved understanding of offenders' readiness to change would enhance our ability to assess and engage such readiness. This paper provides a critique of the Stages of Change Model (SCM) which is widely used to assess readiness to change with offenders. We argue that the SCM does not provide a sound theoretical basis for understanding offender readiness to change. We highlight problems measuring constructs with the SCM accurately and question the theoretical coherence and level of explanation of readiness to change offered by the model.The second section of the paper presents the Readiness to Change Framework (RCF) as an alternative theoretical framework for understanding readiness to change. The RCF has been designed as a generic framework for understanding readiness to change for multiple behaviors. The two models within the framework are described, and examples of how they may be useful to practitioners working in the area of readiness to change are presented. Finally, strengths, limitations, and potential further developments of the framework are discussed.     

Does intra-individual change predict offender recidivism? Searching for the Holy Grail in assessing offender change

Offender rehabilitation effectively reduces recidivism for treatment groups compared to control groups, but there is less evidence demonstrating that intra-individual changes are related to reductions in risk. We review and critique academic and government literature linking individual change scores to recidivism, focusing on three key treatment domains: cognition, violence, and substance misuse. Database searches identified 378 studies measuring change, but only 53 studies yielding 49 explicit tests of the relationship between intra-individual change scores and recidivism outcome. Of the 49 available tests, 26 effect sizes (53.1%) were significant, ranging from small (d = 0.06) to large (d = 1.48). Across all domains, change variables significantly related to recidivism included known dynamic risk factors: antisocial attitudes, antisocial beliefs, antisocial associates, antisocial personality, social support, and substance misuse. Two additional findings centered on changes in negative emotion and successful treatment process. This review further suggests there is a need to utilize better measurement strategies and more sophisticated constructs. Additional practical, theoretical, and methodological implications are discussed.     

Does facial processing prioritize change detection?: change blindness illustrates costs and benefits of holistic processing

There is broad consensus among researchers both that faces are processed more holistically than other objects and that this type of processing is beneficial. We predicted that holistic processing of faces also involves a cost, namely, a diminished ability to localize change. This study (N = 150) utilized a modified change-blindness paradigm in which some trials involved a change in one feature of an image (nose, chin, mouth, hair, or eyes for faces; chimney, porch, window, roof, or door for houses), whereas other trials involved no change. People were better able to detect the occurrence of a change for faces than for houses, but were better able to localize which feature had changed for houses than for faces. Half the trials used inverted images, a manipulation that disrupts holistic processing. With inverted images, the critical interaction between image type (faces vs. houses) and task (change detection vs. change localization) disappeared. The results suggest that holistic processing reduces change-localization abilities.     

Does mimicking others change your self-view?

Does mimicking affect the way you think about yourself in relation to other people? In the present study, we instructed participants to either mimic or not mimic the expressions of their interaction partner. After a 3-minute interaction, participants' self-view in relation to others was measured. Results revealed that mimickers defined themselves more in relation to others than nonmimickers. Thus, mimicking others, compared to not mimicking others, changes your self-view.     

Should we change the human genome?

Should we change the human genome? The most general arguments against changing the human genome are here in focus. Distinctions are made between positive and negative gene therapy, between germ-line and somatic therapy, and between therapy where the intention is to benefit a particular individual (a future child) and where the intention is to benefit the human gene-pool. Some standard arguments against gene-therapy are dismissed. Negative somatic therapy is not controversial. Even negative, germ-line therapy is endorsed, if the intention is to cure a certain individual (a future child). In rare cases, positive therapy on somatic cells may be warranted. Germ-line therapy may become a valuable method of preventing harm, through ‘genetic vaccination’. If safe methods evolve, it is harmless (though vain), to try to achieve more ambitious goals. Prospective parents should not be prevented from exercising this harmless kind of parental authority. The paper concludes: Thereis a moral limit to how much we ought to manipulate the human genome, however. We ought not to jeopardize the continued existence of mankind. We ought not to develop methods of germ-line therapy intended in a radical manner to improve human nature, and we ought to leave to prospective parents to decide in individual cases what kind of intervention shall take place.     

How much can people really change?

The basic purpose of pastoral counseling, and counseling in general, is to help people change. Therefore, it's critically important to understand the nature of change and to have realistic expectations with respect to how much people can change. To expect too little change can lead to underachievement and despair, whereas to expect too much change can cause needless frustration and an abiding sense of failure. This article discusses behavioral change, its potential and its limits, from the point of view of genetic potential and offers some specific pastoral implications.     

The Marxian theory of social change∗

This essay is a logico‐philosophical critique of the Marxian system of sociology with special reference to the theory of social change. To every change in the natural order (taken in conjunction with the technological order) corresponds an appropriate change in the human order, that is, in the system of social relations. This, it is shown, is the fundamental Marxian thesis regarding social equilibrium. And accordingly the key idea regarding social change is that a gradually maturing inherent disproportion between the two orders is the basic condition of social change, eventually leading to the establishment of a new social equilibrium at a higher level.

A close examination of the concept of mode of production and changes therein is attempted in the course of elucidating the above thesis. It is argued that the technological interpretation of the concept of mode of production conflicts with the Marxian anthropology and that we should have a structural interpretation according to which it will refer to the economy as a whole and will include among other elements production relations. This interpretation leads the discussion into one of the central problems of Marxism, namely, the relation between the mode of production and the social system. It is argued that the social system is basic to Marx and after a close analysis of the concept of system it is shown that the Marxian theory of base and superstructure rests mainly on confusion of conceptual orientations. This, it is shown, is connected with a fundamental idea of Marxism, viz., that of a system without a transcendent centre. This essay endeavours to prove that such an idea is logically untenable. Hence the Marxian Laws of Transformation of Quantity into Quality and Negation of Negation are examined and shown logically untenable.

The last section discusses the question about the determinant of technological change and eventually of social change. Three possible Marxian solutions are examined: (a) in terms of needs — it is argued that this is inconsistent with Marx's theory of man and labour; (b) in terms of science and new ideas — it is shown that this ultimately goes contrary to Marxian materialism and positivism; and finally, (c) the systemic solution in terms of the dialectic of nature and man is subjected to logical scrutiny and it is shown that this cannot be consistent and valid without involving a trans‐historical standpoint; for, it is argued, the idea of the self‐directing Humanity on which it rests is a self‐contradictory notion.     

Do parent-child relationships change during puberty?

This article reviews changes in parent-child relationships during puberty, emphasizing the developmental processes that might be implicated in these changes. Evidence suggests increases in conflict and less warm interactions in relationships between parents and children during puberty. Changes are assumed to be short term, although little longitudinal research has directly addressed the issue of long-lasting effects. Other developmental changes occurring for the adolescent, the parent, or both (such as social cognitive or self-definitional change), as well as other relationship changes, personality characteristics, and the sheer number of life events or transitions have all been posited as potential contributors to changes in the parent-child relationship for young adolescents. These possible contributors, however, have seldom been studied in conjunction with pubertal changes. Such integrative research is necessary to test various models through which puberty, social relationships, social cognitive, self-definitional, and other processes influence one another and are influenced by one another during the transition to adolescence.     

Does unattended information facilitate change detection?

Changes between alternating visual displays are difficult to detect when the successive presentations of the displays are separated by a brief temporal interval. To assess whether unattended changes attract attention, observers searched for the location of a change involving either a large or a small number of features, in pairs of displays consisting of 4, 7, 10, 13, or 16 letters (Experiment 1) or digits (Experiments 2 and 3). Each display in a pair of displays was presented for 200 ms, and either a blank screen (Experiments 1 and 2) or a screen of equal luminance to the letters and digits (Experiment 3) was presented for 80 ms between the alternating displays. In all experiments, the search function for locating the larger change was shallower than the search function for locating the smaller change. These results indicate that unattended changes play a functional role in guiding focal attention.     

Levels of change in parent–infant psychotherapy

This paper offers a way of thinking about the process of parent–infant psychotherapy. I start by outlining some ideas as to what can go awry in troubled parent–infant relationships, and then a way of working with parents with pre-verbal babies. I suggest a model for understanding three interlaced levels at which change might occur if a psychodynamic, systemically sensitive, therapeutic intervention is offered. I describe a particularly challenging clinical case in which a mother and I also worked with video material of her and her son.     

Does change in perceptions of peer teen dating violence predict change in teen dating violence perpetration over time?

Research has previously demonstrated that perceptions of peer's teen dating violence (TDV) is associated with one's own perpetration of TDV, although little research has examined whether this relationship is consistent across developmental time periods (i.e., mid‐to‐late adolescence). The present study examined whether changes in perceptions of peer's TDV predicted change in one's own perpetration of TDV in a sample of ethnically diverse adolescents from ages 15 to 18 (N = 1,042). Parallel process modeling demonstrated that decreases in perceptions of peer's TDV predicted decreases in TDV perpetration over time, and this relationship was more pronounced for males than females. These findings lend further support to the need for TDV prevention and intervention programs to include peer influence in their programs.

     

Gender identity: affected by social change?

To determine whether social changes in attitudes toward the role of men and women have influenced gender identity measures, 60 male and female college students were assessed using both a Thematic Apperception Test measure (May's, 1966, Deprivation/Enhancement measure) and a self-report measure (Bem's, 1974, Sex Role Identity [BSRI]), both of which were developed more than 20 years ago. Although some recent research has found the BSRI to no longer differentiate between men and women (Twenge, 1997; Wilcox & Francis, 1997), this study found significant gender differences for both gender identity measures.1     

Pre-driving adolescent attitudes: Can they change?

The problem of reducing young drivers’ high accident rates has been approached from many different angles but a primary focus has been to try and find ways of changing the attitudes and behaviours of young people who are already drivers. It is hypothesised that there is a link between pre-driver attitudes, intentions and their future driving behaviour. By changing pre-driver attitudes and/or intentions, individuals may mature into safer drivers. This study approaches this young driver problem by looking at pre-drivers’ attitudes to driving to see how they change over time. The results from two questionnaires indicated significant gender differences and changes in responses (both long-term and short-term) over a 6-month period. It is concluded that adolescent attitudes and intentions towards driving remain fluid such that they may be positively influenced through pre-driver interventions, even if only temporarily. Regular pre-driver interventions could thus reinforce safe driving messages and create safety-conscious driving attitudes in the next generation of drivers.     

Are Rorschach responses influenced by society's change?

It is generally believed that people "normally" see male figures on Card III and females on Card VII, and that seeing females on III by males may be an indication of confused sexuality. Brown (1971) suggests that recently there has been a marked increase in the number of males who see females on III and that this indicates a cultural change toward a blurring sex roles. Present findings are that male subjects through 60 years of age see substantial numbers of females on Card III. More males do see females on III in 1970 than earlier, but it seems to be the age of the subject more than the decade in which he lives that primarily determines response.     

What is the shape of developmental change?

Developmental trajectories provide the empirical foundation for theories about change processes during development. However, the ability to distinguish among alternative trajectories depends on how frequently observations are sampled. This study used real behavioral data, with real patterns of variability, to examine the effects of sampling at different intervals on characterization of the underlying trajectory. Data were derived from a set of 32 infant motor skills indexed daily during the first 18 months. Larger sampling intervals (2-31 days) were simulated by systematically removing observations from the daily data and interpolating over the gaps. Infrequent sampling caused decreasing sensitivity to fluctuations in the daily data: Variable trajectories erroneously appeared as step functions, and estimates of onset ages were increasingly off target. Sensitivity to variation decreased as an inverse power function of sampling interval, resulting in severe degradation of the trajectory with intervals longer than 7 days. These findings suggest that sampling rates typically used by developmental researchers may be inadequate to accurately depict patterns of variability and the shape of developmental change. Inadequate sampling regimes therefore may seriously compromise theories of development.     

Does familiarity change in the revelation effect?

The revelation effect describes the increased tendency to call items "old" when a recognition judgment is preceded by an incidental task. Past findings show that d' for recognition decreases following revelation, evidence that the revelation effect is due to familiarity change. However, data from receiver operating characteristic curves from 3 experiments produced no evidence of changes in recognition sensitivity. The authors illustrate how the use of a single-point measure like d' can be misleading when familiarity distribution variances are unequal. Also investigated was whether the effect depends on the revelation materials used. Neither the memorability of the revelation items, their similarity to recognition probes, nor the difficulty of the task changed the size of the effect. Thus, the revelation effect is not the result of a memory retrieval mechanism and seems to be generic and all-or-nothing. These characteristics are consistent with response bias rather than familiarity change.