Emotional Abuse in the Classroom: Implications and Interventions for Counselors

Emotional abuse of students by teachers is a topic infrequently discussed in the child abuse literature. In some classrooms, it can be a daily occurrence. This article defines emotional abuse and discusses the types of classroom behaviors teachers may demonstrate that are emotionally abusive to students. The role of school‐based counselors in the prevention and treatment of emotional abuse is discussed.     

Socioeconomic Differences in Psychosocial Factors Contributing to Coronary Heart Disease: A Review

Psychosocial factors have been shown to play an important role in the aetiology of coronary heart disease (CHD). A strong association between CHD and socioeconomic status (lower-level education, poor financial situation) has also been well established. Socioeconomic differences may thus also have an effect on psychosocial risk factors associated with CHD, and socioeconomic disadvantage may negatively affect the later prognosis and quality of life of cardiac patients. The aim of this study was to review the available evidence on socioeconomic differences in psychosocial factors which specifically contribute to CHD. A computer-aided search of the Medline and PsycINFO databases resulted in 301 articles in English published between 1994 and 2007. A comprehensive screening process identified 12 empirical studies which described the socioeconomic differences in CHD risk factors. A review of these studies showed that socioeconomic status (educational grade, occupation or income) was adversely associated with psychosocial factors linked to CHD. This association was evident in the case of hostility and depression. Available studies also showed a similar trend with respect to social support, perception of health and lack of optimism. Less consistent were the results related to anger and perceived stress levels. Socioeconomic disadvantage seems to be an important element influencing the psychosocial factors related to CHD, thus, a more comprehensive clarification of associations between these factors might be useful. More studies are needed, focused not only on well-known risk factors such as depression and hostility, but also on some lesser known psychosocial factors such as Type D and vital exhaustion and their role in CHD.     

Systemic administration of a nitric oxide synthase inhibitor impairs fear sensitization in the plus-maze

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the occurrence of fear sensitization in rats previously treated with an inhibitor of the NO syntheses and submitted to Trial1/Trial2 plus-maze (PM) procedure. Male Wistar rats received a systemic treatment with N(omega)-nitro-L-Arginine-methyl ester (L-NAME; 5, 10 or 50 mg kg(-1)) and were submitted to PM Trial1. In the following day the animals were re-exposed to the PM with no drug administration (Trial2). Some standards spatial-temporal measures, such as the percentage of entries (% Open arm entries) and time spent (% Open arm time) in the open arms and risk assessment frequency were recorded and used to estimate the animal level of fear sensitization in PM Trial2. The results showed that animals receiving L-NAME (50 mg kg(-1)) displayed increased % Open arm entries and % Open arm time in Trial2 in relation to the group receiving 0.9% saline, which is compatible with impaired fear/anxiety acquisition during Trial1/Trial2 PM procedure. In addition, rats treated with L-NAME (50 mg kg(-1)) exhibited low level of risk assessment in Trial2 in relation to the group treated with 0.9% saline, which indicates low level of fear/anxiety during PM re-exposure. The number of entries into the enclosed arms was not changed by any L-NAME treatment, which suggests no bias of the drug treatments on animal locomotor activity. The data suggest that NO synthesis may mediate the fear sensitization process in the PM.     

Cross-linguistic assessment of verbal production from a narrative task in Williams Syndrome

Williams Syndrome (WS) is a disorder caused by a delection in chromosome 7, with a cognitive profile characterised by mild to moderate mental deficiency and difficulties in visual-spatial processing, which contrasts with a relative preservation of linguistic functions and narrative production. In this study, verbal performance was analysed in two groups of participants (N = 3), Portuguese and Spanish, genetically diagnosed with WS. Scores were low in Verbal IQ, as in Performance IQ. Narrative performance showed low coherence with respect to structure, process, and content. WS verbal performance was affected and there was no difference between both groups. We could not find any dissociation between cognitive functioning and linguistic production.     

Club Drug Use and Intentionality in Perceptions of Rape Victims

The purpose of the present study was to examine whether intentionality of alcohol or club drug use would affect observer attributions of a victim and a perpetrator after a sexual assault. Participants were 198 male and female college students sampled from a small college located in the United States. In general, participants attributed less blame to the victim, more guilt to the perpetrator, and were more likely to define the assault as rape and convict the perpetrator when the substance use was involuntary as opposed to voluntary. Participants also attributed more blame to the victim and less pleasure to the perpetrator when the sexual assault involved GHB as opposed to Everclear. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

进化发展心理学：发展中的人类本性

进化发展心理学研究社会能力与认知能力发展背后的基因与环境机制,以及基因与环境机制在特定社会文化中的表现。进化发展心理学探讨的主要问题与设计到的主要概念包括：（1）自然选择在毕生发展的早期阶段发挥作用;（2）进化发展心理学特别重视适应在婴儿期及儿童期发展中的作用;（3）儿童期的延长有助于儿童学习人类社会的复杂性;（4）发展背景的方法可以用来理解成人外显行为的进化起源;（5）基因与环境因素相互影响约束个体发展;（6）认知能力与行为活动敏感于早期环境,但二者发展也具有可塑性     

Parents' representations of their children: an exploratory study using the Osgood Semantic Differential Scales

The results of an exploratory national study carried out in Italy using Osgood's Semantic Differential Scales (Osgood, Suci, & Tannenbaum, 1957) with parents of 100 normal 6- to 11-yr.-old children in mainstream classrooms are reported. The aim was to devise a simple tool to be used to explore parents' perceptions of their children in this age group. Parents were asked to rate "my child" using some of Osgood's Semantic Differential Scales especially adapted for this study. Participants were 97 fathers and 100 mothers. Fathers were 32 to 57 years of age (M = 43.2, SD = 5.4), mothers were 29 to 49 years of age (M = 39.7, SD =4.4). In factor analysis four factors were identified: Activity, Evaluation, Emotions evoked by the child, Personality/Physical contact. Average factor scores were significantly different. There were no significant differences between fathers and mothers on the four factor scores. Children were more positively evaluated the younger they were.     

Rorschach Comprehensive System data for two samples of nonpatient children from Italy: 75 aged 5-7 years and 148 aged 8-11 years

This project provides information on how nonpatient children perform on the Rorschach test, administered and scored following Exner's guidelines (1995). Lis, Parolin, Zennaro, and Mazzeschi (2001) previously reported initial data for 70 nonpatient children living in Italy who were administered this instrument by graduate and postgraduate students in a 2-year research course at the Psychotherapy School of the University of Padua between July 1998 and February 2001. The current study is an extension of that work and includes information on an additional 153 participants gathered between November 2002 and December 2006. The total number of participants includes 223 individuals, 75 5-7-year-old children in the first level of elementary school, and 148 8-11-year-old children in the second level of elementary school. Exclusion criteria are described, and interrater reliability statistics at the response level for scoring segments are reported using percent agreement and iota. Rorschach Comprehensive System (CS) findings are presented.     

Identifying Substance Abuse Issues in High Schools: A National Survey of High School Counselors

High school students consistently report the use of substances such as alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana. One of the people they would talk to about a substance use problem is their school counselor. A survey study was conducted with a national sample of 289 high school counselors. Results indicated that participants were clearly able to identify their practice limitations and future training needs in this area. Implications for training and recommendations for future research are discussed.     

Sunk-cost effects on purely behavioral investments

Although the sunk-cost effect is a well-documented psychological phenomenon in monetary investments, existing literature investigating behavioral investments (e.g., time, effort) has not replicated this effect except when such investments relate to monetary values. The current explanation for this discrepancy proposes that purely behavioral sunk-cost effects are unlikely to be observed because they are difficult to book, track, and balance in a mental account. Conversely, we argue that, through an effort-justification mechanism, people account for the amount of behavioral resources invested when selecting an alternative, in which case they may fall prey to purely behavioral sunk-cost effects. The results of two experiments support this prediction. Because many decisions involve behavioral investments, behavioral sunk-cost effects should be pervasive psychological phenomena.