Parental Mediation of COVID-19 News and Children’s Emotion Regulation during Lockdown

Journal of Child and Family Studies - The COVID-19 outbreak resulted in a large amount of emotionally charged messaging that is believed to have a tremendous psychological impact, particularly on...     

The Effect of Relative Income Concerns on Life Satisfaction: Relative Deprivation and Loss Aversion

Journal of Happiness Studies - Income comparisons are important for individual well-being. We examine the shape of the relationship between relative income and life satisfaction, and test...     

The (Un)bearable Educational Lightness of Common Practices: On the Use of Urban Spaces by Schoolchildren

The present paper is about the author??s current research on children??s education in urban contexts. It departs from the rising offer of programmes for school children in out-of-school contexts (e.g. museums, libraries, science centres). It asks what makes these practices educational (and not just interesting, entertaining and/or audience building). Based on Biesta (2006a, 2010) theory of education, the author frames and analyses the educational characteristics of, and possibilities of articulating, in and out-of-school educational practices. This paper aims at understanding if the occasional outing from primary school premises promotes interruptions in the humanist foundations of school. In order to analyse relations between different institutions and professionals (to be) engaged in educational activities and programmes, Nóvoa (2002, 2009) essays will be brought to the discussion, namely his conception of the ??Public Space of Education????as a space where culture, education, arts, sports and leisure are shared responsibilities, and where diverse institutions are networked aiming towards societal pluralism. I argue for the possibility of using cities?? public spaces as contexts with a worldly quality to complexify children??s education. Nevertheless, I draw attention to the unbearable educational lightness that these practices may carry if they do not go beyond the praise of chance; as well as to their unsustainable weight if they perpetually repeat school??s normal orders and add up rational discourses.     

Characterizing variation in the functional connectome: promise and pitfalls

The functional MRI (fMRI) community has zealously embraced resting state or intrinsic functional connectivity approaches to mapping brain organization. Having demonstrated their utility for charting the large-scale functional architecture of the brain, the field is now leveraging task-independent methods for the investigation of phenotypic variation and the identification of biomarkers for clinical conditions. Enthusiasm aside, questions regarding the significance and validity of intrinsic brain phenomena remain. Here, we discuss these challenges and outline current developments that, in moving the field toward discovery science, permit a shift from cartography toward a mechanistic understanding of the neural bases of variation in cognition, emotion and behavior.     

Processing of representations in declarative and procedural working memory

The article investigates the relation between declarative and procedural working memory (WM; Oberauer, 2009). Two experiments test the assumption that representations in the two subsystems are selected for processing in analogous ways. Participants carried out a series of decisions on memorized lists of digits. For each decision, they had to select declarative and procedural representations. Regarding declarative representations, participants selected a memory set and a digit within this set as the input to each decision. With respect to the procedural representations, they selected a task set to be applied to the selected digit and a response within that task set. We independently manipulated the number of lists and the number of tasks to be switched among (one, two, or three; Experiment 1) and preparation time for a list switch (Experiment 2). For three effects commonly observed in task-switch studies, analogues in declarative WM were found: list-switch costs, mixing costs, and residual switch costs. List- and task-switch costs were underadditive, suggesting that declarative and procedural representations are selected separately and in parallel. The findings support the hypothesis of two analogous WM subsystems.     

Liquid zinc embrittlement of a high-manganese-content TWIP steel

The cracking resistance of a twinning induced plasticity (TWIP) steel with high-manganese content has been studied in relation to the liquid metal embrittlement phenomenon. This phenomenon was investigated by hot tensile tests carried out on electrogalvanised specimens using a Gleeble® simulator at temperatures ranging from 600°C to 1000°C. The results show that this steel can be embrittled by liquid zinc within a limited range of temperature depending on strain rate.     

Self-implication and heart rate variability during simulated exposure to flight-related stimuli

In the present study, the relationship between self-implication during simulated exposure to feared stimuli and Heart Rate Variability (HRV) was explored within the framework of the dynamical systems model of emotion regulation proposed by Thayer and Lane (Thayer, J.F., and Lane, R.D. (2000). A model of neurovisceral integration in emotion regulation and dysregulation. Journal of Affective Disorders, 61, 201–216.). An analogue sample of flight phobics (n=15) and a matched non-phobic control group (n=15) were presented with flight-related pictures, flight-related sounds or flight-related pictures and sounds. Significant differences on self-implication during exposure to flight-related sounds were found between low and high HRV fearful flyers, the former being more self-implied. However, the expected HRV decreases in the phobic participants exposed to feared stimuli were not found. These results emphasize the need to distinguish between high and low HRV fearful flyers in order to make a better use of the simulated exposure treatments.     

‘Battling with the unlaid ghost’: psychotherapy with a child traumatised in infancy

This paper attempts to explore the nature and consequences of early trauma on the mental development of a 9-year-old boy I have called Luke. The traumatic event occurred within the context of a more chronic and ongoing trauma, which was due to the lack of receptive and containing parental figures. The combination of these two kinds of traumatic experiences had a destructive impact on the making of Luke's internal world and greatly disrupted the development of his capacity for thought. I will specifically refer to the theory of trauma and to Bion's theory of thinking in order to illustrate the crucial link between trauma and mental work and the complex challenge it brings. I will describe how, during the course of 2 years of intensive treatment, Luke gradually became able to restore his capacity for mental functioning, which made it possible for him to begin to think about and make sense of his extreme emotional experiences.

Dans cet article, l'auteur cherche à explorer la nature et les conséquences, pour le développement psychique d'un garçon de neuf ans qu'il appelle Luke, d'un traumatisme précoce. L'événement traumatique s'est produit dans le contexte d'une situation traumatique plus chronique et plus globale en raison de l'absence de figures parentales réceptives et contenantes. L'association de ces deux types de vécu traumatique, avec leur impact destructeur sur la construction du monde interne de Luke, a créé des perturbations majeures du développement de sa capacité à penser. L'auteur se réfère tout particulièrement à la théorie du traumatisme ainsi qu'à la théorie de l'activité de pensée de W. R. Bion afin d'illustrer le lien fondamental qui existe entre traumatisme et travail psychique, ainsi que le défi complexe que ce travail doit confronter. L'auteur montre qu'au cours de deux années de traitement intensif Luke a progressivement retrouvé ses capacités de fonctionnement psychique, de sorte qu'il a pu commencer à réfléchir à ses vécus émotionnels insoutenables et réussir à y comprendre quelque chose.

Mots-clés: Traumatisme, “pare-excitation”, fonctionnement psychique, théorie de l'activité de pensée, fonction alpha, attaques contre l'activité de liaison

Riassunto: In questo articolo si cerca di esplorare la natura e le conseguenze del trauma precoce sullo sviluppo mentale di un bambino di nove anni che chiamerò Luca. L'evento traumatico accadde all'interno di un contesto di trauma pi[ugrave] cronico e duraturo dovuto all'assenza di figure parentali recettive e contenitive. La combinazione di questi due tipi di esperienze traumatiche ebbe un impatto distruttivo sul mondo interno di Luca e interferì enormemente con lo sviluppo della sua capacità di pensare. Farò principalmente riferimento alla teoria del trauma e alla teoria del pensiero di Bion per illustrare il legame particolare tra trauma e lavoro mentale e la complessa sfida che ne consegue. Descriverò come durante il lavoro intensivo di due anni, Luca divenne gradualmente capace di recuperare la sua capacità di funzionamento mentale che gli permise di incominciare a pensare e dare un senso alle sue esperienze emotive estreme.

Parole chiave: trauma, scudo protettivo, funzionamento mentale, teoria del pensiero, funzione alfa, attacco al legame

Der Artikel versucht, die Eigenschaften und Konsequenzen von frühem Trauma auf die psychische Entwicklung eines 9-jährigen Jungens, den ich Luke nenne, zu betrachten Das traumatische Ereignis passierte im Umfeld eines mehr chronischen und fortdauernden Traumas, wegen Mangel an rezeptiven und haltenden elterlichen Figuren. Die Kombination dieser zwei Arten von Trauma hatte eine destruktive Auswirkung auf das Entstehen von Lukes innerer Welt und störte erheblich die Entwicklung seiner Denkfähigkeit. Ich werden mich speziell auf Traumatheorie und auf Bion's Theorie des Denkens beziehen, um die entscheidende Verbindung zwischen Trauma und mentaler Arbeit und der komplexen Herausforderung, die das mit sich bringt, zu illustrieren. Ich werde beschreiben, wie Luke allmählich im Laufe einer zwei-jährigen intensiven Behandlung in der Lage war, seine Fähigkeit für mentales Funktionieren wiederherzustellen, was es ihm ermöglichte anzufangen, über seine extremen emotionalen Erfahrungen nachzudenken und Sinn herzustellen

Keywords: Trauma, Schutzschild, mentales Funktionieren, Theorie des Denkens, Alphafunktion, Angriffe auf Verbindungen