A large scale study of the assessment of the social environment of middle and secondary schools: The validity and utility of teachers' ratings of school climate, cultural pluralism, and safety problems for understanding school effects and school improvement

Due to changes in state and federal policies, as well as logistical and fiscal limitations, researchers must increasingly rely on teachers' reports of school climate dimensions in order to investigate the developmental impact of these dimensions, and to evaluate efforts to enhance the impact of school environments on the development of young adolescents. Teachers' climate ratings exhibited a robust dimensional structure, high levels of internal consistency, and moderate levels of stability over 1-and 2-year time spans. Teachers' climate ratings were also found to be related consistently with students' ratings. In three large-scale samples of schools, teachers' climate ratings were associated significantly and consistently with students' performance on standardized tests of academic achievement, and with indexes of their academic, behavioral, and socio-emotional adjustment.     

“Figuring” the Self: Unity and Multiplicity in Clinical and Theological Imagination

This paper considers the relationship of unconscious fantasy to theory, with the focus on the issue of unity and multiplicity. The purpose of the paper is to explore the deep structure of unconscious fantasy, which is understood as that which promotes and organizes our experiences of the “one” and the “many” and serves as a driving force in the formation of the self. Using Thomas Ogden’s reformulation of Melanie Klein’s theory of fantasy (phantasy) and his vision of the Kleinian subject, alongside Christian Trinitarian theology, the paper argues that unity and multiplicity persist in a generative and interpenetrating dialectic that unfolds within/toward a transcendent unity-in-process, an eternal “becoming one.”     

Methamphetamine abuse and impairment of social functioning: a review of the underlying neurophysiological causes and behavioral implications

The highly addictive drug methamphetamine has been associated with impairments in social cognitions as evidenced by changes in users' behaviors. Physiological changes in brain structure and functioning, particularly in the frontal lobe, have also been identified. The authors propose a biopsychosocial approach to understanding the effects of methamphetamine addiction by relating the physiological effects of the drug to the behaviors and social cognitions of its users, through the application of the theory of mind paradigm. Although onset of methamphetamine use has been linked to the desire for socialization, chronic use has been associated with an increase in depression, aggressiveness, and social isolation, behaviors that also implicate involvement of the frontal lobe. The reviewed literature provides strong circumstantial evidence that social-cognitive functioning is significantly impacted by methamphetamine use and that the social isolation, depression, and aggressiveness associated with chronic use is due to more than just the social withdrawal associated with addiction. Treatment considerations for methamphetamine must therefore consider the role of social cognition, and pharmacological responses must address the documented impact of the drug on frontal lobe functioning.     

Eyes on the prize or nose to the grindstone? The effects of level of goal evaluation on mood and motivation

These studies tested the hypothesis that evaluating goal feedback in terms of a primary, longer term goal can be risky for future motivation. Study 1 was a 2 x 2 experiment in which framing level (primary goal/subgoal) and feedback valence (success/failure) were manipulated for participants during a verbal skills task. In the primary goal failure condition, there was increased negative mood and decreased positive mood and expectancy for subsequent trials, even while controlling for goal difficulty and importance. Study 2 was an 8-week study throughout which participants were asked to evaluate their progress regarding a primary goal (class grade goal) or subgoal (weekly study hours goal), and success or failure varied naturally. When progress was lacking, participants in the primary goal condition experienced the largest decreases in mood and expectancy. These results suggest that it is optimal to evaluate goal progress at the lower, subgoal level, particularly after failure feedback.     

The life and death of creativity: The effects of mortality salience on self versus social-directed creative expression

Research in terror management theory suggests that our connections to others function, in part, to provide protection from the anxiety associated with the awareness of inevitable death. The individuating nature of creative expression can potentially undermine these connections, making creativity particularly problematic when one is dealing with mortality concerns. Consistent with this, a number of findings have elucidated emotional consequences associated with creativity when mortality concerns are active. However, to date, research has not focused on how mortality awareness may impact levels of creativity. The present study assessed the hypothesis that mortality concerns will inhibit creative behavior that threatens social connections but will not undermine and may even facilitate creative behavior that bolsters social connections. The results showed that amplified concerns about mortality decreased creativity when the act was self-directed but not when it was community-directed. Theoretical implications and future directions are discussed.     

Physical activity in infants with Down syndrome receiving a treadmill intervention

Despite the recognized relevance of physical activity in the development and health of children, assessment of physical activity levels (PA-level) in infancy is limited, especially in infants with Down syndrome (DS). Increasing PA-level using a treadmill training (TMT) intervention may benefit infants with motor delays. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a higher intensity, individualized TMT protocol (HI) would elicit immediate and short-term higher PA-level in infants with DS than a lower intensity, generalized training protocol (LG).Thirty infants with DS were randomly assigned to the LG or the HI group. Training was terminated when the infants could walk three steps independently. Activity monitors were placed on infants’ trunks and legs for a 24-h period every other month during the intervention phase, and at set intervals 1-year post-independent walking onset. Data were analyzed to separate sedentary-to-light activity (Lowact) and moderate-to-vigorous activity (Highact).Overall our results demonstrate that infants receiving the HI TMT had higher levels of Highact than infants in the LG group, factoring out the activity produced by the intervention itself. Infants in the LG group spent more time in Lowact than the HI group. In addition, these results seemed to be retained during the post-intervention follow-up. Despite these exciting results, more work is needed to understand the relationship of the intensity of TMT on PA-level in infants with DS, and whether PA-level and TMT are related to motor milestone achievement and/or health benefits.     

The role of explicit and implicit standards in visual speed discrimination

Five experiments were designed to investigate visual speed discrimination. Variations of the method of constant stimuli were used to obtain speed discrimination thresholds in experiments 1, 2, 4, and 5, while the method of single stimuli was used in experiment 3. The observers' thresholds were significantly influenced by the choice of psychophysical method and by changes in the standard speed. The observers' judgments were unaffected, however, by changes in the magnitude of random variations in stimulus duration, reinforcing the conclusions of Lappin et al (1975 Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 1 383 394). When an implicit standard was used, the observers produced relatively low discrimination thresholds (7.0% of the standard speed), verifying the results of McKee (1981 Vision Research 21 491-500). When an explicit standard was used in a 2AFC variant of the method of constant stimuli, however, the observers' discrimination thresholds increased by 74% (to 12.2%), resembling the high thresholds obtained by Mandriota et al (1962 Science 138 437-438). A subsequent signal-detection analysis revealed that the observers' actual sensitivities to differences in speed were in fact equivalent for both psychophysical methods. The formation of an implicit standard in the method of single stimuli allows human observers to make judgments of speed that are as precise as those obtained when explicit standards are available.     

Motor maps, seizures, and behaviour

Atypically organised motor maps have been described in some people with epilepsy and we have modelled this in rats. Our goal is to more fully understand the mechanisms responsible for seizure-induced functional brain reorganisation and to reverse their effects. Here we present an overview of the relationship between neocortical motor maps, seizures, and interictal behaviour. To begin we summarise the observations of atypical motor maps with epilepsy and in animal models following experimentally induced seizures. Our novel experiments have established that motor map expansion is linked to a functional alteration of motor behaviour. Evidence for some of the putative brain mechanisms responsible for motor map size is discussed. Our successes reversing seizure-induced map expansion by two different methods are also briefly reviewed. Lastly, unanswered questions for possible future experimentation are posed.     

Social class and workplace harassment during the transition to adulthood

Young disadvantaged workers are especially vulnerable to harassment due to their age and social class position. As young people enter the workforce, their experiences of, and reactions to, harassment may vary dramatically from those of older adult workers. Three case studies introduce theory and research on the relationship between social class and harassment of young workers. We suggest two mechanisms through which class may structure harassment experiences: (1) extremely vulnerable youth are directly targeted based on their social class origins, and (2) the type and condition of youth employment, which is structured by class background, indirectly affect experiences of harassment.     

One sound or two? Object-related negativity indexes echo perception

The ability to isolate a single sound source among concurrent sources and reverberant energy is necessary for understanding the auditory world. The precedence effect describes a related experimental finding, that when presented with identical sounds from two locations with a short onset asynchrony (on the order of milliseconds), listeners report a single source with a location dominated by the lead sound. Single-cell recordings in multiple animal models have indicated that there are low-level mechanisms that may contribute to the precedence effect, yet psychophysical studies in humans have provided evidence that top-down cognitive processes have a great deal of influence on the perception of simulated echoes. In the present study, event-related potentials evoked by click pairs at and around listeners' echo thresholds indicate that perception of the lead and lag sound as individual sources elicits a negativity between 100 and 250 msec, previously termed the object-related negativity (ORN). Even for physically identical stimuli, the ORN is evident when listeners report hearing, as compared with not hearing, a second sound source. These results define a neural mechanism related to the conscious perception of multiple auditory objects.