Formal reasoning in late adulthood: The role of semantic content and metacognitive strategy

Two experiments explored the availability of deductive or formal reasoning in late adulthood. In Experiment 1, fifty young (M=19.0 years) and 50 elderly adults (M=81.0 years) were assessed using adaptations of Wason's selection task and rated task content for familiarity, affect, and agreement. In Experiment 2, 100 young (M=21.0 years) and 100 elderly adults (M=81.0 years) were similarly assessed, with half of the subjects in each age group receiving a metacognitive strategy to facilitate reasoning. Results from Experiment 1 indicated equivalent reasoning among the groups on problems employed in earlier developmental research. In contrast, problems constructed to entail affect resulted in poorer performance by older adults. In Experiment 2, both young and older adults who used the metacognitive strategy reasoned equally acrossall problems. In both experiments, familiarity and agreement did not play a role in deductive reasoning performance, but affect seemed to be an interfering factor. Results are discussed in terms of competence-procedure and stability-decrement models of adult cognitive development.     

CATECHOLAMINE EXCRETION, PERFORMANCE, AND SUBJECTIVE STRESS

Psycho-endocrine relations were explored in 52 students exposed to moderately stressful psychological tests demanding selective attention. Subjects with high excretion rates of adrenaline performed better during the entire stress session than did subjects with low adrenaline excretion. The level of subjective stress increased consistently throughout the session in subjects with low excretion rates of adrenaline, while it remained relatively constant in subjects with high adrenaline excretion. No consistent relationship could be demonstrated between noradrenaline excretion and the psychological variables. Possible effects on the catecholamine-excretion patterns of factors such as severity and duration of the stress are discussed.     

Formulation in groups,or understanding what is going on

This article emphasizes the development of formulations as a framework from which leaders can intervene effectively in assisting groups to work toward their stated goals. The concept of formulation, used as a teaching tool to help students and supervisees conceptualize group issues, is presented, as is a schema whose purpose is to teach steps leading to clear formulations. The schema simplifies, for the purposes of teaching and supervision, the complex process used by experienced group therapists as a basis for interventions. The schema emphasizes perception, affect, cognition, validation, intervention, and evaluation. Here-and-now processes, conscious and unconscious mechanisms, and group affect also are stressed.     

Methodological issues in prevention research: An introduction to the special issue

In recent years increased attention has been directed to prevention research as a means of solving the multitude of complex social and health problems which confront individuals and their societies. Abuse of substances, behavioral dysfunctions, violence, emotional disorders, educational failures, unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases are but a few examples of these most difficult problems. As our recognition of the need for sound prevention strategies has grown, so has our sophistication in designing prevention research studies to evaluate the effectiveness of these new strategies. And that sophistication has brought new challenges, some of which are capable of stifling progress because of their complexity. This problem is certain to grow in importance as interventions with multiple components are used more frequently to meet the challenges of the complex social and health problems we face. This special issue evolved out of the recognition that prevention researchers are confronted by a myriad of difficult methodological issues which have inhibited progress in this area. The articles in the issue present innovative methodological solutions designed to overcome these problems so the field can move forward. Editor's Note: Dr. Edward Seidman edited Methodological Issues in Prevention Research while serving as Associate Editor for Methodology.     

Early rejected status and later social adjustment: A 3-year follow-up

Sociometric measures and rates of social interaction were obtained from 186 kindergarten children. Subjects were classified into popular, rejected, and average status groups on the basis of sociometric data. Teachers' ratings on the Bristol Social Adjustment Guides were obtained when the children were in grade 2 and again in grade 3. Analyses of variance showed rejected children to be significantly more acting-out than popular or average children by grade 3. Rejected children were rated as less physically attractive, doing less well in reading and in arithmetic. Negative peer nomination in kindergarten was more predictive of later acting-out in grades 2 and 3 than rate of interaction.Research was funded by Alberta Mental Health Advisory Council, and Alberta Advisory Committee for Educational Studies. I wish to thank Steven Asher for his helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper.     

Reliability of the Chronic Mild Stress paradigm: Implications for research and animal welfare

The Chronic Mild Stress (CMS) model for depression has become central to the empirical literature on depression. There are however inconsistencies in the literature concerning the robustness of the phenomenon of anhedonia following CMS procedures. We report that not only did our procedures (modeled on the original reports) fail to induce an anhedonia, but in fact led to increased sucrose consumption. Furthermore, corticosterone levels following CMS procedures were lower than following control procedures. Given that this is not the first report of such findings, it is important to evaluate whether and which aspects of the experimental methodology are necessary or sufficient to induce the state of anhedonia.     

Non-work Domain Control as an Additional Dimension of Psychological Empowerment of Women Teachers

This paper extends Work/Family Border Theory in the context of psychological empowerment. It describes the development, validation and application of an additional dimension of empowerment, termed as “non-work domain control”. This dimension incorporates an employee’s ability to take decisions at household and immediate community level, not related to formal workplace. The study has three parts involving women primary school teachers of India. It included development of a measure and examining the pattern of variation in non-work domain control (n=401) among primary school teachers. The results showed that age, educational qualification, salary, and class-size affect some scale items. The result of structural equation modeling confirmed that non-work domain control is an additional dimension of psychological empowerment.     

Functioning within a relationship: mother-infant synchrony and infant sleep

The aim of this study was to investigate the coupling of the biological system of infant sleep and the social system of mother-infant synchrony. Before birth and shortly after birth the systems appear to be connected, but it is unclear whether this remains the case over time. This study therefore examined whether infant sleep measured at 6 weeks and 5 months could predict mother-infant gaze synchrony after a social challenge at 5 months (N=84). Infant sleep was measured in terms of sleep bout duration, which normally increases during this period. Gaze was defined in terms of looking at each other's head simultaneously, known as gaze synchrony, or looking elsewhere. Results showed that infant sleep could predict the temporal dynamics of the mother-infant interaction in terms of flexibility of gaze pattern shifts. The larger the increase in sleep bout duration over age, the more flexible the interaction appeared to be. Maternal Age, type of feeding and change of feeding appeared to function as confounding variables in this relation. Infant sleep could not predict percentage of synchrony (central tendency measure) or the average sequence length of gaze patterns (temporal dynamic measure).