A Social Disorganization Perspective on Bullying-Related Attitudes and Behaviors: The Influence of School Context

Social disorganization theory suggests that certain school-level indictors of disorder may be important predictors of bullying-related attitudes and behaviors. Multilevel analyses were conducted on bullying-related attitudes and experiences among 22,178 students in 95 elementary and middle schools. The intraclass correlation coefficients indicated that 0.6–2% of the variance in victimization, 5–10% of the variance in retaliatory attitudes, 5–6% of the variance in perceptions of safety, and 0.9% of the variance in perpetration of bullying was associated with the clustering of students within schools. Although the specific associations varied somewhat for elementary schools as compared to middle schools, the hierarchical linear modeling analyses generally suggested that school-level indicators of disorder (e.g., student–teacher ratio, concentration of student poverty, suspension rate, and student mobility) were significant predictors of bullying-related attitudes and experiences. Student-level characteristics (i.e., sex, ethnicity, status in school) were also relevant to students’ retaliatory attitudes, perceptions of safety, and involvement in bullying. Implications for school-based research and violence prevention are provided.     

Is It Necessary to Discuss Person‐Oriented Research in Community Psychology?

A brief overview of the person orientation is provided. It is then argued that research in community psychology, similar to every other field in psychology, has mainly focused on variables, not individuals. Suggestions are provided for how the person orientation can be applied to understanding settings and environments as well as the theoretical and methodological contributions community psychologists can make to further person oriented methods.     

Early perception of written syllables in French: An event-related potential study

The present study examined whether written syllable units are perceived in first steps of letter string processing. An illusory conjunction experiment was conducted while event-related potentials were recorded. Colored pseudowords were presented such that there was a match or mismatch between the syllable boundaries and the color boundaries. The results showed that congruent stimuli for which the syllable and color boundaries coincided produced a greater positive-going waveform than incongruent stimuli for which the syllable and color boundaries did not coincide. This syllable–color congruency effect was observed to occur both prior to 100 ms, and in a time window commencing at 150 ms. This finding suggests that syllable units are perceived in the initial steps of French visual word processing. Moreover, this study underlines the specificity of the illusory conjunction paradigm as a relevant and powerful tool of investigation of sublexical units that are automatically evoked from word perception.     

Spirituality and Young Women in Transition: A Preliminary Investigation

This study contributes to the growing body of knowledge about spirituality and life transitions. Through qualitative investigation, 9 young women in professional education programs described their definition of spirituality, their spiritual activities, and how they used their spirituality to cope with life transitions as they prepared to enter the workforce. These women viewed spirituality as including connectedness and a special relationship with a Being outside of themselves. Their spiritual activities were private and non‐traditional (e.g., meditation, prayer, being in nature), and most of them reported that their spirituality helped them deal with their life transition.     

Competencies for infant mental health therapists: A survey of expert opinion

We report on data provided by a nationwide panel of 23 infant mental health (IMH) experts who provided numerical ratings of the relative importance of 143 competencies desirable for licensed mental health therapists working with infants/children birth to 5 years of age and their families/caregivers. The competencies were developed based on prior state and national efforts and our own experience in training IMH therapists. The competencies were grouped conceptually into seven areas: (a) Normal infant and toddler development; (b) Atypical development (perturbations in development); (c) Emotional/behavioral disorders in infants and young children; (d) Assessment; (e) Intervention; (f) Community resources and referrals; and (g) Organization, communication, and collaboration. We calculated means, SDs, 95% confidence intervals to rank order each competency. We conducted reliability analyses and tested for mean differences in ratings for the seven areas. Interrater and intraclass correlations were modest, likely the result of restriction of range in the ratings. The seven areas showed high levels of internal consistency and, with few exceptions, did not significantly differ in the means of their ratings. The utility of the competencies are discussed as a framework for training and professional development for IMH clinicians.     

Social representation of aggression as an explanation of gender differences: A preliminary study

Academic theories of aggression can be dichotomized as expressive (in which aggression results from a failure of self control) or instrumental (in which aggression represents the exercise of control over others). We propose that the two sexes hold a parallel distinction in their social representations of aggression; women subscribe to an expressive model, men to an instrumental model. A 20-item questionnaire was generated by systematic comparison of the two theories with respect to their differential predictions concerning perceived social value, proximate causes, relevant emotions and congnitions, form, aim, social facilitators, and reputational aspects of aggression. Factor analysis indicated a first factor of expressive-instrumental aggression on which all items had significant loadings. A significant correlation (.46) was found between gender and questionnaire score confirming the hypothesis. The notion of gender-specific social representations is discussed in terms of its ability to coherently interpret patterns of differences in aggression found in experimental and observational studies.     

Towards a structural concept of agonism

The model presented attempts to describe the agonistic situation from the point of view of the individual, taking psychological, ecological, and ethological factors that can influence behavioral expression into account. The animal is considered as consisting of an “ego” and “soma,” these being conceptualized as concentric circles surrounding the gene carrier itself. The hierarchy of responses present to protect the gene carrier together with their motivatory causal factors and their energy expenditures are described and agonism considered as a means by which optimal inclusive fitness can be attained.     

Children’s understanding of television programmes: Three exploratory studies

Three studies were designed to explore children’s understanding of television programmes. Seventy-two children from 6 to 9 years of age and attending a primary school, viewed one adult and one children’s television programme. They took part in procedures that examined their 1) memory for crucial plot events immediately after viewing, 2) understanding of the motives of the protagonists, and 3) character evaluation of the protagonists. The results yielded age differences in these abilities and suggested variable recall, poor comprehension, in terms of being able to relate motives to consequences, and confused character evaluation when the heroes and villains were not clearly discriminated. The results are interpreted in relation to the television literature, reading comprehension and children’s desire to make sense of what they see.