The Relation Between Coordinated Interpersonal Timing and Maternal Sensitivity in Four-Month-Old Infants

The relation between mother–infant coordinated interpersonal timing, an automated microanalytic measure of dyadic vocal coordination, and maternal sensitivity was explored. Thirty-five mothers and their developmentally normal 4-month-old infants were audio-recorded during a 20-min laboratory vocal interaction session, that was later analyzed for degree of vocal coordination. Maternal Sensitivity ratings (Ainsworth & Bell, 1969) were based on a video-taped 45-min unstructured laboratory interaction period. A significant curvilinear relation between the degree to which mother coordinated her noninterruptive co-occurring speech to that of her infant was found and revealed that mothers highest in sensitivity were characterized by moderate levels of coordination. Examining mother-infant interaction at the specific behavioral level, while incorporating tests of nonlinear trends, may provide important information about the nature of sensitive parenting.     

Euthanasia, assisted suicide, and the philosophical anthropology of Karol Wojtyla.

The lack of consensus in American society regarding the permissibility of assisted suicide and euthanasia is due in large part to a failure to address the nature of the human person involved in the ethical act itself. For Karol Wojtyla, philosopher and Pope, ethical action finds meaning only in an authentic understanding of the person; but it is through acting (actus humanus) alone that the human person reveals himself. Knowing what the person ought to be cannot be divorced from what he ought to do; for Wojtyla, the structure of the ethical "do"--the act itself--comes first. The current paper will focus on four arguments used to justify assisted suicide and euthanasia: (1) the argument from autonomy, (2) the argument from compassion, (3) the argument from the evil of suffering, and (4) the argument from the loss of dignity. It will seek to answer each claim from the perspective of Karol Wojtyla's philosophical anthropology. Much of this will come from his defining work in pure philosophy, The Acting Person (1969). The final part of the paper will suggest some positive solutions to the stalemate over the euthanasia debate, again drawn from Wojtyla's idea of human fufillment through participation with the other, and with the community itself.     

A qualitative analysis of strategies for managing suicide-related events during deployment from the perspective of Army behavioral health providers,chaplains, and leaders

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the use of strategies for managing suicide-related events (SREs; i.e., suicide deaths, suicide attempts, and suicidal ideation with a plan and intent to die) during deployment from the perspective of Army decision makers: behavioral health providers (BHPs), chaplains, and leaders. A total of 76 Army personnel participated in individual interviews or focus groups. Participants identified unit watch, weapon removal, medical evacuations, and debriefings as common strategies used to manage SREs in deployed settings. Many of these strategies were highlighted as short-term solutions only. Participants also underscored the importance of unit cohesion and communication among leaders, BHPs, and chaplains to effectively manage SREs. The need for structured guidelines for successfully managing SREs in deployed settings is discussed.     

Somali Women's Reflections on the Adjustment of Their Children in the United States

Somali women were interviewed regarding their children's adjustment. Qualitative analysis revealed 5 themes: cultural comparisons, concerns about children, parents' loss of disciplinary authority, available support, and the future. The women discussed changes in their children, such as loss of respect and threats to use law enforcement against parents. They also discussed their loss of parental authority and the lack of support from U.S. institutions. Implications for schools and mental health professionals are presented. Se entrevistó a mujeres Somalíes con respecto a la adaptación de sus hijos. Los análisis cualitativos revelaron 5 temas: comparaciones culturales, preocupaciones sobre los niños, la pérdida de autoridad disciplinaria de los padres, apoyo disponible y el futuro. Las mujeres hablaron sobre los cambios en sus hijos, como la pérdida de respeto y las amenazas de usar las fuerzas del orden contra sus padres. También hablaron de la pérdida de su autoridad paterna y la falta de apoyo por parte de las instituciones de los Estados Unidos. Se presentan las implicaciones para escuelas y profesionales de la salud mental.     

Gender differences in self-conscious emotional experience: A meta-analysis

The self-conscious emotions (SCE) of guilt, shame, pride, and embarrassment are moral emotions, which motivate adherence to social norms and personal standards and emerge in early childhood following the development of self-awareness. Gender stereotypes of emotion maintain that women experience more guilt, shame, and embarrassment but that men experience more pride. To estimate the magnitude of gender differences in SCE experience and to determine the circumstances under which these gender differences vary, we meta-analyzed 697 effect sizes representing 236,304 individual ratings of SCE states and traits from 382 journal articles, dissertations, and unpublished data sets. Guilt (d = -0.27) and shame (d = -0.29) displayed small gender differences, whereas embarrassment (d = -0.08), authentic pride (d = -0.01), and hubristic pride (d = 0.09) showed gender similarities. Similar to previous findings of ethnic variations in gender differences in other psychological variables, gender differences in shame and guilt were significant only for White samples or samples with unspecified ethnicity. We found larger gender gaps in shame with trait (vs. state) scales, and in guilt and shame with situation- and scenario-based (vs. adjective- and statement-based) items, consistent with predictions that such scales and items tend to tap into global, nonspecific assessments of the self and thus reflect self-stereotyping and gender role assimilative effects. Gender differences in SCE about domains such as the body, sex, and food or eating tended to be larger than gender differences in SCE about other domains. These findings contribute to the literature demonstrating that blanket stereotypes about women's greater emotionality are inaccurate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Anti-fat Prejudice: The Role of Psychology in Explication, Education and Eradication

The field of psychology’s explication of anti-fat prejudice and its impact on psychological practice in the U.S. is reviewed. The medical perspective that obesity is itself a disease or a psychological disorder and that fat is the cause of various physical or mental health conditions is challenged and viewed as contributing to weight-based prejudice in the U.S. The role of psychology in educating students and future practitioners about anti-fat bias and research on the ineffectiveness of dieting is examined. Research documenting anti-fat bias in the diagnosis and treatment of fat female clients in the U.S. is reviewed, and potential solutions for eradicating anti-fat prejudice in the clinical practice of psychology, including alternatives to dieting for women, are described.     

Personality and persona: personality processes in self-presentation

This article examines the role that personality variables and processes play in people's efforts to manage their public images. Although most research on self-presentation has focused on situational influences, people differ greatly in the degree to which they care about others' impressions of them, the types of impressions they try to convey, and their evaluations of their self-presentational effectiveness. Personality constructs such as public self-consciousness, approval motivation, and fear of negative evaluation are associated with the motive to manage one's impressions, and people who differ in self-disclosure and desire for privacy differentially reveal information about themselves to others. Other variables relating to people's self-concepts, interpersonal goals, and traits influence the construction of specific images. Finally, the extent to which people believe they are capable of making desired impressions influences their impression management strategies and how they respond to other people's evaluations.     

Parts, cavities, and object representation in infancy

Part representation is not only critical to object perception but also plays a key role in a number of basic visual cognition functions, such as figure-ground segregation, allocation of attention, and memory for shapes. Yet, virtually nothing is known about the development of part representation. If parts are fundamental components of object shape representation early in life, then the infant visual system should give priority to parts over other aspects of objects. We tested this hypothesis by examining whether part shapes are more salient than cavity shapes to infants. Five-month-olds were habituated to a stimulus that contained a part and a cavity. In a subsequent novelty preference test, 5-month-olds exhibited a preference for the cavity shape, indicating that part shapes were more salient than cavity shapes during habituation. The differential processing of part versus cavity contours in infancy is consistent with theory and empirical findings in the literature on adult figure-ground perception and indicates that basic aspects of part-based object processing are evident early in life.