Cultures of teaching in childhood: Formal schooling and Maya sibling teaching at home

Culture can be thought of a set of shared practices, beliefs, and values that are transmitted across generations through language [Bruner, J. (1990). Acts of meaning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press]. Teaching is one way that culture is transmitted, but forms of teaching vary across cultures and across activity settings within cultures. This article explores the impact of culture on styles of teaching in a place where more than one cultural model of teaching is found: the Zinacantec Maya of Chiapas, Mexico. Zinacantecs have an indigenous model of teaching that applies to the learning of informal tasks, such as making tortillas and weaving. When children go to school, the indigenous model interacts with the model found at school, and this mixed model is transferred back home to sibling interactions. Videotaped ethnographic observations and quantitative discourse analyses reveal cultural patterns in the development of children's teaching.     

Race and gender of faces can be ignored

Past research indicates that faces can be more difficult to ignore than other types of stimuli. Given the important social and biological relevance of race and gender, the present study examined whether the processing of these facial characteristics is mandatory. Both unfamiliar and famous faces were assessed. Participants made speeded judgments about either the race (Experiment 1) or gender (Experiments 2–4) of a target name under varying levels of perceptual load, while ignoring a flanking distractor face that was either congruent or incongruent with the race/gender of the target name. In general, distractor–target congruency effects emerged when the perceptual load of the relevant task was low but not when the load was high, regardless of whether the distractor face was unfamiliar or famous. These findings suggest that face processing is not necessarily mandatory, and some aspects of faces can be ignored.     

Associations between depression, distress tolerance, delay discounting, and alcohol-related problems in European American and African American college students

Although levels of heavy drinking and alcohol-related problems are high in college students, there is significant variability in the number and type of problems experienced, even among students who drink heavily. African American students drink less and experience fewer alcohol-related problems than European American students, but are still at risk, and little research has investigated the potentially unique patterns and predictors of problems among these students. Depression, distress tolerance, and delay discounting have been implicated in adult substance abuse and may be important predictors of alcohol problem severity among college students. We examined the relationship between these variables and alcohol-related problems among African American and European American students (N = 206; 53% female; 68% European American; 28% African American) who reported recent heavy drinking. In regression models that controlled for drinking level, depression, distress tolerance, and delay discounting were associated with alcohol problems among African American students, but only depression was associated with alcohol problems among European American students. These results suggest that negative affect is a key risk factor for alcohol problems among college student drinkers. For African American students, the inability to tolerate negative emotions and to organize their behavior around future outcomes may also be especially relevant risk factors.     

Religion and the decision to donate organs: Exploring the potential role of religious leaders

The two‐step flow model of communication (Katz, 1957 ) suggests opinion leaders obtain critical information from the mass media and, in turn, communicate this information to interpersonal contacts such as friends, family and co‐workers. It is suggested that religious leaders (RLs) may serve as opinion leaders on the topic of organ donation by debunking donation myths, promoting donation during worship services, or communicating the benefit of donation to families faced with the opportunity to participate in living or cadaveric donation. The current study examined the personal knowledge, experiences, and willingness to communicate about organ donation in a sample of RLs (N = 59) in Rochester, New York. Structured interviews were conducted in summer and fall of 2009 with a random sample of RLs. Results indicate a disparity between RLs' expressed personal support for donation and their engagement in donor registration. Approximately one‐quarter of RLs have spoken about donation during a religious service and many indicate their knowledge is not sufficient to discuss organ donation in detail. Results elaborate on how RLs may be trained to serve as opinion leaders in the promotion of organ donation. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Rumination partially mediates the associations between perceived ethnic discrimination, emotional distress, and aggression

Research suggests that perceived ethnic discrimination is associated with poor psychological and physiological health. Rumination, or perseverative thoughts about negative experiences, may constitute a maladaptive coping strategy that mediates the associations between perceived discrimination, emotional distress, and aggression. Our sample consisted of 170 ethnic minority and 134 White American participants. For ethnic minority participants, we found a pattern of correlations consistent with rumination partially mediating a causal link between perceived discrimination and depressive symptoms, hostility, anger, and aggression. In White participants, by contrast, the significant associations between perceived discrimination and these indices of emotional and behavioral distress were not statistically mediated by rumination. We discuss possible theoretical and clinical implications of these results.     

Longitudinal stability of temperamental exuberance and social-emotional outcomes in early childhood

The goals of the current study were to investigate the stability of temperamental exuberance across infancy and toddlerhood and to examine the associations between exuberance and social-emotional outcomes in early childhood. The sample consisted of 291 4-month-olds followed at 9, 24, and 36 months and again at 5 years of age. Behavioral measures of exuberance were collected at 9, 24, and 36 months. At 36 months, frontal electroencephalogram (EEG) asymmetry was assessed. At 5 years, maternal reports of temperament and behavior problems were collected, as were observational measures of social behavior during an interaction with an unfamiliar peer in the laboratory. Latent profile analysis revealed a high, stable exuberance profile that was associated with greater ratings of 5-year externalizing behavior and surgency, as well as observed disruptive behavior and social competence with unfamiliar peers. These associations were particularly true for children who displayed left frontal EEG asymmetry. Multiple factors supported an approach bias for exuberant temperament but did not differentiate between adaptive and maladaptive social-emotional outcomes at 5 years of age.     

CAN AN UNDERSTANDING OF BASIC RESEARCH FACILITATE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PRACTITIONERS? REFLECTIONS AND PERSONAL PERSPECTIVES

I have written before about the importance of applied behavior analysis to basic researchers. That relationship is, however, reciprocal; it is also critical for practitioners to understand and even to participate in basic research. Although applied problems are rarely the same as those investigated in the laboratory, practitioners who understand their basic research background are often able to place their particular problem in a more general context and thereby deal with it successfully. Also the procedures of applied behavior analysis are often the same as those that characterize basic research; the scientist-practitioner will appreciate the relation between what he or she is doing and what basic experimenters do, and as a consequence, will be able to apply therapeutic techniques more creatively and effectively.     

Here’s Looking at You: Self-Objectification, Body Image Disturbance, and Sorority Rush

This study investigated the impact of sorority rush on self-objectification and body image disturbance. First-year undergraduate women either participating (n?=?68) or not participating (n?=?59) in sorority rush at a U.S. Midwestern university completed online surveys at four time points. It was predicted that rush participation would lead to increases in self-objectification, which in turn would lead to increases in body shame and eating disordered behavior and attitudes. Results supported predictions based on objectification theory at a single time point, but not longitudinally. Rush participants evidenced higher levels of self-objectification and eating disordered behavior at all time points. Body mass index predicted dropping out of the rush process and was negatively correlated with satisfaction with the rush process.     

Localized disruption of Narp in medial prefrontal cortex blocks reinforcer devaluation performance

Neuronal activity regulated pentraxin (Narp) is a secreted protein that regulates α-amino-3-hydroxyl-5-methyl-4-isoxazole-propionate receptors (AMPAR) aggregation and synaptogenesis. Mapping of Narp-positive neurons in brain has revealed it is prominently expressed in several limbic system projection pathways. Consistent with this localization pattern, Narp knockout mice show deficits in using the current value of a reinforcer to guide behavior, a critical function of the limbic system. To help assess whether this behavioral deficit is due to impairment of synaptogenesis during development or in modulating synaptic signaling in the mature brain, we have used a dominant negative Narp viral construct which blocks trafficking of endogenous Narp to axons. Focal injection of this viral construct into the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) of adult mice, a region containing Narp-positive projection neurons, blocked reinforcer devaluation. Thus, these results indicate that Narp released from mPFC neurons plays a key role in mediating synaptic changes underlying instrumental reinforcer devaluation.