Parceling Component Effects of a Multifaceted Prevention Program for Disruptive Elementary School Children

This study examined predictors and outcomes of attendance in two standard components of a multifaceted preventive intervention aimed at children with early-onset disruptive behavior after 3 years of intervention. Mean rate of attendance in the Family Program, but not the Summer School Program, differed by level of child disruptiveness (grouping variable). Although predictors of attendance (SES, single-parent status, child IQ) did not differ across high- and low-disruptive groups, predictors of outcome were moderated by level of child disruptiveness for academic achievement and aggression outcomes, but not for social competence. Higher attendance in the Summer Program was associated with higher child social competence at Year 3 for all children. For academic achievement, higher attendance in the Summer Program was associated with higher scores for mild/moderately disruptive children and lower scores for highly disruptive children in Year 3. Higher attendance in the Family Program was associated with lower aggression scores for mild/moderately disruptive children. Findings highlight the importance of matching intervention components to the assessed or expressed needs of client subgroups.     

Predicting what questions people ask

Summary A rewrite-rule text grammar was used to predict question asking. Subjects were instructed to write a text according to a known format, i.e., a police report calling for witnesses to an accident, but first they had to find out what had occurred by asking questions. Each question was answered immediately. The results indicate that the established text grammar predicted the content of the questions well, but did not predict their sequence. Deviations from the predictions are discussed in terms of question-asking strategies as evolved from a text grammar.     

Spouses' responses to the dietary nonadherence of their partners managing diabetes

The association between patients' dietary nonadherence and spouses' involvement in patients' diabetes diet was examined, with spouses' anxiety about nonadherence considered as a mediator of this association. Daily diary data from 128 older adult patients with type 2 diabetes and their spouses were analyzed using multilevel models. Results revealed that on days when patients reported less adherence to their diabetes diet than usual, spouses reported greater anxiety about patients' diabetes management, which, in turn, was related to greater spousal persuasion and pressure the same day. The association between patients' nonadherence and diet‐related support on the same day was not mediated, however, through spouses' anxiety. The findings contribute to an understanding of spouses' responses to patients' nonadherence to their diabetes regimen.     

Relationship Quality of Aggressive Children and Their Siblings: A Multiinformant, Multimeasure Investigation

Sibling influence on the learning and enactment of aggressive behavior has been consistently demonstrated in studies of sibling relationships. Available evidence suggests that, compared with nonaggressive children's sibling interactions, the sibling interactions of aggressive children are marked by more frequent, intense, and prolonged aggressive behaviors. Although research on normative and aggressive children's sibling interactions has increased recently, a number of limitations in this literature were addressed in this study by: (1) including both an aggressive and nonaggressive comparison group, (2) examining both positive and negative features of sibling relationships, (3) employing a multimethod/multiinformant approach to data collection, and (4) utilizing an improved self-report method. In support of our hypotheses and consistent with previous research, results showed that aggressive children's sibling relationships were marked by higher levels of observed conflict and lower levels of self-reported positive features. When gender was examined, results showed that older brother/younger sister dyads were characterized by higher levels of negative features and lower levels of positive features.     

The Effects of Media Bias

The current research investigated whether bias exists in newspapers that are considered liberal or conservative, and whether this bias influences public opinion of events. Participants were college students ( N  = 67) who were enrolled in a 4-year university ( n  = 33) or a community college ( n  = 34). Participants were shown photographs and short articles relating to a presidential debate between President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry. Participants completed questionnaires relating to their opinions of the candidates. Results showed statistical significance within groups before and after exposure to the newspaper clippings.     

The sounds of dominance.

A study was conducted to determine the effects of vocal cues on judgements of dominance in an interpersonal influence context. Physical measures of human vocal cues and participant ratings of dominance were obtained from videotapes of actors delivering short influence messages. After controlling for linguistic and visual content of messages, results indicated that mean amplitude and amplitude standard deviation were positively associated with dominance judgments, whereas speech rate was negatively associated with dominance judgments. An unexpected interaction revealed that mean fundamental frequency (F₀) was positively associated with dominance judgments for male speakers but not significantly associated with dominance judgments for female speakers. F₀ standard deviation was not significantly associated with dominance judgments. Results support the conclusion that dominance judgments are inferred from multiple sources of information and that some vocal markers of dominance are more influential than others.     

Executive Functioning as a Mediator of Conduct Problems Prevention in Children of Homeless Families Residing in Temporary Supportive Housing: A Parallel Process Latent Growth Modeling Approach

A culturally diverse sample of formerly homeless youth (ages 6–12) and their families (n?=?223) participated in a cluster randomized controlled trial of the Early Risers conduct problems prevention program in a supportive housing setting. Parents provided 4 annual behaviorally-based ratings of executive functioning (EF) and conduct problems, including at baseline, over 2 years of intervention programming, and at a 1-year follow-up assessment. Using intent-to-treat analyses, a multilevel latent growth model revealed that the intervention group demonstrated reduced growth in conduct problems over the 4 assessment points. In order to examine mediation, a multilevel parallel process latent growth model was used to simultaneously model growth in EF and growth in conduct problems along with intervention status as a covariate. A significant mediational process emerged, with participation in the intervention promoting growth in EF, which predicted negative growth in conduct problems. The model was consistent with changes in EF fully mediating intervention-related changes in youth conduct problems over the course of the study. These findings highlight the critical role that EF plays in behavioral change and lends further support to its importance as a target in preventive interventions with populations at risk for conduct problems.     

The technologically-mediated self: reflections on the container and field of telecommunications

This paper contains reflections on the use of the imagination in technologically-mediated therapy and analysis. As part of the individuation process the psyche is seen as needing to adapt to new technological ways of communicating. The notion of a technologically-mediated self is posited describing a self which can only be apprehended through, and by, the use of telecommunications. This self is seen as identical to the in-person self, a subset, or superset of it. There is a revisioning of our notions of the container and the field in this work performed through technological-mediation. The need to engage the imagination in approaching this kind of work is emphasized in order to create an imaginal play-space in which the body will be deeply affected. Some thoughts on how the process of individuation might look through such analytic work is presented.     

Holism,Particularity, and the Vividness of Life

The Journal of Ethics - John Martin Fischer’s Death, Immorality, and Meaning in Life puts forth a view of the individual experiences that could provide us with sources of endless...