Parenting and attachment among toddlers with congenital anomalies: Examining the Strange Situation and attachment Q‐sort

This study assessed parent and child predictors of attachment in a sample of 72 toddlers with neurological (e.g., cerebral palsy) and non‐neurological (e.g., cleft lip and palate) birth defects and their mothers. Parenting quality (e.g., sensitivity) was expected to be more important in predicting the attachment relationship than type and severity of child medical condition. Parenting and indices of severity of child condition were measured via researcher observation. Attachment was measured via the Strange Situation and parent reported Attachment Q‐sort. Parenting quality was better for children with more severe appearance disfigurements. Strange Situation and Q‐sort assessments of attachment were not significantly related. Children with neurological impairments were at greater risk for developing insecure attachments than were children with non‐neurological conditions. Parenting quality also directly predicted Strange Situation assessed attachment security and Q‐sort comfort seeking/exploration but not standard Q‐sort criterion scores. Parenting quality partially mediated the relation between child medical condition and attachment security. Results suggest child medical factors influence parenting, and thereby, child attachment. ©2002 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.     

Familial patterns and the origins of individual differences in synaesthesia

The term synaesthesia has been applied to a range of different sensory-perceptual and cognitive experiences, yet how these experiences are related to each other is not well understood. Not only are there disparate types of synaesthesia, but even within types there are vast individual differences in the way that stimuli induce synaesthesia and in the subjective synaesthetic experience. An investigation of the inheritance patterns of different types of synaesthesia is likely to elucidate whether a single underlying mechanism can explain all types. This study is the first to systematically survey all types of synaesthesia within a familial framework. We recruited 53 synaesthetes and 42% of these probands reported a first-degree relative with synaesthesia. We then directly contacted as many first-degree relatives as possible and collected complete data on synaesthetic status for all family members for 17 families. We found that different types of synaesthesia can occur within the same family and that the qualitative nature of the experience can differ between family members. Our findings strongly indicate that various types of synaesthesia are fundamentally related at the genetic level, but that the explicit associations and the individual differences between synaesthetes are influenced by other factors. Synaesthesia thus provides a good model to explore the interplay of all these factors in the development of cognitive traits in general.     

Belief dependence: How do the numbers count?

Philosophical Studies - This paper is about how to aggregate outside opinion. If two experts are on one side of an issue, while three experts are on the other side, what should a non-expert...     

Pilot Effectiveness of a Stress Management Program for Sheltered Homeless Adults With Mental Illness: A Two-Group Controlled Study

This study examined the effectiveness of a stress management intervention for sheltered homeless adults with mental illness. Twelve intervention participants received a 6-week, 1-hour psychoeducation group combined with a 20-minute meditation. Eleven matched pairs did not receive intervention and served as controls. At 1 week post study, intervention participants reported a statistically significant reduction in perceived stress (Z=??2.285, p < .02, d=??1.176) compared to controls. No differences were found at 1 week post study between intervention and control participants on reported quality of life. This study provides pilot data on the effectiveness of an occupation-based stress management program for sheltered homeless adults and warrants further study.     

TAOISM AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE

Abstract. The seemingly disparate systems of philosophical Taoism and modern biological science are compared. A surprising degree of similarity is found in their views on death, reversion (cyclicity of phenomena), complementary interactions of dichotomous systems, and the place of humans in the universe. The thesis is advanced that these similarities arise quite naturally, since both systems base their knowledge upon objective observation of natural phenomena. Substantial differences between the two systems are recognized and examined regarding verbal argument, machinery, and experimentation. The Taoists' relationship to Chinese alchemy and the biologists' to technology are claimed to mitigate their attitudes toward experimentation.     

Causal decision theory

On the dominant view of vagueness, if it is vague whether Harry is bald, then it is unsettled, not merely epistemically, but metaphysically, whether Harry is bald. In other words, vagueness is a type of indeterminacy. On the standard alternative, vagueness is a type of ignorance: if it is vague whether Harry is bald, then, even though it is metaphysically settled whether Harry is bald, we cannot know whether Harry is bald. On my view, vagueness is neither a type of indeterminacy nor a type of ignorance. Rather, it is sui generis.     

Role of Moral Identity and Moral Courage Characteristics in Adolescents’ Tendencies to Be a Moral Rebel

Extending prior research on the characteristics potentially associated with adolescents’ tendencies to be a moral rebel, the present study found that adolescents themselves, their peers, and their teachers agreed on adolescents’ tendencies to (a) possess a moral identity, (b) possess moral courage characteristics, and (c) be a moral rebel. Although moral identity (when considered independently and in combination with the moral courage characteristics) did not consistently predict the tendency to be a moral rebel, all indices of the adolescents’ moral courage characteristics positively predicted the tendency to be a moral rebel.