Perceived social support mediates between prior attachment and subsequent adjustment: a study of urban African American children.

The processes whereby attachment and other social and cognitive factors contribute to social and emotional adjustment were examined. Participants were 56 African American children from low-income urban families. Attachment and sociability were assessed in the strange situation when children were 4.5 years old. Two years later, children were interviewed regarding their perceptions of social support and their attributions about others' intentions. Also assessed at Time 2 were child verbal intelligence, defensive response style, children's self-reports, and parent reports of child adjustment. As expected, attachment uniquely predicted perceived social support. Insecure attachment predicted self-reports of behavior problems and parental report of internalizing problems. Perceived social support was associated positively and significantly with viewing ambiguously depicted actions as prosocial rather than aggressive. Perceived social support was found to mediate the relation between attachment and adjustment. Results suggest that behaviorally mediated strategies for relating to caregivers in early childhood predict generalized social perception, thought, and emotion at later ages.     

Hospice nurses' knowledge and attitudes toward the near-death experience

I surveyed 60 hospice nurses regarding their knowledge and attitudes toward the near-death experience (NDE), using Thornburg's Near-Death Phenomena Knowledge and Attitudes Questionnaire. Most hospice nurses had previous work experience with an NDEr. Approximately half the nurses were knowledgeable about the NDE. All participants had a positive attitude toward near-death phenomena and toward caring for an NDEr. Recommendations include near-death phenomena inservice education for hospice nurses and inclusion of NDE content in nursing education programs.This paper was derived in part from her Master of Science in Nursing thesis submitted to Radford University.     

Fathers' participation in the care of their preschool children

Correlates of fathers' participation in the care of their preschool children were investigated, using two indices of participation: (a) child-care tasks performed by the father independently; and (b) child-care tasks performed jointly with the mother. Subjects were 79 fathers and mothers of Caucasian middle-class 4-year-old girls and the girls themselves, and 36 fathers and mothers of a matched sample of preschool boys. Major factors examined as possible influences on participation included (a) maternal work-role pattern; (b) fathers' and mothers' sex-role ideology; and (c) family work load, i.e., family size and number of children under 6. Indices of variables conceptualized as possible consequences of participation included (a) girls' sex-role stereotyping; (b) fathers' self-perceptions of masculinity and femininity; and (c) wives' role-pattern satisfaction. Results indicated that fathers' independent (but not joint) performance of child-care tasks was significantly and positively related to maternal work-role variables and to nontraditional sex-role ideology of fathers and wives, but not to family work load. Independent (but not joint) participation was significantly and negatively related to daughters' stereotyping and to fathers' perceptions of themselves as stereotypically masculine. Wives' role-pattern satisfaction was unexpectedly found to be negatively related to both joint and independent participation.Data reported here were gathered as part of a research project supported by NIMH Grant #25215. The authors wish to acknowledge the collaboration of Susan Dibner.     

Rational Moral Ignorance

What should a person do when, through no fault of her own, she ends up believing a false moral theory? Some suggest that she should act against what the false theory recommends; others argue that she should follow her rationally held moral beliefs. While the former view better accords with intuitions about cases, the latter one seems to enjoy a critical advantage: It seems better able to render moral requirements ‘followable’ or ‘action-guiding.’ But this tempting thought proves difficult to justify. Indeed, whether it can be justified turns out to depend importantly on the rational status of epistemic akrasia. Furthermore, it can be argued, from premises all parties to the moral ignorance debate should accept, that rational epistemic akrasia is possible. If the argument proves successful, it follows that a person should sometimes act against her rationally held moral convictions.     

Bilateral disadvantage: lack of interhemispheric cooperation in schizophrenia

Language anomalies and left-hemisphere dysfunction are commonly reported in schizophrenia. Additional evidence also suggests differences in the integration of information between the hemispheres. Bilateral gain is the increase in accuracy and decrease in latency that occurs when identical information is presented simultaneously to both hemispheres. This study measured bilateral gain in controls (n=20) and individuals with schizophrenia (n=10) using a lexical-decision task where word or non-word judgements were made to letter strings presented in the left visual field (LVF), right visual field (RVF) or bilaterally (BVF). Language was not abnormally lateralized in the schizophrenia group. Controls exhibited the expected decrease in latency when words were presented bilaterally. This effect was not observed in the schizophrenia group who were actually disadvantaged in this condition. The lack of bilateral gain in schizophrenia is discussed as arising from differences in the connections between areas in each hemisphere that mediate language.     

Masculinity,Femininity, Sexual Dysfunctional Beliefs,and Rape Myth Acceptance Among Heterosexual College Men and Women

Previous research has found links between masculinity, femininity, cognition, and rape myth acceptance. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether sexual dysfunctional beliefs—beliefs about sexuality and gender roles that have been linked to sexual disorders—explain variance in rape myth acceptance beyond that explained by an individual’s masculinity or femininity. Heterosexual college men and women in the U.S. (N = 840) completed a survey online. We found that, among men, masculinity was not associated with rape myth acceptance but that male sexual dysfunctional beliefs were positively associated with rape myth acceptance. Among women, femininity was negatively associated with rape myth acceptance but female sexual dysfunctional beliefs were positively associated with rape myth acceptance. These results suggest that, among both men and women, sexual dysfunctional beliefs are better predictors of rape myth acceptance than masculinity and femininity.