Understanding the emotional past: relations between parent and child contributions in emotionally negative and nonnegative events

The past event conversations of 33 mothers with their 3-year-old children (18 girls and 15 boys) were selected from a larger sample based on their discussion of negative events. Negative events included both those that were negative in topic and those that contained negative incidents but were otherwise positively themed. Within-subjects comparisons were made between the negative events and a neutral or positive event. There were few differences in how mothers and their children talked about negative and nonnegative events. Children did include more interpretations (internal state and causal references) in their negative event conversations. For both event types, mothers who talked more about the past events had children who reported more. When maternal talkativeness was controlled, involving children in the negative event conversations through deflecting the conversational turn predicted children's total contributions and number of interpretations. Repeating information and requests for information while constraining the topic was negatively related to the number of details children reported for nonnegative past events. Conversations about minor negative experiences demonstrate that mothers can influence children's involvement in discussions and understanding of the past.     

Internetchatgruppen in Psychotherapie und Psychosomatik

Zusammenfassung  In Zusammenarbeit mit der Techniker Krankenkasse (TK) und der Panorama-Fachklinik für Psychosomatik, Psychotherapeutische Medizin und Naturheilverfahren Scheidegg/Allgäu hat die Forschungsstelle für Psychotherapie das Projekt Internetbrücke initiiert. Die Patienten erhielten im Anschluss an ihre stationäre Behandlung das Angebot, für 12–15 Wochen an einer Gruppe teilzunehmen, die sich in einem speziell eingerichteten Chatraum wöchentlich traf. Das Projekt hatte die Ziele: (a) eine geeignete Internetumgebung für eine vertrauliche Kommunikation aufzubauen und deren Praktikabilität zu testen sowie (b) die Akzeptanz durch die Patienten und die Wirksamkeit zu evaluieren. Zur Evaluation wurde eine prospektive kontrollierte Studie durchgeführt. Chatteilnehmer (n=114) wurden mit einer gematchten Vergleichsgruppe (n=114) hinsichtlich ihres Gesundheitszustands ein halbes Jahr nach der Klinikentlassung verglichen. Die Technik erwies sich als robust und nutzerfreundlich. Das Angebot wurde sehr positiv von den Patienten aufgenommen; dies drückte sich u. a. in der niedrigen Abbruchrate (9,4%) und der hohen Akzeptanz (83,7% der Chatteilnehmer hielten eine Internetbrücke für sinnvoll) aus. Die Chatteilnehmer konnten die während der stationären Behandlung erreichten positiven Entwicklungen – gemessen mit dem globalen Kriterium der Stuttgart-Heidelberger Qualitätssicherung – besser erhalten als die Vergleichsgruppe (p<0,05). Es zeigten sich Vorteile für die Chatteilnehmer im Hinblick auf das psychische Befinden, während die Unterschiede im körperlichen Befinden eher gering waren. Die Konsequenzen für die psychosoziale Versorgung werden diskutiert.

Local solutions in the estimation of growth mixture models

Finite mixture models are well known to have poorly behaved likelihood functions featuring singularities and multiple optima. Growth mixture models may suffer from fewer of these problems, potentially benefiting from the structure imposed on the estimated class means and covariances by the specified growth model. As demonstrated here, however, local solutions may still be problematic. Results from an empirical case study and a small Monte Carlo simulation show that failure to thoroughly consider the possible presence of local optima in the estimation of a growth mixture model can sometimes have serious consequences, possibly leading to adoption of an inferior solution that differs in substantively important ways from the actual maximum likelihood solution. Often, the defaults of current software need to be overridden to thoroughly evaluate the parameter space and obtain confidence that the maximum likelihood solution has in fact been obtained.     

Drug testing,drug treatment,and marijuana use: a fairness perspective

The authors conducted a random statewide telephone survey of 1,484 individuals to study the relationship between marijuana use (in terms of participants' history of marijuana use) and reactions to drug testing and to study 2 hypothetical drug-treatment policies. Job safety sensitivity was related to perceived fairness of drug testing for the participant's job, and more recent marijuana use was associated with more negative reactions. Safety sensitivity was related to perceived fairness of drug treatment. Organizations with voluntary treatment were more attractive than ones with monitored treatment. Marijuana use interacted with drug treatment policy type in predicting reactions to drug treatment. Results suggest that organizations should consider job and employee characteristics when developing a drug treatment policy.     

Food and life,pleasure and worry,among American college students: gender differences and regional similarities

Questionnaires on food attitudes and behavior were completed by 2,200 American undergraduates from 6 regionally dispersed college campuses. Results indicate that a substantial minority of women and a much smaller minority of men have major concerns about eating and food with respect to both weight and health. Overall, 14% of women reported being embarrassed to buy a chocolate bar in the store. A 6-factor structure emerged: weight concern, diet and health orientation, beliefs about the diet-health link, food negativity/importance of food as a source of pleasure in life, eating disordered behaviors, and natural/vegetarian food preferences. There were surprisingly few regional differences, virtually none if race and social class were taken into account. Gender was the strongest predictor of responses.     

Deaf and hearing adults' recollections of childhood and beyond

Whereas the average age of earliest reportable personal memory among adults is 3 to 3 1/2, there is considerable individual and group variability in the age of earliest autobiographical memory. Some of the variability is thought to be attributable to differential narrative socialisation. In the present research we tested the hypothesis that by virtue of later exposure to language, individuals born deaf to hearing parents will have earliest memories from later in life, relative to hearing individuals. The average age of single earliest identifiable memory for adults who are deaf and adults who are hearing did not differ. Nevertheless, adults who are deaf were found to have less dense representations of early autobiographical memories and to include in their narrative reports fewer categories of information, including visual-spatial information, relative to hearing adults. Participants' ratings of their memories on a number of dimensions were found to have low utility in predicting the content of autobiographical reports from both early and later in life (i.e., after age 10 years).     

Development and examination of an expectancy-based measure of test-taking motivation

A 10-item multidimensional measure of test-taking motivation based on expectancy theory, the Valence, Instrumentality, Expectancy Motivation Scale (VIEMS), was developed using a student sample (N = 90) and tested using 2 samples of job applicants in a field setting (N = 296; N = 246). In Field Study 1, the VIEMS was related to test performance. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that the VIEMS explained variance in test score beyond a general measure of test motivation. In a second longitudinal field study, pretest and posttest perceptions of motivation were compared. Results indicated that expectancy was related to actual test performance, and perceived test performance accounted for variance in posttest reports of motivation after controlling for pretest levels of motivation. Test-taking motivation did not account for variance in test performance differences between African Americans and Whites in either field study.     

Accepting and exempting the unexpected: 30-month-olds'' generalization of event knowledge

In 2 experiments, we used elicited imitation to test the effects of the amount and type of change to a previously experienced event on 2.5-year-olds' generalization of event knowledge. In Experiment 1, children were shown and then enacted event sequences. At two subsequent visits the props used to enact some of the sequences were completely or partially replaced by functionally equivalent props. Children used the new props to enact the events, thereby demonstrating spontaneous generalization. Nevertheless, as in previous research (Bauer & Fivush, 1992), there were decrements in performance associated with the prop-change manipulation. In Experiment 2, we examined in more detail the determinants of disruption to generalization. Results indicated that an interaction of the location and amount of change within pairs of actions joined by enabling relations (i.e., change to both members of a pair of actions occurring early in the event sequence) negatively affected generalization. Across locations, there was a greater negative effect on generalization when change was made to an antecedent rather than a consequent member of an enabling pair. We suggest that influences on the accommodation of change within events can be understood by considering the organizational role played by the elements subject to change.     

Counseling the Hispanic Client: Cuban Americans,Mexican Americans,and Puerto Ricans

This article describes a general framework that may be used when counseling Cuban American, Mexican American, and Puerto Rican clients. The psychological and sociocultural characteristics of these populations are described. Both differences and similarities among the 3 groups are reviewed. The identification of the client's worldview, cultural values, and family values provides a specific framework for counseling these clients. Specific and general guidelines are provided for the psychological assessment of Cuban American, Mexican American, and Puerto Rican clients.