Some Personality Characteristics of the Culturally Disadvantaged

The relationship between sensitive maternal behavior and mother-infant vocalization during feedings was examined in an effort to determine this situational meaning of Ainsworth's concept of sensitivity. Ss were 28 white, middle-class mothers and their infants. Excerpts of home feedings videotaped at 6 and 9 months were coded for frequency of contingent vocal interaction and quality of vocal affect. Sensitive mothers were distinguished from insensitive mothers at each age period by differing vocal patterns. At 6 months, infants of sensitive mothers vocalized significantly less than did infants of insensitive mothers. Mothers in both groups responded to their infants' vocalizations equally as often. At 9 months, infants in both groups vocalized the same amount, while sensitive mothers vocalized more often in response to their infants than did insensitive mothers. The only significant difference in vocal affect was found in the greater positive affect among sensitive mothers at 9 months.     

Internet pornography and paedophilia

Various indices of use of Internet pornography have drawn attention to the extent of adult sexual interest in children; clinical experience and now research evidence are accumulating to suggest that the Internet is not simply drawing attention to those with existing paedophilic interests, but is contributing to the crystallisation of those interests in people with no explicit prior sexual interest in children. Drawing on clinical experience in a specialist NHS outpatient psychotherapy service, the author argues that a dichotomous notion of paedophilia is no longer tenable, and any model of paedophilia needs to take account of eruptions of a sexual interest in children in those who appear not to be consistently paedophilic and who have had adult-to-adult sexual relationships. This phenomenon is analysed in two ways: first, by considering how it is that the adult sexual adaptation might ‘unravel’ under the influence of Internet sex to reveal underlying paedophilic currents and second, by revisiting general and psychoanalytic theories of paedophilia and by considering how predisposing factors to paedophilia might be amplified through access to Internet pornography.     

Autobiographical memory deficits in schizophrenia

This study investigated autobiographical memory processes in a group of individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia and matched controls. The schizophrenia group displayed an overgeneral style of autobiographical memory retrieval on two widely used measures, and displayed problems retrieving both autobiographical facts and events. They showed a specific impairment in the recall of autobiographical events and facts in early adulthood, around the time of onset of their illness. Retrieval deficits were independent of mood state and premorbid intellectual functioning. The magnitude of the deficits in autobiographical memory retrieval specificity were considerably greater than any general impairments in episodic and working memory.     

Rethinking Middle School Reading Instruction: A Basic Literacy Activity

Reading fluency has been identified as a key component in effective literacy instruction (National Reading Panel, 2000). Instruction in reading fluency has been shown to lead to improvements in reading achievement. Reading fluency instruction is most commonly associated with guided repeated oral reading instruction. In the present retrospective study we examine the effects of a computer-based silent reading fluency instructional system called Reading Plus (Taylor Associates, Winooski, Vermount, USA) on the reading comprehension and overall reading achievement of a large corpus of students in an urban school setting. Findings indicate that the program resulted in positive, substantial, and significant improvements in reading comprehension and overall reading achievement on a criterion referenced reading test for Grades 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 and on a norm-referenced test of reading achievement for Grades 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10. Moreover, mean gains made by students in the Reading Plus intervention were greater than mean gains for all students at the state and district level. The findings were generally positive for all subpopulations studied, including special education and regular education students. Qualitative reports from teachers who participated in the study were also supportive of the program. Implications for the study are explored for particular subgroups of students and for the role of fluency instruction with struggling adolescent readers.     

Coconstructing Mother–Infant Distress: The Microsynchrony of Maternal Impingement and Infant Avoidance in the Face-to-Face Encounter

This article takes a new look at the self-experience of creative artists. A five-step model of the creative process is put forth: preparation, inspiration, realization, completion, and objectification. The vicissitudes the creative self undergoes in each step are described, as well as the selfobject experiences needed to sustain the self through each phase. Of particular interest in this regard are the roles of the “muse” and of the artistic community. The article then describes three pathologies that the creative self is particularly prone to: addictions, vertical splits, and depression/isolation. The article concludes with a case example of a female patient who brought her paintings and stories into therapy.     

Correcting Big Five Personality Measurements for Acquiescence: An 18‐Country Cross‐Cultural Study

For groups of persons with low or medium levels of education, Big Five personality scales typically yield scores that poorly replicate the idealized Big Five factor pattern. On the basis of representative samples of German adults, Rammstedt et al. have demonstrated that correcting each person's score for acquiescence eliminates this problem. In the present 18‐country study using large samples representative of each country's adult population, we found that, in all cases, correcting for acquiescence did indeed improve the congruence of factor loadings with an idealized Big Five pattern. However, although this correction led to acceptably high correspondence levels in all countries classified as individualistic, this was not always true for non‐individualistic countries. Possible reasons for this finding are discussed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Meta-Analysis of the Relationship Between Rater Liking and Performance Ratings

This meta-analysis reviewed the magnitude and moderators of the relationship between rater liking and performance ratings. The results revealed substantial overlap between rater liking and performance ratings (ρ = .77). Although this relationship is often interpreted as indicative of bias, we review studies that indicate that to some extent the relationship between liking and performance ratings potentially reflects “true” differences in ratee performance. Moderator analyses indicated that the relationship between liking and performance ratings was weaker for ratings of organizational citizenship behaviors, ratings made by peer raters, ratings in nonsales jobs, and ratings made for development; however, the relationship was strong across moderator levels, underscoring the robustness of this relationship. Implications for the interpretation of performance ratings are discussed.     

Faded Versus Increasing Feedback,Task Variability Trajectories,and Transfer of Training

We assessed the merit of the advice given in the literature to fade feedback over the course of training because it was not based on solid research evidence. In a transfer experiment, we compared the effects of faded versus increasing feedback-provided guidance over the course of training on performers' task variability patterns and the subsequent transfer of effective responses to different task conditions. We found that faded feedback led to a rapid change in the percentage of favorable (vs. unfavorable) task conditions experienced over the course of training, which facilitated the transfer of effective responses to favorable task conditions. Alternatively, increasing feedback-provided guidance resulted in a gradual increase in the percentage of favorable (vs. unfavorable) task conditions experienced over the course of training and more balanced exposure to different task conditions. This facilitated the transfer of effective responses to unfavorable task conditions and more equal transfer of effective responses to favorable and unfavorable task conditions. The results indicated that recommendations to fade feedback over training need to be qualified and have implications for the design of feedback interventions used in training and other developmental activities.     

Whom do children copy? Model-based biases in social learning

This review investigates the presence of young children’s model-based cultural transmission biases in social learning, arguing that such biases are adaptive and flexible. Section 1 offers five propositions regarding the presence and direction of model-based transmission biases in young children’s copying of a model. Section 2 discusses the cognitive abilities required for differing model-based biases and tracks their development in early childhood. Section 3 suggests future areas of research including considering the social aspect of model-based biases and understanding their use within a comparative perspective.