Young and Old Adults' Concerns About Morality and Competence

Two experiments were conducted to examine people's sensitivity to person information from the morality domain (relation-oriented) and the competence domain (task & achievement-oriented). In a lexical decision paradigm, the findings from Experiment 1 showed that younger adults were faster to identify person cues (trait words) from the morality than from the competence domain, especially cues that were related to immorality. Experiment 2 compared the responses of younger and older adults. Despite the slower responses of the older adults, the findings indicated that all participants were faster at identifying cues from the morality domain than from the competence domain, with no age interactions. The results from Experiment 2 also suggested that disparate findings in the literature regarding reaction times to morality/competence cues and valence (positive or negative) were a function of word frequency effects. The findings are discussed in terms of people's chronic concern with the moral aspects of others as invariant across the lifespan, given that the morality domain is where interpersonal costs and threats are most likely to be signaled.     

Indigenization and Beyond: Methodological Relationalism in the Study of Personality Across Cultural Traditions

A brief intellectual history of the indigenization movement in Asia leads to the thesis that the generation of psychological knowledge is culture dependent. Indigenous psychologies go further and insist on viewing a target group from the natives' own standpoint. Psychological decentering underlies conceptions of human existence rooted in Asian intellectual traditions, in particular, relatedness between persons predominates in Confucianism. These conceptions demand new approaches to knowledge generation that signify a paradigmatic shift from methodological individualism to methodological relationalism. An implication is that relationships precede situations in the study of personality and social behavior. We define personality as the sum total of common attributes manifest in, and abstracted from, a person's behavior directly or indirectly observed across interpersonal relationships and situations over time. We rely on the notion that there are identifiable levels of cognition to develop a metatheoretical framework for reconstructing selfhood. Confronting the subject-object dichotomy opens the door to investigations of transcendent consciousness; confronting the self-other demarcation underlying Western theories leads to the construction of self-in-relations.     

Behavioral evidence for task-dependent “what” versus “where” processing within and across modalities

Task-dependent information processing for the purpose of recognition or spatial perception is considered a principle common to all the main sensory modalities. Using a dual-task interference paradigm, we investigated the behavioral effects of independent information processing for shape identification and localization of object features within and across vision and touch. In Experiment 1, we established that color and texture processing (i.e., a “what” task) interfered with both visual and haptic shape-matching tasks and that mirror image and rotation matching (i.e., a “where” task) interfered with a feature-location-matching task in both modalities. In contrast, interference was reduced when a “where” interference task was embedded in a “what” primary task and vice versa. In Experiment 2, we replicated this finding within each modality, using the same interference and primary tasks throughout. In Experiment 3, the interference tasks were always conducted in a modality other than the primary task modality. Here, we found that resources for identification and spatial localization are independent of modality. Our findings further suggest that multisensory resources for shape recognition also involve resources for spatial localization. These results extend recent neuropsychological and neuroimaging findings and have important implications for our understanding of high-level information processing across the human sensory systems.     

The Effects of Weight Loss Attempts, Exercise Initiation, and Dietary Practices on Health Related Quality of Life

This study (N = 98) randomly placed participants in either a higher protein or American Heart Association diet group with each group initiating an aerobic exercise program. Body composition (BC) was measured using four different methodologies (DEXA, BIA, skinfold, BMI) along with height and weight, while Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) changes were measured using the Medical Outcomes Short Form 36 (SF-36). There were no significant time/diet interactions in HRQOL scores, body fat measures, and weight with the exception of Role-Physical scores (p = .006) with posttest scores higher in participants in Diet 1. Role-Physical scores changed significantly in participants in Diet 1 (p = .0001) and Diet 2 (p = .026) with higher posttest scores in each group. Social functioning had a significant main effect for time in both groups with pretest scores in both diet groups lower than their respective posttest scores (p = .015). HRQOL pretest scores were not significantly different between groups at baseline (p = .56). ANOVA revealed no significant differences in average calories between groups (p = .88). Analysis revealed no differences in exercise in minutes (p = .66) nor statistically significant changes in BC or weight (p = .65). Conclusions: Improvements in HRQOL were demonstrated in two subscales related to physiological and psychological functioning. These novel findings add to literature suggesting that HRQOL, at least concerning social functioning, work and other daily activities (Role-Physical) may improve by initiating an exercise and dietary program even when weight loss or BC improvements have been unsuccessful.     

Generalization of the disruptive effects of alternative stimuli when combined with target stimuli in extinction

Differential‐reinforcement treatments reduce target problem behavior in the short term but at the expense of making it more persistent long term. Basic and translational research based on behavioral momentum theory suggests that combining features of stimuli governing an alternative response with the stimuli governing target responding could make target responding less persistent. However, changes to the alternative stimulus context when combining alternative and target stimuli could diminish the effectiveness of the alternative stimulus in reducing target responding. In an animal model with pigeons, the present study reinforced responding in the presence of target and alternative stimuli. When combining the alternative and target stimuli during extinction, we altered the alternative stimulus through changes in line orientation. We found that (1) combining alternative and target stimuli in extinction more effectively decreased target responding than presenting the target stimulus on its own; (2) combining these stimuli was more effective in decreasing target responding trained with lower reinforcement rates; and (3) changing the alternative stimulus reduced its effectiveness when it was combined with the target stimulus. Therefore, changing alternative stimuli (e.g., therapist, clinical setting) during behavioral treatments that combine alternative and target stimuli could reduce the effectiveness of those treatments in disrupting problem behavior.     

An Integrative Review of School-Based Mental Health Interventions for Elementary Students: Implications for Occupational Therapy

Occupational therapy for children and youth experiencing mental health conditions is often overlooked in current school-based services, as the traditional role within the system is often limited to physical health issues. The purpose of this integrative review is to investigate current psychosocial interventions within school settings to understand the effects of services provided and to determine potential roles for school-based occupational therapists. The findings of this review support occupational therapists in facilitating interventions that target mental health in school settings. Psychotherapy presented the strongest evidence for reducing psychosocial symptoms in school settings.     

Movement Synchrony Influences Intergroup Relations in a Minimal Groups Paradigm

Studies show that synchronizing movements with others encourages a collective social identity, leading to increased cooperation within a group. The current study investigated whether movement synchrony impacts social categorization and cooperation across intergroup boundaries. Two 3-person groups were brought together under movement synchrony conditions designed to emphasize different social categorizations of the aggregate: all individuals moved to the same beat, each minimal group moved to a different beat, or each individual moved to a different beat. Results demonstrate that movement synchrony influenced social categorization and cooperation across intergroup boundaries. Implications for approaches to intergroup relations using movement synchrony are noted.     

The role of vowel formant frequencies and duration in the perception of foreign accent

ABSTRACT

This study used synthesis to manipulate vowel formant frequencies and durations to evaluate their role on foreign accent perception. Formant frequencies and durations for the vowels /æ/, /?/, and /a/ were manipulated with changes toward and away from the mean native English and Spanish-accented values from Sidaras, S. K., Alexander, J. E. D., & Nygaard, L. C. (2009. Perceptual learning of systematic variation in Spanish-accented speech. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 125, 3306–3316). Native listeners rated these stimuli on degree of accentedness and comprehensibility. Gradual changes in formant frequencies from native to non-native values impacted /a/ negatively, /?/ positively, and /æ/ minimally. Effects of vowel duration on either type of ratings were small and restricted to vowel-specific interactions. The current findings suggest that vowel formant frequencies are primary cues to foreign accent. Their influence depends upon whether or not frequencies could reflect alternative vowel categories.     

Generational Differences in Work Ethic: Fact or Fiction?

Even though stereotypes suggest that older generational cohorts (e.g., Baby Boomers) endorse higher levels of work ethic than younger generations (e.g., Millennials), both the academic literature and popular press have found mixed evidence as to whether or not generational differences actually exist. To examine whether generational differences exist in work ethic, a dataset was compiled (k = 105) of all published studies that provided an average sample age and average work ethic score, with each sample becoming an observation, and being assigned a generational cohort based upon the average age of the sample. Three hierarchical multiple regressions found no effect of generational cohort on work ethic endorsement. In two of the three phases, results found a main effect of sample type, such that industry samples had higher work ethic endorsement than student samples. Implications for applied practitioners and future research streams for generational and work ethic research are discussed.     

Folded Futurity: Epigenetic Plasticity,Temporality, and New Thresholds of Fetal Life

The life sciences are generating a transformative view of the biological body not as fixed and innate but as permeable to its environment and, therefore, plastic: development is open and malleable. Emblematic of these new sciences is environmental epigenetics, which investigates environmental factors that come into the body to shape expression of genes across the life course; prominent are environmental exposures during fetal development, which epigeneticists propose influence not only birth outcomes but also lifelong health. How does this new emphasis on permeability and plasticity during fetal development change how the fetus and fetal vulnerability are understood in the current scientific literature? Perspectives on genomic and reproductive temporality help conceptualize environmental epigenetics as a dynamic relationship between plasticity and determinism. This epigenetic temporality links past, present, and future in way that gives the fetus a keystone role as the vulnerable space-time of environmental epigenetics. Epigenetic temporality produces a new, folded futurity that brings multiple, future generations into the present, influenced by current environmental conditions. In doing this, epigenetics shifts thresholds of fetal vulnerability and intervention to incorporate other entities, including reproductive cells (gametes and primordial germ cells) and very young children. Epigenetic temporality folds in on itself, producing new versions of vulnerable, plastic life that require protection now, in the enduring present, even as the future toward which epigenetics is oriented constantly recedes.