The Role of Maternal Acceptance in the Relation Between Community Violence Exposure and Child Functioning

Children in the United States are exposed to considerable community violence that has been linked to child functioning. However, not all those exposed, experience negative outcomes. Recent research has focused on factors that “buffer” or protect children from negative consequences of violence exposure. The purpose of this investigation was to examine the potential buffering or moderating role of maternal acceptance in the relationship between community violence exposure and internalizing and externalizing problems. Subjects were 268 urban African American first graders. Community violence exposure was significantly related to symptoms of post-traumatic stress, but did not correlate with either internalizing or externalizing problems for all children, after control for demographics, maternal mental health, and general life stress. However, children's perceptions of maternal acceptance moderated the relationship between violence exposure and internalizing and externalizing problems which included being withdrawn, anxious-depressed, and demonstrating delinquent behavior. Children with the lowest levels of self-reported maternal acceptance were most impacted by community violence. In this sample of urban first graders, low levels of maternal acceptance placed children at greater risk for adverse outcomes associated with community violence exposure compared to moderate and high levels of maternal acceptance.     

Relations of Parenting and Negative Life Events to Cognitive Diatheses for Depression in Children

In a sample of 299 children (grades 2, 4, and 6), we examined parenting and negative life events as predictors of depressive cognitions, specifically low self-perceived competence, depressive cognitive schemas, and depressogenic attributional style. We also examined developmental trends in these relations. Children completed measures of parenting, negative life events, and depressive cognitions. Parents also completed measures of parenting and negative life events. Consistent with our hypotheses, negative parenting and negative life events corresponded with higher levels of depressive cognitions, whereas positive parenting corresponded with lower levels of depressive cognitions. The relations between negative parenting and negative automatic thoughts were stronger for older children. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

‘Disempowered by Nature’: Spinoza on The Political Capabilities of Women

This paper examines Spinoza's remarks on women in the Political Treatise in the context of his views in the Ethics about human community and similitude. Although these remarks appear to exclude women from democratic participation on the basis of essential incapacities, I aim to show that Spinoza intended these remarks not as true statements, but as prompts for critical consideration of the place of women in the progressive democratic polity. In common with other scholars, I argue that women, in Spinoza's system, are deprived of freedom and political participation not by their essential natures, but by their social and historical circumstances. I differ from other scholars, however, in basing this conclusion on the different critical functions of the Political Treatise and the Ethics. Following that critical comparison, I consider Spinoza's views on the `natural right' of women and their equal capacity for political participation in terms of his arguments for the compositional similarity of men and women. Finally, I argue that Spinoza offers an explanation for women's actual disempowerment through his account of economic dependence within marriage.     

Processing Demands During Movement

Subjects made a speeded stylus movement along a track to a stop and simultaneously performed a simple reaction-time task designed to assess the processing demands of the movement task. Movement task variables were: (a) number of alternative ending positions — either one or two — with the choice executed during movement, and (b) presentation time for the endpoint signals in the two-choice conditions, either prior to movement initiation (immediate) or during movement execution (delay). Processing demands were higher during all movement conditions than in a control condition that did not require movement. Processing demands during execution of the one-and two-choice movement with immediate signals did not differ. However, processing demands during the two-choice movements with delayed signals were higher than demands during the two-choice movement with immediate signals.     

Transfer of Motor Learning Engages Specific Neural Substrates During Motor Memory Consolidation Dependent on the Practice Structure

The authors investigated how brain activity during motor-memory consolidation contributes to transfer of learning to novel versions of a motor skill following distinct practice structures. They used 1 Hz repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) immediately after constant or variable practice of an arm movement skill to interfere with primary motor cortex (M1) or dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). The effect of interference was assessed through skill performance on two transfer targets: one within and one outside the range of practiced movement parameters for the variable practice group. For the control (no rTMS) group, variable practice benefited delayed transfer performance more than constant practice. The rTMS effect on delayed transfer performance differed for the two transfer targets. For the within-range target, rTMS interference had no significant affect on the delayed transfer after either practice structure. However, for the outside-range target, rTMS interference to DLPFC but not M1 attenuated delayed transfer benefit following variable practice. Additionally, for the outside-range target, rTMS interference to M1 but not DLPFC attenuated delayed transfer following constant practice. This suggests that variable practice may promote reliance on DLPFC for memory consolidation associated with outside-range transfer of learning, whereas constant practice may promote reliance on M1 for consolidation and long-term transfer.     

Context-Dependent Learning in People With Parkinson's Disease

Context-dependent learning is a phenomenon in which people demonstrate superior performance in the context in which they originally learned a skill but perform less well in a novel context. This study investigated context-dependent learning in people with Parkinson's disease (PD) and age-matched nondisabled adults. All participants practiced 3 finger sequences, each embedded within a unique context (colors and locations on a computer screen). One day after practice, the participants were tested either under the sequence-context associations remained the same as during practice, or the sequence-context associations were changed (SWITCH). Compared with nondisabled adults, people with PD demonstrated significantly greater decrement in performance (especially movement time) under the SWITCH condition, suggesting that individuals with PD are more context dependent than nondisabled adults.     

Engaging in Less Protective Self-Presentation: The Effects of a Friend's Presence on the Socially Anxious

To cope with their fear of negative evaluation, socially anxious people use protective self-presentation strategies. We hypothesized that the presence of a close friend (vs. being alone) would lead socially anxious people to engage in more acquisitive self-presentation tactics. Results supported the hypotheses. With a friend present versus not, socially anxious participants presented themselves more positively to and selected more self-disclosing topics to discuss with a stranger they believed they would meet face-to-face. Friendship strength moderated some of the effects. Results suggest that friends’ support may allow socially anxious people to satisfy safety needs while engaging in less protective self-presentation.     

SPELLING AND THE GROWTH OF CONCEPT OF WORD AS FIRST GRADERS WRITE

Word is a critical concept in beginning literacy, a foundation for both reading and orthographic understanding. In this study, the development of concept of word in children's own writing during first grade was examined and its relationship with developing spelling ability was described.

Children in three intact first grade classes were assigned concept of word tasks "typical" of first grade instruction at the beginning and end of the year. The spaces left between words as the children copied from the board, wrote from dictation, and created their own stories in a free writing task were counted and compared across tasks and between Fall and Spring. In addition, the children were given an assessment of their developmental spelling level at both times. The spelling scores were compared with the concept of word measures.

Analyses of the Fall data revealed that the word concept tasks were significantly related to each other, suggesting that the tasks tap different aspects of the same construct, concept of word. Spelling development was also related to concept of word, and children who demonstrated use of a letter name strategy in spelling were more likely to perform well on the concept of word tasks.

A 3 (word concept tasks) x 2 (trials) MANOVA identified a significant interaction between tasks and trials. Post hoc analyses found significant differences among all of the concept of word tasks overall. In the Fall, all comparisons among the tasks were significant, and in the Spring, all except the difference between Copied and Dictated were significant.

There appears to be a developmental hierarchy in acquisition of concept of word which is related to the perceptual demands of writing tasks. Though important gains in conceptual understanding are made during the first grade year, there are still differences in performance on concept of word tasks at the end of first grade.     

Research Developments on the Therapeutic Alliance in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

Research on psychotherapy in general, and psychodynamic therapy in particular, has consistently found that the quality of the alliance predicts the outcome of treatment. Little empirical support exists for the notion that the alliance sets the stage for techniques to be most effective, although adequate studies of this interaction between techniques and alliance are scarce. Research suggests that that the alliance is influenced in part by preexisting patient characteristics and in part by the quality of therapist interventions. Limitations of the empirical literature on the alliance are presented and some suggestions for future research are given.