The imprecise impermissivist’s dilemma

Synthese - Impermissivists hold that an agent with a given body of evidence has at most one rationally permitted attitude that she should adopt towards any particular proposition. Permissivists...     

Dyadic versus individual storytelling by preschool children

A constructive model of recall and communication (D. Edwards & D. Middleton, 1986) and certain whole-word approaches to learning (C. Pontecorvo & C. Zucchermaglio, 1989) were evaluated in conjunction with an investigation of the benefits of joint storytelling on children's cognitive processes. Preschoolers (N = 36, aged 30-62 months) were prompted to compose a story, working with a classmate (during which they talked together freely and generated a mutual narrative) or individually. Findings revealed that, although dyadically generated stories were longer, containing significantly more words, propositions, and additive conjunctions, stories told by individuals contained proportionally more logically connected statements and greater use of the past tense. Moreover, compared with dyadic stories, individually generated narratives contained fewer alterations of the protagonist.     

Therapeutic jurisprudence in the courts

Therapeutic jurisprudence is an emerging field of law and social science inquiry that explores the role of the law in fostering therapeutic or antitherapeutic outcomes. This article considers the relationship between therapeutic jurisprudence and court performance goals, examines applications of therapeutic jurisprudence in court settings, discusses the steps involved in incorporating therapeutic jurisprudence principles into the work of courts, outlines the pros and cons associated with practicing therapeutic jurisprudence primarily in specialized courts, and offers suggestions for fostering continued experimentation by courts.     

Brain plasticity,learning, and developmental disabilities

This is a time of significant gains in methodological development for examining the developing human brain. New efforts are underway to unify the understanding of the development of brain anatomy with physiological, cellular and molecular processes that influence behavioral development. This special issue provides animal models of behavior and brain development, applications of noninvasive imaging and genetic methods to human brain development and behavior, and select reviews of how these models and methods have been applied to the examination of developmental disabilities. This issue reflects a sampling of current approaches to the study of brain plasticity, development and learning in typically and atypically developing humans and animals.     

Holistic representation in juvenile defense: An evaluation of a multidisciplinary children's defense team

This study describes the results of an evaluation of a holistic defense model for juvenile clients. Longitudinal, retrospective analysis of de‐identified data from clients (N = 308) measured individual variable outcomes, relationships, and project performance. Bivariate and multivariate analyses examined the strength of association and interrelationships among client and defense team variables. Findings indicate that holistic defense was significantly associated with improved outcomes among juvenile clients, including increased mental health assessment resulting in treatment, increased employment and educational attainment, and decreased odds of recidivism. Favorable court or dispositional outcomes, including lower adjudication or early termination from custody, were also reported. Further practice‐level, controlled research is necessary to evaluate these models and offer comparison to other models for holistic defense.     

Optimising Exposure for Children and Adolescents with Anxiety,OCD and PTSD: A Systematic Review

Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review - Cognitive behavioural therapy is an effective treatment for anxiety disorders in children and young people; however, many do not benefit. Behavioural...     

Risk,Protection, and Adjustment among Youth with Incarcerated and Non-Resident Parents: A Mixed-Methods Study

Parental incarceration has been increasingly recognized as a significant threat to the development and well-being of millions of American children and youth. After decades of documenting problems among youth with incarcerated parents, researchers have now started to emphasize the critical need for research on heterogeneity and competence in this population. Towards this end, we used a mixed-methods approach to identify different subgroups of youth with incarcerated and non-resident parents (n?=?26) and to explore potential patterns of individual and family factors across groups. Cluster analysis suggested four different subgroups of youth that varied in the extent to which they exhibited behavior problems and competence. The majority of youth were classified as “adjusted” or “striving”, with comparatively few categorized as either “thriving” or “vulnerable”. Thematic analysis of qualitative data suggested that groups varied in terms of the extent to which they experienced economic and residential instability and challenges related to their social location, as well as caregiver positive expressiveness, agency, and social support. Results further indicated that although parental incarceration may be a part of an overall profile of risk, it does not appear to consistently distinguish youth separated from parents for different reasons in terms of patterns of adjustment and competence.     

An adaptive perspective on revealed and concealed cues to empathy

Wu, Sheppard, and Mitchell (Br. J. Psychol., 2016; 107, 1‐22) found that observers could accurately identify people with extreme but not more average empathy scores. Here, we further consider this U‐shaped discrimination function. We first examine a statistical issue regarding the construction of the average groups, which are less homogenous by definition than the extreme groups. We then consider the kinds of questions arising when these results are considered within the adaptive framework of signal theory. Some interesting questions arise relating to the signal sender, including the costs and benefits to the sender in revealing and concealing true empathy levels, and the effects of adopting behavioural norms to conceal true levels of empathy.