The Role of Parental Stress, Mother’s Childhood Abuse and Perceived Consequences of Violence in Predicting Attitudes and Attribution in Favor of Corporal Punishment

We investigate maternal attitudes toward corporal punishment and the attribution of blame to the child on the basis of data gathered from a population survey of a representative sample of mothers and mother figures. A total of 3,148 women living at least half of the time with a child participated in a telephone survey. The independent variables included in the multivariate model predicting maternal attitudes and attributions include the child’s, the mother’s and the family’s characteristics and social support. Results of the multiple regression analysis demonstrate the unique contribution of variables according to the mother’s characteristics (mother’s sensitivity to the consequences of violence, mother’s experience of childhood violence and parental stress related to child’s temperament). These results partially support the importance of prevention programs that would reduce stress and increase the level of parental empathy through the means of parental training.     

Developmental differences in memory for cross‐modal associations

Associative learning is critical to normal cognitive development in children. However, young adults typically outperform children on paired‐associate tasks involving visual, verbal and spatial location stimuli. The present experiment investigated cross‐modal odour–place associative memory in children (7–10 years) and young adults (18–24 years). During the study phase, six odours were individually presented and paired with one of 12 spatial locations on a board. During the test phase, participants were presented with the six stimuli individually and were asked to place each stimulus on the correct spatial location. Children committed significantly more errors on the odour–place task than did young adults. However, item recognition memory for the odours or spatial locations involved in the odour–place associative memory task was similar between children and young adults. Therefore, poor odour–place associative memory in children did not result from impaired memory for the individual odours or spatial locations involved in the associations. The results suggest that cross‐modal associative memory is not fully developed in children.     

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IN HOMES 13 TEACHING EMPATHY SKILLS TO CHILDREN WITH AUTISM

The purpose of this study was to teach empathetic responding to 4 children with autism. Instructors presented vignettes with dolls and puppets demonstrating various types of affect and used prompt delay, modeling, manual prompts, behavioral rehearsals, and reinforcement to teach participants to perform empathy responses. Increases in empathetic responding occurred systematically with the introduction of treatment across all participants and response categories. Furthermore, responding generalized from training to nontraining probe stimuli for all participants. Generalization occurred from dolls and puppets to actual people in a nontraining setting for 2 participants. Generalization was observed initially to the nontraining people and setting for the other participants, but responding subsequently decreased to baseline levels. Introduction of treatment in this setting produced rapid acquisition of target skills.     

Feature integration in natural language concepts

Two experiments measured the joint influence of three key sets of semantic features on the frequency with which artifacts (Experiment 1) or plants and creatures (Experiment 2) were categorized in familiar categories. For artifacts, current function outweighed both originally intended function and current appearance. For biological kinds, appearance and behavior, an inner biological function, and appearance and behavior of offspring all had similarly strong effects on categorization. The data were analyzed to determine whether an independent cue model or an interactive model best accounted for how the effects of the three feature sets combined. Feature integration was found to be additive for artifacts but interactive for biological kinds. In keeping with this, membership in contrasting artifact categories tended to be superadditive, indicating overlapping categories, whereas for biological kinds, it was subadditive, indicating conceptual gaps between categories. It is argued that the results underline a key domain difference between artifact and biological concepts.     

Cognitive and Interpersonal Predictors of Stress Generation in Children of Affectively Ill Parents

Stress generation is a process in which individuals, through their depressive symptoms, personal characteristics, and/or behaviors, contribute to the occurrence of stressful life events. While this process has been well documented in adults, few studies have examined it in children. The present study examines whether cognitive and interpersonal vulnerability factors to depression contribute to stress generation in children, independent of their current depressive symptoms. Participants included 140 children (ages 6 to 14) and one of their parents. During an initial assessment, children completed self-report measures assessing cognitive and interpersonal vulnerability factors to depression. Children and their parents also completed measures assessing depressive symptoms. One year later, children and their parents participated in a semi-structured interview assessing the occurrence of stressful life events in the past year. Multi-level modeling results provided strong support for the stress generation process in children of affectively ill parents and highlight the importance of considering gender and age moderation effects.

The impact of non‐aggressive behaviour early in aggressive interactions: Sex differences in direct and indirect aggression in response to provocation

Using an adapted form of the Taylor competitive reaction time task (TCRT: Taylor, 1967), we examined the effect of initially non‐aggressive behaviour during aggressive encounters. Specifically, if a person is initially non‐aggressive, but becomes more aggressive later, does an opponent respond more or less aggressively in response? Participants (N = 148) played a competitive reaction time task against a bogus partner, who was either initially non‐aggressive, or initially moderately aggressive, and then delivered increasingly loud noise blasts to participants on trials when the participant lost. Both direct (noise blasts delivered to the partner) and indirect aggression (damage to partner's reputation) were assessed. The impact of whether or not participants expected to meet the partner on direct and indirect aggression was also examined. All participants reduced their direct aggression towards an initially non‐aggressive partner and a partner they expected to meet. However, for females, the switch from initial non‐aggression to later aggression generated a negative evaluation of the partner, exhibited by indirect but not direct aggression.     

Can't stop believing: inhibitory control and resistance to misleading testimony

Why are some young children consistently willing to believe what they are told even when it conflicts with first‐hand experience? In this study, we investigated the possibility that this deference reflects an inability to inhibit a prepotent response. Over the course of several trials, 2.5‐ to 3.5‐year‐olds (N = 58) heard an adult contradict their report of a simple event they had both witnessed, and children were asked to resolve this discrepancy. Those who repeatedly deferred to the adult's misleading testimony had more difficulty on an inhibitory control task involving spatial conflict than those who responded more skeptically. These results suggest that responding skeptically to testimony that conflicts with first‐hand experience may be challenging for some young children because it requires inhibiting a normally appropriate bias to believe testimony.     

Imagining the future in health anxiety: the impact of rumination on the specificity of illness-related memory and future thinking

Individuals with health anxiety experience catastrophic fears relating to future illness. However, little research has explored cognitive processes involved in how health anxious individuals picture the future. Ruminative thinking has been shown to impede the ability to recall specific autobiographical memories, which in turn is related to maladaptive, categoric future thinking processes. This study examined the impact of rumination on memory and future thinking among 60 undergraduate participants with varying health anxiety (35% clinical-level health anxiety). Participants were randomized to experiential/ruminative self-focus conditions, then completed an Autobiographical Memory Test and Future Imaginings Task. Responses were coded for specificity and the presence of illness concerns. Rumination led to more specific illness-concerned memories overall, yet at the same time led to more categoric illness-related future imaginings. Rumination and health anxiety together best predicted overgeneral illness-related future imaginings. Highly specific illness-related memories may be maintained due to their personal salience. However, more overgeneral illness-related future imaginings may reflect cognitive avoidance in response to the threat of future illness. This divergent pattern of results between memory and future imaginings may exacerbate health anxiety, and may also serve to maintain maladaptive responses among individuals with realistic medical concerns, such as individuals living with chronic illness.     

“Putting One Foot in Front of the Other”: A Qualitative Study of Emotional Experiences and Help-Seeking in Women with Multiple Sclerosis

Treatments for depression and anxiety in multiple sclerosis (MS) are effective but evidence suggests that individuals do not always seek help for emotional difficulties. This study explored how ten women with MS (aged 30–64), recruited via a hospital based MS clinic, coped with and understood their emotions. The semi-structured interviews were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Eight participants discussed the analytic process and themes. Four overarching themes emerged: Disclosure stress, Uncomfortable dependence, Facing deterioration and One step at a time. The women struggled emotionally with many aspects of living with MS yet coping alone provided a way of defying MS and maintaining independence and control. The women needed emotional support but reported thinking others either did not notice or understand; their emotions often felt invisible. More holistic care from services was desired. Non help-seeking for distress was partially influenced by a desire to keep things “normal” and a lack of knowledge regarding service provision.     

Ageism in Mental Health and Health Care: A Critical Review

Discussions of aging and mental health widely assume that ageism among mental health providers is an important factor limiting access to mental health services for older adults. Given the widespread citation of ageism as a problem, we critically review the history of the ageism construct, and evidence for its existence in both mental health and medical professionals. There is surprisingly little empirical evidence for age bias among mental health providers. Considerable evidence does suggest differential medical treatment for older adults in such diverse areas as physician–patient interaction, use of screening procedures, and treatment of varied medical problems, although it is unclear whether age bias accounts for these differences. We suggest that innovations in delivery of psychological services, such as collaborative medical/psychological care in primary care settings, may ultimately prove more useful in improving access to mental health services than efforts to combat ageism.