Parent–Child Conflict Moderates the Relationship Between Executive Functioning and Child Disruptive Behaviors in Youth with T1D

Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings - Executive function (EF) skills, parent–child conflict, and high blood glucose (BG) may impact child externalizing behaviors. We examined...     

Biases and their impact on opinions of transgender bathroom usage

The relationship between personality traits and biased assimilation, evaluating arguments, and persuasive messages more favorably if supporting pre-existing attitudes, lacks adequate research. Research suggests that higher narcissistic traits are associated with biased reactions. Additionally, research suggests that people with greater scientific reasoning abilities have more biased reactions to information that challenges their attitude, as they more easily locate flaws on topics that oppose their beliefs. Participants (N = 260) completed measures to identify their views on trans bathroom use, as well as other personality and attitude measures. They were randomly assigned to read one of the two articles using fake scientific data that either supported trans people using a bathroom reflecting their gender identity or that they should use a bathroom matching their sex-assigned at birth. Participants rated the quality of the article significantly higher when their opinion on bathroom use was congruent with the article than when it was incongruent. We used regression analyses with participants' perceptions of the quality of the article as the outcome variable and scientific reasoning scores, narcissism personality index scores, open-mindedness scores as predictor variables. In the mismatch group, the higher the scores on scientific reasoning, the lower the ratings of the quality of the opinion incongruent article. In the match group, the higher the scores on open-mindedness, the lower the ratings of the quality of the opinion congruent article. This research suggests that bias reduction is necessary to function in a world where scientific facts are called into question on a consistent basis.     

Age differences in neural activity related to mentalizing during person perception

ABSTRACT

Mentalizing, or thinking about others’ mental states, shapes social interactions. Older adults (OA) have reduced mentalizing capacities reflected by lower medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) activation. The current study assessed if OA’ lower mPFC activation reflects less spontaneous mentalizing during person perception. Younger adults (YA) and OA viewed ingroup White and outgroup Black and Asian faces and completed a mentalizing task during fMRI. Afterward, they completed a task in which they inferred mental states from faces. Using an mPFC region defined by the mentalizing task, OA had lower activity than YA during person perception. OA’ mPFC activity toward faces positively related to their mentalizing outside the scanner. The extent of OA’ lower mPFC activation during person perception may depend on their actual detection of mental states in faces. Further, YA’, but not OA’, mPFC activity distinguished between outgroups. OA’ lower mentalizing-related mPFC activity may reduce their ability to individuate outgroup members.     

Fulfilment of intention and desire in children's judgements of emotion for sociomoral events

This study investigated whether children appreciate that enacting an intention can emotionally affect an agent separately from whether the agent's desire is fulfilled. Children ages 5–11 years and adults heard several vignettes about an agent who intended to take another child's toy in which the agent's intention was either enacted or blocked and desire was fulfilled or unfulfilled. The effect of intention on judgements of the agent's emotion varied according to desire fulfilment and age. Overall, participants judged that an agent who acted intentionally to fulfil a desire felt happier than an agent whose intention was blocked. When the agent's desire was unfulfilled, the effect of enacting an intention varied by age. Five‐ to 6‐year‐olds judged that acting intentionally could decrease the negative emotion associated with an unfulfilled desire. The findings show relatively early appreciation of intentionality in children's judgements of emotion. Happy victimizer attributions decreased between 5 and 8 years, but attributions of positive emotion to transgressors did not vary by intentionality. The relationships between intentionality, agency, and emotion are discussed.     

FAMILY AND JOB INFLUENCES ON ROLE SATISFACTION OF EMPLOYED RURAL MOTHERS

One hundred fifty rural employed mothers were surveyed to determine family and job predictors of satisfaction with the dual-work role. Findings indicated the saliency of job satisfaction variables in determining role satisfaction among this group of women as opposed to hypothesized reference group support variables and nontraditional value orientation variables. Discussion centered on the importance of employment outside the home to life satisfaction, particularly for mothers of older children.