Early Development of Empathy in Toddlers: Effects of Daily Parent–Child Interaction and Home‐Rearing Environment

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the effects of (a) parent–child interaction and (b) home environment on the early development of empathy in toddlers. A total of 176 Japanese families (both young children and their parents) were enrolled in this study. Laboratory assessment of children's empathy development and caregiver's rearing competence was made during a controlled observation of parent–child interaction. The results of this study suggest that of all the factors examined, the degree of parent–child interaction, the stability of long‐term parenting practices, parental attitude, and mother's mental health status were correlated with development of empathy in children. These findings provide new indicators for the development of individualized intervention methods for use in clinical practice.     

Middle school students overestimate normative support for aggression and underestimate normative support for nonviolent problem‐solving strategies

This study tested five hypotheses related to the accuracy of students' perceptions of school norms for aggression and nonviolent problem‐solving strategies with two cohorts (ns = 852 and 968) of 6th‐grade students in 12 schools. Students consistently overestimated peer normative support for aggression and underestimated peer normative support for nonviolent problem‐solving strategies. This effect remained significant in tests of moderation by gender, ethnicity, and aggression level. Tests for moderation by the degree of provocation (e.g., if a student was hit first) and a test measuring actual norms from eighth graders and perceived norms from seventh graders suggested that the discrepancy was not due to self‐serving bias or social desirability. Longitudinal analysis found that the discrepancy remained through 8th grade. The discrepancy between actual and perceived norms has implications for risk and violence prevention, which are discussed.     

The discrimination of facial expressions by typically developing infants and toddlers and those experiencing early institutional care

Early experience likely plays an important role in the development of the ability to discriminate facial expressions of emotion. We posited that compared to children reared with their biological families (n=72), abandoned children being reared in institutions (n=39) should demonstrate impairments in this ability. The visual paired comparison procedure was utilized to assess the abilities of 13- to 30-month-old children to discriminate among multiple pairs of photographs of facial expressions. Both groups exhibited a normative profile of discrimination, with no group differences evident. Such findings suggest that early institutionalization does not affect the ability of 1- to 3-year-olds to discriminate facial expressions of emotion, at least as inferred by the Visual Paired Comparison Procedure.     

Associations between peer nominations, teacher ratings, self-reports, and observations of malicious and disruptive behavior

This study evaluates the validity of two aggression scales for predicting observations of malicious or disruptive behavior at school. Subgroups of a sample of 1,560 children (age 8.6+/-1.5 years) were assessed using (a) peer nominations of aggression, (b) teacher reports on the Teacher Report Form (TRF) of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) Aggression scale and the peer nomination items, or (c) self-reports on the peer nomination items. Criteria were observations of physical, verbal, initiated, retaliatory, malicious, and disruptive behaviors. Teacher report peer nominations predicted observed physical, verbal, initiated, and retaliatory aggression and disruptive behavior. Peer nominations predicted physical aggression, verbal aggression, initiation and disruptive behavior, and TRFs predicted verbal, initiated, and disruptive behavior. Self-reports did not significantly predict any behavior. Implications for assessment of aggression are discussed.     

Response to commentary on the multimodal treatment study of ADHD (MTA): mining the meaning of the MTA

In the December 2000 issue of the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, we published a set of papers presenting secondary analyses of the Multimodal Treatment Study of ADHD (MTA), and R. A. Barkley (2000) provided a commentary. A critique of the design of the study (MTA Cooperative Group, 1999) was presented based on a theoretical perspective of a behavioral inhibition deficit that has been hypothesized as the core deficit of ADHD (R. A. Barkley, 1997). The commentary questioned the design and analysis of the MTA in terms of (1) the empirical criteria for selection of components of behavioral (Beh) intervention, (2) the effectiveness of the Beh intervention, (3) the methods for analyses at the group and individual level, (4) implications of the MTA findings for clinical practice, (5) the role of genetics in response to treatment, and (6) the lack of a nontreatment control group. In this response, we relate the content of the papers to the commentary, (1) by reviewing the selection criteria for the Beh treatment, as outlined by K. C. Wells, W. E. Pelham, et al. (2000), (2) by addressing the myth that the MTA Beh treatment was ineffective (Pelham, 1999), (3) by describing the use of analyses at the level of the individual participant, as presented by J. S. March et al. (2000) and W. E. Pelham et al. (2000) as well as elsewhere by J. M. Swanson et al. (2001) and C. K. Conners et al. (2001), (4) by relating some of the suggestions from the secondary analyses about clinically relevant factors such as comorbidity (as presented by J. S. March et al., 2000) and family and parental characteristics (as presented by B. Hoza et al., 2000, S. P. Hinshaw et al., 2000, and K. C. Wells, J. N. Epstein, et al., 2000), (5) by discussing the statistical concept of heritability and the lack of a significant difference in the presence of ADHD symptoms in parents of the MTA families compared to parents in the classmate-control families (as presented by J. N. Epstein, et al., 2000), and (6) by acknowledging that an ethically necessary weakness of the MTA design is that it did not include a no-treatment control group. We discuss the use of secondary analyses to suggest how, when, and for what subgroups effectiveness of the Beh treatment may have been manifested. Finally, we invite others to use the large and rich data set that will soon be available in the public domain, to perform secondary analyses to mine the meaning of the MTA and to evaluate theories of ADHD and response to treatments.     

Peer rejection and aggression and early starter models of conduct disorder

Peer rejection and aggression in the early school years were examined for their relevance to early starting conduct problems. The sample of 657 boys and girls from 4 geographical locations was followed from 1st through 4th grades. Peer rejection in 1st grade added incrementally to the prediction of early starting conduct problems in 3rd and 4th grades, over and above the effects of aggression. Peer rejection and aggression in 1st grade were also associated with the impulsive and emotionally reactive behaviors found in older samples. Being rejected by peers subsequent to 1st grade marginally added to the prediction of early starting conduct problems in 3rd and 4th grades, controlling for 1st~grade ADHD symptoms and aggression. Furthermore, peer rejection partially mediated the predictive relation between early ADHD symptoms and subsequent conduct problems. These results support the hypothesis that the experience of peer rejection in the early school years adds to the risk for early starting conduct problems.     

7—11岁汉族、傣族、景颇族儿童概念形成的比较研究

本实验是对7—11岁昆明汉族、瑞丽汉族、傣族和景颇族共190名儿童所作的概念形成的比较研究。实验结果指出:1.儿童概念形成随年龄增长而不断提高。表现在两个方面:(一)所形成的概念水平提高;(二)概念形成中被试所采取的假设—检验策略水平的提高。2.文化环境对儿童概念形成的影响是明显的。在不同性质的五个项目实验中,所有年龄阶段,昆明儿童成绩均高于瑞丽三种民族儿童,差异在某些项目的某些年龄阶段是显著或者非常显著,在瑞丽地区由于三种民族环境条件也有差异,在五个实验项目中,数列和词义关系两项实验出现了显著性的差异。文章分析了产生差异的原因:(一)学校教育;(二)家庭教育;(三)社会意识等方面。     

课堂教学效果的心理学评价方法

本项研究把课堂教学看成一个动态系统。在广泛收集资料和运用特尔斐法进行调查的基础上,又经两次因子分析处理,得出问卷量表。用此量表在62名初中数学教师所教的1937名学生中取得数据。经多因素统计分析,提出课堂教学的五个子系统和二十五项心理因素的可靠性;突破了以往研究的局限性;探讨了课堂教学结构心理因素的数量化和预测教学效果的可能性;增强了评议课堂教学质量的客观性。     

不同发展阶段的习得性长时程突触增强对新学习的影响

在慢性实验条件下观察到大鼠由学习训练所产生的海马CA_3区习得性长时程突触增强,它的不同发展阶段对新学习任务的习得有不同的作用:(1)在它的形成阶段及巩固阶段对新学习均有易化作用,虽然两个阶段突触效应增强的程度都处于相同的高水平,但后者的易化作用相对要大些,提示这两个发展阶段突触的可塑性变化是有差异的;还有,新学习任务的训练并没有引起突触效应的进一步增强,表明突触效应的长时程增强有“饱和”现象。(2)在它消退后,对新学习任务的习得没有影响。上述结果提示学习的组织形式不同,可从突触机制上影响学习的效果,并进一步证明习得性长时程突触增强是学习和记忆的神经基础。     

藏族、维吾尔族在表音、表意文字辨认上大脑两半球的功能特点

用半视野速示术对藏族、维吾尔族人(各60名),进行辨认表音、表意文字的研究。结果表明,无论是藏族还是维吾尔族被试,对汉字(表意文字)的辨认都是两半球均势的,而对藏/维文(表音文字)的辨认却出现两种不同的结果:对熟练掌握和使用汉语多年(五年以上)的藏族被试出现两半球均势,而学习汉语一年左右的藏族及维吾尔族被试以及学习汉语四年的维吾尔族被试却为左半球优势。这表明对表意文字汉字的辨认是两半球均势的,对表音文字藏/维文的辨认似乎受被试使用汉语的影响,会由左半球优势转变为两半球均势。