Self-determination and conflict in romantic relationships

Four studies examined associations between E. L. Deci and R. M. Ryan's (1985, 2000) construct of autonomy, responses to relationship disagreements, and dissatisfaction after conflict. In Study 1, diary data showed that trait autonomy predicted relationship autonomy, which in turn predicted relative satisfaction after disagreements. In Study 2, trait autonomy predicted relationship autonomy, which was associated with less defensive and more understanding responses to conflict. Studies 3 and 4 examined whether one's partner's relationship autonomy uniquely predicted reported and observed behavior during conflict. Autonomous reasons for being in the relationship (of both self and partner) predicted both reported and observed responses to conflict and feelings of satisfaction.     

Promises and perils of public deliberation: contrasting two national bioethics commissions on embryonic stem cell research

National bioethics commissions have struggled to develop ethically warranted methods for conducting their deliberations. The National Bioethics Advisory Commission in its report on stem cell research adopted an approach to public deliberation indebted to Rawls in that it sought common ground consistent with shared values and beliefs at the foundation of a well-ordered democracy. In contrast, although the research cloning and stem cell reports of the President's Council on Bioethics reveal that it broached two different methods of public deliberation--balancing goods and following an overarching moral principle--it adopted neither. Thereupon its primer mover, Leon Kass, influenced particularly by the approach of Leo Strauss, sought to develop a method of public deliberation guided by tradition and practical wisdom. When this failed, the Council fell back on a method that took account of shared fundamental values of a free democracy--a method remarkable akin to that employed by the National Bioethics Advisory Commission. Respect for diverse reasonable conceptions of the good in a democratic polity requires national bioethics commissions to seek and incorporate that which is valuable in opposing positions.     

Can infants attribute to an agent a disposition to perform a particular action?

The present research investigated whether 13.5-month-old infants would attribute to an actor a disposition to perform a recurring action, and would then use this information to predict which of two new objects-one that could be used to perform the action and one that could not-the actor would grasp next. During familiarization, the infants watched an actor slide various objects forward and backward on an apparatus floor. During test, the infants saw two new identical objects placed side by side: one stood inside a short frame that left little room for sliding; the other stood inside a longer frame that left ample room for sliding. The infants who saw the actor grasp the object inside the short frame looked reliably longer than those who saw the actor grasp the object inside the long frame. This and control results from a lifting condition provide evidence that by 13.5 months, infants can attribute to an actor a disposition to perform a particular action.     

Development of the body image concern inventory

Development of the Body Image Concern Inventory (BICI), a measure designed to assess dysmorphic concern, is described. A panel of expert raters supported the construct validity of the measure, and four college student samples (Ns=184, 200, 56, 40) supported the internal consistency of the BICI. In addition, in studies 1 and 3, concurrent validity was established through comparison of the BICI to extant self-report and interview measures of dysmorphic symptomatology. Convergent validity patterns were assessed through comparison with measures of obsessive-compulsive and eating disorder symptomatology in studies 2 and 4. Finally, the results of study 4 supported that the BICI discriminated individuals with a diagnosis of Body Dysmorphic Disorder or bulimia (disorders that frequently involve high levels of dysmorphic concern) from those with subclinical symptoms. Results suggest that the BICI is a reliable, valid, and user-friendly tool for assessing dysmorphic concern, with utility in both research and clinical settings.     

It’s not what you hear but how often you hear it: On the neglected role of phonological variant frequency in auditory word recognition

Recognition of a frequently heard spoken word variant in American English (flapping) was investigated in a phoneme identification experiment. Listeners identified the initial segment (b orp) of word-nonword continua (e.g.,pretty-bretty) that was embedded in either a flap or a [t] variant carrier word (e.g.,preDy-breDy orpreTTy-breTTy). The results showed more identification responses forming a real word when the to-be-identified speech sound occurred in the more frequently experienced flap carrier. These results support the claim that lexical representation of spoken words includes the flap variant. Listeners do not recode the flap variant into an underlying /t/ version but recognize the flap, in its surface form, via a preexisting representation in lexical memory.     

“Am I Not a Woman?” The Rhetoric of Breast Cancer Stories in African American Women's Popular Periodicals

Representations of breast cancer are examined in three popular women's periodicals targeting African American readers: Ebony, Essence, and Black Elegance. The researcher focuses specifically on representations that reflect certain ideas/ideals about the sharing and creating of information about the disease and related issues, such as health care and body image. Magazine selections are analyzed and critiqued according to the epistemological principles outlined by Patricia Hill Collins in Black Feminist Thought. The author calls for further research into how and why particular social and cultural groups consume information about health and illness in particular ways.     

Childhood maltreatment associated with adult personality disorders: findings from the Collaborative Longitudinal Personality Disorders Study

Adverse childhood experiences such as abuse and neglect are frequently implicated in the development of personality disorders (PDs); however, research on the childhood histories of most PD groups remains limited. In this multisite investigation, we assessed self-reported history of abuse and neglect experiences among 600 patients diagnosed with either a PD (borderline, schizotypal, avoidant, or obsessive-compulsive) or major depressive disorder without PD. Results indicate that rates of childhood maltreatment among individuals with PDs are generally high (73% reporting abuse; 82% reporting neglect). As expected, borderline PD was more consistently associated with childhood abuse and neglect than other PD diagnoses. However, even when controlling for the effect of borderline PD, other PD diagnoses were associated with specific types of maltreatment.     

Infants learn phonotactic regularities from brief auditory experience

Two experiments investigated whether novel phonotactic regularities, not present in English, could be acquired by 16.5-month-old infants from brief auditory experience. Subjects listened to consonant-vowel-consonant syllables in which particular consonants were artificially restricted to either initial or final position (e.g. /baep/ not /paeb/). In a later head-turn preference test, infants listened longer to new syllables that violated the experimental phonotactic constraints than to new syllables that honored them. Thus, infants rapidly learned phonotactic regularities from brief auditory experience and extended them to unstudied syllables, documenting the sensitivity of the infant's language processing system to abstractions over linguistic experience.