Adolescents' academic expectations and achievement

Previous research has indicated that adolescents' relationships with their mother influence their academic expectations and achievement. Substance use has also been found to have a strong influence on academic expectations and achievement. In the present study, 80 high school seniors from middle to upper socioeconomic status families completed questionnaires on behavioral and psychological aspects of adolescent life. Academic expectations were found to be highly correlated with academic achievement (r = .60). A stepwise regression analysis revealed that relationship with mother, academic achievement, and alcohol use accounted for 56% of the total variance in academic expectations. Stepwise regression on academic achievement revealed that cocaine use, marijuana use, and academic expectations accounted for 48% of the total variance.     

Maternal self‐perceptions and reactions to infant crying among intrusive and withdrawn depressed mothers

This study compared intrusive (N =15) and withdrawn (N = 10) mothers' ratings of their own interaction styles with their infants and the behaviors of videotaped models of intrusive and withdrawn mothers. Withdrawn mothers rated themselves as less withdrawn than the model withdrawn mother. Intrusive mothers viewed themselves as more intrusive than the model intrusive mother. Both groups viewed their own infants as more outgoing than the infants of the model intrusive and withdrawn mothers. The withdrawn mothers reported feeling more distressed when they observed an infant (of an intrusive or withdrawn mother) crying, suggesting that they feel more empathy than the intrusive mothers. © 2001 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.     

When All Is Still Concealed: Are We Closer to Understanding the Mechanisms Underlying Evaluative Conditioning?

Fulcher and Hammerl's (2001) important exploration of the role of contingency awareness in evaluative conditioning (EC) raises a lot of issues for discussion: (1) what boundaries, if any, exist between EC and affective learning paradigms?; (2) if EC does occur without awareness does this mean it is nonpropositional learning?; (3) is EC driven by stimulus-response (S-R), rather than stimulus-stimulus (S-S), associations and if so should it then surprise us that contingency awareness is not important?; and (4) if S-R associations are at the heart of EC, should we automatically assume EC is part of a different learning mechanism to autonomic Pavlovian conditioning (Field, 2000a, 2000b)? This article, after a critical review of Fulcher and Hammerl's work, discusses these issues with reference to what can be realistically inferred about the mechanisms underlying EC.     

The effect of restraint beliefs on alcohol-seeking behavior

Individuals who believe that they have high levels of restraint over motivated behaviors such as cigarette smoking are, paradoxically, more likely to engage in those behaviors when tempted (Nordgren, Van Harreveld, & Van Der Pligt, 2009). Our aim was to experimentally manipulate heavy drinkers' beliefs about their drinking restraint to examine the effect on drinking behavior. Sixty heavy drinkers completed an implicit association test and a stop-signal task before receiving bogus feedback on their task performance that indicated that they had either high or low levels of drinking restraint. Participants then completed a bogus taste test in which they were able to consume beer and a soft drink. Results indicated that the group falsely led to believe that they had a high level of drinking restraint subsequently consumed more beer than the group led to believe that they had a low level of drinking restraint. This study demonstrates that beliefs about drinking restraint can influence drinking behavior, in that individuals who overestimate their control over drinking are at greater risk of drinking to excess when exposed to tempting situations.     

Organizational Citizenship Behavior,Job Attitudes,and the Psychological Contract

Previous research has shown a positive relationship between job satisfaction and various dimensions of organizational citizenship behavior. These studies, however, have focused almost exclusively on civilian sector organizations. While insight gained from these studies is instructive, it remains to be seen if these relationships also exist in the context of military organizations. The relationships between job satisfaction as well as cynicism (as moderated by psychological contracts) with organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) are explored. Data were collected from military officers (n = 151) attending a 10-month professional military education school. As an improvement over other similar studies, control measures were incorporated to address potential confounds associated with self-reported attitudes. Results showed job satisfaction was a strong predictor of OCB, cynicism was negatively related to the altruism dimension of OCB, and the relationship between cynicism and the altruism dimension of organizational citizenship behavior was moderated such that the relationship was stronger when there were high levels of perceived psychological contract support than when there were low levels of support.     

Preventative Behavioral Parent Training: A Preliminary Investigation of Strategies for Preventing At-Risk Children From Developing Later Conduct Problems

Children exhibiting conduct problems comprise the largest source of referrals to children's mental health services. The treatment for conduct problems that possesses the greatest amount of empirical support is behavioral parent training. Unfortunately, a cogent approach to the identification of risk factors and prevention of chronic conduct problem display has not been developed. This project was an initial longitudinal assessment examining the merits of preventative behavioral parent training as a primary prevention strategy for at-risk children. Results demonstrated that prevention participants were engaging in normative rates of disruptive behaviors at 6-month follow-up, whereas comparison children showed a behavioral decline over time.     

Reciprocal Imitation Following Adult Imitation by Children with Autism

This study examined the effects of adult imitation and adult playfulness on the imitation, social attention and initiation of new behaviours by non‐verbal preschoolers with autism. Videotapes taken from a previous study were recoded for the adult's imitation and playful behaviour and the children's imitation, social attention (looking at the adult's actions) and initiation of new behaviours. In the original study, twenty non‐verbal, 4‐ to 6‐year‐old children with autism were randomly assigned to an imitation or a contingent responsivity group. Both groups of children engaged in an intervention phase (during which the adult imitated the children or contingently responded to them) and a subsequent spontaneous play phase (during which the adult interacted spontaneously with the children). ANOVA for the current study revealed that the imitation group children versus the contingent responsivity group children spent a greater percent time showing social attention and initiating new behaviours during the intervention phase and showing social attention and imitating the adult's behaviours during the subsequent spontaneous play phase. A correlation analysis yielded significant correlations between the percent time the adult imitated the child during the intervention phase and the percent time the child showed social attention during the same intervention phase and imitating the adult during the subsequent spontaneous play phase. Adult imitation and playfulness during the spontaneous play phase were also correlated with the children's social attention during that phase. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

They are afraid of the animal, so therefore I am too: Influence of peer modeling on fear beliefs and approach-avoidance behaviors towards animals in typically developing children

This study investigated the effect of filmed peer modeling on fear beliefs and approach–avoidance behaviors towards animals in 8- to 10-year-old typically developing children. Ninety-seven children randomly received either a positive or negative modeling film in which they saw peers interact with a novel animal. Before and after this film, children’s fear beliefs and avoidance tendencies towards the modeled and non-modeled control animal were measured. A behavioral approach task was also administered post-modeling. Following positive peer modeling, children’s fear beliefs and avoidance tendencies towards the modeled but also towards the non-modeled animal decreased significantly. After negative modeling, children’s fear beliefs towards the modeled animal increased significantly, but did not change for the non-modeled animal. Negative modeling did not change avoidance tendencies for the modeled animal, while it decreased children’s avoidance of the non-modeled animal. No significant effects were observed on the behavioral approach task. These results support Rachman’s indirect pathway of modeling/vicarious learning as a plausible mechanism by which children can acquire fears of novel stimuli and stresses the important fear-reducing effects of positive peer modeling. Clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

How to do a meta‐analysis

Meta‐analysis is a statistical tool for estimating the mean and variance of underlying population effects from a collection of empirical studies addressing ostensibly the same research question. Meta‐analysis has become an increasing popular and valuable tool in psychological research, and major review articles typically employ these methods. This article describes the process of conducting meta‐analysis: selecting articles, developing inclusion criteria, calculating effect sizes, conducting the actual analysis (including information on how to do the analysis on popular computer packages such as IBM SPSS and R) and estimating the effects of publication bias. Guidance is also given on how to write up a meta‐analysis.     

Bitter avoidance in guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus) and mice (Mus musculus and Peromyscus leucopus)

Rejection of bitter substances is common in many species and may function to protect an animal from ingestion of bitter-tasting toxins. Since many plants are bitter, it has been proposed that high tolerance for bitterness would be adaptive for herbivores. Earlier studies conducted on herbivorous guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus) have been used to support this proposal. We tested guinea pigs with bitter plant secondary metabolites (salicin, caffeine, quinine hydrochloride) and bitter protein hydrolysates (two types of hydrolyzed casein, hydrolyzed soy) in a series of two-choice preference tests. For comparison, we tested two nonherbivorous mouse species (Mus musculus and Peromyscus leucopus). Guinea pigs did show weaker avoidance of quinine hydrochloride than did the mice, confirming predictions generated from earlier work. However, guinea pigs had similar responses to caffeine as did Peromyscus. Both of these species showed weaker avoidance responses than Mus to 10 mM caffeine. For salicin, guinea pigs were the only species to avoid it at 10 mM and their preference scores at this concentration were significantly lower than for the two mice species. Guinea pigs avoided all of the protein hydrolysates more strongly than the other species. Responses to the protein hydrolysates did not reflect the patterns observed with the simple bitter compounds, suggesting that other properties of these complex stimuli may be responsible for guinea pig avoidance of them. Our results suggest caution in accepting, without further empirical support, the premise that guinea pigs (and herbivores in general) have a generalized reduced bitter sensitivity.