Academic and nonacademic community psychologists: An analysis of divergence in settings,roles, and values

Differences between academic and nonacademic psychologists may be viewed as immutable, worthy of encouragement, or as a situation which the latter group must remedy by becoming “more scientific.” We contend that for community psychology, which perceives theory, application, and action as valid aspects of its broad paradigm, it would be most adaptive toexplicitly address the challenge of managing a balance between diversity and cohesion. There are signs that the present leadership of Division 27 recognizes aspects of this problem and is reconsidering the role and purpose of the Division as an organizing framework for the discipline (Trickett, Note 3). It is our view that engendering a commitment from various subgroups within the membership to addressing the disparities revealed by our respondents is required for resolving what we see as major obstacles to future development of the discipline. The conceptual and empirical approach presented in this study can be an important tool in forging constructive solutions to the challenges we have presented.     

Young adults' retrospective reports of parenting by mothers and fathers: associations with current relationship quality

The authors examined retrospective reports of both mothers' and fathers' parenting and young adults' (N = 75) relationship quality. Multiple regression analyses showed that, as predicted, young adults' retrospective reports of the positive parenting they experienced as children were significantly related to the extent by which they currently viewed (a) others as accessible and responsive, (b) their relationships with others as meaningful and important, and (c) themselves as able to form healthy relationships. Although both mothers' and fathers' parenting related to the quality of current relationships with parents, only reports of fathers' parenting were related to the quality of current relationships with a romantic partner. Fathers' parenting was also related to views of the self as being able to form secure and close relationships. The authors address both methodological and substantive explanations for these results.     

High-maintenance interaction: inefficient social coordination impairs self-regulation

Tasks requiring interpersonal coordination permeate all spheres of life. Although social coordination is sometimes efficient and effortless (low maintenance), at other times it is inefficient and effortful (high maintenance). Across 5 studies, participants experienced either a high- or a low-maintenance interaction with a confederate before engaging in an individual-level task requiring self-regulation. Self-regulation was operationalized with measures of (a) preferences for a challenging task with high reward potential over an easy task with low reward potential (Study 1) and (b) task performance (anagram performance in Study 1, Graduate Record Exam performance in Studies 2 and 3, physical stamina in Study 4, and fine motor control in Study 5). Results uniformly supported the hypothesis that experiencing high-maintenance interaction impairs one's self-regulatory success on subsequent, unrelated tasks. These effects were not mediated through participants' conscious processes and emerged even with a nonconscious manipulation of high-maintenance interaction.     

Arnold Gesell and the Maturation Controversy

This article examines the work of Arnold Lucius Gesell and argues that he not only paved the way for contemporary research in motor development, but that he and colleagues anticipated fundamental issues about growth that must be addressed by psychologists and neuroscientists who are committed to the advancement of developmental science. Arnold Lucius Gesell was a pioneer in developmental psychology when the field was in its infancy. He worked diligently for the rights of physically and mentally handicapped children to receive special education that would enable them to find gainful employment. Gesell's writings in books and popular magazines increased public awareness of and support for preschool education and better foster care for orphans. Despite these achievements, many of his successors have questioned his views about infant development. Developmental psychologists have criticized Gesell for proposing a stage theory of infant growth that has fallen into disfavor among contemporary researchers. His conception of development as a maturational process has been challenged for allegedly reducing complex behavioral, perceptual, and learning processes to genetic factors. The author rejects this overly simplistic interpretation and contends that Gesell's work continues to stand the test of time.     

Modularity and hierarchical organization of action programs in children's acquisition of graphic skills

The organization of actions is based on modules in memory as a result of practice, easing the demand of performing more complex actions. If this modularization occurs, the elements of the module must remain invariant in new tasks. To test this hypothesis, 35 children, age 10 yr., practiced a graphic criterion task on a digital tablet and completed a complex graphic task enclosing the previous one. Total movement and pause times to draw the figure indicated skill acquisition. A module was identified by the variability of relative timing, pause time, and sequencing. Total movement to perform the criterion task did not increase significantly when it was embedded in the more complex task. Modularity was evidenced by the stability of relative timing and pause time and sequencing. The spatial position of new elements did not perturb the module, so the grammar of action may still have been forming.     

Parenting Stress and Childhood Psychopathology: An Examination of Specificity to Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms

The purpose of this study was to examine if specificity exists between three factors of parenting stress (i.e., parental distress, parent–child (PC) dysfunctional interactions, and difficult child) and childhood internalizing and externalizing symptoms. The incremental validity of parenting stress beyond parental psychopathology was also examined. The sample was drawn from families of children aged 5–17 (N = 300), who sought treatment for their child from a community mental health clinic. Results indicated that the PC dysfunctional interactions factor showed specificity to internalizing symptoms when controlling for parental psychopathology. Parental distress did not show specificity or incremental validity and the difficult child factor was associated with both internalizing and externalizing symptoms when controlling for parental psychopathology. The influence of age, gender, and ethnicity on these associations is also presented, and findings are discussed in terms of how the results add to understanding the specific relations between parenting stress and child and adolescent symptoms.