Associations between Maternal Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms and Parenting

Mothers of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are at increased risk for an ADHD diagnosis themselves, which is likely associated with impairments in parenting. The present study utilized a multi-method assessment of maternal ADHD and parenting to examine the extent to which maternal ADHD symptoms are associated with maladaptive parenting. Participants included 70 6–10 year old children with DSM-IV ADHD and their biological mothers. Results suggested that mothers with higher levels of ADHD symptoms reported lower levels of involvement and positive parenting and higher levels of inconsistent discipline. During observed parent–child interactions, maternal ADHD symptoms were negatively associated with positive parenting, and positively associated with negative parenting and repeated commands before giving the child an opportunity to comply. Given prior research suggesting that maladaptive parenting behaviors are risk factors for the later development of conduct problems among children with ADHD, these findings have important clinical implications for family-based assessment and treatment of ADHD.     

班级生态系统对儿童亲社会行为影响的研究述评

依据生态系统观以及班级环境中亲社会行为研究的进展,在班级环境中,与儿童人际互动最密切,对其亲社会行为具有重要影响的两类人群是——同伴和教师。作者把儿童与同伴、儿童与教师之间的互动关系作为班级环境中两个重要生态子系统,依次介绍了班级环境中这两个生态子系统的各成分,以及它们对儿童亲社会行为的影响。文章最后指出,该领域的研究应注重人际间的双向互动、基于观察的互动模式研究、以及重视时间变量对行为过程的影响     

Ill-structured measurement designs in organizational research: implications for estimating interrater reliability

Organizational research and practice involving ratings are rife with what the authors term ill-structured measurement designs (ISMDs)--designs in which raters and ratees are neither fully crossed nor nested. This article explores the implications of ISMDs for estimating interrater reliability. The authors first provide a mock example that illustrates potential problems that ISMDs create for common reliability estimators (e.g., Pearson correlations, intraclass correlations). Next, the authors propose an alternative reliability estimator--G(q,k)--that resolves problems with traditional estimators and is equally appropriate for crossed, nested, and ill-structured designs. By using Monte Carlo simulation, the authors evaluate the accuracy of traditional reliability estimators compared with that of G(q,k) for ratings arising from ISMDs. Regardless of condition, G(q,k) yielded estimates as precise or more precise than those of traditional estimators. The advantage of G(q,k) over the traditional estimators became more pronounced with increases in the (a) overlap between the sets of raters that rated each ratee and (b) ratio of rater main effect variance to true score variance. Discussion focuses on implications of this work for organizational research and practice.     

Predicting Marital Satisfaction From Self,Partner, and Couple Characteristics: Is It Me,You, or Us?

Past research on the link between personal characteristics and marital satisfaction has taken either an individual or a dyadic approach. The individual approach examines how self and/or partner characteristics are associated with satisfaction, whereas the dyadic approach focuses on couple characteristics such as couple similarity. The current research was designed to integrate both approaches. A modified Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (Kashy & Kenny, 2000) was proposed to test simultaneously the contributions of self characteristics, partner characteristics, and two types of couple similarity (level similarity measured by the absolute difference score and shape similarity measured by the profile correlation) in predicting husbands' and wives' marital satisfaction. This model was tested by structural equation modeling in two large, nationally representative, urban samples (N=536 and 537 couples) from China. The results were largely replicated across four personality domains and two value domains, suggesting that all predictors tended to make independent contributions to satisfaction except the absolute difference score.     

"大一统"中国的重新塑造:近代边疆危机与建省改制

领土与国家权力的严格重合是现代民族国家的一个特征.现代意义的国界与古代意义的边疆之内涵差别,体现了现代民族国家国际体系不同于与传统国际关系的特征.在现代民族国家国际体系的冲击和压力下,为了抵抗外来威胁、保持国家统一,清朝末年采取了的一系列边疆建省举措,使中国传统"大一统"框架内的边疆意识和边疆政策发生了根本变化,从而实现了从边疆向国界的转化.国家主权在边疆地区得到更确实的体现,这是一个使疆域"领土"化的过程,也是从传统性国家向现代民族国家转化的体现.国际体系的压力导致了国家内涵的改变,但中国的统一内涵并没有丧失.     

Simulation, projection and empathy

Simulationists have recently started to employ the term “empathy” when characterizing our most basic understanding of other minds. I agree that empathy is crucial, but I think it is being misconstrued by the simulationists. Using some ideas to be found in Scheler’s classical discussion of empathy, I will argue for a different understanding of the notion. More specifically, I will argue that there are basic levels of interpersonal understanding—in particular the understanding of emotional expressions—that are not explicable in terms of simulation-plus-projection routines.     

Cognitive-affective neuroscience of somatization disorder and functional somatic syndromes: reconceptualizing the triad of depression-anxiety-somatic symptoms

Somatization disorder is a somatoform disorder that overlaps with a number of functional somatic syndromes and has high comorbidity with major depression and anxiety disorders. Proposals have been made for revising the category of somatoform disorders, for simplifying the criteria for somatization disorder, and for emphasizing the unitary nature of the functional somatic syndromes in future classifications. A review of the cognitive-affective neuroscience of somatization disorder and related conditions suggests that overlapping psychobiological mechanisms mediate depression, anxiety, and somatization symptoms. Particular genes and environments may contribute to determining whether symptoms are predominantly depressive, anxious, or somatic, and there are perhaps also overlaps and distinctions in the distal evolutionary mechanisms that produce these symptoms.     

Psychobiology of mindfulness

There is controversy about whether mindfulness-based approaches to psychotherapy represent a new wave of cognitive-behavioral therapy or a core process in all psychotherapies. One way of conceptualizing mindfulness is in terms of emotion regulation; mindfulness is a strategy aimed at opposing suppression and avoidance. Dispositional mindfulness has been associated with greater activation in prefrontal cortex and greater deactivation of amygdala during affect labeling. A number of rigorous studies of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression have been positive. However, much remains to be discovered about the underlying mechanisms of and clinical indications for mindfulness-based approaches.     

Better than average? When can we say that subsampling of items is better than statistical summary representations?

Myczek and Simons (2008) have described a computational model that subsamples a few items from a set with high accuracy, showing that this approach can do as well as, or better than, a model that captures statistical representations of the set. Although this is an intriguing existence proof, some caution should be taken before we consider their approach as a model for human behavior. In particular, I propose that such simulation-based research should be based on a more expanded range of phenomena and that it should include more accurate representations of errors in judgments.