The developmental ecology of urban males' youth violence

Data from a longitudinal study of 294 African American and Latino adolescent boys and their caregivers living in poor urban communities were used to test a developmental-ecological model of violence. Six annual waves of data were applied to evaluate the relations between microsystem influences of parenting and peer deviance (peer violence and gang membership), macrosystem influences of community structural characteristics and neighborhood social organization, and individual involvement in violence (level and growth). Structural equation modeling analyses showed that community structural characteristics significantly predicted neighborhood social processes. Parenting practices partially mediated the relation between neighborhood social processes and gang membership. Parenting practices was fully mediated in its relation to peer violence by gang membership. Gang membership was partially mediated by peer violence level in its relation to individual violence level. Although the overall set of relations does not satisfy mediation requirements fully in all instances, the model was validated for the most part, supporting a focus on a multilevel ecological model of influences on risk development.     

The influence of hierarchy on probability judgment

Consider the task of predicting which soccer team will win the next World Cup. The bookmakers may judge Brazil to be the team most likely to win, but also judge it most likely that a European rather than a Latin American team will win. This is an example of a non-aligned hierarchy structure: the most probable event at the subordinate level (Brazil wins) appears to be inconsistent with the most probable event at the superordinate level (a European team wins). In this paper we exploit such structures to investigate how people make predictions based on uncertain hierarchical knowledge. We distinguish between aligned and non-aligned environments, and conjecture that people assume alignment. Participants were exposed to a non-aligned training set in which the most probable superordinate category predicted one outcome, whereas the most probable subordinate category predicted a different outcome. In the test phase participants allowed their initial probability judgments about category membership to shift their final ratings of the probability of the outcome, even though all judgments were made on the basis of the same statistical data. In effect people were primed to focus on the most likely path in an inference tree, and neglect alternative paths. These results highlight the importance of the level at which statistical data are represented, and suggest that when faced with hierarchical inference problems people adopt a simplifying heuristic that assumes alignment.     

Six-year-olds' difficulties handling intensional contexts

Previous research shows that children have difficulties handling intensional contexts even when they can pass a test of false belief (e.g. Cognition 67 (1998) 287; Cognition 25 (1987) 289). Some authors (Perner, J. (1991). Understanding the representational mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press; Cognition 25 (1987) 289) place these difficulties in the linguistic and not the mental representational domain. The experiments reported here examined whether 6-year-old children could answer questions in an intensional context that did not require the explicit verbal characterization of a belief. We replicated previous findings and found that children answered according to their own knowledge in an intensional context. This occurred even though they responded by choosing a picture to insert into a protagonist's thought bubble rather than report the belief verbally. Children could correctly answer questions about the knowledge state of the protagonist and pass a test of false belief. Further experiments ruled out methodological explanations. Experiment 2 showed that the difference in answering according to own knowledge between the false belief and intensional stories is not accounted for by procedural factors in the two types of test. Experiment 3 revealed that children did not answer according to their own knowledge by default. Experiment 4 suggested that answering according to own knowledge was not a result of pictorial salience. Results are discussed in relation to the simulation-theory debate.     

The family experience of "sudden health": the case of intractable epilepsy

This article reports the experience of "sudden health" among six families who participated in an exploratory qualitative study of families with a member who elects to have corrective surgery for intractable epilepsy. Families were interviewed pre- and post-surgery (6-8 months) and the interviews were analyzed using a constant comparative methodology. Findings indicated that (1) families were organized in two primary ways (nesting and crisis) to deal with epilepsy and the aftermath of surgery and (2) "sudden health" had differing effects on these families depending on their organizational style, emotional communication process, and developmental dynamics.     

Testing mediational models with longitudinal data: questions and tips in the use of structural equation modeling

R. M. Baron and D. A. Kenny (1986; see record 1987-13085-001) provided clarion conceptual and methodological guidelines for testing mediational models with cross-sectional data. Graduating from cross-sectional to longitudinal designs enables researchers to make more rigorous inferences about the causal relations implied by such models. In this transition, misconceptions and erroneous assumptions are the norm. First, we describe some of the questions that arise (and misconceptions that sometimes emerge) in longitudinal tests of mediational models. We also provide a collection of tips for structural equation modeling (SEM) of mediational processes. Finally, we suggest a series of 5 steps when using SEM to test mediational processes in longitudinal designs: testing the measurement model, testing for added components, testing for omitted paths, testing the stationarity assumption, and estimating the mediational effects.     

Picture interpretation and Jungian typology

This study examined a Jungian picture interpretation schema, which utilizes a specific quadrant method. This proposed schema, which is used in training at the C. G. Jung Institute in Zürich, attaches significance to specific areas of a drawing. The upper left of a drawing is associated with the father; the lower left with the unconscious; the lower right with the mother; and the upper right with the future. Three questions served as the foci of this study: Is the schema valid? Do certain types within Jung's personality theory respond better than others to the schema? Does the schema work best when it elicits a strong affective response from the person who created the picture? Subjects took one of two tests: a space domain test, or a colour associative test. The results revealed only two significant effects: a positive association (in the space domain test) between unconscious material with the unconscious quadrant and a negative association (in the colour associative test) of mother material with the mother quadrant. These results suggest that the Jungian quadrant schema used to interpret drawings is invalid and of minimal practical utility. Other methods of picture interpretation are discussed as well as suggestions for future research that would be helpful to this field.     

Investigating the influence of organizational role on perceptions of risk in deep coal mines

The authors replicated O. Ostberg's (1980) study of forestry workers using a range of personnel groups in coal mines. Findings demonstrate a high level of consensus between a range of personnel groups for a set of pictorially depicted behavioral risks, at the level of rank order, but significant differences in terms of relative magnitudes. Magnitudes of perceived risk were found to be greater for those closest to the point of hazard than for members of more geographically and experientially distal groups. Findings are interpreted with reference to experiential influences associated with organizational role. Revealed differences between personnel groups are explained in terms of cognitive availability, specifically effects associated with habituation and familiarity with risk, these sources of perceptual bias appearing to interact with organizational role.     

Comparisons of three different investigative interview techniques with young children

After viewing a film of a mother hitting her son, a film not seen by the college student interviewers, children were misinformed about a detail (via exposure to a misleading question) as well as explicitly coached to disclose 3 false details. The children were then interviewed by interviewers who had previously learned 1 of 3 different interviewing procedures: the Yuille Step-Wise Interview developed by J. C. Yuille, R. Hunter, R. Joffe, & J. Zapamiuk (1993); a doll play interview developed by Action for Child Protection Inc. (1994); or the Modified Structured Interview developed for this study. The Modified Structured Interview yielded more "where" information and was better at detecting if coaching had occurred. However, the interviewers were not very good at discriminating suggested versus coached versus correct witnessed information. The authors found that the deeper one digs for memories, the more one uncovers incorrect versus correct items. They concluded that although the Modified Structured Interview was superior to the techniques currently in use, cautions are necessary.     

Maternal correlates of toddler insecure and dependent behavior

The present study was designed to examine the relationship between characteristics of mothers and their toddler's insecure and dependent behavior. The authors studied 254 2-year-old toddlers and their mothers via a structured questionnaire administered to the mothers in their homes. The extent to which insecure and dependent behavior is related to the domains of maternal child rearing, maternal personality traits, parental marital relations, and maternal drug use was assessed. Using Pearson correlations and hierarchical multiple regression analyses, the authors found that the maternal child-rearing and maternal personality domains have a direct effect on the toddlers' insecure and dependent behavior. The maternal child-rearing domain also served as a mediator for the domains of the maternal personality attributes, parents' marital relations, and maternal drug use. There also was evidence suggesting an indirect effect of maternal personality attributes on the toddlers' insecure and dependent behavior, which is mediated by the domain of maternal child-rearing practices. Implications for the prevention of insecure and dependent behavior in toddlers are discussed.