The child as go-between: consulting with parents and teachers

In becoming a pupil a child also takes on the role of go-between and must negotiate daily the transitions from home to school. This puts the child in a triangular position in relation to his parents and teachers who often stand in a highly ambivalent relationship to each other, making it difficult for the child to keep a balance between the two systems. Coping mechanisms described include dissociating one system fromanother or skewing the triangle so that the child is cast in the role of victim either because the school or home is seen as unsatisfactory. The presence of 'themes' or issues around deprivation and authority, or the more familiar 'care' and 'control', aggravate the difficulties of the go-between. 'Good' parents are likely to produce 'good' pupils and successful go-betweens.     

INFANTS' RECOGNITION OF THE SOUND PATTERNS OF THEIR OWN NAMES

Abstract— Among the earliest and most frequent words that infants hear are their names Yet little is known about when infants begin to recognize their own names Using a modified version of the head-turn preference procedure, we tested whether 4 5-month-olds preferred to listen to their own names over foils that were either matched or mismatched for stress pattern. Our findings provide the first evidence that even these young infants recognize the sound patterns of their own names Infants demonstrated significant preferences for their own names compared with foils that shared the same stress patterns, as well as foils with opposite patterns. The results indicate when infants begin to recognize sound patterns of items frequently uttered in the infants' environments.     

In the Eye of the Beholder? Parental Ratings of Externalizing and Internalizing Symptoms

Variations in ratings of externalizing and internalizing symptoms may contain a trait (i.e., shared view) component when behavioral symptoms that generalize across context are perceived and an individual view component when they are misperceived or when each informant has access to different symptoms. Using a LISREL model, we estimated the trait and the informant-specific, individual view components in parental ratings of externalizing and internalizing symptoms of adolescent siblings. The model demonstrated that mothers' and fathers' ratings contained a substantial individual view component (from 21% to 50% of total rating variance, depending on rater and trait). Except for fathers' ratings of internalizing symptoms (13%), parental ratings also contained a substantial trait component (42% to 58%). Mother's, father's, and child's ratings may be averaged to estimate a trait of externalizing. To estimate an internalizing trait, it may be best to combine just the mother's rating with the child's self-rating.     

Metamemories of memory researchers

In the present study, a metamemory questionnaire was completed by three groups of individuals: memory research psychologists who attended a small international convention on everyday memory processes in the aged, academic psychologists with a limited knowledge of the memory literature, and nonpsychologist college professors. There was little evidence that memory psychologists reported using strategies to remember things that were different from the strategies of other academics. The most used and most recommended technique for remembering was to write things down, followed by general internal mnemonic systems such as organization and rehearsal. The least used and least recommended strategies for all three groups were formal mnemonic systems, such as the peg-word system or the method of loci.     

Effects of running and other activities on moods

The purpose of this study was to compare the moods and mood variations of runners to those of aerobic dancers, weight-lifters, and nonexercising controls. The subjects, 70 undergraduates, were participants in a jogging and conditioning, a weight training, an aerobic dance, or an introductory psychology class. A time-series design was used in which all participants completed eight Profile of Mood State questionnaires over a 6-hr. period that centered on the time of the class. Four questionnaires were completed during the second week of classes and the other four about midsemester, approximately 6 wk. later. Runners had a significantly more positive mood profile than nonexercisers and a somewhat more positive one than weight-lifters, but those of runners and aerobic dancers were similar. Changes in moods across time in relation to activity and across semester suggest that exercise, particularly aerobic exercise, helps the regular participant not only to cope with stress but also to have a generally more positive feeling of well-being.     

Effects of Photographic Evidence on Mock Juror Judgement1

Effects of three levels of photographic evidence (color, black & white, no photograph) on 144 female subjects' monetary awards to an injured plaintiff were investigated in a 3 × 2 × 3 factorial design. Also manipulated were two levels of the severity of the plaintiff's injury and three levels of defendant blame. As predicted, a significant three-way interaction was observed such that the magnitude of the difference in monetary damages awarded the more and less severely injured plaintiff was greatest in the presence of the color photograph depicting injuries and when defendant blame was high. An emotional arousal interpretation for the effects of photographic evidence is tentatively offered.