Rules, praise, and ignoring: elements of elementary classroom control

An attempt was made to vary systematically the behavior of two elementary school teachers to determine the effects on classroom behavior of Rules, Ignoring Inappropriate Behaviors, and showing Approval for Appropriate Behavior. Behaviors of two children in one class and one child in the other class were recorded by observers, as were samples of the teachers' behavior. Following baseline recordings, Rules, Ignoring, and Approval conditions were introduced one at a time. In one class a reversal of conditions was carried out. The main conclusions were that: (a) Rules alone exerted little effect on classroom behavior, (b) Ignoring Inappropriate Behavior and showing Approval for Appropriate Behavior (in combination) were very effective in achieving better classroom behavior, and (c) showing Approval for Appropriate Behaviors is probably the key to effective classroom management.     

A Conceptual Structure of Justice - Providing a Tool to Analyse Conceptions of Justice

Justice is a contested concept. There are many different and competing conceptions, i.e. interpretations of the concept. Different domains of justice deal with different fields of application of justice claims, such as structural justice, distributive justice, participatory justice or recognition. We present a formal conceptual structure of justice applicable to all these domains. We show that conceptions of justice can be described by specifying the following conceptual elements: the judicandum (that which is to be judged as just or unjust), the community of justice including claim holders and claim addressees, their claims (and obligations), the informational base for the assessment, the principles of justice, and on a more practical level, the instruments of justice. By specifying these conceptual elements of justice, it is possible to analyse and compare different conceptions of justice, to assess their internal consistency, to explore new definitions of justice in an analytical way, and to explicate an idea of justice in a manner that provides concrete links to the relevant context.     

Forcing your luck: Goal-striving behavior in chance situations

Previous research suggests that desired end-states (i.e., goals) initiate a set of motivational processes supporting goal-attainment. For example, motivational intensity (e.g., effort investment) increases as distance to the goal decreases. The present studies investigate whether this goal-gradient can also be observed in chance determined situations, situations in which there is a desired end-state (i.e., winning) but in which increased effort investment does not support goal-attainment. Three studies provide consistent evidence for the goal-gradient in chance determined situations. We show that participants (in the lab and in a TV game show) invest more effort into goal-directed behavior the closer they get to the end of the game. The moderation of expectancy and value was, however, modest. Interestingly, participants’ self-reports suggest that their dynamic changes in behavior were unintentional and perceived as non-instrumental. Findings are related to theories of goal pursuit and illusory control, and contrasted to the principle of resource conservation, according to which such behavior should not occur.     

Visual search for emotional expressions: Effect of stimulus set on anger and happiness superiority

Prior reports of preferential detection of emotional expressions in visual search have yielded inconsistent results, even for face stimuli that avoid obvious expression-related perceptual confounds. The current study investigated inconsistent reports of anger and happiness superiority effects using face stimuli drawn from the same database. Experiment 1 excluded procedural differences as a potential factor, replicating a happiness superiority effect in a procedure that previously yielded an anger superiority effect. Experiments 2a and 2b confirmed that image colour or poser gender did not account for prior inconsistent findings. Experiments 3a and 3b identified stimulus set as the critical variable, revealing happiness or anger superiority effects for two partially overlapping sets of face stimuli. The current results highlight the critical role of stimulus selection for the observation of happiness or anger superiority effects in visual search even for face stimuli that avoid obvious expression related perceptual confounds and are drawn from a single database.     

Still Doing Fine? The Interplay of Negative Life Events and Self‐Esteem During Young Adulthood

This longitudinal study investigated the bidirectional relationship between negative life events and self‐esteem during the transition from adolescence to young adulthood (N = 2272). Drawing on theories of human development over the lifespan and just‐world theory, we analyzed age‐graded changes in self‐esteem and their interplay with negative life events at three measurement points over a 12‐year period. We addressed both the short‐term and the longer term effects of single as well as multiple negative life events on changes in self‐esteem (socialization effects). We further investigated whether the pre‐event level of self‐esteem affected the likelihood of negative life events occurring (selection effects) and, finally, whether it had protective effects in terms of helping people adjust to negative events. Latent change models yielded four main findings: (i) self‐esteem increased during young adulthood; (ii) socialization effects were observed over shorter and longer timespans, but (iii) selection effects were only found for multiple negative life events, with low self‐esteem predicting a high number of negative life events; (iv) high pre‐event self‐esteem acted as a protective factor, attenuating declines in self‐esteem after experience of multiple negative life events. Copyright © 2016 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Internal and External Validity of Sluggish Cognitive Tempo and ADHD Inattention Dimensions with Teacher Ratings of Nepali Children

The objective was to evaluate the validity of sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) and ADHD-inattention (IN) symptoms in children from Nepal. Teachers rated SCT, ADHD-IN, ADHD-hyperactivity/impulsivity (HI), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), anxiety, depression, academic impairment, social impairment, and peer rejection dimensions in 366 children (50 % girls) in first through sixth grades (M _age?=?9.35, SD _age?=?1.96) on two separate occasions separated by 4-weeks. Seven of the eight SCT symptoms and all nine ADHD-IN symptoms showed convergent validity (substantial loadings on their respective factors) and discriminant validity (higher loadings on their respective factor than the alternative factor) at both time-points. Across all three separate analyses (assessment 1, assessment 2, and from assessment 1 to assessment 2), higher SCT scores were associated with lower ADHD-HI scores and higher depression, academic impairment, and social impairment scores after controlling for ADHD-IN while higher ADHD-IN scores were associated with higher ADHD-HI, ODD, academic impairment, and peer rejection scores after controlling for SCT. Also, as hypothesized, SCT scores were not related to ODD scores after controlling for ADHD-IN. The study provides the first evidence for the internal and external validity of the SCT dimension relative to the ADHD-IN dimension with teacher ratings of children from Nepal, thereby increasing the validity of the SCT construct beyond North America, Western Europe, South America, and South Korea.     

Risk Factors Associated with Proactive and Reactive Aggression in a Child Psychiatric Inpatient Sample

Proactive and reactive aggression represent distinct functions of aggression that are associated with different risk factors, including individual and contextual characteristics. However, more research evaluating the interactive effects of risk factors is needed. The current study evaluated whether corporal punishment moderated the influence of neighborhood problems and anger coping on proactive and reactive aggression in a child psychiatric inpatient sample of 6 to 13 year olds (n?=?151). Findings were compared across child- and caregiver-reports of aggression. Consistent with expectations, anger coping was more strongly associated with reactive aggression than proactive aggression across informants. In contrast, perceived neighborhood problems were only associated with child-reports of proactive aggression, with corporal punishment moderating this association. Specifically, the association between neighborhood problems and proactive aggression was only evident at high levels of corporal punishment. Treatment implications and future directions are discussed.