Examining the Social Context of Bullying Behaviors in Early Adolescence

Familial and adult influences, peer relations, and distal contextual factors were tested as correlates of a continuous measure of bullying behavior within a sample of 558 middle school students. Only 19.5% of the sample reported exhibiting no bullying behavior in the past 30 days. Parental physical discipline, time spent without adult supervision, negative peer influences, and neighborhood safety concerns were each positively associated with bullying behavior. In contrast, positive adult role models were associated with less bullying behavior. Results suggest that counselors should focus prevention and intervention efforts on the risk factors within the larger social context of an adolescent's life.     

Maturation of the long-latency auditory ERP: step function changes at start and end of adolescence

The auditory event-related potential (ERP) is obtained by averaging electrical impulses recorded from the scalp in response to repeated stimuli. Previous work has shown large differences between children, adolescents and adults in the late auditory ERP, raising the possibility that analysis of waveform shape might be useful as an index of brain maturity. We reanalysed auditory ERPs from samples previously described by Albrecht, von Suchodoletz and Uwer (2000) and Uwer, Albrecht and von Suchodoletz (2002), using the intraclass correlation (ICC) as a global measure of similarity of an individual's waveform to a grand average comparison waveform for each age band. Three developmental periods were clearly distinguished: 5 to 12 years, 13 to 16 years, and adulthood. However, within each of these periods, there was no evidence of any developmental progression with age.     

The socialization of dominance: peer group contextual effects on homophobic and dominance attitudes

Using the framework of social dominance theory, the current investigation tested for the contextual effects of adolescent peer groups on individuals' homophobic and social dominance attitudes. Results from multilevel models indicated that significant differences existed across peer groups on homophobic attitudes. In addition, these differences were accounted for on the basis of the hierarchy-enhancing or -attenuating climate of the group. A group socialization effect on individuals' social dominance attitudes over time was also observed. Furthermore, the social climate of the peer group moderated the stability of individuals' social dominance attitudes. Findings support the need to examine more proximal and informal group affiliations and earlier developmental periods in efforts to build more comprehensive theoretical models explaining when and how prejudiced and dominance attitudes are formed and the way in which they are perpetuated.     

Book reviews

MARCUS, M. P. A Theory of Syntactic Recognition for Natural Language. Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England: The MIT Press. 1980. Pp. 335. £15.50.

LASSMAN, F. M., FISCH, R. O., VETTER, D. K. and LA BENZ, E. S. Early Correlates of Speech, Language, and Hearing. Littleton, Mass.: PSG Publishing Co. 1980. Pp. 858. ISBN 0 88416 214 1.     

Retracted: Effects of cartoon violence on aggressive thoughts and aggressive behaviors

This article reports on an experiment designed to test whether the cartoon manipulation leads to significant increases in aggressive thoughts and aggressive behaviors among Chinese children (n = 3,000). Results indicated that brief exposure to a violent cartoon triggered higher aggressive thoughts and aggressive behaviors than a nonviolent cartoon. Females displayed higher aggressive thoughts and aggressive behaviors than males in a nonviolent cartoon condition, while males displayed higher aggressive behaviors than females in a violent cartoon condition. Mediation analysis suggested that the effect on aggressive behaviors was mediated by aggressive thoughts. The findings imply that cartoon developers, parents, and teachers should develop cartoons that inhibit children's aggressive thoughts to avoid aggressive behaviors. Females are the key group for the prevention and intervention of aggression in a nonviolent cartoon context, while males are the key group for the prevention and intervention of aggression in a violent cartoon context.     

Stimulus control depends on the subjective value of the outcome

Stimuli that provide information about likely future reinforcers tend to shift behavior, provided a reliable relation between the stimulus and the reinforcer can be discriminated. Stimuli that are apparently more reliable exert greater control over behavior. We asked how the subjective value (measured in terms of preference) of reinforcers associated with stimuli influences stimulus control. Five pigeons worked on a concurrent chains procedure in which half of all trials ended in a smaller reinforcer sooner, and the other half in a larger reinforcer later. In Signaled trials, the color and flash duration on the keys in the initial link signaled the outcome of the trial. In Conflicting probe trials, the color and the flash duration signaled conflicting information about the outcome of the trial. Choice in Signaled trials shifted toward the signaled outcome, but was never exclusive. In Conflicting probe trials, control was divided idiosyncratically between the 2 stimulus dimensions, but still favored the outcome with the higher subjective value. Thus, stimulus control depends not only on the perceived reliability of stimuli, but also on the subjective value of the outcome.     

When Sleeping Dogs Awake,There Is Wisdom: Holmes’s Response to Guralnik,White, and Tummala-Nara

Whether the three discussions are framed in terms of the pull on all of us to the socio-political world in which we live (Guralnik), the usefulness of interpersonal psychoanalysis as a way of working (White), or the need to legitimize culturally imposed trauma in the face of resistances to doing so (Tummala-Narra), each commentator offers meaningful elaborations on what I have offered and/or alternative perspectives to be considered. This response affords me a welcome opportunity to celebrate and elaborate the multiple ways in which culture and cultural trauma can be conceptualized, understood, and worked with in the consultation room. I hope these papers, considered together, will make cultural trauma more accessible to work with for all psychoanalytic clinicians.