Adolescents without adolescence: reflections on adolescents' formation of subjectivity and their families in a neoliberal context

This study seeks to determine how certain social situations cannot help but influence subjectivity and family ties. The Keynesian age encouraged and promoted a relatively stable socioeconomic matrix based on a probable future and achievable promise. The installation of a family model related to protective parents who were capable of caring for and protecting their children has been observed. Adolescent subjectivity is constructed based on parameters like generational confrontation and growth, and happiness before the possibility of exercising autonomy. On the other hand, neoliberalism produces a "retraction" of social spaces, dismisses the future, and feelings of instability and insecurity are prevalent, making the family model a "structure that overwhelms parents." Adolescent subjectivity seems incapable of executing generational confrontation, predominantly showing a desire to "protect" the family ("exacerbated messiah complex") by means of a fantasy that acts as a "threading scene" capable of annulling the search for autonomy and growth.     

Mental workload and visual impairment: differences between pupil, blink, and subjective rating

This research has two aims: (a) To study the concurrent validity of three measures of mental workload, NASA TLX rating scale, pupil dilation and blink rate, testing the hypothesis that they will provide convergent results using a single-task, and dissociative results for dual-task; and (b) To analyse their capability to predict visual search impairment. These three measures were analyzed in the same cognitive tasks in single-task and dual-task (cognitive task and visual search) conditions in a within-subjects experiment with twenty-nine participants. Mental workload measures showed concurrent validity under single-task condition, but a complex pattern of results arose in the dual-task condition: it is suggested that NASA TLX would be a subjective addition of the rating of each task; pupil dilation would measure the average arousal underlying the cognitive tasks; and the blink rate would produce opposite effects: whereas mental workload of cognitive tasks would increase blink rate, visual demand would inhibit it. All three measures were good predictors of visual impairment. The soundness of these measures is discussed with regard to the applied field of driving and other activities.     

Bilateral capacity for speech sound processing in auditory comprehension: evidence from Wada procedures

Data from lesion studies suggest that the ability to perceive speech sounds, as measured by auditory comprehension tasks, is supported by temporal lobe systems in both the left and right hemisphere. For example, patients with left temporal lobe damage and auditory comprehension deficits (i.e., Wernicke's aphasics), nonetheless comprehend isolated words better than one would expect if their speech perception system had been largely destroyed (70-80% accuracy). Further, when comprehension fails in such patients their errors are more often semantically-based, than-phonemically based. The question addressed by the present study is whether this ability of the right hemisphere to process speech sounds is a result of plastic reorganization following chronic left hemisphere damage, or whether the ability exists in undamaged language systems. We sought to test these possibilities by studying auditory comprehension in acute left versus right hemisphere deactivation during Wada procedures. A series of 20 patients undergoing clinically indicated Wada procedures were asked to listen to an auditorily presented stimulus word, and then point to its matching picture on a card that contained the target picture, a semantic foil, a phonemic foil, and an unrelated foil. This task was performed under three conditions, baseline, during left carotid injection of sodium amytal, and during right carotid injection of sodium amytal. Overall, left hemisphere injection led to a significantly higher error rate than right hemisphere injection. However, consistent with lesion work, the majority (75%) of these errors were semantic in nature. These findings suggest that auditory comprehension deficits are predominantly semantic in nature, even following acute left hemisphere disruption. This, in turn, supports the hypothesis that the right hemisphere is capable of speech sound processing in the intact brain.     

With a little help from my cross-group friend: reducing anxiety in intergroup contexts through cross-group friendship

The authors induced cross-group friendship between Latinos/as and Whites to test the effects of cross-group friendship on anxiety in intergroup contexts. Cross-group friendship led to decreases in cortisol reactivity (a hormonal correlate of stress; W. R. Lovallo & T. L. Thomas, 2000) over 3 friendship meetings among participants high in race-based rejection sensitivity (R. Mendoza-Denton, G. Downey, V. J. Purdie, A. Davis, & J. Pietrzak, 2002) and participants high in implicit prejudice (A. G. Greenwald, B. A. Nosek, & M. R. Banaji, 2003). Cross-group partners' prior intergroup contact moderated the relationship between race-based rejection sensitivity and cortisol reactivity. Following the manipulation, participants kept daily diaries of their experiences in an ethnically diverse setting. Implicitly prejudiced participants initiated more intergroup interactions during the diary period after making a cross-group friend. Participants who had made a cross-group friend reported lower anxious mood during the diary period, which compensated for greater anxious mood among participants high in race-based rejection sensitivity. These findings provide experimental evidence that cross-group friendship is beneficial for people who are likely to experience anxiety in intergroup contexts.     

Characterization and sociocultural predictors of neuropsychological test performance in HIV+ Hispanic individuals

Hispanic individuals in the U.S. have been disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS, yet little is known regarding the neuropsychological sequelae of HIV within the Hispanic population. This study characterized neuropsychological (NP) test performance of HIV+ English-speaking Hispanic participants (n = 51) and investigated the combined roles of sociocultural factors (e.g., ethnicity, socioeconomic status [SES] proxy, and reading level) on NP test performance among our HIV+ Hispanic and non-Hispanic White participants (n = 49). Results revealed that the pattern of NP impairment in HIV+ Hispanic participants is consistent with the frontal-striatal pattern observed in HIV-associated CNS sequelae, and the overall prevalence of global NP impairment was high compared to previous reports with more ethnically homogeneous, non-Hispanic White cohorts. Multivariate prediction models that considered both sociocultural factors and CD4 count revealed that reading level was the only unique predictor of global NP functioning, learning, and attention/working memory. In contrast, ethnicity was the only unique predictor of abstraction/executive functioning. This study provides support for the use of neuropsychological evaluation in detecting HIV-associated NP impairment among HIV+ Hispanic participants and adds to the growing literature regarding the importance of considering sociocultural factors in the interpretation of NP test performance.     

Body weight increase in expectant males and helpers of cotton-top tamarin (Saguinus oedipus): a symptom of the Couvade syndrome?

In the cooperative breeding system of cotton-top tamarin (TCB; Saguinus oedipus) males gain weight during the last months of pregnancy of their partners as a way to cope with energy costs of reproduction. This phenomenon was described only in humans as a symptom of . As after infants' birth, TCB male and female helpers lose weight, the same as fathers do, it might be expected that previously, they also gain weight. In 8 groups of TCB, we explored body weight changes of the three categories of individuals, in periods of six months, under three different reproductive conditions: control (no pregnancy and without offspring), pregnancy (pregnancy and without offspring), and raising (with offspring). We found that across pregnancy, TCBs increase their weight in the last trimester of that period while across breeding TCBs reduce their weight in the first trimester. Expectant males and also helpers could be preparing during pregnancy in relation to the weight losses they experience when raising their young.     

The effect of workplace byllying on insomnia: the role of psychological detachment and rumination

A recent number of studies have focused on the relations between psychosocial factors and sleep disturbances. Like other work-related stressors, workplace byllying is associated with several negative consequences. However, few studies have investigated the influence of workplace byllying on disturbed sleep. Insomnia is the most frequent sleep complaint. Several models have highlighted the importance of cognitive factors in the development and maintenance of insomnia. Cognitive styles such as psychological detachment and rumination may be relevant in this process. The aim of the present study is to examine the moderating role of psychological detachment and rumination on the relationship between workplace byllying and insomnia. To minimize the effect of common method variance, we tested our hypothesis using a research design in which we collected data at two points in time separated by 1 month. A total of 523 individuals responded to both phases, with 511 useable surveys. The results of the hierarchical multiple regression analysis provide evidence for the moderating role of psychological detachment and rumination in the workplace byllying process. Thus, these findings are in line with the cognitive models of insomnia.     

应激和应付反应对身体健康的影响

应激和应付反应对身体健康的影响取决于大脑的各种不同功能的相互密切关系。这包括感知和最高级的推理过程、情绪和内驱力以及控制生命所必需的一些功能,如呼吸、心律、血压和各种代谢过程。大脑的所有这些功能是相互密切地联系着的。对“我的孩子可能有癌症”这个结论的感知,以及作出这样的推理,会引起强烈的恐惧,这就会使一个人脸     

黑非洲的文明与哲学

一、论黑非洲思想的同一性对黑非洲思想各种各样的解释,超过了有关它的大量理论。这种情况表明:从本质上看,黑非洲思想是哲学上的难题。人们要对这样一种思想进行哲学分析,必然会遇到很大的困难,因为非洲宇宙观的思想内容决不可能与西方思想的概念内容相一致。按照西方的传统,     

The transfer of respondent eliciting and extinction functions through stimulus equivalence classes

Two studies investigated the transfer of respondent elicitation through equivalence classes. In Experiment 1, match-to-sample procedures were used to teach 8 subjects two four-member equivalence classes. One member of one class was then paired with electric shock, and one member of the other class was presented without shock. All remaining stimuli were then presented. Using skin conductance as the measure of conditioning, transfer of conditioning was demonstrated in 6 of the 8 subjects. In Experiment 2, similar procedures were used to replicate the results of Experiment 1 and investigate the transfer of extinction. Following equivalence training and conditioning to all members of one class, one member was then presented in extinction. When the remaining stimuli from this class were then presented, they failed to elicit skin conductance. In the final phase of the experiment, the stimulus that was previously presented in extinction was reconditioned. Test trials with other members of the class revealed that they regained elicitation function. These results demonstrate that both respondent elicitation and extinction can transfer through stimulus classes. The clinical and applied significance of the results is discussed.