Two-to-three-year-old children's interactions with peers in child-care centres: Effects of spatial distance to caregivers

In child-care centres, the influence of caregivers on the development of peer interactions seems ambivalent and mixed results are reported in the literature. Adopting an environmental approach, we examined the effects of the caregivers’ spatial proximity on children's social behaviour. The study was carried out with 175 children (18-40 months) in 12 child-care-centre groups. Children's behaviours were observed during free plays, and both children and caregivers’ locations were recorded. When peers were nearby, children's social behaviours were compared when they were in the immediate proximity (within 2 m) and out of the immediate proximity of a caregiver. Results show that in the latter situation children spend substantially more time addressing social overture to peers and interacting with them; positive interactions with peers show a particularly marked difference. This pattern of results is exhibited by the greater part of the children. Whatever the child-care-centre group, the age subgroup or the gender considered similar results are found. Results also demonstrate that when children are in the immediate proximity of caregivers they are socially oriented towards the attractive adult partners rather than towards peers.     

Emotional encounter: Researching young people's intimate spaces in their information & communication technology practices

This article discusses the role and place of emotions in research and, particularly, in researching young people's intimate spaces in their information and communication technology (ICT) practices. It echoes Harris and Hutington's remarks (2001) that we cannot claim to explore and understand people's social life, without taking into account the potentially powerful role played by emotion. In this paper, I show how adopting a relational position in terms of theoretical framework, such as I have developed it, has two main implications: First, it considers the exploration of young people's intimate sphere of emotion as a central task; second, it involves discussing the methodological tools that render such an exploration possible. I present how I translated these implications, by means of an ethnography of young people's practices in Montreal and, notably, by recursive interviews. Finally, I show how emotions cross over, and are imbricated in, both young people's practices and in my relationship with the young people themselves, showing all the great wealth of this emotional encounter.     

Coaction and upward social comparison reduce the illusory conjunction effect: Support for distraction-conflict theory

This article proposes an integration of Festinger’s (1954) social comparison theory and Baron’s (1986) distraction-conflict theory of the social facilitation-inhibition effect, which successfully predicts attentional focusing in coaction when social comparison represents a distraction. Two experiments confronted participants with the illusory conjunction task (Treisman, 1998), where illusions occur because of the lack of attentional processing of central cues. If coaction, like upward comparison, is distracting and thereby enhances the attention allocated to central cues (here the target’s features) at the expense of peripheral cues (here distractors), then a reduction should be found in the illusions. Experiment 1 indeed showed a lower rate of conjunctive errors under upward comparison than under downward comparison. Experiment 2 specified that this effect was due to downward comparison effectively reducing distraction, with upward comparison only maintaining it, as compared to mere coaction.     

Adjusting researchers’ approach to adjustment: On the use of covariates when testing interactions

A common design in social psychology involves the use of two independent variables, an experimental manipulation and a measured individual difference, and the interest is in the interaction between them. In such designs, there are often obvious covariate(s), correlated with the measured independent variable, which the researcher wishes to control. Typically this is done by including the covariate in the analytic model. We show that in most cases this is an inadequate model. In general, the interaction between the two independent variables will be estimated without bias only when the interaction between the covariate and the manipulated independent variable is included in the analysis. We present simulations showing the factors affecting the magnitude of the bias and provide a survey of recent social psychological literature illustrating the frequency of the problem. Finally, we discuss cases where both independent variables are manipulated and the covariate is a potential mediator.     

Effects of task relevance and stimulus-driven salience in feature-search mode

Attentional allocation in feature-search mode (W. F. Bacon & H. E. Egeth, 1994) is thought to be solely determined by top-down factors, with no role for stimulus-driven salience. The authors reassessed this conclusion using variants of the spatial cuing and rapid serial visual presentation paradigms developed by C. L. Folk and colleagues (C. L. Folk, R. W. Remington, & J. C. Johnston, 1992; C. L. Folk, A. B. Leber, & H. E. Egeth, 2002). They found that (a) a nonsingleton distractor that possesses the target feature produces attentional capture, (b) such capture is modulated by bottom-up salience, and (c) resistance to capture by irrelevant singletons is mediated by inhibitory processes. These results extend the role of top-down factors in search for a nonsingleton target while arguing against the notion that effects of bottom-up salience and top-down factors on attentional priority are strictly encapsulated within distinct search modes.     

A matter of time: actual time and the production of the past

In psychoanalytic theory, space metaphors are frequently used to describe the psychic apparatus. As for time, it is traditionally invoked under the heading of timelessness of the unconscious, more aptly described as the resistance of the repressed to wearing away with time. This paper examines how the insertion of time into psychic events and structural differentiation form a single process. After looking into the parallelism between phenomenological and psychoanalytic views of time and differentiation, the author draws a distinction between two time categories: chronological versus actual. A clinical example is presented.     

Some personality correlates of using eBay

The use of eBay by 102 American undergraduate students was not associated with competitiveness, locus of control scores, or money attitude scores.     

Stability of attachment representations: the transition to marriage

This study examined the stability of adult attachment representations across the transition to marriage. One hundred fifty-seven couples were assessed using the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI; C. George, N. Kaplan, & M. Main, 1985), the Current Relationship Interview (J. A. Crowell & G. Owens, 1996), and measures describing relationship functioning and life events 3 months prior to their weddings and 18 months into their marriages. The authors tested the hypotheses that attachment classifications are stable and that change is related to experiences in the relationship and/or life events; 78% of the sample received the same primary AAI classification (secure, preoccupied, and dismissing) at both times. Change was toward increased security and was associated with feelings and cognitions about the relationship. Only 46% of participants initially classified as unresolved retained the classification. Stability of the unresolved classification was associated with stressful life events and relationship aggression.     

Assessing secure base behavior in adulthood: development of a measure,links to adult attachment representations,and relations to couples' communication and reports of relationships

A focus on the secure base phenomenon creates a framework for exploring the function of the attachment system in adulthood. Engaged couples (N = 157) were videotaped in a problem-solving interaction and assessed using the Secure Base Scoring System (SBSS), a system based on Ainsworth's analyses of infant-parent secure base use and support. Study 1 showed behavior was significantly related to representations assessed with the Adult Attachment Interview (M. Main & R. Goldwyn, 1994). In Study 2, the interactions were independently scored with the Rapid Marital Interaction Coding System (RMICS; R. E. Heyman & D. Vivian, 1993), a communication-based system. The SBSS predicted relationship variables beyond the RMICS, especially for women. Results indicate that the secure base phenomenon provides a cogent perspective on adult attachment behavior.