Relations of child effortful control to personality,well-being and parenting

This study examined effortful control and its relations to personality, parenting and well-being in a community sample of Russian preschool children (N = 365, 46% girls) using parent-reported effortful control scale from the very short form of the children's behaviour questionnaire, the inventory of child individual differences–short version, the Alabama parenting questionnaire—preschool revision, the self-reporting questionnaire, and parent and teacher reports on the strengths and difficulties questionnaire. The findings confirmed the four-factor structure of effortful control, including inhibitory control, attentional control, low-intensity pleasure and perceptual sensitivity. Girls demonstrated higher scores than boys on effortful control, perceptual sensitivity, inhibitory control and low-intensity pleasure. Older children scored higher than younger on inhibitory control and perceptual sensitivity and lower on low-intensity pleasure. Gender and age accounted for less than 3% of the variance in effortful control. Effortful control was associated with personality traits of conscientiousness, agreeableness and openness, and with positive emotions and low-negative affect. Higher effortful control was associated with higher levels of prosocial behaviour and lower levels of externalising and internalising problems. Structural modelling showed that the effect of parenting on child prosocial and problem behaviours may be mediated by effortful control.     

Emotions at primary school: Negative achievement emotions and their relation with emotional competencies in ethnic minority and majority students

Scarce attention has been paid to ethnic minority students' emotions and related competencies at school. Nevertheless, theoretical frameworks such as the control–value theory underline the importance of achievement emotions for students' performance and well‐being. We involved minority (n = 63) and majority (n = 103) students attending the first, third, and fifth grade of primary school. We assessed negative achievement emotions (anxiety, anger, embarrassment, boredom, and hopelessness), emotion understanding, and emotion regulation. Factorial analyses supported the goodness of the structure of a questionnaire measuring the five achievement emotions in Italian and mathematics and its invariance across minority and majority students. Analyses of variance indicated that minority students felt more intense anger, embarrassment, and boredom for Italian and anxiety and embarrassment for mathematics. Path analyses revealed that emotion understanding and emotion regulation were significantly related to achievement emotions. Findings are discussed for their theoretical and applied relevance in promoting well‐being at school among minority and majority students.     

Researchers’ Perceptions of Ethical Authorship Distribution in Collaborative Research Teams

Science and Engineering Ethics - Authorship is commonly used as the basis for the measurement of research productivity. It influences career progression and rewards, making it a valued commodity in...     

Everything is subjective under water surface,too: visual illusions in fish

Animal Cognition - The study of visual illusions has captured the attention of comparative psychologists since the last century, given the unquestionable advantage of investigating complex...     

Ambiguous Loss in Transnational Families’ Adolescents: An Exploratory Study in Ecuador

In psychosocial migration literature, the perspective of ambiguous loss has been relevant to articulate personal and relational experiences in the context of transnational families and ongoing separation. Most studies have focused on adult members’ experiences of transnational families, but research exploring ambiguous loss in adolescents whose parents have migrated is still lacking. The present study aimed to explore adolescents’ lived experiences of parental migration. In a pilot explorative study, 14 adolescents with at least one parent who migrated were interviewed about their lived experiences of transnational parent-child relationships and ongoing parent-child separation. Data analysis identified four themes in participants’ accounts: practices of separation creating confusion; current relationship with migrant parents permeated by ambiguity; distrustful representations of migrant parents; and family and social dynamics reactivating the pain of loss. The findings reveal how in the context of parental migration, patterns of separation and ongoing relational processes, compounded by the uncertainty of reunification and an exclusionary social fabric, constitute core elements that shape adolescents’ lived experiences of parent-child relationships characterized by ambiguity.     

Factor analysis of a Venezuelan fear survey schedule

A Fear Survey Schedule, developed for use by university students in Venezuela, was administered to 871 first-year students at the Simón Bolivar University, Caracas, and subjected to several analyses to identify its factorial structure. Five factors were identified in the male group: Fear of aversive interpersonal events; of Violence and physical assault; of Loss of self-control; of Injuries and surgical operations; and of Animals and insects. Seven factors were identified in the female group, four of them coincided with the male group: Fear of interpersonal events; of Animals and insects; of Injuries and surgery; of Responsibility; of Death and physical threats; of Doctors and hospitals; of Violence and physical assault. The results were compared to those obtained with similar fear surveys of North American and Israeli University students.     

Indirect majority and minority influence: An exploratory study

In a 2 × 2 design, 85 subjects were asked to estimate the size of angles (direct influence) that were either 90 or 85°, after being confronted with incorrect judgements of a majority (88 per cent) or a minority (12 per cent) of people estimating the angles at 50°. Additionally, pre- and post-test measures were used to establish indirect influence on subjects' judgements pertaining to acute angles (i.e. on the estimation of the length of lines constituting the angles, and on the imaginary weight of figures represented by these angles). Overall, little direct influence is observed. This may partly be due to the introduction of a denial of the credibility of the source in all conditions. In fact, some evidence of direct influence is only found in the majority–85° angles condition. An instance of indirect influence (on the estimation of length of lines) appeared as the result of a majority stance when the angles in the experimental phase were 90°. When these angles were 85°, indirect minority influence (on the estimation of weight of figures) was observed. These effects had been predicted on the basis of the hypothesis stating that indirect majority influence would be possible when subjects expected consensus on the correct response (in the 90° angles condition), without being able to reach consensus at the manifest level (because of the denial and the restriction imposed by the clear shape of 90° angles). Indirect minority influence was hypothesized to be stronger in a situation that allows for diverse responses (i.e. for 85° angles).     

Domestic pigs (Sus scrofa) engage in non-random post-conflict affiliation with third parties: cognitive and functional implications

Animal Cognition - In social mammals, conflict resolution involves the reunion of former opponents (aggressor and victim) after an aggressive event (reconciliation) or post-conflict triadic...     

Drawn towards what others seem to like: Implicit preference for objects and people looked at with a duchenne smile

People tend to like objects that are looked at by others, especially if the person looking at the object expresses a positive emotion. But not all positive emotions are equal. We investigated the effect of third party gazing while expressing subtle positive emotions on perceivers’ subsequent preferences and evaluations of objects and people. In two studies participants saw faces looking at target objects and people either with a Duchenne, a non-Duchenne smile, or a neural expression. Participants first indicated gaze direction and later reported intuitive target preference and evaluated the targets. Results show a preference for target stimuli that were smiled at with a Duchenne smile as opposed to when they were looked at with a non-Duchenne smile or a neutral expression. More explicit evaluations of the target stimuli were not affected by the type of facial expression.