Learning difficulties,social intelligence,and self-concept: connections to bully-victim problems

Learning skills, social intelligence, and self-concept were related to each other and to bully-victim problems among fifth-grade children (79 boys and 62 girls, aged 11-12 years). In addition to exploring connections between single variables, a person-oriented approach was applied in order to analyze children's value patterns with respect to learning skills, self-concept, and social intelligence, and how these value patterns are related to bully-victim problems. Social intelligence was found to be positively correlated with learning skills, but negatively related to victimization. Bullying was positively correlated with self-concept scores. However, this was true only of boys. According to cross-tabulations, there were significantly more bullies among children with learning difficulties (LD) than would have been expected by chance. Victimization, on the other hand, was not related to LD. LD children's proposed victim status was in some degree supported by cluster analysis: a group of LD children emerged, who not only scored high on bullying, but also tended to be victimized by others. In addition, two groups of bullies appeared: one whose members could be interpreted as socially unskilled and another as socially skilled. This finding is in line with recent theoretical reasoning, which calls into question the idea of bullies as a unified group, lacking in social skills.     

Does owner handedness influence paw preference in dogs?

Animal Cognition - Handedness has proven to be the most effective and least intrusive measure of laterality in many species. Several studies have investigated paw preference in dogs (Canis...     

Development and psychometric validation of the verbal affective memory test

We here present the development and validation of the Verbal Affective Memory Test-24 (VAMT-24). First, we ensured face validity by selecting 24 words reliably perceived as positive, negative or neutral, respectively, according to healthy Danish adults’ valence ratings of 210 common and non-taboo words. Second, we studied the test's psychometric properties in healthy adults. Finally, we investigated whether individuals diagnosed with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) differed from healthy controls on seasonal changes in affective recall. Recall rates were internally consistent and reliable and converged satisfactorily with established non-affective verbal tests. Immediate recall (IMR) for positive words exceeded IMR for negative words in the healthy sample. Relatedly, individuals with SAD showed a significantly larger decrease in positive recall from summer to winter than healthy controls. Furthermore, larger seasonal decreases in positive recall significantly predicted larger increases in depressive symptoms. Retest reliability was satisfactory, rs?≥?.77. In conclusion, VAMT-24 is more thoroughly developed and validated than existing verbal affective memory tests and showed satisfactory psychometric properties. VAMT-24 seems especially sensitive to measuring positive verbal recall bias, perhaps due to the application of common, non-taboo words. Based on the psychometric and clinical results, we recommend VAMT-24 for international translations and studies of affective memory.     

Sexism and racism perceptions: It depends on who does it and why

Outgroup perpetrators of discrimination are perceived as more biased than ingroup perpetrators, potentially because perpetrator group membership drives inferences regarding their motivation to discriminate. Consequently, when outgroup perpetrators provide hostile justification, greater discrimination and illegitimacy will be perceived compared to when ingroup perpetrators do so. In contrast, benevolent justifications reduce differences in discrimination and illegitimacy perception for outgroup versus ingroup perpetrators. In two experiments (Ns = 243; 382) dealing with sexism and racism, results supported our reasoning that the perpetrator’s explicit justification moderates the influence of the perpetrator’s group membership on discrimination and illegitimacy perception. Results of a third experiment (N = 489) show that when no justifications are provided, the prototype effect on discrimination perception mirrors the prototype effect under hostile justification, but not under benevolent justification. The results are more mixed concerning perceived illegitimacy. We discuss the implications of these findings regarding the processes underlying the prototype effect.     

Assessing variations in the expression of gratitude in youth: A three-cohort replication in southern Brazil

Children are not born grateful; their understanding and expression of gratitude develops during childhood and adolescence. We used a qualitative measure designed to assess how youth would respond to a benefactor, hypothesizing that their types of responses would systematically alter with age, and were able to test the reliability of this measure via replication across three cohorts. Participants (N = 1101) aged 7 to 14 constituted three independent cohorts (2008, 2012, and 2015–2017) from the same southern Brazilian city. Participants’ responses were reliably coded into three types of gratitude (verbal, concrete, and connective); across samples, older youth were more likely to express verbal and connective gratitude; younger youth were more likely to express concrete gratitude. The age-related patterns of expression were very similar in each of the three samples (one discrepant result from nine possible), suggesting that it is a reliable measure with which to assess age-related changes in the expression of youth gratitude. Gratitude, we suggest, is not simply a unidimensional construct allowing judgments of how grateful individuals are; instead, our research suggests that youth of different ages express different types of gratitude, increasingly more complex, the most sophisticated of which comes closest to gratitude as a virtue.

     

How extraverted is honey.bunny77@hotmail.de? Inferring personality from e-mail addresses

Computer mediated communication (CMC) plays a rapidly growing role in our social lives. Within this domain, e-mail addresses represent the thinnest slice of information that people receive from one another. Using 599 e-mail addresses of young adults, their self-reported personality scores and the personality judgments of 100 independent observers, it was shown that personality impressions based solely on e-mail addresses were consensually shared by observers. Moreover, these impressions contained some degree of validity. This was true for neuroticism, openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and narcissism but not for extraversion. Level of accuracy was explained using lens model analyses: Lay observers made broad use of perceivable e-mail address features in their personality judgments, features were slightly valid and observers were sensitive to subtle differences in validity between cues. Altogether, even the thinnest slice of CMC—the mere e-mail address—contains valid information about the personality of its owner.     

Transformative Spirituality and Mission as Healing and Reconciliation

The memory of the therapeutic praxis of Jesus Christ, narrated and celebrated in the heart of communities of believers, configures the personal and collective identity and recreates it in each social‐historical situation. This memory has the power of questioning discourses and practices that move away from the message of life in fullness that they involve; it invites change and encourages ways of life in harmony with the path of a great community of memory which, in its diversity, has sought to walk in the steps of the Resurrected. The healing encounters are therefore a manifestation of the love and mercy of God and they aim to make men and women open themselves up to this reality and allow themselves to be transformed by it, putting it at the centre of their lives and with the possibility of transforming all dimensions of life. Then, communities and every person become mediators of healing and salvation. In this article I aim to reflect the most significant dimensions of the therapeutic praxis of Christ in order to illuminate mission and transformative spirituality as healing and reconciliation (mercy, proximity, living touch, compassionate gaze, listening, dialogue and liberating word, forgiveness). The summons to heal and reconcile gradually intertwines with a way and style of life and a way of committing to history by welcoming the Spirit of God that acts and reveals itself therein.     

Zika virus and pregnant women: A psychological approach

Zika virus presents risk of physical harm to pregnant women, but the fear of infection is also affecting women around the world. There is a gap in the research on Zika virus in the areas involving the impact on the psychosocial well-being of pregnant women. Therefore, this study is aimed at the investigation of the psychosocial adjustment of pregnant women to the risks of Zika virus infection during pregnancy. We investigated 14 pregnant women who were classified in three different groups: six in the first trimester, five in the second trimester and three in the third trimester, aged from 28 to 40 years (33.43 ± 3.76 years). Content analysis was used to interpret data. Our results show that the psychosocial adjustment of participants was significantly negative and included five aspects: (1) negative feelings, (2) changes in family planning, (3) adopting new customs (avoiding places of risk, use of specific clothes and use of repellent), (4) changed attitudes regarding body image and (5) feeling of external demand regarding prevention. The fear of Zika virus infection and all its associated risks have a negative biopsychosocial impact on the pregnant women in this study.