When do children learn from unreliable speakers?

Children do not necessarily disbelieve a speaker with a history of inaccuracy; they take into account reasons for errors. Three- to five-year-olds (N = 97) aimed to identify a hidden target in collaboration with a puppet. The puppet’s history of inaccuracy arose either from false beliefs or occurred despite his being fully informed. On a subsequent test trial, children’s realistic expectation about the target was contradicted by the puppet who was fully informed. Children were more likely to revise their belief in line with the puppet’s assertion when his previous errors were due to false beliefs. Children who explained this puppet’s prior inaccuracy in terms of false belief were more likely to believe the puppet than those who did not. As children’s understanding of the mind advances, they increasingly balance the risk of learning falsehoods from unreliable speakers against that of rejecting truths from speakers who made excusable errors.     

Kasuistik zur Kindeswohlgefährdung bei postpartaler Depression

Postpartum psychiatric disorders adversely affect the relationship between the mother and her baby, frequently in a very serious way. It is common that both objective and subjective aspects of this relationship would be negatively influenced by the maternal pathology. The disturbances that arise from the psychiatric disorders could become a hostile and rejecting quality and could be unfavourable to the long-term development of the child. Obsessional impulses to harm the baby are not rare by mothers in the postpartum period. A large figure of severely depressed and psychotic mothers admited to have had some thoughts of harming or to killing the baby. Some of them have already done harmful things to their babies. Ideations of infanticide or child abuse are not always associated with psychiatric disorders (i.e. depressive symptoms or delusion). They could be a consequence of a severe Bonding disorder.     

The influence of emotional awareness and expressiveness on care-giving burden and health complaints in women and men

This study was designed to investigate the role of emotional awareness and expressiveness as influences on the experience of burden and impaired health for women and men maintaining a spouse or relative at home who had been diagnosed as having dementia. One hundred and thirty-one Caucasian care givers, 41 males and 90 females, participated in the study. Multivariate analysis of variance indicated that women scored higher than men on measures of burden, health complaints, and awareness of others' emotions. Regression analysis indicated that self-awareness of emotions interacted with care-giver gender to decrease health complaints for female care givers but increased health complaints for male care givers. Self-awareness of emotions also increased feelings of burden for male care givers in general and for female care givers experiencing low levels of burden. Awareness of others' emotions tended to reduce feelings of burden. Emotional expressiveness did not influence burden or health complaint scores.This research was funded by grants from the Health Research Funds of Quebec, the Quebec Council for Social Research, and the Montreal Alzheimer Society. The authors would like to express their gratitude to Valerie Takeda, Charlene Stamegna, and Helene Fyfe for their work on the project, and to the families, patients, and staff of the various referral agencies for their cooperation with the study.To whom reprint requests should be addressed at Centre for Research in Human Development, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Boulevard West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3G 1M8.     

Trauma healing in refugee camps in Guinea: a psychosocial program for Liberian and Sierra Leonean survivors of torture and war

From 1999 to 2005, the Minneapolis-based Center for Victims of Torture (CVT) served Liberian and Sierra Leonean survivors of torture and war living in the refugee camps of Guinea. A psychosocial program was developed with 3 main goals: (a) to provide mental health care, (b) to train local refugee counselors, and (c) to raise community awareness about war trauma and mental health. Utilizing paraprofessional counselors under the close, on-site supervision of expatriate clinicians, the treatment model blended elements of Western and indigenous healing. The core component consisted of relationship-based supportive group counseling. Clinical interventions were guided by a 3-stage model of trauma recovery (safety, mourning, reconnection), which was adapted to the realities of the refugee camp setting. Over 4,000 clients were provided with counseling, and an additional 15,000 were provided with other supportive services. Results from follow-up assessments indicated significant reductions in trauma symptoms and increases in measures of daily functioning and social support during and after participation in groups. The treatment model developed in Guinea served as the basis for CVT's ongoing work with survivors in Sierra Leone and Liberia. ((c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).     

The impact of emotional stress early in life on adult voluntary ethanol intake-results of maternal separation in rats

The combination of genetic and environmental factors determines the individual vulnerability for excessive ethanol intake, possibly leading to dependence. The environmental influences early in life represent examples of determinant factors for adult behaviour and can be protective as well as risk factors. Maternal separation is one model to examine the long-term consequences of early environmental experiences on neurochemistry and behaviour, including drug-taking behaviour in experimental animals. In the present review, findings from studies using repeated short and prolonged periods of maternal separation, with emphasis on effects on voluntary ethanol intake in rats with or without a genetic predisposition for high voluntary ethanol intake, are summarized. Despite some contradictory results, the general picture emerging shows that short periods of maternal separation during the postnatal period result in a lower adult voluntary ethanol intake in male rats. Prolonged periods of maternal separation were found to induce a high voluntary ethanol intake in male rats, including rats with a genetic predisposition for high ethanol intake. Results from the literature also show that changes were not just related to time of separation but were also related to the degree of handling. Interestingly, in terms of voluntary ethanol intake, female rats were generally not affected by postnatal maternal separation. The reasons for these sex differences need further investigation. In terms of neurobiological consequences of maternal separation, conclusive data are sparse and one of the future challenges will, therefore, be to identify and characterize underlying neurobiological mechanisms, especially in the individual animal.     

Structural environmental enrichment and the way it is offered influence cognitive judgement bias and anxiety-like behaviours in zebrafish

Animal Cognition - Environmental enrichment in zebrafish generally reduces anxiety-related behaviours, improves learning in maze trials and increases health and biological fitness. However, certain...     

Maternal Psychological Absence and Toddlers' Social‐Emotional Development: Interpretations From the Perspective of Boundary Ambiguity Theory

The current study tests a novel latent construct reflecting psychological absence and examines its relations with maternal depression, mother–toddler interactions, and toddlers' social‐emotional outcomes in a low‐income sample (N = 2,632). Structural equation modeling confirmed a psychological absence construct and revealed that psychological absence, measured at the child's 36‐month birthday‐related assessment, is a significant predictor of children's social‐emotional development at 36 months, mediated by mother–child interaction. Results are interpreted within a boundary ambiguity framework.     

Alcohol effects on performance monitoring and adjustment: affect modulation and impairment of evaluative cognitive control

Alcohol is known to impair self-regulatory control of behavior, though mechanisms for this effect remain unclear. Here, we tested the hypothesis that alcohol's reduction of negative affect (NA) is a key mechanism for such impairment. This hypothesis was tested by measuring the amplitude of the error-related negativity (ERN), a component of the event-related brain potential (ERP) posited to reflect the extent to which behavioral control failures are experienced as distressing, while participants completed a laboratory task requiring self-regulatory control. Alcohol reduced both the ERN and error positivity (Pe) components of the ERP following errors and impaired typical posterror behavioral adjustment. Structural equation modeling indicated that effects of alcohol on both the ERN and posterror adjustment were significantly mediated by reductions in NA. Effects of alcohol on Pe amplitude were unrelated to posterror adjustment, however. These findings indicate a role for affect modulation in understanding alcohol's effects on self-regulatory impairment and more generally support theories linking the ERN with a distress-related response to control failures.     

Personality-based latent classes of posttraumatic psychopathology: personality disorders and the internalizing/externalizing model

Prior research using the Brief Form of the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ-BF; Patrick, Curtin, & Tellegen, 2002) has shown evidence of 3 temperament-based subtypes--termed internalizing, externalizing, and simple PTSD--among individuals with symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; Miller, Greif, & Smith, 2003). This study sought to replicate and extend research in this area by conducting a latent profile analysis of higher order temperament scales from the MPQ-BF using a new sample of 208 veterans with symptoms of PTSD. Results suggest that a 3-class solution reflecting internalizing, externalizing, and simple subtypes of posttraumatic psychopathology provided the best fit to the data. The externalizing subtype was characterized by features of antisocial, borderline, histrionic, and narcissistic personality disorders on the International Personality Disorder Examination (Loranger, 1999) as well as low levels of constraint and high levels of negative emotionality on the MPQ-BF. In contrast, individuals in the internalizing class exhibited features of schizoid and avoidant personality disorders, low levels of positive emotionality, and high levels of negative emotionality. The simple subtype was defined by low levels of comorbid personality disorder features and relatively normal personality profiles. Findings support the reliability of this typology and support the relevance of the internalizing and externalizing model to the structure of personality disorders.     

Environmentalism as a context for expressing identity and generativity: patterns among activists and uninvolved youth and midlife adults

Previous qualitative studies have identified themes of generativity and identity development in the interviews of environmental activists (Chan, 2009 ; Horwitz, 1996 ), suggesting their importance as motives for environmental behavior. The purpose of our study was to extend this work by identifying positive relationships between identity maturity, generativity, and environmentalism using quantitative methodologies. To explore these relationships, we designed quasi‐experimental and correlational studies. We recruited 54 environmental activists and 56 comparison individuals, half of whom were youth (mean age = 22 years) and the other half midlife adults (mean age = 43 years). Sixty‐three percent of our sample was female. Participants completed several environmental, generativity, and identity questionnaires. We found that activists and comparison individuals differed on the identity maturity, generativity, and environmental measures overall. Further, greater identity maturity and generativity were associated with higher environmental engagement. And generativity was found to mediate the relation between identity maturity and environmentalism. Our findings suggest that engaging in generative behaviors may be an important part of the process in forming an environmental identity and engaging in environmental actions.