Gender differences in subjective distress to emotional and sexual infidelity: Evolutionary or logical inference explanation?

Men and women were asked to imagine a romantic partner being sexually unfaithful and/or emotionally unfaithful. Three hypotheses regarding gender differences in subjective distress to sexual and emotional infidelity, and in the inferences linking the infidelities were tested. The results indicated that more men than women were distressed by imagining a partner enjoying passionate sexual intercourse with another person, and more women than men were distressed by imagining a partner forming a deep emotional attachment to another person. Asking another group of women and men to imagine a partner committing both infidelities at the same time, and then to indicate which component of the combined infidelity was the most distressing, produced the same sexual asymmetries. The prediction that men will infer from a partner's sexual infidelity the co-occurrence of emotional infidelity and that women will infer from a partner’s emotional infidelity the co-occurrence of sexual infidelity was not supported. An evolutionary perspective, rather than an alternative analysis emphasizing the different inferences men and women draw from sex and love, provided a satisfactory explanation of the sexual asymmetries in the cues to jealousy.     

Perceptual wholes can reduce the conscious accessibility of their parts

Humans can rapidly extract object and category information from an image despite surprising limitations in detecting changes to the individual parts of that image. In this article we provide evidence that the construction of a perceptual whole, or Gestalt, reduces awareness of changes to the parts of this object. This result suggests that the rapid extraction of a perceptual Gestalt, and the inaccessibility of the parts that make up that Gestalt, may in fact reflect two sides of the same coin whereby human vision provides only the most useful level of abstraction to conscious awareness.     

Beyond Acculturation: An Investigation of the Relationship of Familism and Parenting to Behavior Problems in Hispanic Youth

In the adolescent research literature, acculturation processes have been linked to the development of serious behavior problems in Hispanic adolescents, but not enough is known about how that process takes place. This article reports an investigation that sought to shed light on empirically plausible mechanisms by which family processes (i.e., familism and parenting practices) may operate as mediators of acculturation‐related factors on adolescent problem behaviors among 167 Hispanic sixth‐ or seventh‐grade early adolescents. SEM analyses identified an empirically plausible mediated pathway through which parenting practices may operate as a mediator of the effects of acculturation‐related variables on adolescent problem behaviors. Second, although the role of familism as a mediator was not supported, the results did provide support for familism having indirect effects on behavior problems also through parenting practices. The findings are discussed in the context of existing research and clinical developments in the treatment of Hispanic adolescents and families.     

The compression block technique

Remembering the distance or end-location of an interpolated movement interfered equally with the retention of criterion movement end-location. Interpolated distances were recalled less well than interpolated locations. These results were interpreted as evidence of capacity interference rather than structural interference with a visual/kinesthetic integrated store.     

Virtual Learning in a Socially Digitized World

Contemporary education is awakening from a crisis that has held the development of its potential and its relevance at bay for well over a century. Revolutions in science and spirituality are emerging a new relational intelligence that demands commensurate educational paradigms for its blossoming into daily engagements with life and the world around us. At the same time as people are leading increasingly interconnected lives, aware of and often participating in the narratives of people and ecosystems in other parts of the planet, information and communications technologies are increasingly integrating with and serving to mediate the human experience. This article explores the power of this confluence at the current nexus of civilizational demands in the context of increased planetary stresses and destabilizations. The case is made for a thrivable education praxis that draws on these emergent aspects of our developmental potential and emphasizes the importance of functional conviviality as an operational principle of learning for life.     

The drawing of squares and diamonds: a perceptual-motor task analysis

The aim of the present study was to establish the role of perceptual-motor factors in copying an equilateral four-sided figure. Children, 5 to 12 years, and adults, were asked to copy the figure presented in either "square" or "diamond" orientation under five conditions: control; large model presentation; neutral picture frame surround; partial visual information reduction; and total visual information loss. The model was present at all times. Scores were orientation and angular variability. Developmental trends were found for both figures; the diamond was less well performed than the square at all ages tested. Three perceptual-motor factors were found to be important: formulation of the movement plan; movement programming, and sensory feedback. The difficulty of the diamond is thought to be due to the high programming and hence planning demands in drawing oblique lines. Both kinaesthesis and sequential vision are important factors in drawing; and only from 12 years of age are environmental cues used efficiently to orient the figure.     

On the Varieties of National Attachment: Blind Versus Constructive Patriotism

Two studies explored a theoretical distinction between "blind" and "constructive" patriotism. Blind patriotism is defined as an attachment to country characterized by unquestioning positive evaluation, staunch allegiance, and intolerance of criticism. Constructive patriotism is defined as an attachment to country characterized by support for questioning and criticism of current group practices that are intended to result in positive change. Items designed to investigate these dimensions of national attachment were administered to two groups of undergraduates in separate surveys. Measures of the two constructs derived from factor analysis of the responses proved to be reliable and valid. Blind patriotism was positively associated with political disengagement, nationalism, perceptions of foreign threat, perceived importance of symbolic behaviors, and selective exposure to pro-U.S. information. In contrast, constructive patriotism was positively associated with multiple indicators of political involvement, including political efficacy, interest, knowledge, and behavior. The implications of this distinction for theory and research on patriotism are discussed.     

Perceptual-motor development and prevention of clumsiness

Summary This longitudinal study, following children's development over three years, examines the developmental trends in the processes underlying perceptual-motor behaviour. Entry into the study was at first year of primary school, at age 6. The study has three aims: (1) to obtain developmental trends in kinaesthesis and motor-programming processes; (2) to examine the relationship between slow kinaesthetic and motor development; (3) to establish the effect of accelerated kinaesthetic development and prevention of perceptual-motor dysfunction (clumsiness). The results to date show that over 60% of children entering primary school have not developed the kinaesthetic ability necessary for the acquisition and learning of educationally demanded motor skills. Kinaesthetic development is accelerated spontaneously in some children as a response to educational demands; in others a single exposure to kinaesthetic input triggers significant improvement. In the remaining 17% kinaesthetic training can alleviate the kinaesthetic dysfunction. At age 5–6 years only 25 children (8.1%) performed the Perceptual-Motor Abilities Test at levels indicative of perceptual-motor dysfunction. Of these, 13 children (4.2%) were identified as having motor difficulties. These low incidence rates indicate that a low level of kinaesthetic ability has no effect on general motor function at the beginning of schooling, and that only when competence in complex motor skills is expected, from the third year of schooling, does perceptual-motor dysfunction (PMD) become manifest.The work reported in this article was supported by Australian Research Council Grant number A78931998     

Moral judgment-situation interaction as a basis for predicting prosocial behavior1

In a situation where an “ailing” confederate needed help, three experimental conditions varied the permissibility of interrupting a task to perform prosocial acts. A Situation by Moral Judgment interaction was predicted: Stage 3 and 4 subjects defining right action in accordance with conventional expectations and obligations, respectively, would not help in any of the three conditions; stage 5 subjects defining right action in accordance with human rights and contractual obligations would help in the permission condition. It was hypothesized that only within the boundaries of the permission condition would stage 5 subjects be able to resolve the conflict between their responsibility to the welfare of the “ailing” person and their obligation to maintain a contractual agreement with the experimenter to continue working on the task. Results supported the prediction. The greatest incidence of helping, both in terms of responding to the “ailing” person's distress and providing active help, occurred among stage 5 subjects in the permission condition. Implications of a situational interaction approach for the study of moral action/moral behavior relationship are discussed.