Sex,genes and hormones

The multidisciplinary symposium convened by the Society for Women's Health Research 'Sex Begins in the Womb' was held at the Crowne Plaza Cabana, Palo Alto, CA, USA, on 1 March 2002.     

Engaging contexts: Drawing the link between student and teacher experiences of the hidden curriculum

This article examines how academic disengagement (being off task, unenthusiastic and uncurious about learning) is facilitated by the hidden curriculum (the values, norms and beliefs transmitted via the structure of schooling), and mediated by race, ethnicity and gender for students in a working class elementary school. Additionally, we contextualize how a teacher was challenged by the hidden curriculum in her attempt to make her classroom environment engaging for all students. Participants included a young white female teacher and 21 second grade, low‐income students, of whom approximately 50% were white and 50% were Black or Latino/a. A teacher interview and fieldnotes covering 8 hours a week over 3 months comprised the data. Results indicated that students were required to show their engagement in particular ways that related to control and conformity. When they did not, they were reprimanded, which led to academic disengagement and the transmission of the hidden curriculum's message that school was not a place for them. This process was especially salient for Black and Latino boys, which indicated that the hidden curriculum was institutionalized. Results also showed that the hidden curriculum was a structural limitation for the teacher, as she was often thwarted in her attempts to create an academically engaging learning environment. Implications include strategies for school change and reform, including making the hidden curriculum more visible. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cognitive content-specificity in future expectancies: role of hopelessness and intolerance of uncertainty in depression and GAD symptoms

The present study examined cognitive content-specificity in future-event predictions associated with symptoms of depression and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). College undergraduates (N=284) completed measures of depression, GAD, and rated their certainty that a given set of positive and negative outcomes were or were not likely to happen in their future. Participants also completed measures of hopelessness and intolerance of uncertainty (IU). Individuals (N=263) completed the same measures again 6 weeks later. Certainty in an absence of positive future outcomes was associated with symptoms of depression but not GAD, and hopelessness mediated this relationship - concurrently and when examining change scores over 6 weeks. Certainty in negative outcomes was concurrently associated with both symptoms of depression and GAD, and hopelessness partially mediated these relationships. IU predicted concurrent increases in depression and GAD symptoms, and negative-outcome certainty partially mediated the IU-depression but not the IU-GAD symptom relationship. Change in certainty did not mediate the relationship between changes in IU and GAD symptoms but partially mediated the relationship between change in IU and depression symptoms over time. Hopelessness appears to play a unique role in the relationship between reduced anticipation of positive future outcomes and depression. Although less clearly suggested by the data, IU may contribute to both depression and GAD symptoms but may do so through different pathways.     

Online communication, compulsive Internet use, and psychosocial well-being among adolescents: a longitudinal study

The present study investigated the relationships between adolescents' online communication and compulsive Internet use, depression, and loneliness. The study had a 2-wave longitudinal design with an interval of 6 months. The sample consisted of 663 students, 318 male and 345 female, ages 12 to 15 years. Questionnaires were administered in a classroom setting. The results showed that instant messenger use and chatting in chat rooms were positively related to compulsive Internet use 6 months later. Moreover, in agreement with the well-known HomeNet study (R. Kraut et al., 1998), instant messenger use was positively associated with depression 6 months later. Finally, loneliness was negatively related to instant messenger use 6 months later.     

The Implications of Two Conceptions of Happiness (Hedonic Enjoyment and Eudaimonia) for the Understanding of Intrinsic Motivation

The distinction between hedonic enjoyment and eudaimonia was evaluated in three data sets involving use of the Personally Expressive Activities Questionnaire—Standard Form (PEAQ-S) with college student samples (n > 200 in each sample). Indices of these two conceptions of happiness were strongly and reliably related across the three samples. Differences between these two conceptions of happiness were evaluated in two ways. First, we examined and compared correlations of hedonic enjoyment and eudaimonia with variables related to intrinsic motivation. Zero-order correlations involving hedonic enjoyment were significantly stronger with respect to measures of self-determination and interest than were the corresponding correlations involving feelings of personal expressiveness (eudaimonia). In contrast, correlations involving eudaimonia were significantly stronger with measures of the balance of challenges and skills, self-realization values, effort, and importance than were the corresponding correlations with hedonic enjoyment. Second, we empirically distinguished between activities for which both hedonic enjoyment and eudaimonia are present (intrinsically motivated activities) and activities for which hedonic enjoyment alone is present (hedonically enjoyed activities). Intrinsically motivated activities were judged to be significantly higher with respect to measures of the balance of challenges and skills, self-realization values, effort, importance, interest, and flow experiences. No differences between the two categories of activities were found for self-determination and the frequency with which activities were performed. Given these distinguishable patterns in the two conceptions of happiness, a reconceptualization for the understanding of intrinsic motivation is proposed.     

On Enhancing the Cross‐Cultural Comparability of Likert‐Scale Personality and Value Measures: A Comparison of Common Procedures

This study aims to evaluate a number of procedures that have been proposed to enhance cross‐cultural comparability of personality and value data. A priori procedures (anchoring vignettes and direct measures of response styles (i.e. acquiescence, extremity, midpoint responding, and social desirability), a posteriori procedures focusing on data transformations prior to analysis (ipsatization and item parcelling), and two data modelling procedures (treating data as continuous vs as ordered categories) were compared using data collected from university students in 16 countries. We found that (i) anchoring vignettes showed lack of invariance, so they were not bias‐free; (ii) anchoring vignettes showed higher internal consistencies than raw scores where all other correction procedures, notably ipsatization, showed lower internal consistencies; (iii) in measurement invariance testing, no procedure yielded scalar invariance; anchoring vignettes and item parcelling slightly improved comparability, response style correction did not affect it, and ipsatization resulted in lower comparability; (iv) treating Likert‐scale data as categorical resulted in higher levels of comparability; (v) factor scores of scales extracted from different procedures showed similar correlational patterning; and (vi) response style correction was the only procedure that suggested improvement in external validity of country‐level conscientiousness. We conclude that, although no procedure resolves all comparability issues, anchoring vignettes, parcelling, and treating data as ordered categories seem promising to alleviate incomparability. We advise caution in uncritically applying any of these procedures. Copyright © 2017 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Transcending the evidentiary boundary: Prediction error minimization,embodied interaction,and explanatory pluralism

In a recent paper, Jakob Hohwy argues that the emerging predictive processing (PP) perspective on cognition requires us to explain cognitive functioning in purely internalistic and neurocentric terms. The purpose of the present paper is to challenge the view that PP entails a wholesale rejection of positions that are interested in the embodied, embedded, extended, or enactive dimensions of cognitive processes. I will argue that Hohwy’s argument from analogy, which forces an evidentiary boundary into the picture, lacks the argumentative resources to make a convincing case for the conceptual necessity to interpret PP in solely internalistic terms. For this reason, I will reconsider the postulation and explanatory role of the evidentiary boundary. I will arrive at an account of prediction error minimization and its foundation on the free energy principle that is fully consistent with approaches to cognition that emphasize the embodied and interactive properties of cognitive processes. This gives rise to the suggestion that explanatory pluralism about the application of PP is to be preferred over Hohwy’s explanatory monism that follows from his internalistic and neurocentric view of predictive cognitive systems.     

Meta-analysis of the Long-Term Treatment Effects of Psychological Interventions in Youth with PTSD Symptoms

To date, the long-term effectiveness of psychological treatments in reducing post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms in children and adolescents has not been investigated extensively. This meta-analysis quantifies the long-term effects of psychological interventions in children and adolescents with PTSD symptoms and examines the period-dependent follow-up (FU) effects based on 47 studies. The mean FU effect sizes (ESs) for PTSD symptoms ranged from medium (between treatment ESs for controlled studies) to large (within treatment ESs for uncontrolled studies; pooled analysis including all studies). These effects were comparable to the post-treatment ESs, which suggests that the treatment effects remained stable. ESs did not differ depending on the length of the FU period (</>6 months). In randomized controlled trials (RCTs), as well as trials conducted with treatment as usual or active control groups, the long-term treatment effects for the reduction of PTSD symptoms were small. These results demonstrate the long-term effectiveness of psychological interventions in the treatment of PTSD in youth. However, more studies should include a FU assessment. Further research should focus on RCTs with long-term assessments, report comorbid symptoms and investigate the influence of potential moderators. Research is also warranted to determine how to improve the long-term effects of treatments for PTSD in youth.