Using diffusion models to understand clinical disorders

Sequential sampling models provide an alternative to traditional analyses of reaction times and accuracy in two-choice tasks. These models are reviewed with particular focus on the diffusion model (Ratcliff, 1978) and how its application can aid research on clinical disorders. The advantages of a diffusion model analysis over traditional comparisons are shown through simulations and a simple lexical decision experiment. Application of the diffusion model to a clinically relevant topic is demonstrated through an analysis of data from nonclinical participants with high- and low-trait anxiety in a recognition memory task. The model showed that after committing an error, participants with high-trait anxiety responded more cautiously by increasing their boundary separation, whereas participants with low-trait anxiety did not. The article concludes with suggestions for ways to improve and broaden the application of these models to studies of clinical disorders.     

Chinese Children's Moral Evaluation of Lies and Truths-Roles of Context and Parental Individualism-Collectivism Tendencies

The present study examined Chinese children's moral evaluations of truths and lies about one's own pro-social acts. Children ages 7, 9, and 11 were read vignettes in which a protagonist performs a good deed and is asked about it by a teacher, either in front of the class or in private. In response, the protagonist either tells a modest lie, which is highly valued by the Chinese culture, or tells an immodest truth, which violates the Chinese cultural norms about modesty. Children were asked to identify whether the protagonist's statement was the truth or a lie, and to evaluate how 'good' or 'bad' the statement was. Chinese children rated modest lies more positively than immodest truths, with this effect becoming more pronounced with age. Rural Chinese children and those with at least one nonprofessional parent rated immodest truths less positively when they were told in public rather than in private. Furthermore, Chinese children of parents with high collectivism scores valued modest lies more than did children of parents with low collectivism scores. These findings suggest that both macro- and micro-cultural factors contribute significantly to children's moral understanding of truth and lie telling.     

The Protective Role of the Family and Social Support Network in a Sample of HIV-Positive African American Women: Results of a Pilot Study

This study examined the role of family functioning and social support in protecting HIV-positive African American women from the adverse psychological consequences associated with deterioration in their CD4 cell count. Participants were 38 African American HIV-positive women who had recently given birth. Results demonstrated that changes in CD4 cell counts were inversely predictive of psychological distress and were moderated by family functioning and social support satisfaction. Women with good family functioning were less affected by changes in their CD4 cell counts, and women with poor family functioning were more emotionally responsive to changes in CD4 cell count. Unexpectedly, women from families where conflicts tended to be clearly laid out and discussed were also more responsive to both changes in CD4 cell counts. Interventions are recommended that increase a client's social support satisfaction, foster an adaptive level of connectedness to family, and enhance the family's range of conflict resolution styles.     

A Conceptual Toolkit for Intensive Early Behavioral Intervention Teachers

Intensive early behavioral intervention (IEBI) for children with autism requires effective team work involving professional therapists, parents, teachers and others. It is important for all team members to employ a common conceptual and procedural vocabulary so that communication among them is clear, unambiguous, and effective. This article outlines the rationale of a small and practical vocabulary or conceptual toolkit that we have found useful in working with teachers and families in designing, implementing, and analyzing the details of behavioral programs to help autistic children learn to speak and understand language. Special attention is given to a heuristic device called the language matrix. Illustrative data describing the course of generative language acquisition by a child with autism taught according to the language matrix approach are included.     

Religious involvement,God images,and life satisfaction

This study addresses two issues. The first is to identify the aspects of religious life that are associated with benevolent images of God including denominational affiliation (Conservative Christians versus others), church attendance, and church-based social support (i.e., spiritual support). Data from a nationwide survey suggests that church-based support appears to be the most consequential. The second issue involves embedding these constructs in a conceptual model that traces effects of benevolent God images on life satisfaction. The following hypotheses form the core of this model: (1) Conservative Christians will attend worship services more often, (2) individuals who go to church more often tend to receive more support, (3) people who receive more support are more likely to have benevolent images of God, (4) benevolent images of God are associated with greater hope, and (5) greater hope is associated with greater life satisfaction. The findings provide support for each hypothesis.     

Young children's beliefs about self‐disclosure of performance failure and success

Self‐disclosure of performance information involves the balancing of instrumental, learning benefits (e.g., obtaining help) against social costs (e.g., diminished reputation). Little is known about young children's beliefs about performance self‐disclosure. The present research investigates preschool‐ and early school‐age children's expectations of self‐disclosure in different contexts. In two experiments, 3‐ to 7‐year‐old children (total N = 252) heard vignettes about characters who succeeded or failed at solving a puzzle. Both experiments showed that children across all ages reasoned that people are more likely to self‐disclose positive than negative performances, and Experiment 2 showed that children across all ages reasoned that people are more likely to self‐disclose both positive and negative performances in a supportive than an unsupportive peer environment. Additionally, both experiments revealed changes with age – Younger children were less likely to expect people to withhold their performance information (of both failures and successes) than older children. These findings point to the preschool ages as a crucial beginning to children's developing recognition of people's reluctance to share performance information.     

Affect Theory in Reading Research: Imagining the Radical Difference

Abstract

Working through four key tenets of Deleuze–Guattarian theory, the authors describe how contemporary affect theory offers a radically different perspective on reading. Asking how we can conceptualize reading differently if we conceptualize affect differently, we argue that possible meanings of reading or experiences of reading must be considered not as inherent to internal experiences of reading but as composed and recomposed in sets of affective relations. Using an example of two children reading, we consider how reading, as a material doing, takes up and is taken up by bodies, materials, spaces, histories, feelings, and ideas. To consider affect as the property of sets of present relations rather than of the individual prompts us to consider how the various elements assemble and break apart to produce intensities in which reading participates. Deprivileging human intentionality or motivations, we ask, “In a given instance, what conditions of possibility are being produced and for whom, and how are participants taking up or being moved by those conditions?” We conclude with suggestions for how contemporary affect theory can reorient our understanding of reading research.     

Children's reasoning about evaluative feedback

Children's reasoning about the willingness of peers to convey accurate positive and negative performance feedback to others was investigated among a total of 179 6‐ to 11‐year‐olds from the USA and China. In Study 1, which was conducted in the USA only, participants responded that peers would be more likely to provide positive feedback than negative feedback, and this tendency was strongest among the younger children. In Study 2, the expectation that peers would preferentially disclose positive feedback was replicated among children from the USA, and was also seen among younger but not older children from China. Participants in all groups took the relationship between communication partners into account when predicting whether peers would express evaluative feedback. Results of open‐ended responses suggested cross‐cultural differences, including a greater emphasis by Chinese children on the implications of evaluative feedback for future performance, and reference by some older Chinese children to the possibility that positive feedback might make the recipient ‘too proud’.     

The Suicide of Seymour Glass

ABSTRACT: This paper explores the suicide of Seymour Glass, a major character in J. D. Salinger's fiction and utilizes the “psychological autopsy” technique as a framework for investigating the psychodynamics of Seymour's death. Based upon materials provided throughout Salinger's stories, the suicide is analyzed in terms of five major elements related to Seymour's emotional state and manifest behaviors: (1) details of the death; (2) personal history; (3) level of perturbation; (4) personality and life-style; and (5) intention and lethality of the act. Additionally, this essay posits various interpretations of the suicide and allows for insights into the psychodynamic functioning of a major literary character.