Childhood Temperament and Family Environment as Predictors of Internalizing and Externalizing Trajectories From Ages 5 to 17

Childhood temperament and family environment have been shown to predict internalizing and externalizing behavior; however, less is known about how temperament and family environment interact to predict changes in problem behavior. We conducted latent growth curve modeling on a sample assessed at ages 5, 7, 10, 14, and 17 (N = 337). Externalizing behavior decreased over time for both sexes, and internalizing behavior increased over time for girls only. Two childhood variables (fear/shyness and maternal depression) predicted boys' and girls' age-17 internalizing behavior, harsh discipline uniquely predicted boys' age-17 internalizing behavior, and maternal depression and lower family income uniquely predicted increases in girls' internalizing behavior. For externalizing behavior, an array of temperament, family environment, and Temperament × Family Environment variables predicted age-17 behavior for both sexes. Sex differences were present in the prediction of externalizing slopes, with maternal depression predicting increases in boys' externalizing behavior only when impulsivity was low, and harsh discipline predicting increases in girls' externalizing behavior only when impulsivity was high or when fear/shyness was low.     

Body image, relationships, and time

The cultural standard of an impossible-to-attain ideal body image has been blamed for a plethora of psychological ills, from low self-esteem to eating disorders. In this study, the authors investigated the importance of current body image dissatisfaction compared with the ideal for married couples and for single people. The results indicated that although body image dissatisfaction exists in both married and single people, this discrepancy is of significantly less importance to married couples. The importance of long-lasting, satisfying relationships decreases the importance of body dissatisfaction and mitigates the impact of unrealistic ideal body image.     

The representation of four personality disorders by the schedule for nonadaptive and adaptive personality dimensional model of personality

This study examined the relationships of the Schedule for Nonadaptive and Adaptive Personality (SNAP) model of personality to 4 targeted personality disorders (PDs) in a large multisite sample of patients. Data were examined from 529 patients, who were assigned 1 of 5 primary diagnoses: borderline, schizotypal, avoidant, and obsessive-compulsive PDs and major depression without PD. Patients were administered the SNAP questionnaire and results were compared among diagnostic groups and between patient groups and nonclinical norms. Results indicated that the dimensions of the model appear to have considerable promise in differentiating normal from abnormal personality, particularly in the propensity of individuals with PDs to manifest negative affects and interpersonal detachment. Furthermore, the model appeared to successfully distinguish specific PDs, a property that represents a particular challenge for dimensional models of personality.     

Categorizing sounds by pitch: effects of stimulus similarity and response repetition

Two experiments were performed to determine whether categorization of the pitch of a probe tone is influenced by the pitch of, and response made to, a preceding prime tone. The prime and the probe could be drawn either from a pool of low-frequency sounds or from a pool of high-frequency sounds. The results of both experiments indicated that the performance obtained was best when the prime and the probe were the same pitch (and therefore required the same response), intermediate when the two sounds differed in pitch and required different responses, and slowest when the prime and the probe differed in pitch but required the same response (i.e., they were drawn from the same frequency pool). The results of Experiment 2 revealed in addition that when a repeated response was required, performance declined as the magnitude of the frequency change increased and that responses were made more quickly and accurately if the direction of the frequency change was away from the alternative category than if it was toward the alternative category. The results demonstrate that categorization of sounds by pitch is accomplished with reference to a previous processing episode.     

Reliability of the Francis Scale of Attitude Toward Christianity among 8-yr-olds

The Francis Scale of Attitude Toward Christianity was completed by 78 8-yr.-olds (40 boys and 38 girls) whose data support reliability measured as the internal consistency of the scale for this young sample.     

Correlation between religion and happiness: a replication

For a sample of 89 students in Wales who completed the Oxford Happiness Inventory and the Francis Scale of Attitude Toward Christianity scores correlated .38.     

Reliability and construct validity for scale of rejection of Christianity

A sample of 16 male and 30 female undergraduates completed the Greer and Francis Scale of Rejection of Christianity. The data support the internal consistency reliability and construct validity of the scale for this sample.     

Open-ended categorization of chick-a-dee calls by black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapilla)

The authors trained black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapilla) in an operant discrimination with exemplars of black-capped and Carolina chick-a-dee calls, with the goal of determining whether the birds memorized the calls of conspecifics and heterospecifics or classified the calls by species. Black-capped calls served as both rewarded (S+) and unrewarded (S-) stimuli (the within-category discrimination), whereas Carolina chick-a-dee calls served as S-s (the between-category discrimination) in the black-capped chick-a-dee call S+ group. The Carolina call S+ group had Carolina calls as S+s and S-s (within-category) and black-capped calls as S-s (between-category). Both groups discriminated between call categories faster than within a call category. In 2 subsequent experiments, both S+ groups showed transfer to novel calls and propagation back to between-category calls. The results favor the hypothesis that the acoustically similar social calls of the 2 species constitute separate open-ended categories.     

Spatial metaphors of the mind

A case in which the author began to understand her patient as "collapsing the space between them," rather than as continuing only to free associate, is the occasion for a contemplation of the way psychoanalytic theory effects a transition between what is inner, or lived, and outer, or experienced. Metaphor is seen as the agent of this transition. The author discusses metaphor in relation to the case described, while also examining spatial metaphors of mind in classical analysis and in Kleinian theory. It is suggested that both may be integrated in a third metaphorical-spatial construct, Green's analytic space.