Relations between self-serving cognitive distortions, psychopathic traits, and antisocial behavior in a non-clinical sample of adolescents

The aim of the present study was to assess the relative contributions self-serving cognitive distortions and psychopathic traits to adolescent antisocial behavior. Participants were 972 high-school students who completed self-report questionnaires. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that self-serving cognitive distortions, psychopathic traits, as well as their interaction term were significant predictors of antisocial behavior in both genders after adjustment for the main other cognitive, psychopathological and sociofamilial variables. High levels of self-serving cognitive distortions were associated with more extensive antisocial behavior among participants with higher scores on psychopathic traits. This result may have implications for prevention and treatment.     

Violent Attitudes and Antisocial Behavior: Examining the Code of the Street’s Generalizability among a College Sample

Drawing on Elijah Anderson’s (1999) Code of the Street thesis, this study assesses the generalizability of street code attitudes. Using a sample of college students from a large Midwest university, the current study contributes to the literature by examining: (1) the generalizability of street code attitudes; (2) the correlates of street code attitudes, including various forms of strain; and (3) the predictive power of street code attitudes on criminal and non-criminal behavior. Our results reveal that street code attitudes are generalizable to college students, strain constructs are important correlates of street code attitudes, and street code attitudes are associated with criminal behavior. However, the effect of street code attitudes on criminal behavior becomes non-significant once measures of strain are included. Further, street code attitudes do not predict non-criminal behavior.     

Embodied experience and linguistic meaning

What role does people's embodied experiences have in their use and understanding of meaning? Most theories in cognitive science view meaning in terms of propositional structures that may be combined to form higher-order complexes in representing the meanings of conversations and texts. A newer approach seeks to capture meaning in terms of high-dimensional semantic space. Both views reflect the idea that meaning is best understood as abstract and disembodied symbols. My aim in this article is to make the case for an embodied view of linguistic meaning. This view provides a challenge to traditional approaches to linguistic meaning (although may not necessarily be entirely incompatible with them). I discuss several new lines of research from both linguistics and psychology that explore the importance of embodied perception and action in people's understanding of words, phrases, and texts. These data provide strong evidence in favor of the idea that significant aspects of thought and language arises from, and is grounded in, embodiment.     

Maternal Acceptance: Its Contribution to Children's Favorable Perceptions of Discipline and Moral Identity

The authors examined the contribution of maternal acceptance or warmth to children's and adolescents’ perceptions of discipline and formation of moral identity. The sample consisted of 93 male and female students from Grades 5, 8, and 10 and their mothers. Students completed measures pertaining to perceived maternal discipline practices and acceptance-rejection, as well as moral identity. A subsample of mothers reported on their accepting or rejecting actions toward their children. Children were more likely to feel accepted, if their mothers used inductive discipline (vs. power assertion and love withdrawal). Perceived acceptance was also related to more favorable discipline evaluations in certain respects. Specifically, inductive discipline recipients who felt accepted also evaluated induction as appropriate and responded to it with positive and guilt-related emotions. Power assertion was evaluated as appropriate among those children who did feel accepted. Finally, among inductive discipline recipients, those who felt accepted also reported higher moral identity.     

Causal essentialism and the identity of indiscernibles

Causal essentialists hold that a property essentially bears its causal and nomic relations. Further, as many causal essentialists have noted, the main motivations for causal essentialism also motivate holding that properties are individuated in terms of their causal and nomic relations. This amounts to a kind of identity of indiscernibles thesis; properties that are indiscernible with respect to their causal and nomic relations are identical. This can be compared with the more well-known identity of indiscernibles thesis, according to which particulars that are qualitatively indiscernible are identical. Robert Adams has developed a well-known objection to this thesis by considering a series of possibilities involving nearly qualitatively indiscernible particulars that naturally leads to a possibility involving qualitatively indiscernible particulars. I argue that we can construct parallel cases involving a series of possibilities involving properties that are nearly indiscernible with respect to their causal and nomic relations that naturally lead to possibilities involving properties that are indiscernible with respect to their causal and nomic relations. The same features that make Adams’ argument forceful also carry over to my cases, giving us a powerful objection to the causal essentialist identity of indiscernibles thesis.     

Validation of the 'How I Think Questionnaire' in a population of French-speaking adolescents with externalizing behaviors

'How I Think Questionnaire' (HIT) is used to measure self-serving cognitive distortions among delinquents. Previously validated on Americans, this instrument was translated, adapted and validated for French-speaking teens. To assess convergent and discriminant validity, 336 adolescents with externalizing behaviors in Québec (Canada) completed the HIT, the Self-Reported Delinquency Scale (SRD), and the Auto-aggression Questionnaire. There were 165 boys and 171 girls with M(age) = 16.4 years (SD = 0.5) who received services under the Youth Criminal Justice Act (n = 145) or the Youth Protection Act (n = 191). HIT and SRD total scores were correlated (0.51, p < 0.01). On the HIT, past suicidal attempting delinquents were not significantly different than non-suicide attempting delinquents; also delinquents living in closed detention facilities had more self-serving cognitive distortions than delinquents living in open facilities or under probation in the community. This French-language version of the HIT is a reliable and valid measure.     

Effects of nitric oxide inhibition on avoidance learning in the chick are lateralized and localized

Bilateral administration of nitric oxide synthase inhibitors into the intermediate medial hyperstriatal (IMHV) region of the chick brain impairs memory formation for an avoidance task. The aim of the current study was to determine whether this effect was restricted to a particular location in the brain, and whether inhibition was equally effective in both hemispheres. White Leghorn x black Australorp chicks were administered 0.5 mM N(omega)-Nitro-L-arginine methyl ester bilaterally into the lobus parolfactorius (LPO), or unilaterally into the IMHV. Injections into the LPO between 5 min pre-training and 40 min post-training had no effect on retention. In contrast, unilateral injections into the IMHV impaired retention and memory loss occurred from 40 min post-training. The effective administration time was hemisphere-dependent, requiring left hemisphere administration around the time of training and right hemisphere administration between 15 and 25 min post-training. These data suggest that localized nitric oxide activity in each hemisphere of the chick brain is necessary for the consolidation of memory for this task.     

Technology in Nonsectarian and Religious Private Schools

The authors report the results of a survey on technology access and use in both religious and nonsectarian schools in the state of Illinois. Four hundred surveys were sent to a cross section of private schools, with a response rate of 45%. The study demonstrates there were only minimal differences between sectarian and nonsectarian schools and that they both had adequate, up-to-date equipment. Most schools provided their students and faculty with access to computer/internet technology in dedicated labs, media centers, and classrooms. The study does show that while both religious and nonsectarian private schools have the tools to integrate technology into the curriculum, and principals who positively rate the use of computer technology, most principals report that a majority of their teachers do not make use of technology in ways that promote higher-order thinking.     

The Mediating Role of Street Code Attitudes on the Self-Control and Crime Relationship

Research has demonstrated strong but independent attention to the role of self-control and street code attitudes in predicting criminal and violent behavior. Yet, there are good theoretical notions to believe that street code attitudes may be a salient mechanism in the self-control–offending relationship. Specifically, the present study investigates: (1) the extent to which self-control predicts adopting street code attitudes and (2) whether street code attitudes mediate the effect of self-control on criminal behavior. Using data collected from a multisite sample of over 900 young adults, we assess this mediation hypothesis for three distinct types of criminal activity: violent, property, and drug use. Our results reveal that individuals with lower self-control are more likely to adopt street code attitudes, that self-control is related to all three forms of offending, and that street code attitudes fully mediate the effect of self-control on violence, partially on property crime, but not in the case of drug use. Findings and directions for future research are discussed.