Caution or Warning? A Validity Study of the MAYSI‐2 with Juvenile Offenders

Given the high prevalence of mental health and substance use disorders in the juvenile justice system and the emphasis on efficient screening and referrals, the current study sought to further validate the use of the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument version 2 (MAYSI‐2). Using data from institutionalized delinquents (N = 836) committed to the California Youth Authority, finite mixture modeling was employed to identify distinct latent classes based on MAYSI‐2 scale scores. Identified classes were then compared across a range of covariates, including prior offenses, official records of misconduct, and multiple measures of mental health and psychological well‐being. Findings revealed a three‐class, gradient‐based structure: low distress (n = 380), moderate distress (n = 327), and high distress (n = 129). Overall, the MAYSI‐2 identified juvenile offenders with mental health and substance use issues, but it did not differentiate youths with respect to offending patterns. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cyberbullying: adolescent victimization through mobile phone and internet

The aim of this study was to analyse the prevalence of victimization through mobile phone and internet. The differences of gender and academic year in the type of electronic aggression were also examined. The sample comprised 2001 adolescents of both genders and ages between 11 and 17 years. Results indicated that 24.6% of the adolescents had been bullied by mobile phone during the last year, and 29% through internet. In most of the electronic aggressions, girls were more bullied than boys. It was also observed that students attending the first two years of secondary education tended to be more victimized.     

On the generality and limits of abstraction in rats and humans

In this review, we address the question, central to cognition, of whether nonhuman animals such as rats are capable of extracting and extending information from a given learning situation to a new learning situation without generalizing through a physical dimension of the stimuli. This capacity underlies abstraction, which is a hallmark of human cognition and necessary for complex information processing such as language acquisition. We selectively review recent experiments with rats in which systematic changes in information processing of new stimuli are observed after training with different stimuli. These results strongly suggest that this capacity is present in rats. We also review two articles in which clear limitations to this capacity are detected. We conclude that, within specified limits, rats are capable of using prior experience when faced with a learning situation that involves new stimuli. We interpret this ability as a rudimentary form of abstraction. In the face of these provocative results, new theories of learning should be designed to account for these findings.     

A Defence of the Indispensability of Metaphor

I argue for the possibility of the thesis that metaphors are indispensable for grasping and expressing certain propositions. I defend this possibility against the objection that, if metaphors express propositions, once these propositions are identified they should be specifiable by non‐metaphorical means. I argue that this objection loses its strength if one adopts a Wittgensteinian, particularist view of thought, according to which grasping a propositional thought requires the ongoing exercise of a suitable skill often not characterizable by algorithmic rules. Within this particularist framework, thus, it becomes possible that metaphorical skills have an indispensable role in cognition and communication.     

The development of children's preferences for equality and equity across 13 individualistic and collectivist cultures

A concern for fairness is a fundamental and universal element of morality. To examine the extent to which cultural norms are integrated into fairness cognitions and influence social preferences regarding equality and equity, a large sample of children (N 2,163) aged 4–11 were tested in 13 diverse countries. Children participated in three versions of a third‐party, contextualized distributive justice game between two hypothetical recipients differing in terms of wealth, merit, and empathy. Social decision‐making in these games revealed universal age‐related shifts from equality‐based to equity‐based distribution motivations across cultures. However, differences in levels of individualism and collectivism between the 13 countries predicted the age and extent to which children favor equity in each condition. Children from the most individualistic cultures endorsed equitable distributions to a greater degree than children from more collectivist cultures when recipients differed in regards to wealth and merit. However, in an empathy context where recipients differed in injury, children from the most collectivist cultures exhibited greater preferences to distribute resource equitably compared to children from more individualistic cultures. Children from the more individualistic cultures also favored equitable distributions at an earlier age than children from more collectivist cultures overall. These results demonstrate aspects of both cross‐cultural similarity and divergence in the development of fairness preferences.