Reliability and validity of the Parent-Child Relationship Inventory (PCRI): evidence from a longitudinal cross-informant investigation

Psychometric properties of the Parent-Child Relationship Inventory (PCRI) were examined using data collected from adolescents and their parents in the Fullerton Longitudinal Study. Results revealed acceptable internal consistency for most scales and moderate to high 1-year stability for all scales. Both parents' PCRI scores correlated with their views of family climate. Cross-informant concordance was pervasive and strong between mothers' PCRI scores and adolescents' perceptions of the parent-child relationship and family climate; however, convergence was not evident between fathers' and adolescents' reports. Additionally, poor performance was observed for the Autonomy scale. In conjunction with other research on parent-adolescent relationships, concerns are raised regarding the utility of scales to contrast mother-adolescent with father-adolescent relationships.     

Information entropy analysis of discrete aiming movements

Information entropy and mutual information were investigated in discrete movement aiming tasks over a wide range of spatial (20-160 mm) and temporal (250-1250 ms) constraints. Information entropy was calculated using two distinct analyses: (1) with no assumption on the nature of the data distribution; and (2) assuming the data have a normal distribution. The two analyses showed different results in the estimate of entropy that also changed as a function of task goals, indicating that the movement trajectory data were not from a normal distribution. It was also found that the information entropy of the discrete aiming movements was lower than the task defined indices of difficulty (ID) that were selected for the congruence with Fitts' law. Mutual information between time points of the trajectory was strongly influenced by the average movement velocity and the acceleration/deceleration segments of the movement. The entropy analysis revealed structure to the variability of the movement trajectory and outcome that has been masked by the traditional distributional analyses of discrete aiming movements.     

A dynamical systems interpretation of epigenetic landscapes for infant motor development

This paper presents a unified dynamical systems theory of motor learning and development and addresses the normative order and timing of activities in the infant motor development sequence. The emphasis is on the role of intention in modulating the epigenetic landscapes to the emerging forms of infant motor development and how the evolution of attractor landscape dynamics in infancy arises from the multiple time scales of constraints to action. The development of prone progression in infancy is exemplified as a case study and experimental hypotheses of the theory of attractor landscape dynamics and infant motor development are provided.     

The role of variety in the evolution of information society

Information is power. There are several theoretical considerations which guide the basic research on information society and its evolution. Some of them, worked out in this paper, deal with the role of social variety in the process of post‐industrial evolution. Exploring similarities in bio‐genetic information, the process of social transformation is approached by using social system theory.

With certain analogies to biological transformations—mutations—important elements for the transformation of information‐guided behaviour systems (cultures) may be observed. They create a variety of elements (sub‐systems), which respond for changes in the social layout of all kinds of organisations like states, partys, groups, insofar as these changes aim the optimation of functional effectivity in dependence of the variety and its use by a social system's elements (events, acts).

By information processing, collectivities are able to explote even subtile fluctuations in socio‐cultural information variety to “cause” changes. Collectivities are able to instruct and functionalise emerging information through feedback in such a way, that they get better chances to reach certain local values of selection. They are fitter in the sense of better instructed. This process is self‐organised, based on the principle of selection, so that the system chooses out of a complex landscape of values trough communication of measuring parameters like “good” and “bad”. The value‐system is learned through socialisation and changed by social experience.

If social change and variety are optimised, the replication of the system works close to a “treshold of error”, that means that transformation processes are driven to a dynamic equilibrium between stabiliy and creativity. A variety of new transformation operators emerges. Operators of the former dominant information code are still reproducted, but a lot of other alternatives, stabilised by mutual separation are also represented in a survivable concentration and quantity. The competition between these new operators can be transformed in cooperation by their cyclic boundage in networks.

Concluding the paper argues that social systems which intend an optimation of their power management functions by integration of information variety, take advantage in their development in comparison to those who neglect this aspect. They are prepared to develop in a changing environment. Their optimation is a result of feedback within a variety of leadership‐systems, which may also be seen as competitive lifestyles. At a certain critic point there occurs a break in the symmetry of the dominant organisation: a multipole political leadership system emerges, behaviours are derepressed and activated. Uniformity in social time is broken and with it the linear thinking.     

Parental perception and interpretation of infant emotions: psychological and physiological processes

To study parental experience and perception of infant emotional expressions parents' responses to infant pictures depicting positive, neutral and negative emotions were assessed on the level of affective judgments (perceived and experienced valence and arousal), of mimic responses (facial muscle activity) and of the eyelid reflex (using the startle paradigm). In general, while parents were able to appropriately perceive infant emotions and were clearly affected by them, they exhibited a bias for positive interpretation. This was obvious from their subjective evaluations which, e.g. were more positive for experienced than for perceived valence, as well as from their mimic responses indicating positive responses in general. In addition, infant pictures including the negative ones lead to an inhibition of the startle reflex, indicating a positive evaluation of infant emotions on the sub‐cortical level. These effects were most prominent when parents were faced with pictures of their own infants as compared to unfamiliar ones. The way parents process information about infant emotions may facilitate appropriate responsiveness to infants' needs. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.