Emergence of attributional style and its relation to depressive symptoms

The development of depressive attributional style (AS) and its role as a cognitive diathesis for depression were examined in children and adolescents (Grades 2-9). In a 4-wave longitudinal study of 3 overlapping age cohorts, AS, negative life events, and depressive symptoms were evaluated every 12 months. Consistency of children's attributions across situations was moderately high at all ages. The cross-sectional structure of AS changed with age, as stability became a more salient aspect of AS than internality and globality. The structure of AS also changed, becoming more traitlike as children grew older. In longitudinal analyses, evidence of a Cognitive Diathesis x Stress interaction did not emerge until Grades 8 and 9, suggesting that AS may not serve as a diathesis for depression at younger ages. Results suggest that attributional models of depression may require modification before they are applied across developmental levels.     

Age-related changes in children's understanding of effort and ability: implications for attribution theory and motivation

Building on Nicholls's earlier work, we examined developmental changes in children's understanding of effort and ability when faced with a negative outcome. In a sample of 166 children and adolescents (ages 5-15 years), younger children conflated the meaning of effort and ability, explaining that smart students work hard, whereas older children understood effort and ability to be reciprocally related constructs, explaining that smart students do not need to work as hard. Understanding the reciprocal relation between effort and ability was correlated with age. Age-related changes in the meaning and correlates of effort and ability were also examined. Developmental implications for attribution theory and achievement motivation are discussed.     

Structural equation modeling of multitrait-multimethod data: different models for different types of methods

The question as to which structural equation model should be selected when multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) data are analyzed is of interest to many researchers. In the past, attempts to find a well-fitting model have often been data-driven and highly arbitrary. In the present article, the authors argue that the measurement design (type of methods used) should guide the choice of the statistical model to analyze the data. In this respect, the authors distinguish between (a) interchangeable methods, (b) structurally different methods, and (c) the combination of both kinds of methods. The authors present an appropriate model for each type of method. All models allow separating measurement error from trait influences and trait-specific method effects. With respect to interchangeable methods, a multilevel confirmatory factor model is presented. For structurally different methods, the correlated trait-correlated (method-1) model is recommended. Finally, the authors demonstrate how to appropriately analyze data from MTMM designs that simultaneously use interchangeable and structurally different methods. All models are applied to empirical data to illustrate their proper use. Some implications and guidelines for modeling MTMM data are discussed.     

Motivational influences on cognitive control: Behavior,brain activation,and individual differences

What changes in brain activity are associated with changes in motivational state? The present study addressed this question by having participants perform a cognitive task (AX variant of the Continuous Performance Test; AX-CPT) under three different blocked motivational conditions (reward-incentive, penalty-incentive, and baseline). Behavioral data showed that the incentive conditions modulated task performance, potentially by altering participants’ cognitive control strategy. Neuroimaging data indicated that the reward condition was associated with a sustained increase in a primarily right-lateralized network that included parietal and prefrontal cortex. Additionally, individual differences were observed, such that activation in both reward-related brain regions and frontopolar cortex was linked to the degree of motivation-induced performance enhancement and to motivation-related personality variables. These results suggest that changes in motivational state may modulate performance through sustained activity in cognitive control regions and that the effect of incentives may be affected by the personalities of the participants.     

The role of higher level adaptive coding mechanisms in the development of face recognition

Developmental improvements in face identity recognition ability are widely documented, but the source of children’s immaturity in face recognition remains unclear. Differences in the way in which children and adults visually represent faces might underlie immaturities in face recognition. Recent evidence of a face identity aftereffect (FIAE), in which adaptation (exposure) to a particular identity causes a previously neutral face to take on the computationally opposite identity, suggests that adults code faces in an opponent fashion relative to an average face. One previous study showed comparable FIAEs in 8-year-olds and adults but did not demonstrate that adaptation was selective for high-level representations in both groups. Using a developmentally appropriate FIAE task, we investigated whether children show adult-like adaptation for facial identity when adapting and test images differ in size. Both age groups showed an equivalent FIAE, suggesting that qualitative changes in the use of higher level adaptive coding mechanisms do not drive the developmental improvements in face recognition ability, at least from 8 years of age.     

Independent benefits of contact and friendship on attitudes toward homosexuals among authoritarians and highly identified heterosexuals

Although intergroup contact is generally associated with positive intergroup attitudes, little is known about whether individual differences moderate these relations, or how contact might operate among prejudice‐prone individuals. The present investigation explores Person × Contact and Person × Friendship interaction patterns among heterosexual university students. As expected, the positive relations of right‐wing authoritarianism (RWA) and heterosexual identification with prejudice against homosexuals were weakened when participants reported increased contact, more positive contact, direct (personal) friendships, or indirect friendships (i.e., ingroup friends with outgroup friends) with homosexuals. These patterns held after controlling statistically for each person or situation variable. Contact and friendship exerted smaller or negligible effects among low authoritarians or low identifiers. Tests of indirect effects revealed that among high authoritarians or high identifiers, contact and friendship exerted influence on attitudes through group‐level perceptions that homosexuals promote societal values and through increased self–other overlap with gay friends, each otherwise resisted by these individuals. Overall these results suggest that: (a) intergroup contact and intergroup friendship are related but distinct constructs; and (b) past findings underestimate contact effects by collapsing across levels of personal biases. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Plasma BDNF is reduced among middle-aged and elderly women with impaired insulin function: Evidence of a compensatory mechanism

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) plays a regulatory role in neuronal differentiation and synaptic plasticity and has been linked to glucose regulation and cognition. Associations among plasma BDNF, cognition, and insulin function were explored. Forty-one participants with impaired insulin function (IIF), ranging from insulin resistance to type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), were matched with 41 healthy controls on gender, age, education, and IQ. Participants received complete medical, neurological, psychiatric, and neuropsychological evaluations. IIF individuals had significantly lower plasma BDNF levels than controls, particularly females, and higher BDNF levels were associated with poorer explicit memory in IIF females, suggesting that higher levels within this group may reflect the body’s efforts to respond to damage. After accounting for age, education, and HbA1c, BDNF significantly predicted 13.1–23.5% of the variance in explicit memory in IIF women. These findings suggest that BDNF elevations within diseased groups may not always be a marker of health.     

Workplace Romance: A Justice Analysis

Purpose  

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of several variables on coworker perceptions of fairness regarding workplace romance (WR) management practices.     

Social regulation of human gene expression

ABSTRACT— The relationship between genes and social behavior has historically been construed as a one-way street, with genes in control. Recent analyses have challenged this view, by discovering broad alterations in the expression of human genes as a function of differing socio-environmental conditions. The emerging field of social genomics has begun to identity the types of genes subject to social regulation, the biological signaling pathways mediating those effects, and the genetic polymorphisms that moderate socioenvironmental influences on human gene expression.     

Knowledge about a common source can promote visual- haptic integration

The brain integrates object information from multiple sensory systems to form a unique representation of our environment. Temporal synchrony and spatial coincidence are important factors for multisensory integration, indicating that the multisensory signals come from a common source. Spatial separations can lead to a decline of visual-haptic integration (Gepshtein et al, 2005 Journal of Vision 5 1013-1023). Here we tested whether prior knowledge that two signals arise from the same object can promote integration even when the signals are spatially discrepant. In one condition, participants had direct view of the object they touched. In a second condition, mirrors were used to create a spatial separation between the seen and the felt object. Participants saw the mirror and their hand in the mirror exploring the object and thus knew that they were seeing and touching the same object. To determine the visual-haptic interaction we created a conflict between the seen and the felt shape using an optically distorting lens that made a rectangle look like a square. Participants judged the shape of the probe by selecting a comparison object matching in shape. We found a mutual biasing effect of shape information from vision and touch, independent of whether participants directly looked at the object they touched or whether the seen and the felt object information was spatially separated with the aid of a mirror. This finding suggests that prior knowledge about object identity can promote integration, even when information from vision and touch is provided at spatially discrepant locations.