Resilient Children: Individual Differences in Developmental Outcome of Children Born to Drug Abusers

Since 1977, we have been following the neurobehavioral development of two groups of children: a group born to women on methadone maintenance and a drug-free comparison group. This study used the data on the children evaluated at 36 months of age to determine whether distinct patterns of developmental outcome can be identified, and which medical, familial, or environmental characteristics are associated with developmental differences. The children were clustered on four measures at 36 months: head circumference percentile, Merrill-Palmer Scale score, neurological evaluation, and referrals for developmental problems. Three distinct clusters emerged, with methadone children disproportionately frequent in Cluster 3, the group showing the poorest development. Comparisons of the clusters on a wide range of variables revealed consistent differences between Cluster 1 and Cluster 3 children in maternal responsiveness and incidence of neglect and family violence. These findings indicate that distinct developmental patterns do occur within this predominantly lower-class ghetto population; further, that children born to methadone-maintained women are more likely to show poor development. However, when the environment provides nurturance and stability, methadone children can show resilience and develop well.     

Activity under Low Motivational Levels as a Function of the Method of Manipulating the Deprivation Period

Boys and girls in Grades 4, 6, and 8 were presented a 48-word list, in which each item was associated with a 5¢, 3¢, or l¢ reward, in order to test incentive effects on storage by means of a forced choice recognition paradigm assumed to minimize retrieval effects. Results showed (a) higher probabilities of recognition for words associated with higher incentive values, (b) serial position effects, and (c) a suggestive developmental progression in recognition performance. Differential reward influences upon storage and serial position were interpreted in terms of two-process memorial and incentive theories.     

Experiences in running a staff group

This study examines an activating mechanism of aggressive behaviour in young children. Many studies on attachment theories have indicated disorganised attachment as a significant risk factor for externalising problems and have explained the aetiology of disorganised attachment in terms of deficits in affect, behaviour and cognitive functions from a traumatic or inconsistent environment. Via the moment-to-moment analysis of the play therapy process with a three-year-old, this paper attempts to identify how these emotional, behavioural and cognitive factors interact in actual situations and can lead to an observable behaviour: aggressive behaviour. The findings from this study indicate that the child with disorganised attachment was going through a dual process, one with her therapist and the other with her internalised caregivers. When anxiety and an ambiguous social cue from an unpredictable situation were added to the child's repetition of previous attachment experience, this ‘click’ lowered the threshold of regulation of affect, behaviour and cognition. The child turned to disorganised and aggressive behaviour, relying on her physiological signals regarding the perceived threat. Finally, this paper describes how these difficulties can be channelled by symbolic play via displacement and containment.     

The Assessment of Post‐traumatic Stress Disorder for Workers' Compensation in Emergency Service Personnel

There is considerable debate concerning the diagnosis of post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in compensation claims. This study reviewed the quality of the assessment reports prepared by clinicians who evaluated 31 emergency service workers making PTSD‐related compensation claims. Assessments were conducted by 4‐year trained psychologists (39%), psychologists holding a masters degree (36%), and psychiatrists (19%). The assessment reports were evaluated relative to the diagnostic criteria for PTSD in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th edition (2000). In the majority of cases (81%), the assessor determined that the emergency service worker had PTSD, but only one report met the minimum standard for that diagnosis. In the majority (65%) of cases the clinician failed to address the possibility of malingering. These data suggest that clinical assessment reports for PTSD frequently fail to meet minimum assessment standards.     

What Does (the Young) Heidegger Mean by the Seinsfrage ?

Heidegger's central concern is the question of being (Seinsfrage). The paper reconstructs this question at least for the young (pre- Kehre) Heidegger in the light of two interconnected hypotheses: (1) the substantial content of the question of being can be identified by seeing it as a response to (Marburg) neo-Kantianism; and (2) this content centres around the claim that, pace the neo-Kantians, 'epistemological' concerns are grounded in 'ontological' ones, for which reason 'ontology' must precede 'epistemology' as a form of philosophical inquiry. In section I the general position of (Marburg) neo-Kantianism is sketched. In section II the implications of the neo-Kantian position for the concepts of truth and reality, reason, and experience, are outlined; significant similarities to Sellars, Davidson, and Brandom are revealed. Finally, in section III Heidegger's analysis of everydayness is shown to yield a distinct critique of the neo-Kantian relativization of the concept of the real to the theoretically knowable. From this critique it emerges why Heidegger thinks that 'ontology' precedes 'epistemology'. The project of fundamental ontology marked by the question of being thus shows itself to be at least in part a response to the aporia of Marburg neo-Kantianism.     

Sex Roles,Gender, and Fear

Male and female college students classified as masculine, feminine, androgynous, or undifferentiated on the Bern (1974) Sex Role Inventory (N = 199) were given the Wolpe (1969) Fear Inventory. Significant differences in average fear scores were seen between men and women and between the four sex-role categories, with sex role and gender contributing equally to the variability. The argument is raised here that excessive fearfulness or fearlessness might be as much a product of sex-role conditioning as a product of gender.     

Studies in the Principles of Judgments and Attitudes: I. Two Basic Principles of Judgment

The psychological test performance of 10 seven-year-old boys from an isolated, rural Guatemalan village was compared with ratings of their intelligence made by 42 adult village members. The adults' judgments were found to correlate strongly with the children's performance on the Embedded Figures, Verbal Analogies, and Memory-for-Designs Tests.     

Early Adolescents' Values About Their Pets

The essays of adolescent boys and girls (N = 354) explaining their decisions to save a pet in the event of a fire were examined by content analysis for the adolescents' underlying value orientations. Hedonistic utility, a moral value characteristic of the second of Kohlberg's (1976) moral development stages, was the primary value underlying adolescents' choices.     

Manipulation of visual information does not change the accuracy of distance estimation during a blindfolded walking task

While humans rely on vision during navigation, they are also competent at navigating non-visually. However, non-visual navigation over large distances is not very accurate and can accumulate error. Currently, it is unclear whether this accumulation of error is due to the visual estimate of the distance or to the locomotor production of the distance. In a series of experiments, using a blindfolded walking test, we examine whether enhancing the visual estimate of the distance to a previously seen target, through environmental enrichment, visual imagery, or repeated exposure would improve the accuracy of blindfold navigation across different distances. We also attempt to decrease the visual estimate in order to see if the opposite effect would occur. Our results would indicate that manipulation of the static visual distance estimate did not change the navigation accuracy to any great extent. The only condition that improved accuracy was repeated exposure to the environment through practice. These results suggest that error observed during blindfold navigation may be due to the locomotor production of the distance, rather than the visual process.