The Changing Nature of Adolescent Friendships Longitudinal Links With Early Adolescent Ego Development

Although success in managing evolving peer relationships is linked to critical adolescent outcomes, little is known about the specific factors that lead to success or failure in peer relationship development across adolescence. This longitudinal study examines the role of adolescents' level of ego development as a predictor of the future course of several facets of friendship development in early adolescence. Ego development was assessed in a community sample of adolescents at age 13. Several facets of adolescent friendship were also assessed at 13 and then reassessed 1 year later, including adolescent intimate behavior during a supportive interaction with their best friends, adolescent reports of psychological security in their friendships, and peer-rated popularity. As predicted, ego development not only explained concurrent levels of peer functioning but also predicted markers of change over time in each of the assessed domains of peer functioning. Implications for ego development in increasing our understanding of individual differences in adolescent friendship development are discussed.     

Talking Politics,Performing Masculinities: Stories of Hong Kong Men Before and After the Umbrella Movement

Sex Roles - The present paper addresses the under-explored issue of the role of politics in the construction of masculinity, focusing specifically on political Confucianism and men’s doing of...     

Choice between Delayed Reinforcers: Interaction between Delay and Deprivation Level

Choice between two reinforcers differing in magnitude and delay was investigated in rats maintained at 80% ( n = 10) or 90% ( n = 10) of their free-feeding body weights using discrete-trials adjusting-delay schedules in which the two reinforcers (S\[mall] and L\[arge]) were associated with different levers. In each phase of the experiment the delay to the smaller reinforcer ( dS ) was held constant, and the delay to the larger reinforcer ( dL ) was varied in accordance with the distribution of choices in successive blocks of trials. The value of dS was varied across the four phases of the experiment (2, 4, 8, and 2 sec). When dS was 2 sec, the mean value of dL was higher in the rats maintained at 80% than in those maintained at 90% of their free-feeding body weights. When dS was increased, the value of dL increased in both groups; however the effect of deprivation level was abolished. The results are consistent with a model of choice that posits hyperbolic relations between reinforcer value and reinforcer magnitude, and between reinforcer value and delay of reinforcement.