Enduring and different: a meta-analysis of the similarity in parents' child rearing

The assessment of child-rearing beliefs and behavior has predominantly focused on qualities and characteristics believed to reflect consistent, enduring qualities of parenting--the similarity in child rearing. This review evaluates the evidence for similarity and differences among 3 types of child-rearing data and includes comparisons across time, children, and situations. Both relative stability and mean level differences were found in all 3 domains. The most similarity was found in the across-time and across-children domains, although it depended on the child-rearing construct and methodology used. It is argued that attention to the variability and change in child rearing must be incorporated into theoretical models of parenting to better understand the nature of child rearing and, in turn, parental influence on children's development.     

Children's Coping with Recurrent Headache

We investigated the relationships among perceptions of control over pain, gender, and coping responses in 57 school-aged children receiving services at a specialized pediatric headache clinic. Perceptions of control and gender interacted to predict frequency of active and negative coping responses. A wide range of coping strategies was reported, but only minimal gender or perceived control differences were found in the frequency and helpfulness of individual coping strategies. Results are discussed within the context of recent stress and coping models within the pediatric chronic illness literature.     

Normative reconstruction and social memory: Honneth and Ricoeur

Normative reconstruction is a form of immanent critique which judges society in terms of values which are already institutionalized and implicitly expressed across everyday forms of interaction. Honneth, for his part, reads the value of social freedom into the normative grammar of modern institutions and anticipates further advances towards its institutionalization. Many have voiced doubts over the extent to which the model of normative reconstruction which Honneth proposes is solidly anchored in social reality: at worst, it is argued, this reality is resistant to reconstruction in terms of the value of social freedom; at best, it is too susceptible to multiple readings to allow for such a reconstruction. I seek to respond to these charges, while also testing the reach of Ricoeur’s understanding of the philosophical anthropological idea of indebtedness to the past, by following up on Honneth’s appeal to a horizon of social memory in response to his own uncertainties over the viability of normative reconstruction. More generally, I seek to arrive at a better understanding of the capacity of memory to orientate social critique within a shifting historical landscape.

     

The Personal Acquaintance Measure: a tool for appraising one's acquaintance with any person

The authors developed and evaluated the psychometric properties of the 18-item Personal Acquaintance Measure (PAM) and investigated how the PAM relates to self- other agreement in personality ratings. Results support that 6 factors represent the PAM (Duration, Frequency of Interaction, Knowledge of Goals, Physical Intimacy, Self-Disclosure, Social Network Familiarity), which showed evidence of internal consistency, test-retest reliability over 3 weeks, sensitivity to known group differences, discriminant validity from socially desirable responding, and convergent validity with other relationship inventories. Results also show that the PAM positively predicted self-other agreement. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for the PAM and research in person perception, although this measure may also be used in other research areas.     

Perspectives on the effects of corporal punishment: comment on Gershoff (2002)

Parental use of corporal punishment has been a contentious child-rearing topic for thousands of years. E. T. Gershoff's (2002) meta-analyses undoubtedly will rekindle the debate over whether parents should spank their children. The quality of the existing data is discussed as well as several surprising findings from the meta-analyses. The effects of corporal punishment are then considered from the perspectives of learning theory, socialization theory, and the child's point of view. Her ecological-process model is then evaluated in light of these perspectives. Research directions and social policy implications are addressed.     

An Integral Psychology Response to Helminiak's (2001) “Treating Spiritual Issues in Secular Psychotherapy”

This article is a response to D. A. Helminiak's (2001) “Treating Spiritual Issues in Secular Psychotherapy” from the perspective of K. Wilber's integral psychology. The article consists of 3 sections: (a) a selective summary of integral psychology, including the perennial philosophy, 10 levels of development, lines of development, temporary states, types of orientations, the self, and the 4 quadrants; (b) various conceptual issues; and (c) usefulness to mental health practitioners (MHPs). Although D. A. Helminiak's endeavor to formulate a clear and functional definition of spirituality is commended, his claim of novelty is shown to be unwarranted. It is argued that K. Wilber's integral model is more comprehensive, clear, coherent, and helpful to MHPs.     

The emergent coordination of cognitive function

1/f scaling has been observed throughout human physiology and behavior, but its origins and meaning remain a matter of debate. Some argue that it is a byproduct of ongoing processes in the brain or body and therefore of limited relevance to psychological theory. Others argue that 1/f scaling reflects a fundamental aspect of all physiological and cognitive functions, namely, that they emerge in the balance of independent versus interdependent component activities. In 4 experiments, series of key-press responses were used to test between these 2 alternative explanations. The critical design feature was to take 2 measures of each key-press response: reaction time and key-contact duration. These measures resulted in 2 parallel series of intrinsic fluctuations for each series of key-press responses. Intrinsic fluctuations exhibited 1/f scaling in both reaction times and key-contact durations, yet the 2 measures were uncorrelated with each other and separately perturbable. These and other findings indicate that 1/f scaling is too pervasive to be idiosyncratic and of limited relevance. It is instead argued that 1/f scaling reflects the coordinative, metastable basis of cognitive function.     

The multidimensionality of suicide risk factors and criteria in a nonclinical population: Replication across two countries and two languages

Across two countries and two languages, this research examined the multidimensional associations between suicidality (e.g., past ideation/attempts, communication of intent) and empirically important psychological risk factors (e.g., mental pain, perceived burdensomeness, thwarted belongingness). For samples of 228 Canadian and 331 Portuguese university undergraduates, four dimensions emerged in each sample with two of these, intrapersonal and interpersonal, demonstrating strong replicability across countries and languages. It was concluded that suicidality is a phenomenon that demonstrates some multidimensional similarities across cultures.     

Working memory capacity and the spacing effect in cued recall

Spacing repetitions typically improves memory (the spacing effect). In three cued recall experiments, we explored the relationship between working memory capacity and the spacing effect. People with higher working memory capacity are more accurate on memory tasks that require retrieval relative to people with lower working memory capacity. The experiments used different retention intervals and lags between repetitions, but were otherwise similar. Working memory capacity and spacing of repetitions both improved memory in most of conditions, but they did not interact, suggesting additive effects. The results are consistent with the ACT-R model’s predictions, and with a study-phase recognition process underpinning the spacing effect in cued recall.