Putting the pieces together: reviewing the structural conceptualization of motivation within SDT

Motivation and Emotion - Self-determination theory presents a multi-dimensional approach to human motivation in which motivation is driven by a range of classifiably distinct regulation styles....     

Challenging socioeconomic status: A cross‐cultural comparison of early executive function

The widely and internationally replicated socioeconomic status (SES) gradient of executive function (EF) implies that intervention approaches may do well to extrapolate conditions and practices from contexts that generate better child outcomes (in this case, higher SES circumstances) and translate these to contexts with comparatively poorer outcomes (often low‐SES populations). Yet, can the reverse also be true? Using data from equivalent assessments of 1,092 pre‐schoolers’ EFs in South Africa and Australia, we evaluated: the SES gradient of EF within each sample; and whether this SES gradient extended cross‐culturally. The oft‐found EF‐SES gradients were replicated in both samples. However, contrary to the inferences of EF‐SES associations found nationally, the most highly disadvantaged South African subsample outperformed middle‐ and high‐SES Australian pre‐schoolers on two of three EFs. This suggests the possibility of EF‐protective and ‐promotive practices within low‐ and middle‐income countries that may aid understandings of the nature and promotion of EFs.     

Perinatal loss and maternal attitudes toward the subsequent child

Twenty-five mothers who had experienced a previous perinatal loss and a comparison group of 30 nonloss mothers completed the Maternal Attitude Questionnaire (MAQ) and the Maternal Separation Anxiety Scale (MSAS) when their children were 16 months old. The purposes of the study were to describe and evaluate the development of a new measure (the MAQ) and to examine the hypothesis that mothers who experienced a perinatal loss would express (a) more concern about the subsequent child's health, (b) more investment in the child, and (c) heightened concern about maternal-child differentiation/separation in comparison to nonloss mothers. The results showed that the MAQ had good internal consistency. None of the three factors of the MSAS differentiated between the two groups of mothers while two subscales of the MAQ did: (1) Maternal Concern with Child's Health and (2) Maternal Concern with Differentiation. Mothers who had experienced a perinatal loss thus expressed more concerns about their children's physical well-being and more concerns about differentiating from their child than mothers who had not had a perinatal loss.     

What can philosophy offer counselling and psychotherapy?

The big questions about life and its meaning belong to, and must be explored within, our culture as a whole and not just to groups of medical or counselling specialists. Talking treatments would therefore benefit by drawing from broader and deeper intellectual and artistic traditions. Philosophers, for example, have considered questions about identity, meaning and purpose for millennia. Given that moral development has in no way kept pace with technological progress in the 20th century, we would be unwise to draw only from contemporary thinkers in making sense of our predicament. We cannot escape from philosophy: when people say that they do not know any philosophy, what is really meant is that they know only one philosophy, but they have no means of locating or assessing it. As a result, it structures everything they do and care about. It also prevents them from considering alternatives or placing immediate preoccupations into a larger perspective.     

Aggressive reactions of ducklings to a nonliving target object

This study asked whether ducklings' forceful pecks at a nonliving target object could be validly identified as aggressive. Previously isolated ducklings were exposed to a small cylindrical object that could serve as a target for aggressive pecks and as an object for attachment. After initially attempting to flee from the target, they vigorously pecked at it and also showed signs of the formation of a social (imprinting) attachment. In all important respects this pattern of behavior was identical to the pattern of escape, aggressive pecks, and attachment seen when a previously isolated duckling first encounters a conspecific. Social housing, a manipulation which attenuates aggression against live targets in ducklings and other species, reduced pecking at the nonliving target object. Early aversive stimulation, which enhances aggression against live targets, increased pecking at the object. These findings support the use of nonliving targets in the study of aggression in ducklings.     

Comprehension of humorous and nonhumorous materials by left and right brain-damaged patients

Right hemisphere-damaged (RHD) and left hemisphere-damaged (LHD) aphasic patients were tested on a nonverbal cartoon completion task that included a humorous (Joke) and a nonhumorous (Story) condition. In both conditions, RHD patients performed worse than LHD patients. More importantly, the qualitative difference between the errors produced by the two groups suggests that right and left hemisphere brain damage impairs different components of narrative ability. RHD patients showed a preserved sensitivity to the surprise element of humor, and a diminished ability to establish coherence. Conversely, LHD patients, when they erred, showed an impaired sensitivity to the surprise element of humor, and a preserved ability to establish coherence by integrating content across parts of a narrative. These results suggest that the observed humor comprehension deficits of RHD patients result specifically from right hemisphere disease and not from brain damage irrespective of locus. The performances of the RHD and LHD patients groups together support a separation of narrative ability from the traditional aspects of language ability typically disrupted in aphasia.     

Inference deficits in right brain-damaged patients

The inferential reasoning ability of right hemisphere-damaged (RHD) patients was tested by presenting pairs of sentences which were to be treated as single, integrated units. The two sentences treated together made one interpretation likely (a correct inference); one of the sentences in isolation encouraged a different interpretation (an incorrect inference). The position of the misleading sentence was systematically varied. Results showed that, in contrast to normal controls, RHD patients have more trouble answering inference questions, especially those concerning incorrect inferences, than answering questions about the factual content of the passages. Also, RHD patients made significantly more errors when the misleading information was contained in the first rather than in the second sentence; this finding indicates that these patients have difficulty revising previously acquired knowledge in light of new information. These results suggest the impairment of several components of normal discourse processing subsequent to right hemisphere brain damage.