How do Children Associate Food Type to Illustrated Height and Obesity?

The following three studies examined young children’s and adults’ recognition of the impact of healthy and unhealthy foods on height and weight. Study 1 examined the impact of foods on height and weight. Study 2 examined the role of foods on characters of different ethnicities. Study 3 controlled for participants’ prior knowledge about the impact of food by presenting fictitious alien characters. The results indicated that preschoolers recognized that healthy foods promoted an increase in height but only for African-American images. Adults recognized the impact of nutrition on both height and weight with a greater emphasis of nutrition for weight than height. These results demonstrate that preschoolers’ biological model is more sophisticated and differentiated than previously reported.     

Cognitive vulnerability to depression during middle childhood: Stability and associations with maternal affective styles and parental depression

Theories of cognitive vulnerability to depression (CVD) imply that CVD is early-emerging and trait-like; however, little longitudinal work has tested this premise in middle childhood, or examined theoretically relevant predictors of child CVD. We examined test–retest correlations of self-referent encoding task performance and self-reported attributional styles and their associations with parental characteristics in 205 seven-year-olds. At baseline, child CVD was assessed, structured clinical interviews were conducted with parents, and ratings of observed maternal affective styles were made. Children’s CVD was re-assessed approximately one and two years later. Both measures of children’s CVD were prospectively and concurrently associated with children’s depressive symptoms and showed modest stability. Multilevel modeling indicated that maternal criticism and paternal depression were related to children’s CVD. Findings indicate that even early-emerging CVD is a valid marker of children’s depression risk.     

The effects of tempo and familiarity on children's affective interpretation of music

When and how does one learn to associate emotion with music? This study attempted to address this issue by examining whether preschool children use tempo as a cue in determining whether a song is happy or sad. Instrumental versions of children's songs were played at different tempos to adults and children ages 3 to 5 years. Familiar and unfamiliar songs were used to examine whether familiarity affected children's identification of emotion in music. The results indicated that adults, 4 year olds and 5 year olds rated fast songs as significantly happier than slow songs. However, 3 year olds failed to rate fast songs differently than slow songs at above-chance levels. Familiarity did not significantly affect children's identification of happiness and sadness in music.     

Power of being present: the role of mindfulness on the relation between men's alcohol use and sexual aggression toward intimate partners

The primary aim of this investigation was to examine the association between men's level of mindfulness and histories of alcohol consumption and sexual aggression toward intimate partners. Participants were 167 heterosexual drinking males who completed self‐report measures of mindfulness, frequency and quantity of alcohol consumption during the past 12 months and sexual aggression against intimate partners during the past 12 months. Results indicated that a history of consuming larger amounts when drinking was associated with more frequent sexual coercion/aggression among men who reported low, but not high, levels of mindfulness. However, drinking more frequently by itself was not associated with more frequent sexual coercion/aggression. These results support the attention‐allocation model and suggest implications for future intervention research aimed at reducing alcohol‐related aggression. Aggr. Behav. 36:405–413, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Virtual reality exposure therapy: 150-degree screen to desktop PC.

Virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) developed using immersive or semi-immersive virtual environments present a usability problem for practitioners. To meet practitioner requirements for lower cost and portability VRET programs must often be ported onto desktop environments such as the personal computer (PC). However, success of VRET has been shown to be linked to presence, and the environment's ability to evoke the same reactions and emotions as a real experience. It is generally accepted that high-end virtual environments (VEs) are more immersive than desktop PCs, but level of immersion does not always predict level of presence. This paper reports on the impact on presence of porting a therapeutic VR application for schizophrenia from the initial research environment of a semi-immersive curved screen to PC. Presence in these two environments is measured both introspectively and across a number of causal factors thought to underlie the experience of presence. Results show that the VR exposure program successfully made users feel they were "present" in both platforms. While the desktop PC achieved higher scores on presence across causal factors participants reported they felt more present in the curved screen environment. While comparison of the two groups was statistically significant for the PQ but not for the IPQ, subjective reports of experiences in the environments should be considered in future research as the success of VRET relies heavily on the emotional response of patients to the therapeutic program.     

“Can We Say the N-word?”: Exploring Psychological Safety During Race Talk

Classroom interactions that engender psychologically safe climates have rich developmental potential; these interactions often facilitate engagement in academic risk-taking and exploration (Cooper, 2013). On the contrary, classroom interactions that are threatening to adolescents’ identities send messages of devaluation and can negatively impact feelings of belonging and academic achievement, particularly for youth of color (Sherman et al., 2013). In efforts to help explicate the interrelations between racial-identity linked risks and threats and psychological safety in classroom learning contexts, this exploratory case study examined two 9th grade English Language Arts teachers’ negotiation of attunement, authenticity, and power sharing during race talk. Our in-depth analysis of these classrooms suggested the following teacher moves may be particularly important for psychological safety during race talk: teacher moves that (a) support or inhibit power sharing, (b) indicate high or low levels of teacher attunement, and (c) demonstrate or mask the teacher’s authenticity. These results have implications for understanding the co-construction of psychological safety in classrooms during identity-salient and racialized interactions.     

Nevertheless,she persisted (in science research): Enhancing women students’ science research motivation and belonging through communal goals

Social Psychology of Education - There is no doubt that connections with other people motivate behavior; yet science is stereotyped as being lonely work devoid of communal connections. Drawing from...     

Perceived discrimination and educational attainment for U.S. Black adults: the influence of Black racial identity

Social Psychology of Education - Few studies have examined the role of Black racial identity as a moderator of the relation between perceived discrimination and educational attainment among Black...     

The Right to Self-Defense Against the State

Philosophia - The Second Amendment is accepted as protecting a right, but it is commonly accepted that the right is not unrestricted. I will explore the most commonly suggested restrictions...