The role of working memory in the development of emotion comprehension

This study investigated the relationship between emotion comprehension, grammar comprehension, and working memory capacity in children between 5 and 11 years (n= 130), testing the hypothesis that working memory has a role in the development of emotion comprehension. We replicated the correlation between emotion comprehension and grammar comprehension, and found that working memory capacity correlates with both of these variables (also with age statistically controlled). The significant effect of age on emotion comprehension was eliminated when working memory capacity was co‐varied. In a regression analysis of emotion comprehension scores, when working memory capacity was entered as a predictor, no additional variance was significantly accounted for by grammar comprehension, gender, or age. A structural relations model, in which the paths from working memory capacity to emotion comprehension and from working memory capacity to grammar comprehension account fully for the correlation between grammar and emotion comprehension, fit the data well. However, working memory capacity was not equally related to all components of the Test of Emotion Comprehension (TEC) ( Pons & Harris, 2000 ), the relationship being significant only for some of them. In particular, working memory capacity has a decisive role in the transition from understanding external to mental aspects of emotions. It is concluded that the development of working memory has a considerable impact on the development of emotion comprehension.     

Resilience in adolescence: Gender differences two years after the earthquake of L’Aquila

The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of L’Aquila earthquake (Italy) on Resilience and Coping 2 years after the earthquake in a high school sample. Three hundred and twenty-four male and female students exposed to the earthquake and 147 not-exposed have been assessed with the Resilience Scale for Adolescents (READ) and the Brief COPE. The two way ANOVAs for gender by exposure level to the distressing event showed statistically significant interactions with males exposed to the earthquake reporting consistently higher READ factor scores. Problem-focused but not emotion-focused coping strategies showed a similar pattern. These findings are compatible with a resilient ‘protective mechanism’ for males.     

Spirituality and Religiosity in the Aftermath of a Natural Catastrophe in Italy

The aim of this study is to assess the influence of spirituality and religiousness on the psychological traumatic effects of a catastrophic event in a population that had been exposed to an earthquake compared with a control population that had not been exposed. A total of 901 people have been evaluated using: (1) Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness/Spirituality; (2) Impact of Event Scale and (3) Trauma and Loss Spectrum-Self Report (TALS-SR). Self-perceptions of spirituality and religiousness were used to rank the samples, distinguishing between spiritual and religious, spiritual-only, religious-only and neither spiritual nor religious groups. The sample that had experienced the earthquake showed lower scores in spiritual dimension. The religious-only group of those who were exposed to the earthquake demonstrated TALS-SR re-experiencing and arousal domain scores similar to the population that was not exposed. A weakening of spiritual religiosity in people having difficulty coping with trauma is a consistent finding. We further observed that the religious dimension helped to buffer the community against psychological distress caused by the earthquake. The religiosity dimension can positively affect the ability to cope with traumatic experiences.     

Temperament and Character Inventory - Revised (TCI-R) 1 year after the earthquake of L’Aquila (Italy)

The aim of this pilot study was to evaluate the impact of L’Aquila earthquake (Italy) on the Temperament and Character Inventory - Revised (TCI-R) administered 1 year after the earthquake to a community sample of 375 subjects exposed to the earthquake and 480 non-exposed. Exposed people showed variations in the adaptive response to stress with higher Persistence (P) and lower Harm Avoidance (HA) dimensions among adult and lower self directedness (SD) and higher Harm Avoidance (HA) in older people. No differences in young adults were seen. Temperament and character dimensions are sensitive to trauma exposure in different ways in different age groups.     

Exploring Children's Induced Defensiveness to the Tell Me a Story Test (TEMAS)

This study examined the effect of inducing a defensive attitude (fake good) in children on their responses to the Tell Me a Story test (TEMAS; Costantino, Malgady, &; Rogler, 1988 Costantino, G., Malgady, R. G., &; Rogler, L. H. (1988). TEMAS (Tell-Me-A-Story) manual. Los Angeles, CA: Western Psychological Services. [Google Scholar]). Different story elicitation procedures were employed to explore their efficacy for inducing a defensive response style in children. Eighty-four Italian children aged 8 to 10 years old completed the TEMAS and the L scale of the Behavioral Assessment Scale for Children–2 (BASC–2; Reynolds &; Kamphaus, 2004 Reynolds, C. R., &; Kamphaus, R. W. (2004). BASC–2: Behavior Assessment System for Children (2nd ed.). Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service. [Google Scholar]), which were used to detect the adoption of a defensive attitude. Children completed the tests under 1 of 3 conditions: (a) honest condition, (b) fake good with verbal instructions, and (c) fake good with verbal instructions and visual stimuli illustrating what was verbally explained. Using simultaneous verbal instructions and visual stimuli facilitated children's understanding of the researcher's instructions compared to using verbal stimuli alone. Results showed that children instructed to fake good used less time to tell stories and tended to modify the simpler and more face valid aspects of their stories. Still, 29 out of 47 children failed to fake good on the BASC–2 L scale. More complex TEMAS variables showed no significant difference between story elicitation conditions.     

Neuropragmatics: Extralinguistic pragmatic ability is better preserved in left-hemisphere-damaged patients than in right-hemisphere-damaged patients

The aim of the present study is to compare the pragmatic ability of right- and left-hemisphere-damaged patients excluding the possible interference of linguistic deficits. To this aim, we study extralinguistic communication, that is communication performed only through gestures. The Cognitive Pragmatics Theory provides the theoretical framework: it predicts a gradient of difficulty in the comprehension of different pragmatic phenomena, that should be valid independently of the use of language or gestures as communicative means. An experiment involving 10 healthy individuals, 10 right- and 9 left-hemisphere-damaged patients, shows that pragmatic performance is better preserved in left-hemisphere-damaged (LHD) patients than in right-hemisphere-damaged (RHD) patients.     

Assessment battery for communication (ABaCo): normative data

The Assessment Battery for Communication (ABaCo) was introduced to evaluate pragmatic abilities in patients with cerebral lesions. The battery is organized into five evaluation scales focusing on separate components of pragmatic competence. In the present study, we present normative data for individuals 15-75?years of age (N = 300). The sample was stratified by age, sex, and years of education, according to Italian National Institute of Statistics indications in order to be representative of the general national population. Since performance on the ABaCo decreases with age and lower years of education, the norms were stratified for both age and education. The ABaCo is a valuable tool in clinical practice; the normative data provided here will enable clinicians to determine different kinds and specific levels of communicative impairments more precisely.     

Can power be self‐legitimating? Political realism in Hobbes,Weber, and Williams

Political realists seek to provide an alternative to accounts of political legitimacy that are based on moral standards. In this endeavor, they face the challenge of how to interpret the maxim that power cannot be self‐legitimating. In this paper, we argue that work by Bernard Williams sheds light on the possible answers to this challenge. While Williams aligns himself with the realist tradition, his account of legitimacy contains an implicit critique of political realism. This is evident, we show, in his rejections of the views of Thomas Hobbes and Max Weber. Williams is not satisfied with Hobbes because he conflates legitimacy and political order, eliminating space for criticizing power. Weber's view, however, offers a non‐moralist standard of legitimacy that has critical purchase. This critical purchase emerges from the demands made on rulers to uphold the values that underlie their legitimation, combined with the ethic of responsibility. The resulting grounds for criticism are thus consistent with the maxim that power cannot be self‐legitimating—the very maxim that Williams puts at the heart of his realism. By showing that Williams's partial rejection of Hobbes and Weber cannot be sustained only on realist grounds, our analysis clarifies the limits of political realism.