A Measure of the Stability of Activities in a Family Environment

The Stability of Activities in the Family Environment (SAFE) measure was developed to assess aspects of the construct of family stability. An earlier version of the SAFE was revised to improve its psychometric properties and better elaborate the construct that underlies the measure. College students completed the revised SAFE and other measures of family functioning with respect to their families of origin and measures of current adjustment. Findings support the reliability, internal consistency, and factor structure of the SAFE. It is suggested that the results of the factor analyses and findings that different aspects of family stability demonstrated different patterns of relationships to indices of family functioning, are consistent with the presumption guiding the development of the SAFE that families achieve stability in diverse ways. The validity of the SAFE was further supported by its relationship to measures of current self-esteem and depression.     

A serial test of the laterality of familiar face recognition

The purpose of the present study was to address the issue of laterality of familiar face recognition. Seventy-two participants judged familiar faces presented laterally or centrally for their "faceness," familiarity, occupation, and name (which represent four stages of familiar face processing) using one of three response modes-verbal, manual, or combined. The pattern of reaction times (RTs) implied a serial process of familiar face recognition. Centrally presented stimuli were recognized faster than laterally presented stimuli. No RT differences were found between the left and right visual fields (VFs) across all judgments and response modes. The findings were interpreted as supporting the notion that there are no significant hemispheric differences in familiar face recognition.     

Functional neuroimaging studies of human emotions

Neuroimaging studies with positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging have begun to describe the functional neuroanatomy of human emotion. Taken separately, specific studies vary in task dimensions and in type(s) of emotion studied, and are limited by statistical power and sensitivity. By examining findings across studies in a meta-analysis, we sought to determine if common or segregated patterns of activations exist in different emotions and across various emotional tasks. We surveyed over 55 positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging activation studies, which investigated emotion in healthy subjects. This paper will review observations in several regions of interest in limbic (eg, amygdala, anterior cingulate cortex) and paralimbic (eg, medial prefrontal cortex, insula) brain regions in emotional responding.     

Counseling young people contemplating intermarriage

Pastoral Psychology -     

Developing mechanisms of temperamental effortful control

Studies of temperament from early childhood to adulthood have demonstrated inverse relationships between negative affectivity and effortful control. Effortful control is also positively related to the development of conscience and appears as a protective factor in the development of behavior disorders. In this study, the development of attentional mechanisms underlying effortful control was investigated in 2- to 3-year-old children, as indexed by their performance in a) making anticipatory eye movements to ambiguous locations and b) resolving conflict between location and identity in a spatial conflict task. The ability to make anticipatory eye movements to ambiguous locations within a sequence was clearly present at 24 months. By 30 months, children could also successfully perform a spatial conflict task that introduced conflict between identity and location, and at that age, children's success on ambiguous anticipatory eye movements was related to lower interference from conflict in the spatial conflict task. Children's performance on the eye-movement task was correlated with performance and reaction time on spatial tasks, and both were related to aspects of effortful control and negative affect as measured in children's parent-reported temperament.     

Mental pain: a multidimensional operationalization and definition

An operationalization of mental pain is presented in three studies. The first study describes the operationalization of mental pain and the factor structure of the items produced by a content analysis of self-reports yielding a scale with nine factors: the experience of irreversibility, loss of control, narcissistic wounds, emotional flooding, freezing, estrangement, confusion, social distancing, and emptiness. Study 2 tested the relationship between mental pain and depression and anxiety in a normal population. Study 3 focused on the relationship between mental pain and coping. Mental pain is conceptualized as a perception of negative changes in the self and its functions that are accompanied by negative feelings. It is suggested that it can be meaningfully applied to the study of different mental states, life conditions, and transitions in life.     

Attention genes

A major problem for developmental science is understanding how the cognitive and emotional networks important in carrying out mental processes can be related to individual differences. The last five years have seen major advances in establishing links between alleles of specific genes and the neural networks underlying aspects of attention. These findings have the potential of illuminating important aspects of normal development and its pathologies. We need to learn how genes and experience combine to influence the structure of neural networks and the efficiency with which they are exercised. Methods for addressing these issues are central to progress in the decade ahead.     

The anterior cingulate gyrus and the mechanism of self-regulation

The midfrontal cortex, and particularly the anterior cingulate gyrus, appears active in many studies of functional imaging. Various models have competed to explain the functions of the anterior cingulate in relation to its patterns of activation. We believe that the concept of self-regulation is valuable in considering the role of the cingulate. The sensitivity of the cingulate to both reward and pain, and evidence for cingulate coupling to cognitive and emotional areas during task performance, support this identification. Self-regulation is a very broad concept that does not lend itself very well to specific models or tests, but it does provide a framework for examining development. We trace the role of the midfrontal cortex in evolution and infant development. Both genes and environment influence self-regulation. The presence of both genetic and environmental effects raises the issue of their interaction, which we discuss in relation to the dopamine 4 receptor gene and parenting methods. The role of the midfrontal cortex in self-regulation allows us to consider both brain networks common to all people and network efficiency underlying individual differences in behavior. This research was supported by NIMH Grant HD5801 to Georgia State University and by a grant from the Dana Foundation for the study of the arts.     

Perceived strengths of urban girls and boys experiencing homelessness

Homelessness, with concomitant poverty and mobility, is often associated with multiple negative outcomes for school‐aged children; less is known about the positive characteristics of children experiencing homelessness. This study focused on understanding the mother‐perceived strengths of 50 elementary school‐aged children experiencing homelessness. Mothers typically identified multiple child strengths, even among children experiencing emotional or behavioural difficulties. These strengths included positive personality and behavioural characteristics, intelligence and academic achievement and positive physical attributes. Implications for intervention and further research are discussed. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.