Selective responses to threat: the roles of race and gender in decisions to shoot

Extensive work over the past decade has shown that race can bias perceptions and responses to threat. However, the previous work focused almost exclusively on responses to men and overlooked how gender and the interaction of race and gender influence decisions regarding use of force. In the current article, two studies examine the implications of gender (Study 1) and both race and gender (Study 2) for decisions to shoot criminal suspects on a computerized simulation. In Study 1, participants were biased away from shooting White female suspects compared to White male suspects. In Study 2, White participants showed a pronounced bias toward shooting Black men but a bias away from shooting Black women and White ingroup members, providing evidence of a behavioral threat-related response specific to outgroup men stereotypically associated with aggression. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Maternal attachment representations after very preterm birth and the effect of early intervention

Objective

For very preterm infants the mother-infant relationship may be compromised. Maternal attachment representations 18 (corrected) months after very preterm birth and the effect of the post-discharge Infant Behavioral Assessment and Intervention Program (IBAIP) were studied. The IBAIP is designed to assist parents to support and enhance their infant's regulatory competence and development. The intervention consisted of 6-8 home visits during the first 8 months after birth.

Method

Seventy-eight mothers of very preterm infants (<32 weeks and/or <1500 g) were interviewed, who participated in a randomized controlled trial: 41 from the intervention group and 37 from the control group. Maternal attachment representations were assessed with the Working Model of the Child Interview (WMCI). The interviews resulted in a classification of the attachment representations into balanced or non-balanced.

Results

30% of the mothers had non-balanced attachment representations. Qualitative content analysis of the answers showed that negative feelings when first seeing their baby and negative or ambivalent feelings in the first weeks at home with their baby are related to non-balanced attachment representations. The WMCI revealed no differences between the intervention and control group.

Conclusion

Early support for mothers of very preterm born infants to develop a healthy mother-infant relationship is recommended especially for mothers who report negative first experiences.     

Emerging effortful control in toddlerhood: the role of infant orienting/regulation, maternal effortful control, and maternal time spent in caregiving activities

Latent growth modeling (LGM) was used to examine the contribution of changes in infant orienting/regulation (O/R) to the emergence of toddler effortful control (EC), the contributions of maternal EC to the development of infant O/R and the emergence of toddler EC, the influence of maternal time spent in caregiving activities on toddler EC and the slope of infant O/R, and the contribution of maternal EC to subsequent maternal time spent in caregiving activities. Mothers from 158 families completed a self-report measure of EC when their infants were 4 months of age, a measure of infant O/R when their infants were 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 months of age, and a measure of toddler EC when their children reached 18 months of age. Information concerning maternal time spent in various interactive caregiving activities was collected when infants were 6 months old. Results indicated higher maternal EC predicted interindividual differences in the intercept (i.e., higher intercepts), but not slope, of infant O/R and that higher maternal EC, higher infant O/R intercept, and higher infant O/R slope contributed to higher toddler EC. Furthermore, higher maternal EC predicted greater maternal time spent in interactive caregiving activities with their infants and greater maternal time in interactive caregiving with infants also contributed to higher toddler EC after controlling for maternal EC. These findings contribute to the understanding of the influence of maternal EC, directly and through caregiving, on toddler EC. Additional implications as they are related to early developing regulatory aspects of temperament are discussed.     

The association between observed non-verbal maternal responses at 12 months and later infant development at 18 months and IQ at 4 years: a longitudinal study

Background

An infant's early environment has an important influence on their development. For example, the sensitivity and warmth of a mother's responses towards her infant is associated with the infant's later socio-emotional development. However, it is less clear whether maternal responses are associated with the infant's later cognitive development.

Method

We used data from a large UK cohort study to investigate the association between non-verbal maternal responses and later infant development and IQ. Maternal responses were rated at 12 months during an observed mother–infant interaction. Infant development was assessed using the Griffiths scales at 18 months and IQ at 4 years was assessed using the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI). Data on the infant's developmental level at 6 months (prior to the maternal response ratings) was also available. The complete case sample comprised 732 mother–infant pairs.

Results

There was evidence for an association between positive maternal responses and infant development at 18 months. After adjusting for infant developmental level at 6 months and other confounders, we found a difference of 0.25 standard deviations (coef 2.0, 95% CI (0.8–3.2), p = 0.002) on the Griffiths scales between infant's whose mothers showed positive compared to neutral non-verbal responses at 12 months. However, an association between positive maternal responses and IQ at 4 years diminished following adjustment for maternal educational attainment.

Conclusion

The results provide evidence that positive maternal responses are associated with improved development in infants at 18 months. However, the association between maternal response and IQ at 4 years may be explained by higher educational attainment in mothers who show positive responses. Future studies are needed to explore the influence of maternal responses on different aspects of infant development as well as the role of maternal factors such as education.     

Relationships between early behavioural characteristics and temperament at 6 years

The aim of this study was to analyze the extent to which the relations and the stability of the neonatal behaviour and the infant behaviour at both 4 and 12 months could be used to predict the infant temperament at 6 years. Seventy-two full-term, normal-weight, healthy children were followed from 3 days postpartum to 6 years. Neonatal behaviour at 3 and 30 days was assessed using the Neonatal Behaviour Assessment Scale (NBAS), behaviour at 4 and 12 months was assessed using the Infant Behaviour Record (IBR) from the Bayley Scales for Infant Development (BSID) and temperament at 6 years was assessed using the Dimensions of Temperament Survey-Revised (DOTS-R). Negative and positive affectivity and attention were the factors extracted from the behaviours of the IBR. Our results showed a low/moderate correlation between neonatal behaviour on the one hand and behaviour at 4 and 12 months and temperament at 6 years on the other hand. The motor performance, orientation and ANS stability of the neonate at 3 and 30 days were predictors of positive and negative affectivity at 4 months. State regulation and ANS stability at 3 days were predictors of negative affectivity and attention respectively at 12 months. Negative affectivity at 12 months and endurance at 30 days were predictors of general activity and persistence/attention at 6 years. Also, an inverse relation was found between state regulation at 30 days and general activity at 6 years, and a positive relation was found between attention at 4 months and persistence/attention at 6 years. We conclude that neonatal behaviour and behaviour in the first year of life are good predictors of temperament at 6 years and that early negative affectivity has an important role on infant temperament development.     

Attachment and the management of empathic accuracy in relationship-threatening situations

The current studies tested how attachment orientations are related to empathic accuracy (i.e., the accuracy with which one infers a partner's private thoughts and feelings) during attachment-relevant discussions. In Study 1, married couples were videotaped discussing a severe or a less severe relationship issue that involved intimacy or jealousy. In Study 2, dating couples were videotaped trying to resolve a relationship conflict. Consistent with the revised empathic accuracy model, highly avoidant individuals were less empathically accurate in both studies. Relative to less anxious persons, highly anxious individuals were more empathically accurate when discussing intimacy issues that posed a potential threat to their relationship (in Study 1) and when they were rated as more distressed when discussing a relationship conflict (in Study 2). The findings are discussed in terms of how highly anxious and highly avoidant people differentially manage empathic accuracy to regulate negative affect and facilitate their interpersonal goals.     

Convergence and Non-convergence in the Quality of Adolescent Relationships and its Association with Adolescent Adjustment and Young Adult Relationship Quality

With the aim of identifying and examining both converging (matched relationship quality across one's set of relationships) and non-converging (mixed relationship quality across one's set of relationships), the present study used a pattern-centered approach to examine the different ways adolescent relationships pattern together among a large, national sample of U.S adolescents (aged 13-19). The study also examined how adolescent adjustment and young adult relationship quality varied across the different relationship patterns or constellations. The current study used latent class analysis and data from Add Health (n = 4,233), a national U.S. longitudinal study that spans adolescence and young adulthood, to uncover heterogeneity in adolescent relations with parents, friends, romantic partners, peers, and teachers. As predicted, patterns of both convergence and non-convergence were found, though patterns of non-convergence were more common than expected. Some patterns of non-convergence appear more stable (i.e., similar pattern found during both adolescence and young adulthood) than others. Also, no "high" converging pattern was found, indicating that few adolescents have "first-rate" relations in every relational domain.     

Diagnosing fatigue in gait patterns by support vector machines and self-organizing maps

The aim of the study was to train and test support vector machines (SVM) and self-organizing maps (SOM) to correctly classify gait patterns before, during and after complete leg exhaustion by isokinetic leg exercises. Ground reaction forces were derived for 18 gait cycles on 9 adult participants. Immediately before the trials 7–12, participants were required to completely exhaust their calves with the aid of additional weights (44.4 ± 8.8 kg). Data were analyzed using: (a) the time courses directly and (b) only the deviations from each individual’s calculated average gait pattern. On an inter-individual level the person recognition of the gait patterns was 100% realizable. Fatigue recognition was also highly probable at 98.1%. Additionally, applied SOMs allowed an alternative visualization of the development of fatigue in the gait patterns over the progressive fatiguing exercise regimen.     

Cost-Benefit Analysis Mediation of the Relationship Between Sensation Seeking and Risk Behavior

Risk behavior during adolescence results in substantial morbidity and mortality. Sensation seeking consistently relates to engagement in risk behavior, but the psychological mediators of this relationship remain unclear. The current study demonstrates that adolescents’ judgments of the costs versus benefits of risk behavior were a significant mediator of this relationship. Participants were 406 racially and ethnically diverse adolescents ages 12-17 (M = 14.5, SD = 1.7; 48.3% female) who participated in a larger multi-site investigation of personality and neurocognitive predictors of risk behavior. Data were collected via self-report in a single laboratory session. Mediation of the relationship of sensation seeking to risk behavior was tested using structural equation modeling. Results indicated that higher levels of sensation seeking predicted weighing the benefits of risk behavior higher than its costs, which in turn predicted higher levels of risk behavior. Implications of these findings for understanding mechanisms underlying adolescents’ risk behavior and directions for future research are discussed.