The structure of goal contents across 15 cultures

The authors investigated the structure of goal contents in a group of 1,854 undergraduates from 15 cultures around the world. Results suggested that the 11 types of goals the authors assessed were consistently organized in a circumplex fashion across the 15 cultures. The circumplex was well described by positioning 2 primary dimensions underlying the goals: intrinsic (e.g., self-acceptance, affiliation) versus extrinsic (e.g., financial success, image) and self-transcendent (e.g., spirituality) versus physical (e.g., hedonism). The circumplex model of goal contents was also quite similar in both wealthier and poorer nations, although there were some slight cross-cultural variations. The relevance of these results for several theories of motivation and personality are discussed.     

Validity and reliability of the audit and CAGE-AID in Northern Plains American Indians

According to the Indian Health Service, substance abuse and Type 2 diabetes are serious problems among Native Americans. To assess substance use in a medical setting, valid screening tests are needed so the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), a simple brief screen for excessive drinking, and the CAGE-adapted to Include Drugs (CAGE-AID) for identifying primary care patients with alcohol and drug disorders were given 50 Northern Plains American Indians with diabetes. Both are short, easy to administer, have good sensitivity and specificity, and can be easily incorporated into a medical history protocol or intake procedure. Reliability coefficients were above .90 and appeared to have sufficient concurrent and divergent validity indicated by moderate correlations with the General Well-being Schedule (rs=-.39 and -.36), the Family-Adaptation, Partnership, Growth, Affection, & Resolve (r =-.47 and -.36), and the Beck Depression Inventory-IT (r = .36 and .29).     

What's measured is not necessarily managed: cognitive contingencies of organizational measurement

Organizational measurement is necessary for managing incremental improvements or change efforts. Some have argued that indicators of financial performance measure the past and should be joined by "lead" measures such as management development and customer relations, assumed to be drivers of performance. Approaches of "lead" measures have met criticism for not contributing to operational management. The present is an empirical case study where measures from a customer satisfaction survey and a management assessment instrument were analyzed and compared to actual measures of financial performance. The effects of measures obtained seem to depend on the interpretations and reflection taking place in the organization. The pursuit of "lead" indicators did not seem to drive results. Counter-intuitively, higher scores on these measures were related to poorer financial performance. The explication of and reflection on the underlying dynamic seemed to turn the development in a profitable direction.     

The Impact of the Big Five Personality Traits on Reports of Child Behavior Problems by Different Informants

The present study compared ratings of a standardized sample of child behavior problems across informants and examined the effects of informant personality traits on child behavior ratings by mothers, teachers, and group-care workers. Participants were 55 clinic-referred children, aged 6–12 years. All informants watched and rated the same 17-min videotaped behavior sample of a familiar target child. Independent trained observers rated the same videotapes to provide criterion ratings. Informants personality traits were assessed using the NEO Five Factor Personality Inventory. Results showed that mothers reported fewer behavior problems than did the professionals, that the informants who were familiar with the child reported more behavior problems than did the independent observers, and that higher levels of informant neuroticism were related to higher ratings of child behavior problems in the case of the professionals, but not in the case of the mothers. In addition, group-care workers who were less extraverted and open were likely to report more child behavior problems than group-care workers with normal levels of extraversion and openness. Finally, no relations were found between agreeableness or conscientiousness and ratings of child behavior. Findings suggest that professionals who work with children are not immune to distortions based on their own personality.     

Final part-word repetitions in school-age children: two case studies

In contrast to the many published accounts of the disfluent repetition of sounds at the beginnings of words, cases where it is predominantly the final parts of words that are repeated have been reported relatively rarely. With few exceptions, those studies that have been published have described either pre-school children or neurologically impaired subjects. The purpose of this case report was to describe final part-word repetitions in the speech of two school-age boys of normal intelligence with no known neurological lesions. Their speech was recorded during spontaneous conversation, reading, and sentence repetition. The repetitions occurred in all three speaking conditions, although the majority of instances were observed in spontaneous speech, and on both content words and function words. The participants exhibited no apparent awareness of the disfluencies, no abnormal muscle tension, and no accessory behaviours. Each child produced word-final repeated fragments whose phonological structure was highly predictable according to his individual set of rules. The results are discussed in terms of possible motor and cognitive explanations for the disfluencies. EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES: As a result of this activity, the participant will be able to: (1) summarize prior research into final part-word repetition; (2) describe the detailed characteristics of final part-word repetitions as displayed by two children of normal intelligence; and (3) discuss ways in which the behaviour might be explained as part of a model of speech production.     

Further evidence for the role of inferential reasoning in forward blocking

Previous studies on human causal learning (De Houwer & Beckers, 2003; De Houwer, Beckers, & Glautier, 2002) showed that secondary task difficulty (performing an easy vs. a difficult secondary task during the main causal learning task) and ceiling information (outcome occurs with a maximal vs. submaximal intensity) had an influence on forward blocking (i.e., lower causal ratings for cue T when AT+ trials are preceded by A+ trials than when no A+ trials are presented). We extended these studies by also examining self-reports of participants about the reasons behind their causal ratings. Blocking was found only for participants who reported an appropriate blocking inference. Furthermore, secondary task difficulty and ceiling information influenced the number of participants who reported an appropriate blocking inference. These findings point to a major impact of inferential reasoning in human causal learning.     

Recent exposure to a dangerous context impairs extinction and reinstates lost fear reactions

Rats were shocked in a context and then exposed to that context in the absence of shock. Shorter intervals between these extinction trials produced more long-term freezing than did longer ones, and shorter intervals between the final extinction trial and test produced more freezing than did longer ones. A short interval between a context extinction trial and test with an extinguished conditioned stimulus (CS) produced more freezing than did a longer one, and a short interval between a nonreinforced context exposure and an extinguished CS reinstated freezing when the CS was tested 24 hr later. The results suggest that recent fear acts to favor subsequent retrieval of the memory formed at conditioning rather than extinction and to render the retrieved memory more salient.     

The role of working memory in attentional capture

Much previous research has demonstrated that visual search is typically disrupted by the presence of a unique “singleton” distractor in the search display. Here we show that attentional capture by an irrelevant color singleton during shape search critically depends on availability of working memory to the search task: When working memory is loaded in a concurrent yet unrelated verbal short-term memory task, capture increases. These findings converge with previous demonstrations that increasing working memory load results in greater distractor interference in Stroop-like tasks (de Fockert, Rees, Frith, & Lavie, 2001; Lavie, Hirst, de Fockert, & Viding, 2004), which support the hypothesis that working memory provides goal-directed control of visual selective attention allowing to minimize interference by goal-irrelevant distractors.     

Validation of three dimensions of childhood psychopathology in young clinic-referred boys

Short measures of child inattention-overactivity (IO), aggression-defiance (AG), and anxiety-depression or emotionality (EM) derived through a double validation procedure are administered to mothers of 243 clinic-referred suburban New York boys between 6 and 10 years of age. Mother-rated IO is uniquely related to poor performance on cognitive and achievement tests; observed inattentive, hyperactive, and impulsive behaviors in a restricted academic setting; less father education and lower family income; and most mother-reported impairments and treatment use. Mothers of high-IO boys describe themselves and their sons as having similar childhood symptoms. AG is uniquely related to child-reported disruptive behavior and sensation seeking, many measures of family conflict and negative parenting styles, and mother-reported symptom pervasiveness and number of treatments. EM is uniquely related only to poorer cognitive and achievement test performance, living with one parent, parents who considered themselves too busy, and fewer friends. Each dimension also is associated with parallel teacher-rated factors.     

Welfare and Wealth, Poverty and Justice in Today’s World

This article argues that there is no sound basis for thinking that we have a general and strong duty to rectify disparities of wealth around the world, apart from the special case where some become wealthy by theft or fraud. The nearest thing we have to a rational morality for all has to be built on the interests of all, and they include substantial freedoms, but not substantial entitlements to others assistance. It is also pointed out that the situation of the worlds poor is not that of victims of disasters, but simply of less-developed technology, which can be repaired by full and free trade relations with others. The true savior of the worlds poor is the businessman, not the missionary. What we do need to do is strike down barriers to commerce, rather than requisition aid.