Are We All Little Eichmanns?

Philosophia - In this review essay, I review in detail Abram de Swann's fine new book, The Killing Compartments. The book is a theoretical analysis of the varieties and causes of genocides and...     

Parental Monitoring,Association with Externalized Behavior,and Academic Outcomes in Urban African‐American Youth: A Moderated Mediation Analysis

African‐American adolescents exposed to neighborhood disadvantage are at increased risk for engaging in problem behavior and academic underachievement. It is critical to identify the mechanisms that reduce problem behavior and promote better academic outcomes in this population. Based on social disorganization and socioecological theories, the current prospective study examined pathways from parental monitoring to academic outcomes via externalizing behavior at different levels of neighborhood disadvantage. A moderated mediation model employing maximum likelihood was conducted on 339 African‐American students from 9th to 11th grade (49.3% females) with a mean age of 14.8 years (SD ± 0.35). The results indicated that parental monitoring predicted low externalizing behavior, and low externalizing behavior predicted better academic outcomes after controlling for externalizing behavior in 9th grade, intervention status, and gender. Mediation was supported, as the index of mediation was significant. Conversely, neighborhood disadvantage did not moderate the path from parental monitoring to externalizing behavior. Implications for intervention at both community and individual levels and study limitations are discussed.     

Effects of Facebook Maintenance Behaviors on Partners’ Experience of Love

This study collected data from 75 heterosexual couples. Partners self-reported their own Facebook behaviors as well as their perceptions of their partner’s Facebook behaviors. Partners also completed the Partner Relationship Quality Components inventory. Analyses used a pairwise data set according to the Actor Partner Interdependence Model. Confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated that two factors explained 59 % of the variance regarding Facebook behaviors: Partner Facebook Maintenance (PFM) and Actor Facebook Maintenance (AFM). Two structural equation models were created, one proposing that PFM and AFM would predict Actor Love and Partner Love when controlling for length of relationship, relationship status, and gender, the other proposing that Actor Love and Partner Love would predict PFM and AFM. Overall analysis indicates good model fit for both models. These results suggest that partners who perceive higher levels of love in their relationship actually participate in less Facebook Maintenance behaviors, and couples who engage in more Facebook Maintenance behaviors experience less love in the relationship. Implications for couples and therapists are discussed.     

Development and validation of the Shy Bladder and Bowel Scale (SBBS)

Currently research exploring paruresis and parcopresis, anxiety relating to urinating and having bowel motions in public respectively is limited. While there are several validated measures of paruresis, no valid measure assessing parcopresis is currently available. The present study investigates the development and validation of the Shy Bladder and Bowel Scale (SBBS) which assesses both paruresis and parcopresis. Two participant groups were utilised to validate this scale, a student psychology cohort (n = 387) and a public cohort (n = 334). An eight-item two-factor model was identified in the psychology cohort and confirmed in the public cohort. The two-factor SBBS was found to be a valid and reliable measure of paruresis and parcopresis. Paruresis and parcopresis-related concerns were associated with social anxiety in both cohorts. Subscales for both paruresis and parcopresis (i.e. difficulty, interference and distress) were positively correlated, suggesting individuals are likely to report similar levels of concerns across both conditions. Further, individuals self-identifying with either paruresis or parcopresis reported significantly higher scores on the respective SBBS subscales than non-identifying paruresis and parcopresis individuals. The SBBS also demonstrated strong test–retest reliability in a small sample of adults (n = 13). Overall, the developed scale provides clinicians and researchers with a valuable tool to evaluate both paruresis and parcopresis.     

Examination of Life Satisfaction,Child Maltreatment Potential and Substance Use in Mothers Referred for Treatment by Child Protective Services for Child Neglect and Substance Abuse: Implications for Intervention Planning

There is evidence to suggest mothers who are served by child protective service agencies are relatively dissatisfied in their lives, leading some investigators to conclude life dissatisfaction may be associated with child maltreatment. To assist in better understanding this relationship the Life Satisfaction Scale for Caregivers (LSSC) was psychometrically developed in a sample of 72 mothers who were referred for behavioral treatment for child neglect and substance abuse by caseworkers from a local child protective service agency. The LSSC was developed to assess mothers’ happiness in nine domains (family, friendships, employment/work, spirituality/religion, safety, sex life/dating, ability to avoid drugs, ability to avoid alcohol, control over one’s own life). Results indicated two factors that appeared to be relevant to Social Satisfaction and Safety and Control Satisfaction. Higher satisfaction scores on both of these scales were negatively associated with child maltreatment potential and substance use at baseline (i.e., positive urinalysis test). Mothers who exposed their children to substances in utero or in infancy (a distinct type of child neglect) were found to report higher satisfaction scores on the LSSC than other types of child neglect. Hispanic-American, African-American, and Caucasian women reported similar levels of life satisfaction. Application of the LSSC as a non-stigmatizing, wellness-focused instrument is discussed within the context of intervention planning.     

Managing Old Age: The Disciplinary Web of Power, Surveillance and Normalization

Health and welfare have emerged as key vehicles used to legitimize and position the identities that older people adopt in contemporary western societies. Both health and welfare contain specific yet continually changing technologies that function to mediate relations between older people and the state. Medico-technical and care management discourses have been presented as adding choice and reducing limitations associated with adult aging. However, they also represent an increase in professional control that can be exerted on lifestyles in older age and thus, the wider social meanings associated with that part of the lifecourse. This article presents a theoretical analysis based on a critical reading of the work of Michel Foucault; identifies the interrelationship between managers and older people in terms of power, surveillance and normalization; and highlights how and why older people remain the subjects of legitimizing professional gazes.     

Ethnoracial comparisons in anxiety and depression outcomes among Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander college students

We explored differences in distress scores at intake as well as the change in anxiety and depression scores over the course of 12 therapy sessions for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) college students. Data were collected from the Center for Collegiate Mental Health (N = 256,242). Results support the notion that NHPI college students experience anxiety and depression in therapy differently from other ethnic groups with moderate-to-large magnitudes of effect.     

The effect of mechanical context on attentional cost in unimanual coordination

The purpose of this study was to address the attentional cost of sensorimotor coordination by determining if changes to the mechanical context of movement would influence the ability to attend and respond to an alternate stimulus. Nine right-handed participants performed rhythmic pronation and supination movements of the forearm in time with an auditory metronome. A secondary task, consisting of a pedal response to visual probe stimuli, was employed to infer the attentional cost of the coordination task. When the axis-of-rotation (AOR) was placed below the long axis of the forearm, the average time to react (RT) to the probe stimuli was greater for the supinate-on-the-beat condition than for the pronate-on-the-beat condition. Conversely, with the AOR above the forearm, RT for the pronate-on-the-beat pattern was greater than that for the supinate-on-the-beat pattern. Thus, changing the mechanical context of an upper limb coordination task altered the central processing cost required to maintain pattern stability. This finding provides further evidence that the attentional resources required to produce a particular movement are determined by the ease with which the action is executed by the sensorimotor system.     

进化发展心理学：发展中的人类本性

进化发展心理学研究社会能力与认知能力发展背后的基因与环境机制,以及基因与环境机制在特定社会文化中的表现。进化发展心理学探讨的主要问题与设计到的主要概念包括：（1）自然选择在毕生发展的早期阶段发挥作用;（2）进化发展心理学特别重视适应在婴儿期及儿童期发展中的作用;（3）儿童期的延长有助于儿童学习人类社会的复杂性;（4）发展背景的方法可以用来理解成人外显行为的进化起源;（5）基因与环境因素相互影响约束个体发展;（6）认知能力与行为活动敏感于早期环境,但二者发展也具有可塑性