Gender and Intimate Partner Violence in the United States: Confronting the Controversies

This paper comments on the Langhinrichsen-Rohling article (2010), which reviews five major controversies present in the field of partner violence research and in which the author describes a new typology of mutually-violent couples. Strengths of the original article are discussed, including the author’s incorporation of existing data into a new typology, her focus on context in examining relationship violence, and her reasoned argument for studying the behavior of both male and female aggressors. Limitations associated with the scope and explicit predictions of Langhinrichsen-Rohling’s new typology are also covered in this commentary. Finally, the need for improved treatments for partner violence is discussed.     

Developing and Communicating Responsible Data Management Policies to Trainees and Colleagues

The basic components of data management including data ownership, collection, selection, recording, analysis, storage, retention, destruction, and sharing. A number of important principles underlie best practices for each of these components; these include recording details such that another can repeat the experiment, keeping the data safe, managing storage in such a way as to facilitate easy retrieval for the period of time required by regulatory agencies and establishing data sharing principles with colleagues before collaborations begin. Experience as practicing scientists and teachers has aided in developing helpful strategies and approaches for communicating these principles, policies and practices to trainees and colleagues. We recommend didactic instruction focused by discipline, combined with the use of “teachable moments” in a student’s career, as well as teaching principles versus rules, because changing methods of data collection and storage have implications for data management practices.     

Facial expressions modulate the ontogenetic trajectory of gaze-following among monkeys

Gaze-following, the tendency to direct one's attention to locations looked at by others, is a crucial aspect of social cognition in human and nonhuman primates. Whereas the development of gaze-following has been intensely studied in human infants, its early ontogeny in nonhuman primates has received little attention. Combining longitudinal and cross-sectional observational data from Barbary macaques at 'La Forêt des Singes', we show here that gaze-following among conspecifics develops within the first year of life with a rapid increase between 5 and 6 months, reaching adult levels at 1 year. Sex, rank, and relatedness of the animal whose gaze the subject followed did not affect gaze-following rates. Interestingly, however, the behavior was enhanced in all age classes if a gaze-cue was accompanied by a facial expression. Furthermore, the effect of facial expressions had a modulatory influence on the ontogenetic trajectory of gaze-following, suggesting that it is of functional significance in the development of the behavior. Follow-up analyses revealed that one specific facial expression that is given in response to social interactions between third parties was particularly efficient in eliciting gaze-following responses, indicating the importance of cues that are able to guide the acquisition of social information. Taken together, these results suggest that the development and the operation of gaze-following are tuned to the social and physical characteristics of a species' environment.     

Counselors' Role in Preventing Abuse of Older Adults: Clinical,Ethical, and Legal Considerations

Mistreatment of older adults is commonplace. These individuals are subjected to abuse, financial exploitation, and neglect. The authors present an overview of the literature concerning mistreatment, with an emphasis on clinical, ethical, and legal considerations. Methods are proposed for prevention, including counselor education, advocacy, and counseling opportunities.     

The relationship between leisure satisfaction and life satisfaction of adolescents concerning online games

Increasing evidence indicates adolescents are likely to occupy their leisure time with online games. This study investigates the influences of leisure satisfaction on life satisfaction among adolescent online gamers. The self-completed market survey questionnaire employed is comprised of two sections: the first is Internet usage frequency, while the second employs two measures-the Leisure Satisfaction Scale (LSS) and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), Data were gathered in a medium-sized metropolitan section of north Taiwan and interviews took place at a Cyber Café. Youths (totaling 134) between the ages of 13 and 18 voluntarily participated in the research. Results revealed significant positive relationships between physiological and aesthetic dimensions of leisure satisfaction and life satisfaction. However, the educational dimension of leisure satisfaction has a significant negative influence on life satisfaction. Findings also reveal a significant negative relationship between web surfing frequency and life satisfaction in adolescents. This suggests possible explanations for these results and discusses the implications.     

The roles of respect for parental authority and parenting practices in parent-child conflict among African American, Latino, and European American families

In this study, the authors examined whether parent-child conflict during the middle childhood years varied among families characterized as having different cultural traditions regarding issues of respect for parental authority and parenting practices. The sample included 133 African American, European American, and Latina girls (M age = 8.41 years) and their mothers. African American and Latina girls showed significantly more respect for parental authority than did European American girls. Furthermore, African American and Latina mothers reported significantly more intense arguments when respect was low than did European American mothers. Higher levels of discipline and better communication by mothers were both associated with reports of lower frequency of conflict; ethnicity did not moderate this association. Thus, respect for authority was most salient to group differences in conflict.     

Patientensicht zur Qualität in der Psychotherapie

Concerning the discussion about the quality of psychotherapy, the different perspectives in the definition of quality are rarely considered. Especially the patients’ perspective is barely respected although quality assurance of psychotherapy should be for their benefit. Patients were interviewed (n=8) to answer the question which criteria of quality are relevant in their view. Using the grounded theory a variety of quality criteria was found. The interviewees emphasized the relationship between therapist and patient, the empathy of the therapist, the scheduling of appointments and the progress in therapy. The results suggest that when judging the quality of psychotherapy clients do not only focus on the outcome of psychotherapy, as presumed by some experts, but also on the dimensions structure and process. Professionals have to consider this fact when designing and applying methods of quality assurance.     

Judgments about judgments: the dissociation of consideration price and transaction commitment judgments

There are many contexts in which people make judgments about prior judgments. For example, Internet shopping bots (e.g., NexTag.com) allow consumers to search for products and, if the price is too high, list a price at which they would consider making the purchase (i.e., base judgment). If the price drops to this level, the vendor generates an e-mail inviting the consumer to execute the transaction at the reduced price (i.e., contingent judgment). The authors show that the consideration price depends on the content of retrieved information, whereas the willingness to execute the transaction at the consideration price depends on the ease-of-retrieving the information. The authors use different offer prices to encourage the consumer to retrieve information consistent with different product quality levels. The authors also select offer prices so that information retrieval is more difficult at moderate offer prices than at high or low offer prices. Accordingly, the authors show that the consideration price increases as the offer price increases, but the willingness to execute the transaction at the consideration price is greater when there are high and low, as opposed to moderate, offer prices.