Family interaction: A process model of deviancy training

A model was presented describing the reciprocal influence of disruptions in parent discipline practices on irritable exchanges between the target child and other family members. Disrupted parent discipline and irritable microsocial exchanges within the family were hypothesized to provide a basic training for aggression that generalizes to other settings such that the child is identified by peers, teachers, and parents as physically aggressive. Physical fighting was thought to lead to rejection by the normal peer group, which was hypothesized to feed back to further exacerbate fighting. Multilevel assessment including interview, questionnaires, laboratory studies, and home observations were carried out with the families of 91 preadolescent and adolescent boys. Nine indicators from the assessment battery were used to define the constructs Inept Parental Discipline, Negative Microsocial Exchanges, Physical Fighting, and Poor Peer Relations. Structural equations (LISREL VI) were used to describe the relations among the constructs. The t values for the path coefficients were significant. A chi-square analysis showed an acceptable fit between the model and the empirical findings. The findings were interpreted as being consistent with the hypothesis that under certain circumstances, family interaction may serve as basic training for aggression. In the present study, interactions with siblings in the home seemed to serve a pivotal role.     

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Clusters and Acquired Capability for Suicide: A Reexamination Using DSM-5 Criteria

This study used the interpersonal–psychological theory of suicide to explore the relationships among DSM-5 posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom clusters derived from the six-factor anhedonia model and facets of acquired capability for suicide (ACS). In a sample of 373 trauma-exposed undergraduates, most PTSD symptom clusters were negatively associated with facets of ACS in bivariate correlations, but the anhedonia cluster was positively associated with ACS in regression models. Structure coefficients and commonality analysis indicated that anhedonia served as a suppressor variable for the other symptom clusters. Our findings further elucidate the complex relationship between specific PTSD symptom clusters and ACS.     

A Dilemma for Non‐Analytic Naturalism

In recent years, an impressive research program has developed around non‐analytic reductions of the normative. Nevertheless, non‐analytic naturalists face a damning dilemma: either they need to give the same reductive analysis for epistemic and practical reasons, or they can give a different analyses by treating epistemic and practical reasons as a species of the larger genus, reasonhood. Since, for example, a desire‐based account of epistemic reasons is implausible, the reductionist must opt for the latter. Yet, if the desire‐based account of practical reasons is merely a species of the larger genus, then, due to a violation of irreflexivity, the reduction fails.     

Influence of practice on response-selection and response-implementation processes involved in the response-interference effect

In a choice reaction-time task, the response-interference effect is an increase in reaction times when the two possible responses are from the same hand compared to when the two possible responses are from different hands [Psychonomic Science 2 (1965) 55-56; Human Motor Control, Academic Press, San Diego, CA, 1991]. Although the influence of practice on other reaction-time effects (i.e., the complexity effect and precuing) has been examined, research evaluating the influence of practice on the response-interference effect is limited. Therefore, two experiments were conducted to determine the influence of practice on the response-interference effect. In Experiment 1, a bilateral transfer task was used to assess the influence of practice on the response-selection processes associated with the response-interference effect. The practice results indicated decreased reaction times, but did not influence the response-interference effect. In Experiment 2, a priming task was used to assess the influence of practice on response-implementation processes associated with the response-interference effect. The reaction time results indicated a change in the response-interference effect. The results of these two experiments suggest that with only two fingers on response keys, practice alters the mechanical constraints affecting the response-implementation processes and thereby decreases the response-interference effect.