An experimental investigation of referential looking in free-ranging Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus)

The authors examined looking behavior between 15 Barbary macaque (Macaca sylvanus) infants and their mothers in the presence of a rubber snake (experimental period) and in the absence of the snake (control period). Two of the 15 infants looked referentially at their mother in the experimental period. Including both referential and nonreferential looks, the six older infants (aged 5 to 12 months) displayed a higher frequency of looks to mother than nine younger infants (aged 3 to 4.5 months) in the experimental period, but not in the control period. Older infants looked more to the mother in the experimental condition, whereas the younger infants looked more to the mother in the control condition, or looked equally in the two conditions. These results suggest that age is an important factor in determining looking behavior to mother in situations of uncertainty. Compared to hand-reared chimpanzees or human infants tested in standard social referencing paradigms, the infant macaques displayed a low rate of referential looking. Possible explanations for this are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved).     

Racial/Ethnic Identities and Related Attributed Experiences of Multiracial Japanese European Americans

Surveys from 50 multiracial Japanese European Americans supported the endorsement of multiple simultaneous racial/ethnic identities and a differentiated multiracial identity. Experiences associated with being multiracial included feeling different, sensitivity to cultural cues, appreciation of different viewpoints, acceptance of difference, and disliking exclusion. Implications for research and therapy are discussed. Los estudios de 50 Americanos Japoneses Europeos multiraciales sostuvieron la aprobación de múltiples identidades racial/étnicos simultáneas y una identidad multiracial diferenciada. Las experiencias relacionadas con ser multiracial, sentirse diferente, la sensibilidad de indicaciones culturales, reconocimiento de puntos de vista diferentes, aceptación de diferencia, y la aversión de exclusión. Las implicaciones para la investigación y terapia se discuten.     

“I've Got Some Bad News…”:Veterinarians' Recollections of Communicating Bad News to Clients1

The purpose of this investigation was to gain a better understanding of the transactional processes associated with communicating bad news. The authors asked 62 veterinarians to recall a time when they gave bad news and to respond to a series of statements designed to assess what they did in the transaction and how the transaction impacted the receiver of the news, as well as themselves. The majority of participants followed recommendations published in the medical and veterinary literatures, but rated some of these recommended strategies as making the news harder to give. Although these transactions were not rated as being overly stressful, for some veterinarians stress transcended the bounds of the interaction. Consistent with a transactional stress and coping perspective, preparation efforts were correlated with delivery efforts. However, preparation stress was unrelated to preparation or delivery efforts, and neither preparation efforts nor delivery efforts related to effectiveness appraisals or perceptions of client satisfaction.     

Buying on the Internet: Gender Differences in On-line and Conventional Buying Motivations

Two studies are reported that examine gender differences in attitudes toward conventional buying and on-line buying. Thematic analysis of open-ended accounts (n=113) in Study 1 provides a rich, qualitative map of buying attitude dimensions that are important to young women and men. Study 2 is a quantitative survey (n=240) of functional, emotional–social, and identity-related buying motivations in the 2 environments. The on-line environment has an effect on buying attitudes, but more strongly so for women than for men. Whereas men's functional concerns are amplified—rather than changed—in the shift from conventional to on-line buying, women's motivational priorities show a reversal, and less involvement in shopping. In contrast to men, women's on-line buying is associated with barriers (social–experiential factors) and facilitators (efficiency, identity-related concerns) grounded in their attitudes toward conventional buying. This has implications for the ease with which women and men can and want to adapt to the accelerating shift toward computer-mediated shopping.     

A Behavioral Health Screening Measure for Use with Young Adults in Primary Care Settings

Many healthcare professionals argue that mental health assessment should be routinely incorporated into young adults' medical health care. This project is an evaluation of the Behavioral Health Screening Measure (BHSM) that could be integrated into a primary healthcare setting to aid in the identification of mental illness in young adults. First, Receiver Operating Characteristics analysis was used to calculate a cutoff score that distinguishes a sample of 134 young adult outpatients and 233 young adult nonpatients. Second, a sample of 120 young adults that completed BHSM was divided into two groups by using the cutoff score. Analyses suggested that the two groups had significantly different scores on various measures of depression, anxiety, and general well-being. Results suggest that BHSM would be a valid screening instrument for detecting emotional problems in young adults.     

Awareness of the origin of knowledge predicts child witnesses' recall of alleged sexual and physical abuse

Children who understand that knowledge may have different origins produce more information in their free‐recall accounts than children who are less aware of source. We examined whether the tendency to make knowledge attributions was related to the number and proportion of details elicited from child witnesses using open‐ended invitations and whether this relationship varied depending on the number of incidents of abuse reported. The tendency to make knowledge attributions was measured in the presubstantive portion of protocol‐guided interviews with 3‐ to 11‐year‐old alleged victims of abuse. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that the production of knowledge attribution details was positively related to the proportion of substantive episodic details produced by 3‐ to 6‐year‐olds recalling a single incident and by 3‐ to 11‐year‐olds recalling multiple incidents of abuse. Presubstantive source details were also positively correlated with the amount of source information recalled about incidents of abuse. These findings remained significant after controlling for the children's verbosity, the relative prominence of open‐ended invitations, and the children's ages. © 2003 US Government work.     

Preaching a Risen Christ of Resistance among "Captive" Americans

Abstract: In the midst of the current captivity of Americans to governmental policies which most of the rest of the world finds objectionable, what are the challenges facing those who preach? How can these be addressed biblically and theologically, grounded in what it means to be part of a global communion, and empowered by faith in the Resurrected Christ? How can preaching form faith communities through conversion, confession and conversation so that they might confront and change what is occurring, for the sake of the whole world?     

When necessity is the mother of invention: Mood and problem solving

Happy moods foster the ability to think about problems in new ways, but little is known about how sad moods affect this process. This paper investigates the hypothesis that individuals in sad moods adhere to the data and might not think about problems in new ways until they receive data indicating that it is appropriate to do so. To investigate this hypothesis, participants in happy, sad, and neutral moods completed a classic mental set task (Luchins, 1942). All mood groups were able to break the mental set and to think about the problems in a new way, but mood affected when they did so. Consistent with the idea that individuals in sad moods adhere to the data, they relied on the mental set until they received evidence that it may be problematic. In contrast, individuals in happier moods were more likely to abandon the mental set on their own, rather than wait for evidence of its inadequacy. In three follow-up experiments, when the information provided by participants’ sad feelings was rendered uninformative, the mood effect disappeared. These findings are consistent with the claim that affect influences processing only when it provides information about how to proceed.