Beliefs about intimate partner violence: A survey of the Swedish general public

Public interventions are considered to be an important means of preventing intimate partner violence (IPV). What people believe about the nature of IPV is likely to determine their propensity to intervene, but little is known at present about IPV beliefs among the general public. In a survey of 650 Swedish citizens, beliefs about the prevalence and causes of IPV, and viable means of intervention were assessed. Respondents estimated, on average, that IPV occurs in almost one quarter of all intimate relationships in Sweden, and that IPV is particularly prevalent in low‐income groups, among non‐European immigrants, in suburban areas, and in couples under the age of 50 years. Physical violence was believed to be the most frequent form of abuse in male offender–female victim cases, whereas psychological violence was considered most frequent in other combinations of offender and victim gender. Female respondents estimated a higher prevalence of IPV, attributed less blame to IPV victims, and suggested more means of intervention, than did male respondents. The findings are discussed in relation to empirical prevalence estimates, and implications are proposed.     

Insulin receptor substrate 2 is a negative regulator of memory formation

Insulin has been shown to impact on learning and memory in both humans and animals, but the downstream signaling mechanisms involved are poorly characterized. Insulin receptor substrate-2 (Irs2) is an adaptor protein that couples activation of insulin- and insulin-like growth factor-1 receptors to downstream signaling pathways. Here, we have deleted Irs2, either in the whole brain or selectively in the forebrain, using the nestin Cre- or D6 Cre-deleter mouse lines, respectively. We show that brain- and forebrain-specific Irs2 knockout mice have enhanced hippocampal spatial reference memory. Furthermore, NesCreIrs2KO mice have enhanced spatial working memory and contextual- and cued-fear memory. Deletion of Irs2 in the brain also increases PSD-95 expression and the density of dendritic spines in hippocampal area CA1, possibly reflecting an increase in the number of excitatory synapses per neuron in the hippocampus that can become activated during memory formation. This increase in activated excitatory synapses might underlie the improved hippocampal memory formation observed in NesCreIrs2KO mice. Overall, these results suggest that Irs2 acts as a negative regulator on memory formation by restricting dendritic spine generation.     

Observed parenting behavior with teens: measurement invariance and predictive validity across race

Previous reports supporting measurement equality between European American and African American families have often focused on self-reported risk factors or observed parent behavior with young children. This study examines equality of measurement of observer ratings of parenting behavior with adolescents during structured tasks; mean levels of observed parenting; and predictive validity of teen self-reports of antisocial behaviors and beliefs using a sample of 163 African American and 168 European American families. Multiple-group confirmatory factor analyses supported measurement invariance across ethnic groups for four measures of observed parenting behavior: prosocial rewards, psychological costs, antisocial rewards, and problem solving. Some mean-level differences were found: African American parents exhibited lower levels of prosocial rewards, higher levels of psychological costs, and lower problem solving when compared to European Americans. No significant mean difference was found in rewards for antisocial behavior. Multigroup structural equation models suggested comparable relationships across race (predictive validity) between parenting constructs and youth antisocial constructs (i.e., drug initiation, positive drug attitudes, antisocial attitudes, problem behaviors) in all but one of the tested relationships. This study adds to existing evidence that family-based interventions targeting parenting behaviors can be generalized to African American families.     

Grasping possibilities for action: influence of object function and action capabilities

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of object function and the observer's action capabilities on grasp facilitation. We used a stimulus-response compatibility (SRC) protocol in which participants were asked to reach and grasp a drinking glass using one of two grasps - the thumb-up or the thumb-down grasp. The reaction time (RT) was used as the index of grasp facilitation. In Experiment 1, we found evidence for the facilitation of "functionally relevant" grasps - where the type of grasp facilitated depended on the location of opening but not the shape of the object. However, this effect was found only when attention was directed toward the location of the opening. In Experiments 2 and 3, we found that this facilitation was also affected by whether participants had the ability to functionally interact with the object. These results show that S-R compatibilities are influenced both by the object's function and the actor's action capabilities, and are interpreted in Gibson's (1979) framework of affordances.     

Moral identity and the experience of moral elevation in response to acts of uncommon goodness

Four studies using survey and experimental designs examined whether people whose moral identity is highly self-defining are more susceptible to experiencing a state of moral elevation after being exposed to acts of uncommon moral goodness. Moral elevation consists of a suite of responses that motivate prosocial action tendencies. Study 1 showed that people higher (vs. lower) in moral identity centrality reported experiencing more intense elevating emotions, had more positive views of humanity, and were more desirous of becoming a better person after reading about an act of uncommon goodness than about a merely positive situation or an act of common benevolence. Study 2 showed that those high in moral identity centrality were more likely to recall acts of moral goodness and experience moral elevation in response to such events more strongly. These experiences were positively related to self-reported prosocial behavior. Study 3 showed a direct effect on behavior using manipulated, rather than measured, moral identity centrality. Study 4 replicated the effect of moral identity on the states of elevation as well as on self-reported physical sensations and showed that the elevation mediates the relationship between moral identity, witnessing uncommon goodness, and prosocial behavior.     

Item Screening in Graphical Loglinear Rasch Models

In behavioural sciences, local dependence and DIF are common, and purification procedures that eliminate items with these weaknesses often result in short scales with poor reliability. Graphical loglinear Rasch models (Kreiner & Christensen, in Statistical Methods for Quality of Life Studies, ed. by M. Mesbah, F.C. Cole & M.T. Lee, Kluwer Academic, pp. 187–203, 2002) where uniform DIF and uniform local dependence are permitted solve this dilemma by modelling the local dependence and DIF. Identifying loglinear Rasch models by a stepwise model search is often very time consuming, since the initial item analysis may disclose a great deal of spurious and misleading evidence of DIF and local dependence that has to disposed of during the modelling procedure.     

Imagining the near and far future: The role of location familiarity

Plausible personal events envisioned as occurring in the near future tend to be reported as more vivid than those set in the far future. Why is this? The present set of three experiments identified one’s familiarity with the location in which the event is placed as critical in this regard. Specifically, Experiment 1 demonstrated that amongst a wide range of phenomenological characteristics, clarity of location appears to drive the overall difference in vividness between events imagined to take place in the near and the far future. Experiments 2 and 3 were designed to further elucidate this finding. Experiment 2 demonstrated that near future events are more likely than far future events to be imagined in familiar locations. Experiment 3 showed that future events set in familiar locations tend to be imagined with greater clarity than those set in unfamiliar locations. The results of all three experiments converge on the conclusion that the difference in vividness of events imagined as occurring in the near and far future is mediated by one’s familiarity with the location in which the event is imagined to occur.     

Age differences in visual statistical learning

Recent work has shown that older adults' lessened inhibitory control leads them to inadvertently bind co-occurring targets and distractors. Although this hyper-binding effect may lead to the formation of more superfluous associations, and thus greater interference at retrieval for older adults, it may also lead to a greater knowledge of information contained within the periphery of awareness. On the basis of evidence that younger adults only show learning for statistical regularities contained within attended information, we asked whether older adults may also show learning for regularities contained within to-be-ignored information. Older and younger adults viewed a series of red and green pictures and performed a 1-back task on one of the colors. Unbeknownst to participants, both color streams were organized into triplets that occurred sequentially. Implicit memory for the triplets from both the attended and ignored streams was tested using a speeded detection task. Replicating previous work, younger adults demonstrated more learning for the attended triplets than the unattended triplets. Older adults, however, demonstrated similar learning for both the attended and ignored triplets, suggesting that contrary to popular belief, they may actually know more than younger adults about the world around them, including how seemingly irrelevant events co-occur. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).