Children's and adults' sex-stereotyped perceptions of infants

Sex-stereotyped perceptions of infants were examined in children (aged 5, 9, and 15 years), college students, and the children's mothers. The children and college students as a group rated labeled female infants as littler and as more beautiful, nice, and soft than labeled male infants, with no age changes in sex-stereotyped perceptions. The mothers as a group were not influenced by the labeled sex manipulation. The 5-year-olds rated the infants the least favorably and the mothers rated the infants the most favorably. Girls rated the infants as more beautiful than the boys did. Finally, the mothers with higher masculinity scores and their sons showed less sex-stereotyped perceptions of the infants than mothers with lower masculinity scores and their sons.     

Knowledge organization and skill differences in computer programmers

Like experts in other fields, expert computer programmers can recall at a glance far more information relevant to their field than novices can. One explanation for this difference is that experts not only have more information, they have it better organized into meaningful chunks. In this paper, we infer the details of individual programmers' chunks of key programming concepts using the Reitman—Rueter (Cognitive Psychology, 1980, 12(4), 554–581.) technique for inferring tree structures from recall orders. Differences in organizations accompany skill-level differences. Beginner programmers' organizations show a rich variety of common-language associations to these programming concepts; Intermediate programmers show mixtures of programming and common-language associations; and Experts show remarkably similar, but not identical, organizations based clearly on programming knowledge.     

Temporal coordination of phonation and articulation in a case of verbal apraxia: A voice onset time study

A study of voice onset time (VOT) in stop production was undertaken in order to investigate the hypothesis that the voicing feature errors in the speech of an apraxic patient (Sands, E. S., Freeman, F. J., & Harris, K. S. 1978. Brain and Language, 6, 97–105) were related to deficits in temporal coordination of phonation and articulation. Results demonstrated that the VOTs of the apraxic subject differed markedly from those of normal subjects. The apraxic productions did not include voicing lead for voiced stops. Lag times for voiced stops were longer than normal, while those for voiceless stops were shorter than normal, yielding a compression of the two categories and a marked overlap.     

Dogmatism, Locus of Control of Reinforcement, Importance of Issues, and Relationships to Political Activity

This study examined the cumulative and interaction effects of dogmatism, I-E, and issue salience on political activity. Indexes of the variables were developed from factor-analytic results based on personal, group, and mail interviews with 212 adults in the Detroit area. The three psychological variables were then dichotomized at the median and related to political activity, utilizing multiple regression and a step-wise interaction procedure. The multiple r was .41 ( p <.01) with issue salience contributing the greatest amount of variance. Comparisons to multiple-regression predictions indicated interaction effects with low-issue importance reducing political activity and high-issue importance increasing political activity. Split-half analyses indicated substantial stability in the findings. A broader conceptualization for relating psychological variables to political activity was discussed.     

Depression,restraint and eating behavior

Contrary to the belief that weight loss is a principal symptom of depression, several recent studies have suggested that certain people gain rather than lose weight when depressed. The present experiment concerned the effects of experimentally induced mood states on the eating behavior of high- and low-restraint persons. Sixty-eight female undergraduates were randomly assigned to one of three groups each designed to induce a different mood state (depressed, neutral or elated), and were classified as high or low restraint based on their responses to a questionnaire. During the mood induction procedure subjects were provided with the opportunity to eat. High-restraint persons induced into a depressed mood ate significantly more than high-restraint persons induced into neutral or elated moods, and more than low-restraint persons induced into a depressed mood. This effect was most prominent among subjects who scored high on the weight-fluctuation factor of the restraint scale. There was no evidence that this effect occurred among subjects who scored high on the concern for dieting factor. The role of emotional arousal on the self-control over eating behavior of high weight-fluctuation persons, and the implications of these findings for the evaluation of depression were discussed.     

Attribute centrality and imaginative thought

Participants' representations of the concept human were examined to differentiate three types of associations between concepts and their component attributes: the capacity of concepts to cue attributes (attribute accessibility), the capacity of attributes to cue concepts (instance accessibility), and the extent to which attributes are thought of as central to concepts (attribute centrality). The findings provide information about the concept human itself and, more generally, about the functionally distinct roles those different attribute-concept associations play in guiding imaginative thought. College students listed attributes that differentiate humans from other animals, rated the centrality of those attributes, and listed animals that possess those attributes. Other students drew and described extraterrestrials that possessed some of the attributes that were found to vary across those listing and rating tasks. Rated centrality was the most important determinant of an attribute's impact on imaginative generation. When the imagined extraterrestrials were supposed to possess attributes that had been rated as central to humans (intelligence, emotional complexity, or opposable thumbs), participants projected more aspects of human form onto them than when the creatures were supposed to possess less central attributes or when attributes were unspecified.     

Investigating Friendship Difficulties in the Pathway from ADHD to Depressive Symptoms. Can Parent–Child Relationships Compensate?

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with friendship difficulties. This may partly account for the increasingly recognised association between ADHD and subsequent depression. Little is known about the types of friendship difficulties that could contribute to the association between ADHD and depressive symptoms and whether other relationships, such as parent–child relationships, can mitigate against potential adverse effects of friendship difficulties. In a representative UK school sample (n?=?1712), three main features of friendship (presence of friends, friendship quality and characteristics of the individual’s classroom friendship group) were assessed in a longitudinal study with two assessment waves (W1, W2) during the first year of secondary school (children aged 11-12 years). These friendship features (W1) were investigated as potential mediators of the prospective association between teacher-rated ADHD symptoms (W1) and self-rated depressive symptoms (W2) seven months later. Parent–child relationship quality (W1) was tested as a moderator of any indirect effects of ADHD on depression via friendship. ADHD symptoms were inversely associated with friendship presence, friendship quality and positive characteristics of classroom friendship groups. Depressive symptoms were inversely associated with presence and quality of friendships. Friendship quality had indirect effects in the association between ADHD and subsequent depressive symptoms. There was some evidence of moderated mediation, whereby indirect effects via friendship quality attenuated slightly as children reported warmer parent–child relationships. This highlights the importance of considering the quality of friendships and parent–child relationships in children with ADHD symptoms. Fostering good quality relationships may help disrupt the link between ADHD symptomology and subsequent depression risk.

     

Rural Young Adults’ Lay Theories of Intimate Partner Violence: A Qualitative Examination

This study qualitatively examined rural emerging adults’ ways of thinking (i.e., lay theories) about the causes of intimate partner violence (IPV) and ideas on how to prevent IPV most effectively. Participants were 74 individuals (majority Caucasian, heterosexual, low income) between the ages of 18 and 24 who resided in one of 16 rural communities. Participants’ perceptions of the causes of IPV included (a) individual‐level pathology, stress, and lack of education; (b) intergenerational transmission of violence and early‐life factors; (c) relationship stressors and challenges; and (d) community factors. Furthermore, participants felt that IPV could most effectively be prevented through (a) education and awareness; (b) victim‐focused efforts (e.g., teaching self‐esteem); and (c) job creation. Overall, participants identified a number of established risk factors for IPV perpetration across the social ecological model, although a number were never or rarely mentioned (e.g., peer group norms, positive bystander action, and collective efficacy). Future research should examine if and how perceptions of the causes of IPV impact IPV prevention engagement and impact. Further, prevention initiatives that take into account understandings of lay theories about IPV may be more impactful in reducing IPV than prevention initiatives that do not.