“Who Cares for the Children?” Lessons from a Global Perspective of Child Care Policy

We present the argument that the meaning of child care and the policies that address it are explicitly linked with national ideologies, work force participation, economic success, and child outcomes. The relationship between family and child care policies is cyclical in nature, with a nation’s ideology and vision of family often driving child care policies, while child care policies in turn drive and support a nation’s ideology. We examine the interrelatedness of child care policy and national ideologies of family in selected industrialized countries. Specifically, this paper first defines child care policy and discusses the national ideological frameworks that provide the impetus for child care policy formation and implementation. Second, the paper explores current child care policies and their connection to the historical and political context of several countries within, including France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Belgium, the Nordic countries, and the United States. Lastly, recommendations are offered for the future of child care policy development with specific recommendations for child care policy development in the United States.     

Rapid and persistent suppression of feeding behavior induced by sensitization training in Aplysia

In Aplysia, noxious stimuli induce sensitization of defensive responses. However, it remains largely unknown whether such stimuli also alter nondefensive behaviors. In this study, we examined the effects of noxious stimuli on feeding. Strong electric shocks, capable of inducing sensitization, also led to the suppression of feeding. The use of multiple training protocols revealed that the time course of the suppression of feeding was analogous to that of sensitization. In addition, the suppression of feeding was present only at the time points in which sensitization was expressed. These results suggest that, in Aplysia, noxious stimuli may produce concurrent changes in neural circuits controlling both defensive and nondefensive behaviors.     

The British Lexicon Project: lexical decision data for 28,730 monosyllabic and disyllabic English words

We present a new database of lexical decision times for English words and nonwords, for which two groups of British participants each responded to 14,365 monosyllabic and disyllabic words and the same number of nonwords for a total duration of 16 h (divided over multiple sessions). This database, called the British Lexicon Project (BLP), fills an important gap between the Dutch Lexicon Project (DLP; Keuleers, Diependaele, & Brysbaert, Frontiers in Language Sciences. Psychology, 1, 174, 2010) and the English Lexicon Project (ELP; Balota et al., 2007), because it applies the repeated measures design of the DLP to the English language. The high correlation between the BLP and ELP data indicates that a high percentage of variance in lexical decision data sets is systematic variance, rather than noise, and that the results of megastudies are rather robust with respect to the selection and presentation of the stimuli. Because of its design, the BLP makes the same analyses possible as the DLP, offering researchers with a new interesting data set of word-processing times for mixed effects analyses and mathematical modeling. The BLP data are available at and as Electronic Supplementary Materials.     

Impaired goal-directed behavioural control in human impulsivity

Two dissociable learning processes underlie instrumental behaviour. Whereas goal-directed behaviour is controlled by knowledge of the consequences, habitual behaviour is elicited directly by antecedent Pavlovian stimuli without knowledge of the consequences. Predominance of habitual control is thought to underlie psychopathological conditions associated with corticostriatal abnormalities, such as impulsivity and drug dependence. To explore this claim, smokers were assessed for nicotine dependence, impulsivity, and capacity for goal-directed control over instrumental performance in an outcome devaluation procedure. Reduced goal-directed control was selectively associated with the Motor Impulsivity factor of Barrett's Impulsivity Scale (BIS), which reflects propensity for action without thought. These data support the claim that human impulsivity is marked by impaired use of causal knowledge to make adaptive decisions. The predominance of habit learning may play a role in psychopathological conditions that are associated with trait impulsivity.     

Using quizzes to enhance summative-assessment performance in a web-based class: An experimental study

The testing effect—a mnemonic benefit of quizzing or testing—has been oft-demonstrated in the laboratory, but rarely evaluated experimentally in the classroom. In a college web-based class, using a within-subjects design, core target concepts were quizzed with multiple choice and short-answer questions, presented for reading, or not presented (no additional-exposure control). Multiple attempts on each quiz (and in the read-control) were encouraged and feedback was available after each. When exam questions were identical to earlier-seen quizzes, short answer and multiple choice quizzes enhanced exam performance over rereading targeted material. When examination questions were different but related to the quizzes, short answer and multiple-choice quizzes conferred benefits over unquizzed target content, and produced exam performance that was nominally better than rereading target material. These experimental results indicate that unsupervised on-line quizzing in a college course enhances exam performance, thereby representing an important extension of laboratory testing effects into the classroom setting.     

Are today's Millennials splintering into a new generational cohort? Maybe!

A new generational cohort is emerging from the Millennial market segment as a result of cataclysmic events that have occurred since 2008. Interviews with college upperclassmen in the United States identified significant events influencing their values, the values arising from these events, and new values not associated with older Millennials. The most important events identified included the Great Recession, 9/11, and the election of the first African-American president. Values of Millennials were assessed in online surveys of college juniors and seniors in the United States in the fall of 2009 and 2010 and among older Millennials, aged 27–31, during the summer of 2010. The values most strongly differentiating the younger and older Millennials were “piety” and “thrift.” Younger Millennials in the United States are less thrifty and more secular and sexually permissive than older Millennials. They are also less patriotic and less concerned about politics, sustainability, saving, and making mistakes in life. This suggests a splintering of the Millennials cohort as a result of the Great Recession and the potential emergence of a younger “entitlement” cohort. It also suggests further investigation of cross-national value shifts among younger Millennials, prompted by the Great Recession. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Property of Peculiar Value: Land,Religion and the Constitution

In 1792, James Madison wrote that a man's ‘property of peculiar value [is] in his religious opinions, and in the profession and practice dictated by them’.1 1. James Madison in the National Gazette (27 March 1792). Quoted in Hall (1998 Hall T 1998 Separating church and state: Roger Williams and religious liberty Champaign, IL University of Illinois Press  , 135). View all notes In view of the ensuing 200 years, the phrase is telling in ways Madison would not have anticipated. For it is in relation to land and private property that the constitutional concept of religion—a concept designed in significant part by Madison himself—arose and is now in decline. This article traces the origins, development and decline of religion as a constitutional concept in relation to land and private property. The experience of Native Americans is a particularly important illustration of this history, because it is in response to them that the constitutional relations of land and religion have been debated in most detail. I begin therefore with the unsuccessful efforts of Native Americans in 1988 to claim Free Exercise protection for lands they regard as sacred. The second section briefly explores the joint origins of private land ownership and the modern Western concept of religion, which in turn impacted the European treatment of the land and religions of conquered and colonised peoples. Moving into the American constitutional period, the third section sketches the inter-related notions of land and religion that appeared in key framers, which again had profound implications for indigenous peoples. Arriving at the present day, the fourth section outlines the deterioration of the constitutional concept of religion, along with the democratic public sphere itself, in the age of privatisation. The final section, using the Faith-Based Initiatives movement as an illustration, argues that new and supposedly public roles for religion actually advance and protect privatisation. In conclusion, I will review and assess very briefly the prospects for religion as a constitutional construct.     

A Longitudinal Examination of the Moderating Influence of Peer and Parental Socialization on Alcohol-Related Social Media Self-Effects Among Late Adolescents

ABSTRACT

This study is the first to empirically and longitudinally demonstrate that alcohol-related social media self-effects may occur via attitudes, and that the strength of this association is dependent on peers and parents. A 2-wave panel study with a 1-year interval (N = 1006) among late adolescents (age 16–20 at baseline) showed that especially individuals whose peers and parents engaged in alcohol-positive socialization behaviors, held more positive alcohol-related attitudes one year later when they shared alcohol-related self-presentations on social networking sites (SNS). The strength of the alcohol-related social media self-effect was dampened when peers and parents engaged in more negative alcohol-related socialization behaviors. Overall, these results do not only provide support for the idea that some individuals can affect themselves through displaying certain content on SNS, they also suggest that peers and parents continue to play a socializing role, even when adolescents transition into emerging adulthood.     

Family adaptability,cohesion, and creativity

With the awareness of the role stress plays in our lives, it is vital to gain a better insight into the family and assess its adaptability and cohesion. This study was conducted to examine the association between perceived family adaptability and cohesion levels and creativity. Eighty college students from interior design and hotel and restaurant administration classes received the How Do You Think Instrument and the Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales. Results indicated that the highest creativity scores characterized highly adaptable families. The lowest creativity scores were characteristic of rigid families (low adaptability). Adaptability within the family was a significant contributor in predicting creativity scores, but family cohesion was not.     

Interdependence and Social Identity in Youth Sport Teams

The degree to which team members believe that they rely on one another to perform successfully and achieve collective outcomes may relate to perceptions about the extent that they integrate the group within their own identity. This study examined the relationship between interdependence and social identity among 422 high school team sport athletes. Youth completed measures of task and outcome interdependence, as well as social identity. Multilevel analyses revealed that higher perceptions of outcome interdependence at an individual and team level predicted greater social identity. Results highlight the role of outcome interdependence on athletes’ perceptions of social identity in sport teams.