Impaired face detection may explain some but not all cases of developmental prosopagnosia

Developmental prosopagnosia (DP) is defined by severe face recognition difficulties due to the failure to develop the visual mechanisms for processing faces. The two‐process theory of face recognition (Morton & Johnson, 1991) implies that DP could result from a failure of an innate face detection system; this failure could prevent an individual from then tuning higher‐level processes for face recognition (Johnson, 2005). Work with adults indicates that some individuals with DP have normal face detection whereas others are impaired. However, face detection has not been addressed in children with DP, even though their results may be especially informative because they have had less opportunity to develop strategies that could mask detection deficits. We tested the face detection abilities of seven children with DP. Four were impaired at face detection to some degree (i.e. abnormally slow, or failed to find faces) while the remaining three children had normal face detection. Hence, the cases with impaired detection are consistent with the two‐process account suggesting that DP could result from a failure of face detection. However, the cases with normal detection implicate a higher‐level origin. The dissociation between normal face detection and impaired identity perception also indicates that these abilities depend on different neurocognitive processes.     

A Phenomenological Study of Immigrant Parents of Adolescents with Delinquent Behavior in Israel

Scarce qualitative literature has focused on understanding the perspective of parents of adolescents involved in crime, and no prior literature has examined how the status of being a parent of an adolescent who is involved in delinquency intersects with being an immigrant parent. The current phenomenological study examined, through the eyes of immigrant parents, how they comprehend their children’s involvement in delinquent behavior. This study examined in-depth semistructured interviews conducted with fourteen immigrant parents (10 mothers and 4 fathers) from the former Soviet Union in Israel of children treated in rehabilitation facilities for delinquent youth. Data analysis revealed a gradual decline in children's behavior ascribed to the developmental stage of adolescence, the pressures of immigration, and cultural conflict. These three factors are interwoven together to create a fabric within which they see their children turning to crime. Parents' gradual loss of control is balanced by attempts to idealize the parent–child relationship and to minimize the severity of the offenses committed. They describe various differing and even contradictory experiences of themselves as parents and their struggles to piece together incohesive, alternating experiences of themselves as parents. Despite the critical role they can play in their children’s rehabilitation, as well as the distress that they themselves experience, parents of children involved in delinquent behavior have often been ignored in research. Acknowledging parents' perspectives and experiences can allow development of appropriate therapeutic strategies to support them and maximize their abilities to support their children.     

Intercorporeity and the first-person plural in Merleau-Ponty

Continental Philosophy Review - A theory of the first-person plural occupies a unique place in philosophical investigations into intersubjectivity and social cognition. In order for the referent of...     

Parent-early adolescent relationship quality and problem behavior in Hungary,the Netherlands,India, and Iceland

Higher parent-child relationship quality has been associated with less internalizing and externalizing problem behavior. However, it remained less clear whether these associations are universal or depend on the country under investigation. Furthermore, fathers are still understudied, even though there is increasing evidence of their important role in early adolescent development. Our study compared the association of mother-child as well as father-child relationship quality with early adolescents’ problem behavior in four culturally different countries, namely Hungary (N = 293; M_age = 11.22; 53% boys), the Netherlands (N = 242; M_age = 11.20; 48% boys), India (N = 230; M_age = 10.68; 61% boys), and Iceland (N = 261; M_age = 10.90; 53% boys). Early adolescents filled out questionnaires in their classroom, assessing warmth and conflict with fathers and mothers and internalizing and externalizing problem behavior. Stepwise multi-group path analysis demonstrated no cross-cultural differences in associations between quality of the parent-child relationship and problem behavior. We did not find any effects of maternal or paternal warmth. However, across samples conflict with mothers was associated with more internalizing and externalizing problem behavior, and conflict with fathers was associated with more externalizing problem behavior. Our findings highlight the need to target conflict with both fathers and mothers in interventions across different countries, especially when addressing externalizing problem behavior.     

Classroom Interactions: Gender of Teacher,Gender of Student,and Classroom Subject

An observational study investigated the effects of gender of teacher, gender of student, and classroom subject (mathematics vs. English literature/language) on teacher–student interactions. A total of 597 high school students (294 males and 303 females) and 36 teachers (28 males and 8 females) were observed in either 18 mathematics classes or 18 literature/language classes. Students and teachers were predominately Caucasian, with the majority of students from a lower- or middle-class background. Observations were coded using the interactions for sex equity in classroom teaching (INTERSECT) observational instrument. It was found that female mathematics teachers, male literature/language teachers, and female literature/language teachers tended to interact somewhat more with male students than with female students. This tendency was not the result of male students having initiated more direct verbal interactions with teachers.     

Group rearing abolishes hyperdefensiveness induced in weanling rats by lateral septal or medial accumbens lesions but not by medial hypothalamic lesions

Lesions of the medial hypothalamus, medial accumbens, or septum were made in 21- to 25-day-old male hooded rats. Half of the animals in each group were subsequently reared in groups and the other half in isolation. When tested for defensiveness toward the experimenter at 31, 34, and 37 days postoperatively, rats with medial hypothalamic lesions were most hyperdefensive toward the experimenter if reared in isolation but were significantly more defensive than sham-lesioned animals even when reared in groups. Rats with septal lesions were significantly more defensive than sham-lesioned animals only when reared in isolation while rats with medial accumbens lesions were not different from controls whether reared individually or in groups. These results suggest that the medial hypothalamus may have a special importance in determining temperament since the hyperdefensiveness that results from interference with its functioning is resistant to experiential remediation.     

A social historical note on the formal emergence of community psychology

Recent interviews of 15 eminent community psychologists, 6 of whom attended the founding conference at Swampscott, highlighted some historically significant aspects of community psychology's emergence and provided background information concerning the conference's processes and content. The interview informants described the idealism of the era in the context of societal unrest, the struggle with psychiatrists' control of extant mental health services, and the uncertain role of a community orientation within academic psychology as key social historical factors. The informants identified some of the behind-the-scenes preparations for Swampscott as well as the conference climate and emergent ideology. The report concludes with a note on the historical status of women in the subdiscipline.     

Relationships between job evaluation ratings and self-ratings of job characteristics

Self-ratings by 308 shop workers of their job variety, autonomy, task identity, and skill challenge correlate significantly with ratings by observers of the jobs' skill requirements. Self-ratings, however, are unrelated to observers' estimates of the physical demands of the jobs or to environmental conditions of the work. The self-ratings and observer measures provide complementary, not substitute, information. Self-ratings can signal person-job dysfunctions, and more objective job measures can identify possible sources of the dysfunctions. Modifications to job characteristics measures are discussed and suggestions are made to begin a new phase of programmatic job characteristics research.     

The effects of unstable clients in adolescent treatment: contagion versus continuity

This study examined the effects of integrating an unstable group of seriously disturbed adolescents into an existing day treatment program. Behavioral data were collected for an established group of subjects who were in treatment one year prior to and one year after the arrival of a new group of severely disturbed adolescents. It was found that the disruptive behavior displayed by the new admission subjects was not imitated by the subjects of the established group. Rather, there was a significant decrease in aggression and in the overall number of psychiatric events for the established group. The treatment milieu was seen to be resistant to the effects of the new admissions largely due to the structured form of treatment.