Perceived infant temperament,locus of control,and maternal physiological response to infant gaze

Maternal physiologic response was used as an index of maternal attention to infant eye contact. Thirty-six women, each of whom had a 3-month-old infant, were shown 10-sec silent images of a 3-month-old infant on a videotape monitor. In one condition the en face position offered eye contact, in the other condition eye contact was not possible. Each woman viewed a sequence of six identical episodes of one condition followed by six episodes of the other condition. Heart rate and skin conductance were recorded continuously during the session. Skin conductance response did not differentiate between reciprocated and unreciprocated gaze. Cardiac response elicited by reciprocated gaze viewed first shifted from a predominately orienting response on early trials to an acceleratory response on Trial 6. The acceleratory response was most pronounced in those women identified as Externals by the Locus of Control Inventory (Rotter, J. B. Psychological Monographs, 1966, 80, [No. 609]). Initial viewing of the infant looking away elicited a predominantly deceleratory heart-rate response that did not habituate. Mothers who described their infants as being difficult as assessed by the questionnaire method (Carey, W. B. Journal of Pediatrics, 1970, 77, 188–194) were physiologically less sensitive to the change from the infant's averted gaze to its direct gaze. Results are discussed in terms of the role of direct and averted gaze during social transactions.     

Episodic Memory in Schizophrenia

Episodic memory impairments in individuals with schizophrenia have been well documented in the literature. However, despite the abundance of findings, constituent cognitive, neural, behavioral, and genetic components of the deficits continue to elude full characterization. This review provides a characterization of these deficits by organizing findings within three frameworks of interest: 1) neuroanatomical; 2) genetic; and 3) behavioral. Within each approach, evidence from imaging studies as well as behavioral studies is examined. The hope is that by synthesizing the cognitive science paradigms, molecular genetic neurophysiological findings, and computational algorithms applied to medial temporal lobe subregions, we will be able to expand our understanding of the types of compromises in episodic memory systems of individuals with schizophrenia.     

Maternal sensory sensitivity and response bias in detecting change in infant facial expressions: maternal self-efficacy and infant gender labeling

This study examined the role of maternal cognitive sets regarding infant gender on maternal response; participants were 69 mothers, each with a 6-month-old infant. Signal detection methodology was used to assess maternal sensory sensitivity and response bias to subtle changes in positive and negative infant facial expressions as a function of maternal self-efficacy, operationalized by low, moderate, and high illusory control, and maternal perceptions of infant gender, experimental manipulated through labeling. For the positive expression, mothers who received the female manipulation exhibited greater sensory sensitivity and responded with a less conservative response bias compared with mothers who received the male manipulation. For the negative expression, only mothers with high illusory control were differentially sensitive to the manipulation; those who received the male manipulation exhibited less sensory sensitivity than those who received the female manipulation. Results are discussed in the context of the gendered socialization of emotion.     

Jean-Luc Marion: the reinscription of heteronormativity into postmodern theology

ABSTRACT

Since the “theological turn” in continental philosophy, theologians have regularly turned to phenomenology as an authentic opening to a new mode of theological discourse. Yet, when these theo-phenomenological discourses turn to the questions of sexuality, gender, and love they often fail to live up to the radical opening promised by this turn. Taken as a case study, the work of Jean-Luc Marion is emblematic of this failure. While many of his insights might offer new openings for theological thought, his phenomenological speculations nonetheless often merely serve to re-inscribe a traditional, even reactionary heteronormativity into the heart of postmodern theological thought. In fact, it is not uncommon to catch his work offering a denigration of the body, presupposing a determinately male subject, and foreclosing the very possibility of non-heterosexual love. This critical examination of Marion’s account of sexuality shows that even the most radical phenomenological theology needs the ideological interruption of queer theory.     

Surviving roots of trauma: prevalence of silent signs of sex abuse in patients who recover memories of childhood sex abuse as adults

Recent research suggests that victimization imagery is chronically accessible in sex-abused populations, which is helpful in distinguishing them from nonabused populations. Eight categories of victimization imagery were selectively activated by Rorschach stimuli. These 8 sex-abuse signs were replicated in a new sample of 36 patients with continuous memory of sex abuse. Classification accuracy was 83%. By contrast, these signs were present in only 4% (5 of 115) of the protocols of nonabused patients. Taken together, the 2 studies confirm reasonably high sensitivity of the 8 signs for sex-abused populations and high specificity for nonabused populations. The 8 signs were also differentially salient for patients who recovered memory of childhood sexual trauma as adults. The Rorschach protocols of 59 of 114 patients with delayed recall of sexual abuse possessed signs of sex abuse. There was no linkage between therapy and recovered-memory cases with and without sex-abuse signs. Emergence of trauma memories was not uniquely traceable to treatment. Memories arose outside of the context of therapy in over 56% of the cases. Implications for the false-memory debate are discussed.