Children with Special Health Care Needs: Impact of Health Care Expenditures on Family Financial Burden

We investigated the relationship between health care expenditures for Special Health Care Needs (SHCN) children and family perception of financial burden. Using 2005/2006 National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs data, a multivariate logistic regression model was used to estimate the relationship between the SHCN child’s health care expenditure and perceived financial burden, while controlling for family and child characteristics. Our analysis suggests that health care expenditures for a SHCN child of $250 and more are associated with family perception of financial burden. In addition, families with lower socioeconomic status also perceived financial burden at lower level of expenditures. Members of the health care team who treat children with SHCN have an important role in understanding and assessing family financial burden as part of the care delivery to the child and the family. Our study reinforces the need to treat the whole family as the unit of care, especially when caring for children with special health care needs.     

The persistence of inferences in memory for younger and older adults: Remembering facts and believing inferences

Research shows that younger adults have difficulty forgetting inferences that they make after reading a passage, even if the information that the inferences are based on is later shown to be untrue. The present study examined the effects of these inferences on memory in the lab and tested whether older adults, like younger adults, are influenced by the lingering effects of false inferences. In addition, this study examined the nature of these inferences, by examining younger and older adults’ subjective experiences and confidence associated with factual recall and incorrect inference recall. The results showed that younger and older adults were equally susceptible to the continued influence of inferences. Both younger and older adults tended to remember facts from the stories but to believe their inferences, although confidence judgments did not differ for facts and inferences.     

Adaptation to different mouth shapes influences visual perception of ambiguous lip speech

We investigated the effects of adaptation to mouth shapes associated with different spoken sounds (sustained /m/ or /u/) on visual perception of lip speech. Participants were significantly more likely to label ambiguous faces on an /m/-to-/u/ continuum as saying /u/ following adaptation to /m/ mouth shapes than they were in a preadaptation test. By contrast, participants were significantly less likely to label the ambiguous faces as saying /u/ following adaptation to /u/ mouth shapes than they were in a preadaptation test. The magnitude of these aftereffects was equivalent when the same individual was shown in the adaptation and test phases of the experiment and when different individuals were presented in the adaptation and test phases. These findings present novel evidence that adaptation to natural variations in facial appearance influences face perception, and they extend previous research on face aftereffects to visual perception of lip speech.     

Evidence for menstrual cycle shifts in women's preferences for masculinity

Over the last decade, a growing literature has shown that women in the fertile phase of the menstrual cycle demonstrate stronger preferences for men with masculine traits than they do when in the non-fertile phases of the cycle (see Gangestad and Thornhill, 2008 and Jones et al., 2008 for recent reviews). In a recent article, Harris (in press; Sex Roles) failed to replicate this increase in women's preferences for masculine faces when women are near ovulation. Harris represented her study as one of only three studies on the topic, and as the largest of the existing studies. There are, however, many more studies on menstrual cycle shifts in preferences for facial masculinity in the published literature, including one that is 2.5 times larger in size than the Harris study. In this article, we review the evidence for cyclic shifts in mate preferences and related behaviors and discuss weaknesses of Harris's methods. Considered as a whole, the evidence for menstrual cycle shifts in women's preferences and behaviors is compelling, despite the failure of replication reported by Harris.     

Social Role Theory and the Perceived Gender Role Orientation of Athletes

In this research we examined the influence of athletic roles upon the perceived gender role orientations of male and female athletes. Participants were 148 students who read a bogus newspaper article that described either a male or female athlete who had successfully competed in an athletic event. The type of sport (football, basketball, and cheerleading) was manipulated. Female football players and basketball players were perceived as higher in agency than female cheerleaders. Male cheerleaders were perceived as higher in communality than male football players and male basketball players. Participants made external attributions concerning the motivations of athletes who competed in gender traditional sports. They made internal attributions concerning the motivations of athletes who competed in gender nontraditional sports. These findings are examined in relation to social role theory.     

Identity development during the first two university years: Exploring intersections between micro-, ontogenetic processes

Identity development processes are explored through analyses of longitudinal interview data collected with ten students during the first two university years. Micro-level analyses, based upon the work of Josephs, I. E. and Valsiner, J. [(1998). How does autodialogue work? Miracles of meaning maintenance and circumvention strategies. Social Psychology Quarterly, 61, 68-83], entailed the identification of oppositional meaning complexes—statements of conflicting meaning about self—as well as circumvention strategies. Ontogenetic analyses of developmental trajectories were based on Freeman, M. and Robinson, R.'s [(1990). The development within: An alternative approach to the study of lives. New Ideas in Psychology, 8, 53-72] conceptualization of the developmental process. From the ontogenetic analyses, two primary developmental patterns, and several subpatterns, were identified. Linkages between micro and ontogenetic levels were indicated by differences in rates of oppositional meaning complexes for individuals engaged in “developmental work” compared to those not so engaged, and differences in across-time patterning of these complexes for developmental subgroups. Findings support the potential of these methods for identifying semiotic mechanisms that are associated with longer-term developmental change.     

Personality‐relevant attribute‐nouns: a taxonomic study in the Italian language

The present study was based on psycholexical approach premises and explored the structure of a large set of personality attribute‐nouns in the Italian language. Content inspection (based on Big Five categories) and quantitative indices were used to interpret the attribute‐noun dimensions. Results showed (a) a stable three‐component solution which replicated the Big Three; (b) an unstable five‐factor solution which did not reproduce the Big Five; (c) an unstable six‐factor solution which represented deviations from the Big Five system, which have been found in most psycholexical studies conducted in the Italian language. The six lexical dimensions were interpreted as follows: Conscientiousness (replicating the III of the Big Five); Self‐Assurance (combining the Big Five I assertiveness and IV fearfulness subcategories); Sociability (defined by the Big Five I sociableness and I impulse expression subcategories); Placidity (combining the Big Five II peacefulness, II unassertiveness, and IV irritableness subcategories); Honesty and Humility (comprising the Big Five II modesty and II helpfulness subcategories plus integrity values); Cleverness and Sophistication (defined by the Big Five V subcategories). The conclusion was that personality word organisation in the Italian language reflects the psycholexical Big Three and Big Six, but not the Big Five. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Rater Personality,Rating Format,and Social Context: Implications for Performance Appraisal Ratings

This study investigates the effects of rater personality (Conscientiousness and Agreeableness), rating format (graphic rating scale vs. behavioral checklist), and the rating social context (face‐to‐face feedback vs. no face‐to‐face feedback) on rating elevation of performance ratings. As predicted, raters high on Agreeableness showed more elevated ratings than those low on Agreeableness when they expected to have the face‐to‐face feedback meeting. Furthermore, rating format moderated the relationship between Agreeableness and rating elevation, such that raters high on Agreeableness provided less elevated ratings when using the behavioral checklist than the graphic rating scale, whereas raters low on Agreeableness showed little difference in elevation across different rating formats. Results also suggest that the interactive effects of rater personality, rating format, and social context may depend on the performance level of the ratee. The implications of these findings will be discussed.     

Charting the Road of Inquiry: Deleuze's Humean Pragmatics and the Challenge of Badiou

This essay responds to Badiou's charge that Deleuze fails to set forth a philosophy that is “beyond Gategorical oppositions.” It is argued that this criticism of Deleuze is founded upon a misreading of the Deleuzean distinction between the virtual and the actual, a reading that carries forward Badiou's misreading of Spinoza and, hence, of Deleuze's Spinozism. With this corrected, we show how the virtual‐actual distinction operates within the experimental philosophy, or pragmatics, that Deleuze, and later Deleuze and Guattari, sets forth. It is this pragmatics that is precisely the philosophy of difference that is beyond categorical oppositions. Through a comparison of Deleuzean pragmatics with the work of Hume and Peirce, we are able to respond to Badiou's further criticism that Deleuze's philosophy fails to understand the conditions for creativity in thought and culture. This criticism is itself resolved once one corrects for Badiou's misreading of Deleuze's virtual‐actual distinction.