The Influence of Family Dynamics on Ethnic Identity Among Adult Latinas

The literature on the development of ethnic identity within the young adult years and during childhood is plentiful. There is less research that examines how this development continues beyond young adult or college years. Research suggests that major life events experienced in adulthood could cause individuals to enter a period of identity reconstruction, yet little is known about this process. Because family and/or familism has been established as an important aspect of Latinos’ identities and lived experiences, this study seeks to examine the dimensions around family dynamics and their potential influences on ethnic identity development processes among adult Latinas. Findings indicate that Latinas often make sense of their ethnic identity when major life events associated with family dynamics occur; such as marriage, childbearing, and negotiating relationships with family members as culture is being transmitted across several generations. These findings have implications for understanding adult education students as well as considering the influence of education on the family dynamics of Latinas.     

Psychological Trait Resilience Within Ecological Systems Theory: The Resilient Systems Scales

This project describes the development of the Resilient Systems Scales, created to address conceptual and methodological ambiguities in assessing the ecological systems model of resilience. Across a number of samples (total N = 986), our findings suggest that the Resilient Systems Scales show equivalence to a previously reported assessment (Maltby, Day, &; Hall, 2015 Maltby, J., Day, L., &; Hall, S. (2015). Refining trait resilience: Identifying engineering, ecological, and adaptive facets from extant measures of resilience. PLoS ONE, 10(7), e0131826. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0131826[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) in demonstrating the same factor structure, adequate intercorrelation between the 2 measures of resilience, and equivalent associations with personality and well-being. The findings also suggest that the Resilient Systems Scales demonstrate adequate test–retest reliability, compare well with other extant measures of resilience in predicting well-being, and map, to varying degrees, onto positive expression of several cognitive, social, and emotional traits. The findings suggest that the new measure can be used alongside existing measures of resilience, or singly, to assess positive life outcomes within psychology research.     

Book reviews

Lea, S. E. G., Tarpy, R. M., & Webley, P. (1987). The individual in the economy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 627 + xxiv. ISBN 0-521-26872-9. £39.50 (Hardback). ISBN 0-521-317014. £13.95 (Paperback).

Davey, G. & Cullen, C. (Eds.) (1988). Human operant conditioning and behaviour modifcution. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. Pp. x + 270. ISBN 0-471-91637-4. £29.50.

Commons, M. L., Mazur, J. E., Nevin, J. A. & Rachlin, H. (Eds.). (1987), Quantitative analyses of behavior. Vol. 5: The efect of delay and of intervening events on reinforcement value. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Pp. 344. ISBN 0-89859-800-1. £31.00.

Pearce, J. M. (1987). An introduction to animal cognition. Hove and London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Ltd. Pp. 328. ISBN 0-86377-0568 (hardback) 219.95; ISBN 0-86377457-6 (paperback) £9.95.

Archer, J. (1988). The behavioural biology of aggression. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. x + 257. ISBN 0-521-34790-4. £9.95 (paperback).

Greenberg, G. and Tobach, E. (Eds.) (1987). Cognition, language, and consciousness: Integrative tevels. The T. C. Schneirla Conference Series. Volume 2. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Pp. ix + 301. ISBN 0-89859-7224. £27.50.

Mook, D.G. (1987). Motivation: The organisation of action. New York: Norton. Pp. xxii + 586. ISBN 0-393-95474-9. £12.95 (hardback).

Frank, H. (Ed.) (1987). Man and wolf: Advances, issues and problems in captive wow research. Dordrecht: Dr. W. Junk. Pp. xviii + 439. ISBN 90-6193-614-4. £103.25 (hardback).     

Defensive and offensive behaviours in a Kleefstra syndrome mouse model

Animal Cognition - Kleefstra syndrome in humans is characterized by a general delay in development, intellectual disability and autistic features. The mouse model of this disease (Ehmt1±)...     

Race,Religion, and Ethics in the Modern/Colonial World

The concept of religion as an anthropological category and the idea of race as an organizing principle of human identification and social organization played a major role in the formation of modern/colonial systems of symbolic representation that acquired global significance with the expansion of Western modernity. The modern concepts of religion and race were mutually constituted and together became two of the most central categories in drawing maps of subjectivity, alterity, and sub‐alterity in the modern world. This makes the critical theory of religion highly relevant for the theory of race, and both of them crucial for ethics. It follows from this, not only that religion and race have been profoundly intertwined in modernity, but also that any ethics that seeks to take seriously the challenges created by modernity/coloniality has to be, at least to some extent, decolonial.     

Emotional face expressions recognition in childhood: developmental markers,age and sex effect

Cognitive Processing - Recognizing emotional face expressions in others is a valuable non-verbal communication and particularly relevant throughout childhood given that children’s language...