Patterns of Growth in Adaptive Social Abilities Among Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Adaptive social skills were assessed longitudinally at approximately ages 2, 3, 5, 9, and 13 years in a sample of 192 children with a clinical diagnosis of autism (n = 93), PDD-NOS (n = 51), or nonspectrum developmental disabilities (n = 46) at age 2. Growth curve analyses with SAS proc mixed were used to analyze social trajectories over time. Both individual characteristics and environmental resources emerged as key predictors of adaptive social behavior outcome. The gap between children with autism and the other two diagnostic groups widened with time as the social skills of the latter groups improved at a higher rate. However, within diagnostic groups, improvement ranged from minimal to very dramatic. Children with autism most at risk for problems with social adaptive abilities later in life can be identified with considerable accuracy at a very young age so they can be targeted for appropriate early intervention services.     

The impact of previous leaders on the evaluation of new leaders: an alternative to prototype matching

In 2 studies, this research demonstrated the existence of leader transference, a cognitive process whereby mental representations of previous leaders are activated and used for evaluation when new, similar leaders are encountered. The 1st study demonstrated that exposure to a new leader who was similar to a past leader led to erroneous generalization of leader characteristics and associated underlying attributions. The 2nd study showed that expectations of just treatment and abuse were also subject to transfer from old to new, similar leaders, although positive and negative affective responses were not. Results suggested that individuals exposed to a leader who was not reminiscent of an old leader were more likely to use a general leader prototype to form leader expectations, whereas individuals exposed to a leader who was similar to an old leader activated a significant other mental representation for use in making judgments. These results have implications for individual- and relational-level processes as characterized by implicit leadership theory and leader-member exchange theory as well as macro theories of leader succession and organizational culture change.     

Directed Thinking and Readiness to Change Self‐Beneficial Behaviors: Are You Ready for Some Studying?

Previous research has suggested that intentions to engage in studying and other self-beneficial activities might be promoted more by thinking about actions one could take than by thinking about reasons for doing so. The present experiments assessed whether the relative efficacy of actions vs. reasons might depend on individuals' readiness to change. Consistent with previous findings on the processes of change most relevant in different stages, the benefits of self-generated actions were more pronounced for participants who were in the later stages of change. This "matching-to-stage" relationship occurred in 2 experiments that differed in stage measurement, how thinking was directed, and which outcomes were measured. The results have both practical and theoretical implications for attempts to change self-beneficial behaviors.     

Neighborhood crime and self-care: risks for aggression and lower academic performance

This longitudinal study evaluated associations among official rates of neighborhood crime, academic performance, and aggression in a sample of 581 children in 1st-3rd grade (6.3-10.6 years old). It was hypothesized that the influence of crime depends on children's unsupervised exposure to the neighborhood context through self-care. Average weekly hours in self-care were trichotomized into low (0-3), moderate (4-9), and high (10-15). Moderate and high amounts of self-care were linked to increased aggression and decreased academic performance for children from high-crime areas (11,230 crimes per 100,000 persons) but not average-crime areas, when the authors controlled for neighborhood, family, and child covariates. In high-crime areas, academic outcomes were more favorable when self-care occurred in combination with after-school program participation.     

The use of PowerPoint shareware for making Jeopardy!--type games in the teaching of psychology

We describe the use of readily available templates to create a Jeopardy!--type game using PowerPoint slides suitable for psychology courses. The templates can accommodate information from any psychology class and can easily be used to incorporate languages other than English. A major limitation of the templates is that they are only available as shareware on internet sites and the links to such sites can be unreliable. To avoid this problem we present our own template. Differences between the shareware and our own program are noted, as are ways to use the game to stimulate interest in psychology.     

Beyond pleasure: emotion activity affects the relationship between attitudes and behavior

The research examined an additional proposed moderator of the attitude-behavior relationship: the activity level of emotions associated with an attitude object. In Experiment 1, participants who self-generated active rather than passive emotions as being associated with gay men displayed greater attitude-behavior consistency in hiring recommendations for a gay job applicant, as did participants who rated active rather than passive experimenter-provided emotions as being associated with gay men. In Experiment 2, participants who were instructed to associate active rather than passive emotions with gay men subsequently displayed greater attitude-behavior consistency in similar hiring recommendations. It is suggested that future research on the affective component of attitudes might benefit from going beyond consideration of whether the associated emotions entail displeasure or pleasure.     

For-profit/nonprofit differences in center-based child care quality: Results from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development

In secondary analyses of National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development data, multiple indicators of quality (caregiver wages and turnover; child/staff ratio; caregiver education and professionalism; positive caregiving) were compared between child care centers by sector (for-profit/nonprofit) and subsector (for-profit independent/chain, nonprofit church/nonchurch) at multiple points from infancy through prekindergarten. Nonprofit centers evidenced higher caregiver wages and education at most ages and better quality child/staff ratios, turnover, caregiver professionalism, and positive caregiving for toddlers and preschoolers. Subsector differences in preschool classrooms were more complex. In general, quality was higher in nonprofit non-religiously affiliated centers, intermediate in nonprofit religiously affiliated and for-profit independent centers, and lower in for-profit chains, but differences were not found on every indicator or between every group. Further, for-profit chain status predicted lower quality positive caregiving, controlling for family characteristics, staff, and structural quality, at 54 months, but not 36 months. Results support and extend prior research by controlling for family characteristics. Policy implications regarding supply- and demand-side quality-improvement strategies that address market competition and parent choice across subsectors are discussed.     

Meditative Dialogue: Cultivating the Transformative Theater of Psychotherapy

This article offers a selective review of literature on the use of improvisation and play to promote “the bursting forth from the unknown in the moment” (Kindler, 2010, p. 224) in what I term the “theater of psychotherapy.” It presents an innovative Meditative Dialogue process through which clients and their therapists are able to cultivate and access this “theater” as they co-create creative spaces in which transformative experiences are accessible. A brief vignette offers an illustration of how the Meditative Dialogue process helps to develop intimacy, presence, and focus through a collaborative positioning of curiosity, openness, and enlivenment in the therapeutic relationship.     

Parental rearing behavior prospectively predicts adolescents’ risky decision‐making and feedback‐related electrical brain activity

The present study examined the role of parental rearing behavior in adolescents’ risky decision‐making and the brain's feedback processing mechanisms. Healthy adolescent participants (n = 110) completed the EMBU‐C, a self‐report questionnaire on perceived parental rearing behaviors between 2006 and 2008 (T1). Subsequently, after an average of 3.5 years, we assessed (a) risky decision‐making during performance of the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART); (b) event‐related brain potentials (ERPs) elicited by positive (gain) and negative feedback (loss) during the BART; and (c) self‐reported substance use behavior (T2). Age‐corrected regression analyses showed that parental rejection at T1 accounted for a unique and significant proportion of the variance in risk‐taking during the BART; the more adolescents perceived their parents as rejecting, the more risky decisions were made. Higher levels of perceived emotional warmth predicted increased P300 amplitudes in response to positive feedback at T2. Moreover, these larger P300 amplitudes (gain) significantly predicted risky decision‐making during the BART. Parental rearing behaviors during childhood thus seem to be significant predictors of both behavioral and electrophysiological indices of risky decision‐making in adolescence several years later. This is in keeping with the notion that environmental factors such as parental rearing are important in explaining adolescents’ risk‐taking propensities.