The Impact of Impairment Criteria on Rates of ADHD Diagnoses in Preschoolers

Behaviors characteristic of ADHD are common among preschool children, and as such, their clinical significance is oftentimes difficult to ascertain. Thus a focus on impairment is essential in determining the clinical significance of these behaviors. In order to explore the impact of impairment criteria on rates of diagnoses in inattentive/hyperactive children aged 36 through 60-months-old, we first developed, and psychometrically evaluated, the Children's Problem Checklist (CPC) which was designed to assess psychosocial impairment associated with ADHD in a community sample of preschoolers (n = 394), and found its reliability and validity to be acceptable. We then examined the impact of the inclusion of various CPC-determined impairment criteria, over and above symptom criteria measured by the ADHD-RS-IV, using various cut points ranging from the 75th to 90th percentile of our community sample. This reduced the number of children meeting criteria for ADHD by 46-77%. These findings are discussed in terms of the importance of using impairment criteria, rather than just severity of inattention, impulsivity and hyperactivity, when diagnosing ADHD in preschool children.     

Implicit ingroup metafavoritism: subtle preference for ingroup members displaying ingroup bias

The current article investigated how individuals evaluate ingroup members displaying either ingroup bias or egalitarian intergroup behaviors. The hypotheses predicted that on explicit responses a preference for the egalitarian ingroup member would emerge; in contrast, on more spontaneous and uncontrolled responses, a preference for the ingroup favoritist would result. Across four studies these hypotheses were confirmed for both minimal groups (Studies 1 and 2) and ethnic groups (Studies 3 and 4). Despite a verbal preference for those who behaved in an egalitarian way, an implicit ingroup metafavoritism was found. Overall, results indicated the presence of dual attitudes in the perception of ingroup members and the strict interconnection between intergroup behaviors and intragroup perception.     

Lack of association of apolipoprotein E polymorphism in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) could be considered a neurodevelopmental disorder, from several lines of evidence. One of the most widely studied genes in these disorders is the apolipoprotein E gene, particularly allele 4. We analyzed for association among patients with OCD versus normal controls and cognitively impaired patients. There were no significant differences between OCD probands compared with population controls. However, the cognitively impaired group showed a higher frequency of allele apolipoprotein E gene compared with normal controls and patients with OCD.     

The loyal member effect: on the preference for ingroup members who engage in exclusive relations with the ingroup

The goal of this article was to investigate an indirect form of intergroup differentiation in children in the context of racial attitudes: the preference for ingroup members who interact positively with other ingroup members rather than with outgroup members. Study 1 confirmed this general hypothesis with preschool and 1st-grade children, demonstrating that respondents preferred the ingroup member who played only with other ingroup members, evaluated this child more positively, and felt more similar to him or her. Studies 2 and 3 tested the boundary conditions of the phenomenon. Study 4 analyzed developmental changes demonstrating that the effect is no longer observed among 9- to 11-year-old children. Overall, these studies suggest that engaging in positive interactions with the outgroup might have its costs in terms of a relative devaluation and rejection by one's peers. Results are discussed by stressing the importance of intragroup processes for the regulation of intergroup relations among very young children.     

Catholic Head Teachers: The importance of culture building in approaches to spiritual and moral development and the transmission of faith tradition

Voluntary aided Catholic schools form 10% of the state education provision. Within the state system, voluntary aided schools maintain a particular educational philosophy and the head teachers of these schools play an important role in maintaining and developing this philosophy. This paper explores the role of the head teacher of the Catholic school in developing a school culture that seeks to make a positive contribution to children's spiritual and moral development.     

Long life to emotions: Emotional response categorisation across the lifespan

People perceive and organise their social world on the basis of their previous semantic knowledge as well as on the basis of their emotional responses. We tested the hypothesis that emotional response categorisation, namely the tendency to group stimuli on the basis of the emotion they evoke, increases across the lifespan. Young and older adults were asked to categorise target words and either conceptual or emotional response similarity could be used to perform the task. Results showed that older adults were more likely than younger adults to rely on emotional equivalence to categorise stimuli. In addition, current affective state was significantly related to emotional response categorisation. These findings are discussed in relation to recent models that propose a prominent role for emotions in the social life of older adults.     

Perceiving ingroup members who use stereotypes: implicit conformity and similarity

Previous studies have shown that people subtly conform more to ingroup members who use stereotype‐consistent rather than stereotype‐inconsistent information when describing an outgroup member (Castelli, Vanzetto, Sherman, & Arcuri, 2001 ). In the present article, we will address two important issues. First, we will examine whether this subtle conformity toward stereotypers is related to individuals' prejudice level (Study 1). Second, we will examine one of the processes that underlie the perception of ingroup members who use stereotype‐consistent information, hypothesizing that individuals implicitly feel more similar to such sources than to ingroup members who use stereotype‐inconsistent information (Study 2). Both hypotheses were confirmed and results are discussed in terms of the distinction between implicit and explicit attitudes and their implications in the maintenance of social stereotypes. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Detection of grouped and ungrouped parts in visual patterns by tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) and humans (Homo sapiens)

The authors investigated perceptual grouping in capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) and humans (Homo sapiens). In Experiment 1, 6 monkeys received a visual pattern as the sample and had to identify the comparison stimulus featuring some of its parts. Performance was better for ungrouped parts than for grouped parts. In Experiment 2, the sample featured the parts, and the comparison stimuli, the complex figures: The advantage for ungrouped elements disappeared. In Experiment 3, in which new stimuli were introduced, the results of the previous experiments were replicated. In Experiment 4, 128 humans were presented with the same tasks and stimuli used with monkeys. Their accuracy was higher for grouped parts. Results suggest that human and nonhuman primates use different modes of analyzing multicomponent patterns.