Book Review

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Neighborhoods as a Developmental Context: A Multilevel Analysis of Neighborhood Effects on Head Start Families and Children

Neighborhoods have been recognized in theory and research as an important context for child development. This study used data from the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES) and Census 2000 to assess the underlying factor structure and impact of neighborhood factors on child cognitive and behavioral outcomes, including the critical family and social factors that may mediate and/or moderate these relationships. Factor analyses found five factors described Head Start neighborhoods. After controlling for family and child factors, multilevel analyses found significant direct effects of neighborhood factors on Head Start children’s cognitive and behavioral outcomes. There were no mediation effects found for family or social variables between neighborhood factors and child outcomes. A large number of moderation effects were found although there was not a clear pattern to the results. Future research, policy, and practice implications are discussed.     

Professional Development: Mine and Theirs

This paper is based on an invited address for the Association of Psychologists in Academic Health Centers (APAHC) at the 2010 American Psychological Association (APA) Convention in San Diego, California. It is in response to the Ivan Mensh Award for Distinguished Achievement in Teaching presented to the author at the 2009 APA Convention. This article addresses two key themes in the instruction and professional development of clinical psychologists: internalization and management matters. The author asserts that these process and content topics characterize critical training ingredients in preparing students for the future practice of clinical psychology within modern academic health care settings.     

Choice-induced preferences in the absence of choice: Evidence from a blind two choice paradigm with young children and capuchin monkeys

In two studies, we provide a test of the revealed-preferences account of choice-induced preferences. To do so, we introduce a blind two-choice task in which preferences cannot guide choices. Children chose between two similar objects while ignorant of the objects’ identities, and then chose between the rejected alternative and a third similar object. Monkeys were given an illusion of choice between two similar objects, and then chose between the rejected object and a third similar object. Both children and monkeys preferred the third object, indicating that they devalued the rejected object. This response pattern did not occur when the children and monkeys were not given the opportunity to choose between the two initial items. These results provide evidence against a revealed-preferences account of choice-induced preferences and demonstrate that the process of making a choice itself induces preferences.     

A comparison of involuntary autobiographical memory retrievals

This study compared three different ways autobiographical memories are elicited involuntarily: (1) cued by an active goal common to memory and retrieval contexts in combination with sensory information associated with this goal‐directed activity; (2) cued by sensory information that does not relate to goal‐directed activity common to both memory and retrieval contexts; and (3) activated when no identifiable cue present in retrieval context. Two hundred and twenty eight participants recorded details of a single autobiographical memory that resulted naturally from a spontaneous, non‐deliberate retrieval. Nearly all recorded memories described specific events (83%) with very few memories less than 7 days old (8%) and many memories more than 5 years old (44%). No significant differences resulted between the three retrieval types for the age, specificity or prior rehearsal of memories reported. However, the level of attention at retrieval was significantly more diffuse for retrievals without a clearly identifiable cue. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for current models of involuntary autobiographical memory retrieval. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assessing Emotion Regulation in Social Anxiety Disorder: The Emotion Regulation Interview

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is thought to involve emotional hyper-reactivity and emotion dysregulation. However, the precise nature of the emotion dysregulation in SAD has not been well characterized. In the present study, the Emotion Regulation Interview (ERI) was developed to quantify the frequency and self-efficacy of five emotion regulation strategies specified by Gross’s (Review of General Psychology 2: 271–299, 1998) process model of emotion regulation. Forty-eight individuals with SAD and 33 healthy controls (HCs) were interviewed about responses during (a) a laboratory speech task and (b) two recent social anxiety-evoking situations. Individuals with SAD reported greater use of avoidance and expressive suppression than HCs, as well as lesser self-efficacy in implementing cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. These regulation deficits were not accounted for by differences in emotional reactivity. These findings highlight specific emotion regulation deficits in SAD, and support the idea that the Emotion Regulation Interview may be usefully applied to other clinical disorders.