Therapeutic social influence: sternly strike while the iron is hot

Two studies tested social influence options in symbolic modeling therapy. The first gave a pretreatment interview in which the therapist behaved in a “warm” or “businesslike” manner, and then urged the clients to approach a snake as closely as possible when (immediately afterward) they repeated a prior runway BAT and fear assessment. The “businesslike” group reported less fear than the “warm” group, but differential therapist perceptions did not affect overt avoidance. Study 2 compared directive social influence or its omission when clients performed approach immediately vs. the next week. The strongest BAT gains occurred if social influence was followed by prompt execution of the relevant task, but these differences were not maintained after treatment. The data suggested that timing is critical for applying social influence, which should be given immediately before task demands. Continued efforts to capitalize on initial differences might sustain socially-influenced gains for enduring treatment purposes.     

Will the young support the old? An individual‐ and family‐level study of filial obligations in two New Zealand cultures

Do people feel that they are obliged to look after older parents and grandparents, support them financially, respect, obey, and maintain contact with them, as well as please them and make them happy? Two surveys of filial obligations were conducted in New Zealand involving 100 Chinese and 103 European families respectively. Across the 587 individuals from two generations, a widely shared obligation hierarchy emerged with social contact and respect on top of all others. Chinese were higher than Europeans on obedience and financial support as predicted, but also on most other obligations. Gender differences, contrary to prediction, were generally absent; but children were significantly higher than their parents on obedience. Obligations were moderately intercorrelated, and also correlated with corresponding expectations. K‐means cluster analysis was used in a novel way to discover three European and four Chinese family obligation types. Further family‐level analysis showed that parental income, grandparents’ residence, and motivations in communicating with elders differentiated the family types.     

The Family Resilience Inventory: A Culturally Grounded Measure of Current and Family-of-Origin Protective Processes in Native American Families

The purpose of this article is to introduce the Family Resilience Inventory (FRI) and present findings on initial efforts to validate this measure. The FRI is designed to assess family resilience in one's current family and in one's family of origin, enabling the assessment of family protective factors across these generations. The development of the FRI was the result of many years of ethnographic research with Southeastern Native American tribes; yet, we believe that this scale is applicable to families of various backgrounds. Items for the FRI were derived directly from thematic analysis of qualitative data with 436 participants, resulting in two 20-item scales. Due to missing data, eight cases were removed from the 127 participants across two tribes, resulting in an analytic sample size of 119. Conceptually, the FRI is comprised of two factors or scales measuring distinct dimensions of family resilience (i.e., resilience in one's current family and resilience in one's family of origin). The results of the confirmatory factor analysis supported the hypothesized two-factor structure (X²(644) = 814.14, p = .03, X²/df = 1.10, RMSEA = .03, CFI = .97, TLI = .96). Both the subscales and the total FRI scale (α = .92) demonstrated excellent reliability. The results also provided preliminary evidence of convergent and discriminant validity. This measure fills a gap in the absence of community-based, culturally grounded, and empirical measures of family resilience. The examination of family resilience, which may occur across generations, is an exciting new contribution of the FRI.     

Muscular fitness,motor competence,and processing speed in preschool children

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between muscular fitness and motor competence and processing speed in preschool children. Eighty-four preschool-aged children were recruited and underwent assessments for muscular fitness (muscular endurance and power), motor competence, and then participated in an auditory oddball task. The findings showed that muscular fitness and motor competence were associated with shorter reaction times after controlling for confounding factors. These findings provide tentative support for a positive association between muscular fitness and motor competence and processing speed in preschool children.

abbreviations:

Reaction time (RT); Institutional Review Board (IRB); Basic Motor Ability Test-Revised (BMAT); Body mass index (BMI); Preschool Children Fitness Programme (PCFP); Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC); Thinking Creatively in Action and Movement test (TCAM); Inter-stimulus interval (ISI); Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1); Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)     

The properties of geophysical fields and their effects on elephants and other animals

Geophysical properties of acoustic, seismic, electric, and magnetic waveforms create opportunities and constraints for animals' communication and sensory monitoring of the environment. The geometric spreading of waves differs; at some frequencies, transmission is most efficient and has minimal noise. The spreading properties of seismic waves favor long-distance propagation for communication and environmental monitoring, and would benefit elephants (Elephas maximus and Loxodonta africana), such as in locating subsurface water. Extending C. E. O'Connell-Rodwell, B. T. Amason, and L. A. Hart (2000), a man jumping at 1.11 km propagated seismic waves at 10-40 Hz. Given the noise of lightning and the Schumann resonances, near field magnetic and electric transmission by animals would be most efficient around 1000 Hz.     

Kuhnian paradigms as representational spaces: New perspectives on the problems of incommensurability,scientific explanation,and physical necessity

This paper starts with an intuitive notion of representational spaces, which is intended to provide an improved version of Kuhn's concept of paradigms. It then proceeds to study the following topics in terms of this new notion: incommensurability, paradigm change, explanation of anomalies, explanation of regularities, explanation of irregularities, and physical necessity. In the course of the investigation, "representational space" gets clarified and defined. It is envisaged that this new concept should throw light on many issues in the philosophy of science.     

Attributing causality and remembering events in individual- and group-acting situations: A Beijing, Hong Kong, and Wellington comparison

Previous research has shown that collectivists prefer external whereas individualists prefer internal attributions. To test the findings' generality across social situations, we compared the two attributions in situations where either an individual was acting on a group (Individual-acting) or the reverse (Group-acting). As predicted, collectivists' (Beijing and Hong Kong Chinese) greater preference for externality, and individualists' (Wellington Europeans) greater preference for internality, occurred in individual- but not group-acting situations. Collectivists' (mainly Hong Kong) memory of events was better in group- than in individual-acting situations according to prediction, but the predicted reversal was not found among individualists. The collectivist/individualist categorizations of the samples were supported by measures of self-construal. Indigenous Chinese concepts of 'unity' ( tong tian ren ) and 'combination' ( he nei wai ) were discussed to throw light on attribution processes that are not readily accessible through the concepts of collectivism and individualism.     

The harm-benefit tradeoff in "bad deal" trials

This paper examines the nature of the harm-benefit tradeoff in early clinical research for interventions that involve remote possibility of direct benefit and likelihood of direct harms to research participants with fatal prognoses, by drawing on the example of gene transfer trials for glioblastoma multiforme. We argue that the appeal made by the component approach to clinical equipoise fails to account fully for the nature of the harm-benefit tradeoff-individual harm for social benefit-that would be required to justify such research. An analysis of what we label "collateral affective benefits," such as the experience of hope or exercise of altruism, shows that the existence of these motivations reinforces rather than mitigates the necessity of justification by reference to social benefit. Evaluations of social benefit must be taken seriously in the research ethics review process to avoid the exploitation of research participants' motivations of hope or altruism and to avoid the possibility of inadvertent exploitation of high-risk research participants and the harms that would associate with such exploitation.     

Timed picture naming in seven languages

Timed picture naming was compared in seven languages that vary along dimensions known to affect lexical access. Analyses over items focused on factors that determine cross-language universals and cross-language disparities. With regard to universals, number of alternative names had large effects on reaction time within and across languages after target-name agreement was controlled, suggesting inhibitory effects from lexical competitors. For all the languages, word frequency and goodness of depiction had large effects, but objective picture complexity did not. Effects of word structure variables (length, syllable structure, compounding, and initial frication) varied markedly over languages. Strong cross-language correlations were found in naming latencies, frequency, and length. Other-language frequency effects were observed (e.g., Chinese frequencies predicting Spanish reaction times) even after within-language effects were controlled (e.g., Spanish frequencies predicting Spanish reaction times). These surprising cross-language correlations challenge widely held assumptions about the lexical locus of length and frequency effects, suggesting instead that they may (at least in part) reflect familiarity and accessibility at a conceptual level that is shared over languages.