Patients with bipolar disorder show a selective deficit in the episodic simulation of future events

A substantial body of evidence suggests that autobiographical recollection and simulation of future happenings activate a shared neural network. Many of the neural regions implicated in this network are affected in patients with bipolar disorder (BD), showing altered metabolic functioning and/or structural volume abnormalities. Studies of autobiographical recall in BD reveal overgeneralization, where autobiographical memory comprises primarily factual or repeated information as opposed to details specific in time and in place and definitive of re-experiencing. To date, no study has examined whether these deficits extend to future event simulation. We examined the ability of patients with BD and controls to imagine positive, negative and neutral future events using a modified version of the Autobiographical Interview (Levine, Svoboda, Hay, Winocur, & Moscovitch, 2002) that allowed for separation of episodic and non-episodic details. Patients were selectively impaired in imagining future positive, negative, and neutral episodic details; simulation of non-episodic details was equivalent across groups.     

Profiles of Racial Socialization Among African American Parents: Correlates,Context, and Outcome

Self report and observational data on racial socialization practices in a sample of 218 African American parents of young children were used to determine whether or not parents could be characterized in terms of their pattern of racial socialization practices. Parents fell into four groups: silence about race, emphasis on cultural socialization, emphasis on cultural socialization and coping strategies, or a balanced approach. Silence about race was more common among parents of boys, whereas an emphasis on cultural socialization was more common among parents of girls. Silence about race was less common in neighborhoods with high levels of negative social climate, and a combination of cultural socialization with coping strategies for discrimination was more common in neighborhoods with high neighborhood potential for community involvement with children. The coping emphasis/cultural socialization approach was associated with significantly lower child problem behavior, although some gender differences were evident. A cultural socialization emphasis was associated with higher cognitive scores among girls, and a combination of cultural socialization, coping with discrimination, and promotion of mistrust was associated with higher cognitive scores among boys. Implications of this profile approach for the study of racial socialization practices in ethnic minority families are discussed.     

Ethnicity matters for undergraduate majors in challenges, experiences, and perceptions of psychology

In this investigation of a national sample of undergraduate psychology majors, we directly compare the experiences and perceptions of students of color with those of European Americans. Our aim was to identify factors that might contribute to our discipline's educational pipeline, in which the relative lack of ethnic diversity is a recognized problem. We found that students of color and European American majors are similar in a number of ways but also different in others. Students of color are challenged by less encouragement from and interaction with faculty, perceive a lack of respect, and wish to see more attention to diversity in curriculum, research, faculty, and textbooks. It is not surprising that students of color were significantly less satisfied than European Americans with their studies in psychology.     

The development of children’s early memory skills

A multitask battery tapping nonverbal memory and language skills was used to assess 60 children at 18, 24, and 30 months of age. Analyses focused on the degree to which language, working memory, and deliberate memory skills were linked concurrently to children’s Elicited Imitation task performance and whether the patterns of association varied across the different ages. Language ability emerged as a predictor of immediate Elicited Imitation performance by 24 months of age and predicted delayed performance at each age. In addition to the contributions of language, children’s abilities to search for and retrieve toys in the deliberate memory task were associated with their immediate Elicited Imitation performance at each age. In addition to language, working memory was positively associated with aspects of both immediate and delayed performance at all ages. The extent to which it was possible to replicate and extend previous cross-sectional work in this longitudinal study is discussed.     

Career flow: a hope‐centered model of career development

In this article, the author describes an innovative approach for conceptualizing and managing career development tasks in the 21st century. Theoretical foundations and key concepts related to career flow theory are discussed.     

Social anxiety as a basis for friendship selection and socialization in adolescents' social networks

Socially anxious children and adolescents have previously been found to have friends with similarly socially anxious, withdrawn behavioral characteristics. How peers might socialize social anxiety over time has, however, not been thoroughly investigated. We examined this in a sample of 834 youths (339 girls and 495 boys; M=14.29), followed for 3 years. We used the social network analysis software SIENA to analyze the data. The results showed that youths who were socially anxious were less popular and chose fewer friends in the network. They also tended to choose friends who were socially anxious, and over time they influenced each other into becoming more socially anxious--over and above other effects. Finally, girls' social anxiety was more influenced than boys' by their friends' social anxiety levels. The results showed the significance of looking at socially anxious youths' friendships over time and embedded in social networks.     

Learning words in space and time: probing the mechanisms behind the suspicious-coincidence effect

A major debate in the study of word learning centers on the extension of categories to new items. The rational approach assumes that learners make structured inferences about category membership, whereas the mechanistic approach emphasizes the attentional and memory processes that form the basis of generalization behaviors. Recent support for the rational view comes from observations of the suspicious-coincidence effect: People generalize category membership narrowly when presented with three subordinate-level exemplars that share the same label and generalize category membership broadly when presented with one exemplar. Across three experiments, we examined the mechanistic basis of this effect. Results showed that the presentation of multiple subordinate-level exemplars led to narrow generalization only when the exemplars were presented simultaneously, even when the number of exemplars was increased from three to six. These data demonstrate that the suspicious-coincidence effect is firmly grounded in the general cognitive processes of attention, memory, and visual comparison.     

A new perspective on psychological resources: Unanticipated consequences of impulsivity and emotional intelligence

In this study, we sought to understand why people engage in these two forms of voluntary and discretionary behaviours. Expanding upon key resource theories to include individual abilities, we examined the idea of incongruence between resources and behaviours (i.e., resources that have been traditionally framed with a positive tone lead to negative behaviours and resources that have been traditionally framed with a negative tone lead to positive behaviours). Data from 234 employees revealed that impulsivity positively influenced organizational citizenship behaviours, and that emotional intelligence (EI) significantly contributed to deviant workplace behaviours. Post hoc analysis revealed that the ability to perceive emotions was the most influential branch of EI in predicting deviant behaviours. We thus found a non‐compatible view of the individual resources–behaviour relationship, such that ‘positive’ personal resources lead to negative behaviours and ‘negative’ personal resources lead to positive behaviours. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Evidence‐based interventions for reading and language difficulties: Creating a virtuous circle

Background. Children may experience two very different forms of reading problem: decoding difficulties (dyslexia) and reading comprehension difficulties. Decoding difficulties appear to be caused by problems with phonological (speech sound) processing. Reading comprehension difficulties in contrast appear to be caused by problems with ‘higher level’ language difficulties including problems with semantics (including deficient knowledge of word meanings) and grammar (knowledge of morphology and syntax). Aims. We review evidence concerning the nature, causes of, and treatments for children's reading difficulties. We argue that any well‐founded educational intervention must be based on a sound theory of the causes of a particular form of learning difficulty, which in turn must be based on an understanding of how a given skill is learned by typically developing children. Such theoretically motivated interventions should in turn be evaluated in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to establish whether they are effective, and for whom. Results. There is now considerable evidence showing that phonologically based interventions are effective in ameliorating children's word level decoding difficulties, and a smaller evidence base showing that reading and oral language (OL) comprehension difficulties can be ameliorated by suitable interventions to boost vocabulary and broader OL skills. Conclusions. The process of developing theories about the origins of children's educational difficulties and evaluating theoretically motivated treatments in RCTs, produces a ‘virtuous circle’ whereby theory informs practice, and the evaluation of effective interventions in turn feeds back to inform and refine theories about the nature and causes of children's reading and language difficulties.