TEMPERAMENTAL ADAPTABILITY,PERSISTENCE, AND REGULARITY: PARENTAL RATINGS OF NORWEGIAN INFANTS AGED 6 TO 12 MONTHS,WITH SOME IMPLICATIONS FOR PREVENTIVE PRACTICE

There is a need for standardized measures of infant temperament to strengthen current practices in prevention and early intervention. The present study provides Norwegian data on the Cameron‐Rice Infant Temperament Questionnaire (CRITQ; J.R. Cameron & D.C. Rice, 1986a), which comprises 46 items and is used within a U.S. health maintenance organization. The CRITQ was filled out by mothers and fathers at 6 and again at 12 months as part of a longitudinal study of mental health during the first years of life (the “Little in Norway” study, N = 1,041 families enrolled; V. Moe & L. Smith, 2010). Results showed that internal consistencies were comparable with U.S. data. The temperament dimensions of persistence, adaptability, and regularity had acceptable or close‐to‐acceptable reliabilities in the U.S. study as well as in this study, and also were unifactorial in confirmatory factor analysis. These dimensions are the focus in this article. Findings concerning parents’ differential ratings of their infants on the three dimensions are reported, as is the stability of parents’ ratings of temperament from 6 to 12 months. In addition, results on the relation between temperament and parenting stress are presented. The study suggests that temperamental adaptability, persistence, and regularity may be relevant when assessing infant behavior, and may be applied in systematic prevention trials for families with infants. The inclusion of concepts related to individual differences in response tendencies and regulatory efforts may broaden the understanding of parent—infant transactions, and thus enrich prevention and sensitizing interventions with the aim of assisting infants’ development.     

Shades of Sexualization: When Sexualization Becomes Sexual Objectification

Sexualization in mass media is a widespread phenomenon. Although sexualization and sexual objectification are often used as synonymous, they are two different concepts. Across two studies, we investigated how sexualization affects perceptions of women (Study 1) and men (Study 2) as sexual objects. Participants were asked to judge sexual objectification, competence, and sexiness of female and male models portrayed with different degrees of sexualization, namely, as Non-Revealing (dressed), merely Revealing (undressed), and Sexualized Revealing (undressed and provocative). The results of both studies showed that as the level of sexualization increased so did participants’ perceptions of the targets as sexual objects. However, the level of sexualization affected perceived competence and sexiness differently depending on the target’s gender. Male models’ competence decreased as the level of sexualization increased, whereas female models portrayed as merely Revealing and as Sexualized Revealing were judged as equally incompetent. Male targets’ sexiness was not affected by the level of portrayals’ sexualization, whereas Sexualized Revealing portrayals enhanced the perceived sexiness of female targets. Finally, in Study 2, the results showed that male targets in Sexualized Revealing portrayals were judged as less masculine. Our findings suggest that sexualization contributes similarly to the perception of both women and men as sexual objects but affects other variables depending on the target’s gender. Our work extends previous literature and informs us about the consequences that sexualization of men and women have on others’ judgments.     

Planar faults in MoSi2 single crystals deformed at high temperatures

Abstract

Dislocation structure and planar faults have been examined in MoSi₂ single crystals deformed at high temperatures. Pure stacking faults were found in a crystal deformed at 900°C. The formation of the stacking fault is closely related to the phase stability of the C11_b and C40 ordered structures. Profuse stacking faults with increasing deformation temperature assist the ductility improvement of the MoSi₂ above about 1200°C. The critical resolved shear stress for {110}(331) and {013}(331) slip is determined in the temperature range 1000 to 1500°C.     

Follow-up effects of social comparison information on the quality of life of cancer patients: The moderating role of social comparison orientation

Objective: To examine how social comparison orientation (SCO) moderates the effects of three types of social comparison information on the global quality of life of cancer patients 2 weeks and 3 months later. Design: Cancer patients (n?=?226) were provided with social comparison information just prior to undergoing radiation therapy, using audiotapes. Each participant was confronted with one of three tapes: (1) focusing on procedural aspects, (2) focusing on emotional reactions and (3) focusing on coping strategies. Main outcome measures: Quality of life as measured with the Cantril self-anchoring scale [Cantril, H. (1965). The pattern of human concerns. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press]. Results: With increasing SCO, a lower quality of life was reported after listening to the emotion tape, while a higher quality of life was reported after listening to the coping tape. These effects were found 2 weeks as well as 3 months after the radiation therapy had ended. Conclusion: Social comparison information may have longitudinal effects on quality of life, but these effects are to an important extent dependent on the nature of the information and individual differences in SCO.     

Effects of chewing on cognitive processing speed

In recent years, chewing has been discussed as producing effects of maintaining and sustaining cognitive performance. We have reported that chewing may improve or recover the process of working memory; however, the mechanisms underlying these phenomena are still to be elucidated. We investigated the effect of chewing on aspects of attention and cognitive processing speed, testing the hypothesis that this effect induces higher cognitive performance. Seventeen healthy adults (20–34 years old) were studied during attention task with blood oxygenation level-dependent functional (fMRI) at 3.0 T MRI. The attentional network test (ANT) within a single task fMRI containing two cue conditions (no cue and center cue) and two target conditions (congruent and incongruent) was conducted to examine the efficiency of alerting and executive control. Participants were instructed to press a button with the right or left thumb according to the direction of a centrally presented arrow. Each participant underwent two back-to-back ANT sessions with or without chewing gum, odorless and tasteless to remove any effect other than chewing. Behavioral results showed that mean reaction time was significantly decreased during chewing condition, regardless of speed-accuracy trade-off, although there were no significant changes in behavioral effects (both alerting and conflict effects). On the other hand, fMRI analysis revealed higher activations in the anterior cingulate cortex and left frontal gyrus for the executive network and motor-related regions for both attentional networks during chewing condition. These results suggested that chewing induced an increase in the arousal level and alertness in addition to an effect on motor control and, as a consequence, these effects could lead to improvements in cognitive performance.     

Psychometric Properties of the Dyadic Parent-Child Interaction Coding System in The Netherlands

Abstract

The current study explored the psychometric properties of a parent-child interaction observation system, the Dyadic Parent-Child Interaction Coding System (DPICS) in the Netherlands. Participants included 31 Dutch mother-child dyads and 86?U.S. mother-child dyads for a community sample (2–7?years; 50% boys). Good one-week test-retest reliability was demonstrated among the Dutch sample. Similarities were found between Dutch and U.S. samples on most interaction codes, but mothers in the U.S. sample used more directive behaviors (e.g., commands) in some situations. Findings suggest that the DPICS is a reliable measure of mother-child interactions in the Dutch population. Cultural issues regarding the use of the DPICS are discussed.     

Ethical Dilemmas in Genetic Testing: Examples from the Cuban Program for Predictive Diagnosis of Hereditary Ataxias

Predictive testing protocols are intended to help patients affected with hereditary conditions understand their condition and make informed reproductive choices. However, predictive protocols may expose clinicians and patients to ethical dilemmas that interfere with genetic counseling and the decision making process. This paper describes ethical dilemmas in a series of five cases involving predictive testing for hereditary ataxias in Cuba. The examples herein present evidence of the deeply controversial situations faced by both individuals at risk and professionals in charge of these predictive studies, suggesting a need for expanded guidelines to address such complexities.     

Parent–teacher agreement on 7‐Year‐old children's personality

Agreement between multiple informants on child personality has received limited attention. Focusing on factor structure, gender differences and the influence of socially desirable responding (SDR), we compared parent and teacher Big Five personality ratings of around 600 7‐year olds. Although parent ratings were more desirable than teacher ratings, differential agreement was generally similar to that found for adults, and especially high for ratings of boys. The more evaluative the personality item, the larger the mean‐level difference between parents and teachers on that item. However, undesirable items showed the highest levels of differential agreement. In parent ratings, the two poles of Agreeableness formed separate factors. To view Pro‐sociality as independent of Antagonism could enable parents to view their child more positively. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Task switching and shifting between stopping and going: Developmental change in between-trial control adjustments

This study set out to investigate developmental differences in the ability to switch between choice tasks and to shift between Go/NoGo and choice tasks. Three age groups (7-year-olds, 11-year-olds, and young adults) were asked to consider the shape or color of a bivalued target stimulus. The participants performed a switch task in which a cue signaled the task to be performed (i.e., respond to shape vs. respond to color) and a shift task in which a cue instructed them to make a choice reaction to the shape of the stimulus or to respond (Go) versus inhibit (NoGo) to the color of the stimulus. The ability to switch was examined by considering choice-choice switches versus choice-choice repeats. The ability to shift was examined by considering NoGo-to-choice shifts versus choice-choice repeats and NoGo-to-Go shifts versus Go-Go repeats. The results showed that responding on Go trials was delayed following response inhibition on a NoGo trial. This delay did not discriminate between age groups. Responding on choice trials was considerably slowed when following response inhibition on NoGo trials. This slowing decreased with advancing age. Finally, responses on switch trials were slower compared with repeat trials, and this slowing was disproportionately large in young children compared with the other two age groups. This pattern of findings was interpreted in terms of a generic mechanism involving between-trial control adjustments in the setting of response thresholds that are likely to be mediated by a complex neural network implicating the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the presupplementary motor cortex.     

Rhythmic context modulates foreperiod effects

Two experiments examined hypotheses about the roles of probabilistic uncertainty and rhythmic context on attentional preparation as reflected by choice response times (RTs) to the final tone of auditory sequences. Nonisochronous sequences with tone timings either arranged metrically or scrambled were linked with one of three different sequence-final time intervals, or foreperiods (FPs), which varied randomly from trial to trial. Two primary results emerged. First, RTs were faster to target tones ending metrical rhythms than to targets ending scrambled rhythms. Second, metrical contexts elicited RTs that increased with FP duration, whereas scrambled contexts elicited RTs that often decreased with FP duration, despite equivalent variability of time intervals in metrical and scrambled contexts. The results suggest that time relations implied by metrical rhythms systematically modulate preparatory responses to sequence-final FPs.