Gender similarities and differences in children's social behavior: finding personality in contextualized patterns of adaptation

This research examined how a contextualist approach to personality can reveal social interactional patterns that are obscured by gender comparisons of overall behavior rates. For some behaviors (verbal aggression), girls and boys differed both in their responses to social events and in how often they encountered them, yet they did not differ in overall behavior rates. For other behaviors (prosocial), gender differences in overall rates were observed, yet girls and boys differed more in their social environments than in their responses to events. The results question the assumption that meaningful personality differences must be manifested in overall act trends and illustrate how gender differences in personality can be conceptualized as patterns of social adaptation that are complex and context specific.     

The No Probabilities For Acts-Principle

One can interpret the No Probabilities for Acts-Principle, namely that any adequate quantitative decision model must in no way contain subjective probabilities for actions in two ways: it can either refer to actions that are performable now and extend into the future or it can refer to actions that are not performable now, but will be in the future. In this paper, I will show that the former is the better interpretation of the principle.     

Early development of delinquency within divorced families: evaluating a randomized preventive intervention trial

This paper reports on an experimental test of coercion theory early onset model of delinquency. Results are from the Oregon Divorce Study-II, a randomized preventive intervention trial with a sample of 238 recently separated mothers and their sons in early elementary school. The objective was to experimentally manipulate parenting variables hypothesized to influence development of delinquent behaviors. Multiple-method assessment spanned 36 months. Because the intervention focused on parent training, we expected that any intervention effects on changes in child outcomes would be mediated by hypothesized intervening mechanisms. Linear growth models showed significantly greater reduction in boys' delinquency and deviant peer affiliation in the experimental group relative to the controls. Subsequent models using no method overlap in constructs demonstrated that the intervention effect on delinquency operated through growth in parenting and reduction in deviant peer affiliation.     

'Questions, questions, questions!' A comparison of therapist inferences and parental responses to systemic questions

Using a specially designed questionnaire, we examined the relationship between parental responses to systemic questions, therapists'views based upon these responses and parental reports of dysfunction in a member of the family. The questionnaire was completed by parents of a randomly selected population sample of adolescents and by experienced family therapists. Therapists made inferences that were predictable, coherent and reliable. They gave most salience to the concept of'enmeshment'and least to'hostile-discordant'functioning. Some enmeshed answers were favoured by substantial proportions of parents, suggesting that they may reflect normal variants of family functioning. However no associations between total enmeshment scores and reported mental health problems were found. Hostile-discordant functioning, as assessed in this study, was rare in the general population sample, but was associated with reported problems.     

The differential validity of teacher ratings of Inattention/Overactivity and Aggression

The ability of school-based measures of child behavior to predict differentially the IOWA Conners teacher rating scale Inattention/Overactivity (IO) and Aggression (A) factors was evaluated in a sample of 71 school-aged boys. Multiple measures and multiple methods of assessment were utilized to provide a comprehensive assessment of social and academic behavior. These included direct observations of children in the classroom and on the playground, examination of the organization of children's desks, measures of academic performance, peer nominations of popularity and rejection, and sociometric ratings using the Pupil Evaluation Inventory. Despite moderately high correlations between the teacher rating factors (r = .60), considerable evidence was provided for differential validity on measures of academic performance, peer rating measures, and measures of disruptive or inappropriate classroom and playground behavior. These differences between IO and A factors indicated that the factors were logically independent in important ways, supporting prior work validating separate hyperactivity and aggression dimensions.     

Age-associated predictors of medication adherence in HIV-positive adults: health beliefs, self-efficacy, and neurocognitive status.

OBJECTIVE: Although most agree that poor adherence to antiretrovirals is a common problem, relatively few factors have been shown to consistently predict treatment failure. In this study, a theoretical framework encompassing demographic characteristics, health beliefs/attitudes, treatment self-efficacy, and neurocognitive status was examined in relationship to highly active antiretroviral therapy adherence. DESIGN: Prospective, cross-sectional observational design. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Neuropsychological test performance, health beliefs and attitudes, and medication adherence tracked over a 1-month period using electronic monitoring technology (Medication Event Monitoring System caps). RESULTS: The rate of poor adherence was twice as high among younger participants than with older participants (68% and 33%, respectively). Results of binary logistic regression revealed that low self-efficacy and lack of perceived treatment utility predicted poor adherence among younger individuals, whereas decreased levels of neurocognitive functioning remained the sole predictor of poor adherence among older participants. CONCLUSION: These data support components of the health beliefs model in predicting medication adherence among younger HIV-positive individuals. However, risk of adherence failure in those ages 50 years and older appears most related to neurocognitive status.     

Using I³ theory to clarify when dispositional aggressiveness predicts intimate partner violence perpetration

Deriving hypotheses from I3 theory (pronounced "I-cubed theory"), the authors conducted 4 studies to clarify the circumstances under which dispositional aggressiveness predicts intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration. Consistent with the hypothesis that this link would be stronger when inhibitory processes are weak rather than strong, Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated that dispositional aggressiveness was an especially robust predictor of IPV perpetration among people experiencing self-regulatory strength depletion. Consistent with the hypothesis that this Dispositional Aggressiveness × Inhibition interaction effect would be stronger when instigating triggers are strong rather than weak, Studies 3 and 4 demonstrated that dispositional aggressiveness was an especially robust predictor of IPV perpetration among people characterized by both weak inhibition (poor executive control in Study 3, depletion in Study 4) and strong instigation (provocation in both studies). These effects were robust in studies employing experimental and nonexperimental designs, cross-sectional and longitudinal methods, dating and married participants, self-report and behavioral measures of IPV perpetration, and diverse operationalizations of all constructs. Discussion emphasizes the importance of incorporating instigating, impelling, and inhibiting processes into theoretical and empirical analyses of IPV perpetration.     

Unanswerable questions for everyone: reply to Inan

Millianism is the familiar view that some expressions, such as proper names, contribute only their referent to the semantic content of sentences in which they occur. Inan (Philosophical Studies 2010) has recently argued that the Millian is committed to the following odd conclusion: There may be questions that he is able to grasp but that he cannot answer, either affirmatively, negatively, or with a simple ??I don??t know??. The Millian is indeed committed to this conclusion. But we intend to show that Inan??s argument generalizes, so that everyone who accepts certain largely uncontroversial principles is committed to the odd conclusion that there may be questions that are graspable but not answerable.