Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Behavioral Inhibition: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Stop-signal Paradigm

Deficient behavioral inhibition (BI) processes are considered a core feature of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This meta-analytic review is the first to examine the potential influence of a wide range of subject and task variable moderator effects on BI processes--assessed by the stop-signal paradigm--in children with ADHD relative to typically developing children. Results revealed significantly slower mean reaction time (MRT), greater reaction time variability (SDRT), and slower stop-signal reaction time (SSRT) in children with ADHD relative to controls. The non-significant between-group stop-signal delay (SSD) metric, however, suggests that stop-signal reaction time differences reflect a more generalized deficit in attention/cognitive processing rather than behavioral inhibition. Several subject and task variables served as significant moderators for children's mean reaction time.     

Changing Institutional Location: A Reflective Conversation on the Move from Undergraduate to Seminary/Divinity School Teaching

The editor of Teaching Theology and Religion facilitated this reflective conversation with four teachers who recently moved from undergraduate institutions to seminaries and divinity schools. Three major themes emerge in the conversation: (1) developing their pedagogical craft in undergraduate settings made them better teachers in their new contexts; (2) they moved, in part, to achieve a “better balance” between teaching and scholarship, and while this was generally achieved it was manifest in unexpected ways; (3) the communities or publics among whom and on behalf of whom they engage in broader service shifted in ways that have effected both their scholarship and their teaching; and (4) the move to a new teaching context enhanced their professional lives because they were able to consider their own visions of career in relation to the mission of their new institutions.     

行为遗传学的终结？

虽然遗传研究在20世纪初期的心理学里呈上升趋势,早期行为遗传学与优生学的襟带关系使这个学科蒙上阴影。20世纪下半叶的双生子和养子女的研究重新树立了该学科的威信,并为现今的遗传与环境互动的研究奠定了基础。本文以发展行为遗传学、遗传环境互动以及用行为遗传学来验证因果关系的研究为例,来突显这一学科对心理学的贡献。今后遗传与环境互动的研究将更侧重于辨识“候选基因”的技术。“全基因组关联”的研究为未来行为遗传学的发展提供了一个乐观的前景     

How intelligence and education contribute to substance use: Hints from the Minnesota Twin family study

In old and even middle age, there are associations between physical health and both intelligence and education. This may occur because intelligence and/or education exert effects on lifestyle choices that, in turn, affect later health. Substance use is one aspect of lifestyle choice in young adulthood that could play such a role. The effects of intelligence and/or education on substance use could be direct and environmental, or indirect due to the presence of confounding genetic and shared family influences. We used the Minnesota Twin Family Study to distinguish these effects in males and females at age 24. In contrast to prevailing expectations, there were moderately negative direct nonshared environmental effects of both IQ and education on both smoking and drinking in both males and females. That is, controlling for family background effects in the form of both genetic and shared environmental influences, both higher IQ and greater education were associated with greater alcohol and nicotine use. These effects were accounted for by alcohol and nicotine use at age 17. Our results suggest that genetic and family-culture variables confound the associations between intelligence and education and substance use in young adults, rendering them indirect. Further research is needed to understand the roles of IQ and education in alcohol and nicotine use and their relative impacts on physical health throughout the lifespan.     

The Nature-Nurture Debate Is Over, and Both Sides Lost! Implications for Understanding Gender Differences in Religiosity

In the debate about biological dispositions or differential sex-role socialization, too much emphasis is given to an either- or dichotomy. We argue that the higher religiosity of women is likely the product of both biological and environmental influences by discussing: (1) the fallacy of nature "versus" nurture; (2) biological influences on religious outcomes; (3) biological influences on the predictors of religious involvement; (4) causality and confounding in social science; and (5) interdisciplinary models of biology-environment interplay.     

The dark figure of sexual offending: A replication and extension

Studies of the dark figure of sexual offending using federal correctional clients reported significant evidence of previously unknown or hidden sexual violence, often among clients with no official criminal history. Unfortunately, research has produced variable estimates of how large the dark figure is. The current study sought to replicate recent studies of federal sexual offenders about the dark figure of sexual offending. We also extended the knowledge base by providing additional correlational analyses to see whether self-reported and official sexual offending have shared or divergent correlates. Overall, 73.8% of federal sexual offenders reported prior contact victims, which is higher than, but generally consistent with, prior prevalence estimates of 55–69% in studies of federal correctional clients. In the current data, clients convicted of child pornography possession or receipt and who had no official record of sexual abuse nevertheless reported contact sexual offenses in more than 59% of cases.     

RELIGION ON WHICH THE DEVOUT AND SKEPTIC CAN AGREE

A starting point for a constructive exchange between two groups, devout religionists and scientific skeptics, is that they can hold certain religious ideas in common. These ideas, however, must preserve the compelling nature of religious commitment without unduly compromising rational sensibilities. In the histories of both science and religion progress has been made by synthesis. The definition of religion is a key issue for the success or failure of synthesis, and I propose a new definition. Both devout religionists and scientific skeptics must make compromises if synthesis is to be successful. For the devout these compromises include waiving the prerequisite of belief in the supernatural and placing behavior above belief. For the skeptic they include abandoning explanatory exclusivity, acknowledging the authority of moral experts, and recognizing the necessity of community in achieving moral excellence. I defend each of these compromises as reasonable and tolerable costs of integration.     

Attributions and Appraisals of Workplace Incivility: Finding Light on the Dark Side?

Ample research demonstrates that workplace incivility has individual and organisational costs, but an important question remains unanswered: might it have benefits as well? We investigate this possibility by focusing on incivility appraisals—both negative and challenge appraisals (i.e. as an opportunity for learning, growth)—and their correlates. To explain this diversity of appraisals, we examine whether attributions (i.e. perceived intent to harm, perceived perpetrator control) predict perceptions. We conducted two multi‐method (quantitative and qualitative) surveys, one of which was multi‐source, of employees across a range of occupations. In Study 1, attributions that perpetrators acted with control and malicious intent fuelled negative appraisals of incivility, which undermined job satisfaction. Study 2 added to these findings by demonstrating that some targets formed challenge appraisals of uncivil encounters, especially when they attributed low malicious intent to perpetrators; challenge appraisal related to boosts in job satisfaction and thriving. These attitudinal outcomes then positively related to organisational citizenship behaviour, as reported by targets' coworkers. Showing paths to incivility harm (and potential benefit), our findings can inform interventions to alter the impact of workplace incivility.     

Competing Core Processes in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): Do Working Memory Deficiencies Underlie Behavioral Inhibition Deficits?

The current study examined competing predictions of the working memory and behavioral inhibition models of ADHD. Behavioral inhibition was measured using a conventional stop-signal task, and central executive, phonological, and visuospatial working memory components (Baddeley 2007) were assessed in 14 children with ADHD and 13 typically developing (TD) children. Bootstrapped mediation analyses revealed that the visuospatial working memory system and central executive both mediated the relationship between group membership (ADHD, TD) and stop-signal task performance. Conversely, stop-signal task performance mediated the relationship between group membership and central executive processes, but was unable to account for the phonological and visuospatial storage/rehearsal deficits consistently found in children with ADHD. Comparison of effect size estimates for both models suggested that working memory deficits may underlie impaired stop-signal task performance in children with ADHD. The current findings therefore challenge existing models of ADHD that describe behavioral inhibition as a core deficit of the disorder.