Social risk and protective factors for suicide attempts in low income African American men and women

A case-control study was conducted to examine a broad array of potential social risk and protective factors for suicide attempt among 200 African American men and women receiving care at a large, public, urban hospital. Specifically, we examined the effect of the following potential risk factors for suicide attempt: life hassles, partner abuse, partner dissatisfaction, and racist events; as well as the following potential protective factors: effectiveness of obtaining resources, social embeddedness, and social support. Using logistic regression, suicide attempter status was predicted by two independently significant social variables: one risk factor (life hassles) and one protective factor (social support). Male versus female suicide attempters were not distinguished by the social variables. These findings, which support the utility of an ecological conceptualization of risk and protective factors for suicide attempt, help to clarify the independently significant social environment risk and protective factors for suicide attempts among economically disadvantaged African Americans in particular. Research on both risk factors and protective factors provide a basis for culturally competent interventions aimed at reducing both the risk of future suicide attempts and completions.     

Changing Beliefs About Corporal Punishment: Increasing Knowledge About Ineffectiveness to Build More Consistent Moral and Informational Beliefs

Although the effectiveness of corporal punishment (CP) has received little empirical support, public support for this disciplinary method continues despite calls for its abandonment by researchers. Even among educators, favorable attitudes toward the use of CP are prevalent. We measured education majors beliefs about CP before and after they read about CP research on its effectiveness and side effects. Students who changed their behavioral intent regarding whether they would use CP as a parent increased their knowledge about its ineffectiveness, resulting in greater consistency between their moral and informational beliefs (Wainryb, 1998). Persons who are likely to change from defending to opposing CP regard it as being similar to bad-tasting medicine—not very pleasant but nonetheless necessary. Recommendations concerning implementation and changing other beliefs are discussed.     

Looking in the Mirror: Images of Abnormally Developed Infants

Observational drawing provides a means of focusing on anomalous infant bodies. Time required by drawing connects the artist to the humanity of the subjects rather than to the deformities that make them, initially, frightening.     

Fragment memories mark the end of childhood amnesia

Adults described and dated two kinds of first remembrances: a personal event memory (the recollection of a personal episode that had occurred at some time in some place) and a memory fragment (an isolated memory moment having no event context and remembered, perhaps, as an image, a behavior, or an emotion). First fragment memories were judged to have originated substantially earlier in life than first event memories--approximately 3 1/3 years of age for first fragment memories versus roughly 4 years of age for first event memories. We conclude that the end of childhood amnesia is marked not by our earliest episodic memories, but by the earliest remembered fragments of childhood experiences.     

Life history and social learning: megapode chicks fail to acquire feeding preferences from conspecifics

Australian brush-turkeys, Alectura lathami, are birds with an unusual life history: The young receive no parental care and first encounter conspecifics at an unpredictable age. Brush-turkey chicks that were 3-4 days old were presented with a robot model that appeared to feed from a distinctively colored dish. In control training trials, chicks saw a robot standing next to a different dish and scanning from side to side. Chicks expressed a strong tendency to feed from dishes of the type indicated by the pecking robot, but this effect proved ephemeral. Brush-turkeys hence appear to show no social learning under conditions that inculcate stable preferences in other galliforms such as chickens, suggesting that life history plays an important role in the evolution of learning.     

Mental Health and Other Service Use by Youth in Therapeutic Foster Care and Group Homes

Little is known about what additional services youth receive while they reside in out-of-home treatment settings. However, such information may be crucial for explaining effectiveness and variation in outcomes for youth in such settings. Our research examines patterns of multi-sector service use for youth in two settings—Therapeutic Foster Care and group homes. Data come from in-person interviews with Treatment Foster Parents and Group Home Staff for a NC state-wide sample of youth with psychiatric disorders and aggressive behavior. Findings indicated high rates of service use by youth in both settings. Analyses indicated significant differences in service types used by youth in each setting, yet similar volume of service use between settings. Clinical and demographic factors did not significantly influence types of services received. Differences in service patterns between the two groups indicated that youth in TFC were more likely to receive community-based, individualized services while youth in group homes were more likely to receive more restrictive services.     

Gender bias in fame judgments: Implicit gender stereotyping or matching study phase fame?

Familiarized names are falsely judgedfamous more often than nonfamiliarized names. Banaji and Greenwald (1995) demonstrated a gender bias in thisfalse fame effect, with the effect being larger for male than for female names. This effect was interpreted as reflecting the operation of a gender stereotype. However, the famous male names were, in fact, better known than the famous female names. Thus, the presence of more famous male names during study may have contributed to the observed male-famous association. If so, there should be no gender bias if the studied famous male and female names are equally famous, and a reversed gender bias should emerge if the famous female names are more famous than the male names. In two experiments, these predictions were corroborated. A “classical” gender bias was found only when the famous males were more famous than the famous females. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that the gender bias in fame judgments, rather than showing implicit gender stereotyping in the sense of a transsituational judgment bias, reflects the fact that, in test, participants select a proportion of fame judgments to male and female names so that it matches the relative degree of fame of male and female names encountered during study.     

Investigator ratings of ADHD symptoms during a randomized, placebo-controlled trial of atomoxetine: a comparison of parents and teachers as informants

This study compared investigator ratings of ADHD symptoms based on interviews with parents and teachers during a doubleblind, placebo-controlled study of atomoxetine. Investigators completed the ADHD Rating Scale: Investigator (ADHDRS-I) based on separate semistructured interviews with the primary caretaker and teacher of the participant. Interviews were conducted at Visits 2 to 7 during a double-blind treatment protocol comparing atomoxetine (N= 10) and placebo (N= 6). Both parent and teacher-based ratings were sensitive to change in ADHD symptoms with atomoxetine treatment. Parent-based assessment differentiated significantly between treatment with atomoxetine and placebo, whereas teacher-based assessment was less sensitive to change. Parents and teachers showed good agreement on change in ADHDRS-I scores. Investigator ratings based on parent- and teacher-report were sensitive to change in symptoms of ADHD during treatment with atomoxetine. Despite good agreement between parent- and teacher-based ratings of symptom change, parent-based ADHD symptom ratings are more sensitive to symptom change.     

Does quick to blame mean quick to anger? The role of agreeableness in dissociating blame and anger

Two studies investigated agreeableness, the accessibility of blame, and their potential interactive effects on anger. To measure the chronic accessibility of blame, a choice reaction time task was created that required participants to classify words as blameworthy or not. It was found that for individuals low in agreeableness, blame accessibility was positively related to anger and arguments during the course of daily life, hostile feelings during the course of a semester, and anger in response to a short video involving a blameworthy action. This same straightforward relationship between the accessibility of blame and anger did not characterize those high in agreeableness. The results suggest that agreeableness plays an important role in facilitating (low agreeableness) or inhibiting (high agreeableness) the link between accessible blame and anger.     

Why the sunny side is up: association between affect and vertical position

Abstract— Metaphors linking spatial location and affect (e.g., feeling up or down) may have subtle, but pervasive, effects on evaluation. In three studies, participants evaluated words presented on a computer. In Study 1, evaluations of positive words were faster when words were in the up rather than the down position, whereas evaluations of negative words were faster when words were in the down rather than the up position. In Study 2, positive evaluations activated higher areas of visual space, whereas negative evaluations activated lower areas of visual space. Study 3 revealed that, although evaluations activate areas of visual space, spatial positions do not activate evaluations. The studies suggest that affect has a surprisingly physical basis.