Impact of mother interactive style on infant affect among babies exposed to alcohol in utero

This study examined the ability of infants prenatally exposed to alcohol to regulate their affect during and after a stressor. Specifically, the Still‐Face Paradigm (Tronick, Als, Adamson, Wise, ' Brazelton, 1978) was used as a stress induction paradigm to assess both mother‐infant interaction and infant self‐regulation. In addition to the mothers' interactive style, the effect of mothers' drinking during and after pregnancy on the infant was explored. Participants were 76 six‐month‐old infants and their mothers. Infant affect and maternal interaction style was coded second‐by‐second for the 6 min of the Still‐Face Paradigm. Results indicated that infants whose mothers made fewer attempts at engaging them during the play portion of the still‐face (e.g., either watched their infant or paid minimal attention to their infant) showed greater negative affect in contrast to infants whose mothers played in an interactive manner. A gender effect was found among female infants. That is, female infants whose mothers drank more during pregnancy showed greater negative affect. The study demonstrates the possibility of early identification of negativity in infants with prenatal alcohol exposure. The impact of mother‐child relationship on emotional regulation of infants prenatally alcohol exposed may be a target of future intervention and further study.     

The Validity of Verifiable and Non‐verifiable Biodata Items: An Examination Across Applicants and Incumbents

This study examines the influence of item verifiability (non‐verifiable vs. verifiable), context (applicant vs. incumbent), and keying procedure on biodata mean test scores and validity. Concurrent and predictive validation studies were conducted using a sample of 425 call center incumbents and a sample of 410 call center applicants. Although applicants did not obtain significantly higher mean biodata scores, results provide support for the hypothesis that the non‐verifiable biodata composite would be less valid in the applicant context, while the verifiable biodata composite would be equally valid across both the applicant and incumbent contexts. The same pattern of results was obtained using both item‐ and option‐keying procedures. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Assessment and treatment of object mouthing in a public school classroom

Little research has been conducted to evaluate the most effective treatments for object mouthing in school or classroom settings. The current case example illustrates the process for conducting a functional assessment and implementing treatment for object mouthing in a public school special education classroom. Teacher and parent interview, direct observations, and functional analysis were used to determine that the object mouthing of a 4‐year‐old girl with severe developmental disabilities was maintained by automatic reinforcement. Free operant preference assessments determined physical parameters of objects that were highly mouthed. Paired choice preference assessments determined which competing items to use in a treatment evaluation. Initial treatment consisted of fixed‐time delivery of a competing food item that reduced object mouthing to very low levels. To completely eliminate the mouthing, physical response blocking was added. Data are presented demonstrating the success of the treatment for up to 15 weeks of follow‐up after the initial treatment evaluation. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An investigation of cross‐national differences in positivity and job satisfaction

The present research examined the role of national differences in positivity as an explanation of cross‐national variation in job satisfaction (JS) ratings. National positivity values were derived from a sample of current employees by calculating the mean residual in a regression of global JS on mean facet satisfaction ratings. As predicted, the positivity values derived in the present research showed convergent validity with other indices of nation‐level positivity, and national differences in extraversion. National differences in positivity showed significant incremental associations with national differences in JS ratings after controlling for the effects of acquiescence, perceived differences in working conditions, and national development. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.     

Assessment and Prediction of Stress-Related Growth

This article reports the development of the Stress-Related Growth Scale (SRGS) and its use in a study examining determinants of stress-related positive outcomes for college students. Study 1 analyses showed that the SRGS has acceptable internal and test-retest reliability and that scores are not influenced by social desirability. Study 2 analyses showed that college students' SRGS responses were significantly related to those provided by friends and relatives on their behalf. Study 3 analyses tested the determinants of stress-related growth longitudinally. Significant predictors of the SRGS were (a) intrinsic religiousness; (b) social support satisfaction; (c) stressfulness of the negative event; (d) positive reinterpretation and acceptance coping; and (e) number of recent positive life events. The SRGS was also positively related to residual change in optimism, positive affectivity, number of socially supportive others, and social support satisfaction, lending further support to the validity of this new scale. Results have implications for current theory on stress-related positive outcomes.     

Behavioral assessment of eating patterns and blood glucose in diabetes using the Self-Monitoring Analysis System

The Self-Monitoring Analysis System is a set of microcomputer programs that were developed to remove clinical judgment from the task of behavioral assessment using self-monitoring diaries. The program is written in Turbo Pascal and runs on MS-DOS (16-bit) or CP/M (8-bit) microcomputer systems. The program allows the user to custom design data bases with hundreds of binary, categorical, integral, and real variables. Full-screen data-entry forms can be custom designed, and random access files allow for flexible data entry and editing. The program makes extensive utilization of Pascal’s very flexible data structure capabilities. Dynamic allocation of memory allows the program to maximize its use of available RAM. Data from a patient with diabetes is presented as a case study illustrating the system’s utility.     

Test anxiety and breadth of encoding experiences in free recall

Subjects made three ratings for each of 30 words, then had an unannounced immediate free recall test and a second test after 1 week. There was no evidence to indicate significantly better retention on either test when the dimensions rated were unrelated as opposed to related. Subjects low on test anxiety performed better overall than subjects who scored high on either the emotionality or worry components of test anxiety. On the delayed test, the test anxiety effect was apparent only when study ratings involved unrelated dimensions (i.e., broad encoding). This interaction is consistent with two conclusions. First, rating related dimensions led to narrow encodings, thus hindering low-anxiety subjects who normally encode broadly. Second, even explicit ratings of unrelated dimensions did not induce high-anxiety subjects to encode more broadly. That the high-anxiety deficit was not overcome even with explicit orienting tasks may indicate inflexibility in deploying memory strategies.