Relatedness Support and the Retention of Young Female Golfers

In this study, self-determination theory was used as a guiding framework to understand the putative role of relatedness support for retention in golf among young females. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews with 10 female participants (M_age = 21.40, SD = 3.13). Content analyses revealed 5 distinct factors that contributed to the provision of relatedness support: Parents, Peers, Coaches, Golf Club, and Institutional and Societal Support. Findings highlighted that retention of female golfers may be facilitated through promoting valued relationships with parents, peers, coaches, and golf clubs. Policies that decrease the perceived marginalization of female participants may also be perceived as a form of relatedness support and may promote retention within this cohort. This study underscores the importance of relatedness support for young women and identifies strategies that may help to improve female retention in sport.     

Children's Anticipated Responses to Hypothetical Peers With Undesirable Characteristics: Role of Peers' Desire to Change,Effort to Change,and Outcome

The authors explored the extent to which 5th- and 6th-grade students’ anticipated responses to hypothetical peers with undesirable characteristics (e.g., being overweight) are influenced by information that each peer (a) desired (or did not desire) to change the characteristic, (b) exerted effort (or did not exert effort) to change the characteristic, and (c) was successful (or unsuccessful) in changing the characteristic. In general, the children anticipated responding more favorably to peers who were successful in overcoming an undesirable characteristic than those who were unsuccessful. However, across both outcome conditions, peers who wanted to change and exerted effort to change were rated more favorably than were peers who reported no effort to change an undesirable characteristic, regardless of whether or not they had expressed a desire to change that characteristic. For peers whose failure to change an undesirable characteristic was associated with no effort to change, those who expressed a desire to change were rated more favorably than those who expressed no desire to change.     

Reaction Time of Healthy Older Adults Is Reduced While Walking Fast

Attentional requirements of walking at various speeds in older adults were examined. Twenty healthy older adults (69.9?±?2.77?years; 8 males) were asked to walk a distance of 10?m at a self-selected speed as well as 30% quicker and 30% slower. Concurrently, reaction time (RT) was evaluated by having participants respond as fast as possible to randomly presented auditory stimuli. Results reveal that an accelerated walking speed generated faster RT than slow and self-selected speeds, while no difference was found between the latter. Faster RTs during an accelerated walking speed may have been precipitated by the reduced equilibrium demands of the task.     

Coping mediates relationships between reinforcement sensitivity and symptoms of psychopathology

Limited research has evaluated whether coping strategies mediate the relationships between reinforcement sensitivity theory (RST) and symptoms of psychopathology. Undergraduates (n = 293) completed questionnaires assessing RST, coping, and symptoms of psychopathology. Consistent with our hypotheses, bootstrapping analyses indicated that emotion- and avoidance-focused coping mediated the relationship between high Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) and depression, anxiety, and worry. Less problem-focused coping mediated the relationship between low Behavioral Approach System (BAS) and depression. Avoidance-focused coping mediated the effects of high BIS on drug and alcohol use whereas high BAS directly predicted alcohol and drug use. Unexpectedly, emotion-focused coping mediated the relationship between BAS and anxiety and worry. These results provide support for the hypothesis that personality variables are associated with psychopathology partially through coping.     

Age and emotion affect how we look at a face: Visual scan patterns differ for own-age versus other-age emotional faces

We investigated how age of faces and emotion expressed in faces affect young (n=30) and older (n=20) adults’ visual inspection while viewing faces and judging their expressions. Overall, expression identification was better for young than older faces, suggesting that interpreting expressions in young faces is easier than in older faces, even for older participants. Moreover, there were age-group differences in misattributions of expressions, in that young participants were more likely to label disgusted faces as angry, whereas older adults were more likely to label angry faces as disgusted. In addition to effects of emotion expressed in faces, age of faces affected visual inspection of faces: Both young and older participants spent more time looking at own-age than other-age faces, with longer looking at own-age faces predicting better own-age expression identification. Thus, cues used in expression identification may shift as a function of emotion and age of faces, in interaction with age of participants.     

On Measuring and Modeling Physiological Synchrony in Dyads

Physiological synchrony within a dyad, or the degree of temporal correspondence between two individuals' physiological systems, has become a focal area of psychological research. Multiple methods have been used for measuring and modeling physiological synchrony. Each method extracts and analyzes different types of physiological synchrony, where ‘type’ refers to a specific manner through which two different physiological signals may correlate. Yet, to our knowledge, there is no documentation of the different methods, how each method corresponds to a specific type of synchrony, and the statistical assumptions embedded within each method. Hence, this article outlines several approaches for measuring and modeling physiological synchrony, connects each type of synchrony to a specific method, and identifies the assumptions that need to be satisfied for each method to appropriately extract each type of synchrony. Furthermore, this article demonstrates how to test for between-dyad differences of synchrony via inclusion of dyad-level (i.e., time-invariant) covariates. Finally, we complement each method with an empirical demonstration, as well as online supplemental material that contains Mplus code.     

Modulation sensitivity in the perceptual organization of speech

In a spoken utterance, a talker expresses linguistic constituents in serial order. A listener resolves these linguistic properties in the rapidly fading auditory sample. Classic measures agree that auditory integration occurs at a fine temporal grain. In contrast, recent studies have proposed that sensory integration of speech occurs at a coarser grain, approximate to the syllable, on the basis of indirect and relatively insensitive perceptual measures. Evidence from cognitive neuroscience and behavioral primatology has also been adduced to support the claim of sensory integration at the pace of syllables. In the present investigation, we used direct performance measures of integration, applying an acoustic technique to isolate the contribution of short-term acoustic properties to the assay of modulation sensitivity. In corroborating the classic finding of a fine temporal grain of integration, these functional measures can inform theory and speculation in accounts of speech perception.     

Abandoned babies -- abandoned issue

Abandoned babies generate enormous interest but very little academic or systematic study. The psychological state of their mothers and consideration of their fathers is not studied and access to these groups are restricted or unavailable. This pilot study grapples with the concepts of abandonment, looks at patterns over time via notifiable criminal record data and explores systematic factors by way of newspaper report analysis. The discourse around abandonment is emotive. More boys are abandoned than girls. Newborn abandonments differ from older babies in that parents are rarely identified and society judges them with sympathy. Finders are emotionally moved, but rarely included in ongoing policy. Some pointers for future policy are drawn.     

Theologia Incurvata In Se Ipse?: One Feminist Theologian’s Reading of Eberhard Jüngel’s Theology

Books reviewed in this article:
Eberhard Jüngel, Justification: The Heart of the Christian Faith
Eberhard Jüngel, God's Being is in Becoming: The Trinitarian Being of God in the Theology of Karl Barth. A Paraphrase