Maternal attitudes and attachment styles in mothers of obese children

This study evaluated categories of attachment style and the maternal attitude toward educational role in a sample of 30 mothers of obese children and a control group of 80 mothers of children of normal weight. All mothers completed the 1994 Attachment Style Questionnaire and the 1958 Parental Attitude Research Instrument. 30 mothers (M age 37.4 yr., range 31 to 54 years; M yr. of education 11.6, range 5 to 18 years) of obese children (range 30 to 60% above normal weight) and a control group of 80 mothers (M age 37.1 yr., range 29 to 52 years; M yr. of schooling 11.4, range 5 to 18 years) of children with normal weight were contacted at the primary school attended by their children and joined the project voluntarily. Age and number of years of education were not significantly different between the two groups of women. There was a significant prevalence of the Insecure Attachment Style in the group of mothers with obese children (66.6%) as compared to the control group of mothers of children of normal weight (38.5%) and significantly higher scores on 6 subscales of the Parental Attitude Research Instrument of Obese compared to Nonobese children. These data indicate that obese children's mothers tend to make the family their exclusive centre of interest. They also tend to dedicate themselves to their children with possessiveness and hyperprotection. They seem to have an insistent requirement of idealisation of their own role as parent and reward expectations that confirm the efficiency of the care they provide their children. Consequently, these findings suggest that in addition to dietetic treatment, it may be important to include a psychological intervention, which involves the mother and aims to modify the relational dynamics between the mother and her obese child.     

Tableaux for Łukasiewicz Infinite-valued Logic

In this work we propose a labelled tableau method for ukasiewicz infinite-valued logic L . The method is based on the Kripke semantics of this logic developed by Urquhart [25] and Scott [24]. On the one hand, our method falls under the general paradigm of labelled deduction [8] and it is rather close to the tableau systems for sub-structural logics proposed in [4]. On the other hand, it provides a CoNP decision procedure for L validity by reducing the check of branch closure to linear programming     

Further explorations of the consistency effect in word and nonword pronunciation

Three experiments explored the consistency effect in word and nonword pronunciation. All three experiments involved a common second phase in which subjects were required to pronounce a sequence of consistent and inconsistent words and nonwords. The experiments were distinguished by the nature of Phase 1. In Experiment 1, subjects pronounced a sequence of words and nonwords in which all the words were exceptions. In Experiment 2, all the items in this phase were consistent, and in Experiment 3, they were inconsistent. Consistency effects for words, as measured by pronunciation latency, were confined to Experiment 1. Consistency effects for nonwords were found in Experiment 2. No consistency effects were found for either words or nonwords in Experiment 3. There was clear evidence of a consistency effect for nonwords in Experiment 1 in terms of pronunciation errors, but the latency data were not significant. This is attributed to the very slow response times in this condition. All these data are compatible with both revised analogy and dual-route theories.     

Research as therapy, therapy as research: Ethical dilemmas in new-paradigm research

Ethical dilemmas are raised by changes in research paradigms which encourage the development of a relationship between researcher and participant. In such contexts it becomes increasingly difficult to tell the difference between a therapeutic relationship and a research interview. The rapid development of research within the therapeutic world of counselling and clinical psychology poses further ethical issues relating to the use of clients as participants in research studies. It is concluded that there must be an increased awareness of these issues and a need to accept responsibility for relationships with both participants and clients.     

Lightness, equivalent backgrounds, and anchoring

Observers compared two center/surround configurations haploscopically. One configuration consisted of a standard surface surrounded by two, three, or four surfaces, each with a different luminance. The other configuration consisted of a comparison surface surrounded by a single annulus that varied in luminance. Center surfaces always had the same luminance but only appeared to have the same lightness with certain annuli (equivalent backgrounds). For most displays, the luminance needed to obtain an equivalent background was close to the highest luminance in the standard surround configuration. Models based on the space-average luminance or the space-average contrast of the standard surround configuration yielded poorer fits. Implications for computational models of lightness and for candidate solutions to the anchoring problem are discussed.     

Very long-term memory for knowledge acquired at school and university

Recent research into the very long-term retention of knowledge originally acquired during the process of formal education at school and university has demonstrated that such knowledge may be retained at high levels over very long retention intervals. The pattern of retention typically takes the form of a comparatively short period marked by forgetting (lasting between 1 and 6 years) followed by a long period of stable retention (usually longer than 30 years). For courses taken at school the level attained over a series of courses (e.g. in learning a foreign language or studying mathematics) is an important determinant of long-term retention. Students who attain moderate or advanced levels of learning show high levels of retention with very little forgetting, whereas students who attain only lower levels of learning show steady forgetting, and after a period of 6 years retain very little knowledge. Similar patterns of retention are present for university students taking single courses in science and literature subjects, and students with higher grades retain more knowledge although the reliable relationship here, between grade obtained and amount remembered, is weak and accounts for only small portions of the variance in retention. Taken together these findings suggest that the retention of knowledge acquired through formal education persists over longer periods of time than popularly believed. Recent theory proposes that these long-lasting effects of education are partly related to the types of learning schedules followed during acquisition and partly related to the nature of the to-be-acquired knowledge, and to whether or not knowledge can be represented schematically.     

Is the association between childhood maltreatment and aggressive behavior mediated by hostile attribution bias in women? A discordant twin and sibling study

Understanding the mechanisms behind aggressive behavior (AGG) is vital so that effective prevention and intervention strategies can be developed. Maltreated children are hypothesized to be prone to social information processing biases, such as hostile attribution bias (HAB), which, in turn, may increase the likelihood of behaving aggressively. The first aim of the present study was to replicate findings regarding associations between childhood maltreatment (CM), HAB, and aggression in a population‐based sample of Finnish female twins and their sisters (N = 2,167). However, these associations might not be causal but instead confounded by familial factors, shared between the variables. The second aim was, thus, to test the associations when potential confounding by familial (genetic or common environmental) effects were controlled for using a multilevel discordant twin and sibling design within (a) 379 pairs of twins (n_pairs = 239) or siblings (n_pairs = 140), and (b) within the 131 monozygotic (MZ) twin pairs. Consistent with previous studies, HAB mediated the association between CM and AGG when familial confounding was uncontrolled. No support was found for the mediation when controlling for familial confounding. Between‐pair associations were found between CM and AGG, and between CM and HAB. In addition, within‐pair associations were found between HAB and AGG, and between CM and AGG, however, these were nonsignificant in the discordant MZ analysis, offering the most stringent control of familial confounding. The results indicate the necessity of taking familial confounding into account when investigating the development of AGG.     

It’s About Time: The Role of Locomotion in Withdrawal Behavior

Introduction

Locomotion is defined as a self-regulatory orientation that involves committing personal resources to initiate and maintain goal-directed activities Kruglanski et al. (J Personal Social Psychol 79: 793, 2000). This article examines the relation between locomotion and withdrawal behaviors in organizational setting.

Materials and Methods

In the first study, police officers’ (N = 203) locomotion was negatively related to self-report measures of absenteeism and lateness. In the second study, bank employees’ (N = 297) locomotion was negatively related to withdrawal behaviors as evinced by organizational records including hours of absenteeism, lateness, and early departures. In the third study, a two-wave research design replicated the results of Study 2 by demonstrating that telecommunication employees’ (N = 69) locomotion measured at Time 1 was negatively related to their respective withdrawal behaviors 3 months later at Time 2.

Conclusion

Overall, these three studies support the notion that locomotion impacts a plurality of withdrawal behaviors in different organizational settings. Consequently, locomotion can be a pertinent and valuable psychometric tool for managers and human resources interested in improving organizational effectiveness.