Melting Lizards and Crying Mailboxes: Children's Preferential Recall of Minimally Counterintuitive Concepts

Previous research with adults suggests that a catalog of minimally counterintuitive concepts, which underlies supernatural or religious concepts, may constitute a cognitive optimum and is therefore cognitively encoded and culturally transmitted more successfully than either entirely intuitive concepts or maximally counterintuitive concepts. This study examines whether children's concept recall similarly is sensitive to the degree of conceptual counterintuitiveness (operationalized as a concept's number of ontological domain violations) for items presented in the context of a fictional narrative. Seven‐ to nine‐year‐old children who listened to a story including both intuitive and counterintuitive concepts recalled the counterintuitive concepts containing one (Experiment 1) or two (Experiment 2), but not three (Experiment 3), violations of intuitive ontological expectations significantly more and in greater detail than the intuitive concepts, both immediately after hearing the story and 1 week later. We conclude that one or two violations of expectation may be a cognitive optimum for children: They are more inferentially rich and therefore more memorable, whereas three or more violations diminish memorability for target concepts. These results suggest that the cognitive bias for minimally counterintuitive ideas is present and active early in human development, near the start of formal religious instruction. This finding supports a growing literature suggesting that diverse, early‐emerging, evolved psychological biases predispose humans to hold and perform religious beliefs and practices whose primary form and content is not derived from arbitrary custom or the social environment alone.     

Putting the ‘heart’ back into community psychology: some South African examples

In this paper we explore the impact of emotional dynamics in the field of community psychology and the value of psychodynamic concepts in making sense of this. Emotional processes have often not been very well acknowledged or conceptualized in writing in the area of community psychology practice. This neglect is understandable given the individualizing, pathologizing and medicalizing assumptions underlying many psychological theories of emotion. Psychodynamic ideas may, however, make a useful contribution to understanding central concerns in community psychology in so far as they are able to shed light on emotional processes in groups, the political determinants of emotional response and the emotional dynamics of power, which are all central to the thinking of community psychologists. Using examples drawn from a long-term programme of consultation to community-based services in South Africa, we explore the potential of psychoanalytic understandings of emotional processes in illuminating some of the complexities and challenges faced in developing effective community partnerships and working towards the empowerment of communities.     

Artists, architects, and engineers--three contrasting modes of visual experience and their psychological correlates

Over a period of five years, 31 architects, 28 artists, and 26 engineers, a total of 85 outstanding individuals in their respective fields, were studied intensively with a psychological test battery consisting of the Holtzman Inkblot Technique, Time Estimation measures, the Stroop Color-Word Test, the Embedded Figures Test, the Autokinetic Effect, Byrne's Repression-Sensitization Inventory, the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale, and the Welsh Figure Preference Test. Each subject in the study was chosen by a panel of faculty members as the most outstanding advanced students in nonrepresentational abstract art, architecture, and engineering drawing Highly significant differences were found between the three groups for a number of variables that had been predicted on the basis of previous research and theoretical considerations. These results served to validate the meaning of the perception variables while also giving additional insight into the differences between these three contrasting modes of visual experience as exemplified by the three occupational groups     

The Haunting of Men: Commentary on Thomas Burkhalter’s “Foregrounding Masculinities in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy”

Thomas Burkhalter’s paper opens an important conversation about the fate of White masculinity in post-Apartheid South Africa. The commentary celebrates the nuance and complexity of the analysis but also suggests that social and historical context would deepen its reach. This concerns taking account of the ways in which the therapeutic moment described owes its formation to a historically and socially specific form of White liberal masculinity. The implications of this for women gendered as female are explored.     

Acculturation,Competence, and Mental Health Among South Asian Students in the United States

Among 199 South Asian international students in the United States, higher levels of depressive symptoms were predicted by higher perceived prejudice and lower self‐reported competence in work, personal/social efficacy, and intracultural behaviors. Relationships among the predictors and depressive symptoms differed by gender. Implications for theory, research, and mental health interventions are discussed. Entre 199 estudiantes internacionales Surasiáticos en los Estados Unidos, altos niveles de síntomas depressivos fueron pronosticado por el prejuicio mas percibido y el bajo alto informo de capacidad en el trabajo, en la eficacia personal/social y la funcion intracultural. Las relaciones entre los pronosticadores y los síntomas depressivos diferidos por el género. Las implicaciones para teoría, investigaciones, y las intervenciones mentales de la salud se discuten.     

Visual threat detection during moderate- and high-intensity exercise

The aim of the study was to assess performance on a visual threat-detection task during concurrently performed vigorous exercise on a cycle ergometer. Thirty (15 female) participants completed a baseline condition of seated rest and then moderate- and high-intensity exercise. Moderate- and high-intensity exercise conditions were completed on the 2nd day in a counterbalanced order. During each exercise condition, participants responded to 3 × 3 picture matrices (256 trials in each condition) that contained discrepant fear-relevant and discrepant fear-irrelevant pictures (?hman, Flykt, & Esteves, 2001). Response accuracy was significantly greater, and reaction time was significantly faster, during moderate- and high-intensity exercise compared with the rest condition (ps < .001). The discrepant fear-relevant matrix type was detected significantly more accurately than a discrepant fear-irrelevant matrix (p < .001). The discrepant fear-relevant matrix was detected significantly faster than all other matrix types (p < .001). These results suggest that exercise at a moderate and high intensity may enhance the efficiency of visual detection of both threatening and nonthreatening targets.     

Parent training with high-risk immigrant chinese families: a pilot group randomized trial yielding practice-based evidence

We studied the efficacy and implementation outcomes of a culturally responsive parent training (PT) program. Fifty-four Chinese American parents participated in a wait-list controlled group randomized trial (32 immediate treatment, 22 delayed treatment) of a 14-week intervention designed to address the needs of high-risk immigrant families. Parents were eligible for intervention if they were Chinese-speaking immigrants referred from schools, community clinics, or child protective services with concerns about parenting or child behavior problems. Retention and engagement were high with 83% of families attending 10 or more sessions. Results revealed that the treatment was efficacious in reducing negative discipline, increasing positive parenting, and decreasing child externalizing and internalizing problems. Treatment effects were larger among families with higher levels of baseline behavior problems and lower levels of parenting stress. Further augmentation of PT to address immigrant parent stress may be warranted. Qualitative impressions from group leaders suggested that slower pacing and increased rehearsal of skills may improve efficacy for immigrant parents unfamiliar with skills introduced in PT.     

Normative data for Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices scale in Yemen

Results are reported for a standardization sample of 986 6- to 1-yr.-olds for the Coloured Progressive Matrices in Yemen. Younger children performed better than older children relative to British norms, and there was no significant sex difference in means or variability. In relation to a British IQ of 100 (SD=15), the sample obtained an average IQ of approximately 81.     

Family capital and the invisible transfer of privilege: intergenerational support and social class in early adulthood

Sociologists have long recognized the relationships between family background and social class attainment. However, by neglecting the multiple ways in which families and parents provide advantages and the extent to which these advantages extend into adulthood, they may still be underestimating the role of families in the reproduction of class inequalities. This chapter explores these impacts under the conceptual rubric of family capital. A new battery of interviews with a diverse collection of young adults is used to illustrate these points and offer suggestions for future research and analysis.