Emotion regulation in Asperger's syndrome and high-functioning autism

It is generally thought that individuals with Asperger's syndrome and high-functioning autism (AS/HFA) have deficits in theory of mind. These deficits have been previously linked to problems with social cognition. However, we reasoned that AS/HFA individuals' Theory of Mind deficits also might lead to problems with emotion regulation. To assess emotional functioning in AS/HFA, 27 AS/HFA adults (16 women) and 27 age-, gender-, and education-matched typically developing (TD) participants completed a battery of measures of emotion experience, labeling, and regulation. With respect to emotion experience, individuals with AS/HFA reported higher levels of negative emotions, but similar levels of positive emotions, compared with TD individuals. With respect to emotion labeling, individuals with AS/HFA had greater difficulties identifying and describing their emotions, with approximately two-thirds exceeding the cutoff for alexithymia. With respect to emotion regulation, individuals with AS/HFA used reappraisal less frequently than TD individuals and reported lower levels of reappraisal self-efficacy. Although AS/HFA individuals used suppression more frequently than TD individuals, no difference in suppression self-efficacy was found. It is important to note that these differences in emotion regulation were evident even when controlling for emotion experience and labeling. Implications of these deficits are discussed, and future research directions are proposed.     

Enhancing Immediate Retention with Clickers Through Individual Response Identification

Classroom audience response systems, in which students respond to class questions via a remote ‘clicker’ unit, are widely used as a method for increasing student participation and providing immediate feedback in the form of a group frequency distribution. The phenomenon of social facilitation shows that task performance can be enhanced with co‐action of others or with the presence of an audience. To enhance the audience effect, we employed a unique feedback system that displays each individual's response. After reading a text passage, participants responded via a remote clicker to a series of comprehension questions. Participants were provided with no feedback regarding other respondents' answers, group feedback, or individual feedback. The results demonstrated significantly higher test performance with individual response identification. Implications are discussed in terms of applied classroom settings and social facilitation with enhanced options for displaying different types of feedback with clickers during instruction. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Normative and Comparative Study of the Hand Test with Normal and Delinquent Children

Normative data obtained on the Hand Test from 114 secondary school boys, 52 institutionalized male delinquents, and 26 institutionalized female delinquents, were compared. Significant differences were in the expected direction for certain scores. Comparison with the “equivalent” American samples given by Wagner shows marked differences. Looseness of definition of certain scoring categories affected interscorer reliability.     

Change in Life Satisfaction Under Chronic Physical Multi-morbidity in Advanced Old Age: Potential and Limits of Adaptation

We examined the impact of chronic multi-morbidity on intra-individual change of life satisfaction (LS) in advanced old age, considering (1) adaptation in terms of stabilization or restoration of LS across accumulation of chronic conditions and (2) loss in functional competence to conduct activities of daily living (ADL) as potentially mediating the effect of chronic multi-morbidity on LS. Longitudinal data from a German sample (N = 451, aged 80–90 at baseline, 3 measurements covering 2.25 years) was analyzed by means of latent growth curve modeling. An adaptive curvilinear relationship between self-reported number of chronic conditions health constraints (NCC) at baseline and change in LS was confirmed, where the largest LS decline occurred under medium, but less worsening under highest levels of NCC. Change in ADL predicted LS change, but did not mediate the effects of NCC on LS. The findings confirmed the importance of both chronic multi-morbidity and loss of functional competence as independent predictors of decline in LS in very old age. Only limited evidence supported an adaptive stabilization of LS under accumulating levels of chronic multi-morbidity.     

A Q-Methodological Study of Women's Subjective Perspectives on Mathematics

The objective of this study was to explore, using Q-methodology, women's subjective reactions to and experiences with mathematics. Ninety-six undergraduate women from a private university conducted Q-sorts on items that related to their personal experiences, attitudes, and belief/awareness of gender stereotypes for math. On the basis of the Q-factor analysis, three unique perspectives toward math emerged. The perspectives were classified as Successfully Encouraged, Stereotypically Discouraged, and Mathematically Aversive. These groupings were differentiated by their variety of experiences, attitudes, and awareness of stereotypes about math. Measures of math self-schema, math anxiety, and self-reported math ability were also used to interpret the groupings. This research revealed the women's various experiences with and attitudes toward math. The findings are integrated with previous theories in order to understand women's underrepresentation in math-related fields.     

Impact of elaboration on socially desirable responding and the validity of biodata measures

The current study investigated the impact of requiring respondents to elaborate on their answers to a biodata measure on mean scores, the validity of the biodata item composites, subgroup mean differences, and correlations with social desirability. Results of this study indicate that elaborated responses result in scores that are much lower than nonelaborated responses to the same items by an independent sample. Despite the lower mean score on elaborated items, it does not appear that elaboration affects the size of the correlation between social desirability and responses to biodata items or that it affects criterion-related validity or subgroup mean differences in a practically significant way.     

Latent class analysis of college women's motivations for engaging in same-sex performativity

Same-sex performativity (SSP), or public performances of sexuality (e.g., kissing) between women who identify as heterosexual, is a relatively common relational experience among college-aged women. Identifying patterns of women's motivations for engaging in SSP can elucidate the heterogeneity among women's social and sexual behaviors during a critical developmental period (i.e., college). We used latent class analysis to identify classes of heterosexual undergraduate women who engaged in SSP (N = 282). We identified three classes of motivational patterns: Other-Motivated (i.e., notably motivated by male attention, wanting to shock others, wanting to bond, and social pressure), Ambiguously Motivated (i.e., most motivated by alcohol and fun, but minimally motivated overall), and Sexually Motivated (i.e., notably motivated by sexual desire and sexual experimentation). We then examined how class membership was associated with variables related to participants' evaluation of their SSP experience, self and identity, sexuality, and heterosexism. Classes significantly differed in SSP evaluations, as well as in certain facets of self and identity and sexuality (i.e., sorority membership and same-sex desire). These data provide evidence of substantial complexity in the characterizations of women who engage in SSP. We discuss the implications of the relationship between motivational patterns and women's evaluations of the SSP experience.     

Interdisciplinary graduate programs which require academic and professional perspectives

This paper explores considerations that need to be taken into account in the development of academic and professional interdisciplinary programs. Such programs are built on a social view of knowing; take into account the personal world of those involved; and contain program structures that support an interdisciplinary perspective. The paper begins with four features of the knowing person that point to a view of scholarship rooted in the constructive and collaborative activity of human beings. It then describes an interdisciplinary program of graduate study that blends professional and academic concerns.