Changing Beliefs About Corporal Punishment: Increasing Knowledge About Ineffectiveness to Build More Consistent Moral and Informational Beliefs

Although the effectiveness of corporal punishment (CP) has received little empirical support, public support for this disciplinary method continues despite calls for its abandonment by researchers. Even among educators, favorable attitudes toward the use of CP are prevalent. We measured education majors beliefs about CP before and after they read about CP research on its effectiveness and side effects. Students who changed their behavioral intent regarding whether they would use CP as a parent increased their knowledge about its ineffectiveness, resulting in greater consistency between their moral and informational beliefs (Wainryb, 1998). Persons who are likely to change from defending to opposing CP regard it as being similar to bad-tasting medicine—not very pleasant but nonetheless necessary. Recommendations concerning implementation and changing other beliefs are discussed.     

Rapid long lasting learning in a collinear edge-detection task

We have developed a detection task in which subjects identify a pair of collinear edges in a field of polygons. Five of our six subjects showed significant, rapid learning at this task. Four showed evidence of retention a day and a week later. In several transfer tests, we found that disruption of the distractors produced a significant drop-off in performance. These results are consistent with a model in which collinear targets initially produce a salience signal too weak to be reliably detected over the noise of the distractors. As the experiment proceeds, the visual system learns to dampen the distractor signals, allowing for more reliable detection.     

Poverty and Single Parenting: Relations with Preschoolers' Cortisol and Effortful Control

Poverty and single parent status, which often co‐occur, have been shown to relate to lower effortful control, and this may be in part due to disruptions in hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis activity. Both poverty and single parent status may compromise parenting, which in turn may disrupt HPA axis activity and the development of effortful control. We examined whether parenting and HPA axis activity accounted for the effects of poverty and single parent status on the development of effortful control in preschool children (N = 78). Effortful control was measured at two time points, 6 months apart. Individually, poverty and single parent status were related to blunted HPA axis activity, characterized by low AM and PM cortisol. However, when examined together, the effects were present only for preschoolers whose parents were in poverty. Parental warmth and negativity accounted for the relations between poverty and blunted cortisol. Blunted cortisol was related to lower effortful control at Time 2. These results suggest a pathway through which poverty may impact children's developing effortful control through parenting, which in turn may shape HPA axis activity. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Differentiating challenge reactivity from psychomotor activity in studies of children's psychophysiology: considerations for theory and measurement

Current methods of assessing children’s physiological “stress reactivity” may be confounded by psychomotor activity, biasing estimates of the relation between reactivity and health. We examined the joint and independent contributions of psychomotor activity and challenge reactivity during a protocol for 5- and 6-year-old children (N = 338). Measures of parasympathetic reactivity (respiratory sinus arrhythmia [RSA]) and sympathetic reactivity (preejection period [PEP]) were calculated for social, cognitive, sensory, and emotional challenge tasks. Reactivity was calculated relative to both resting and a paired comparison task that accounted for psychomotor activity effects during each challenge. Results indicated that comparison tasks themselves elicited RSA and PEP responses, and reactivity adjusted for psychomotor activity was incongruent with reactivity calculated using rest. Findings demonstrate the importance of accounting for confounding psychomotor activity effects on physiological reactivity.     

Using teacher greetings to increase speed to task engagement

We used a multiple baseline design across participants to determine if teacher greetings would reduce the latency to task engagement. Three participants were identified by their respective teachers as having difficulty initiating task-appropriate engagement at the beginning of class. Latency was measured from teacher greeting until the participant was actively engaged for 5 consecutive seconds. Results showed that teacher greetings were effective at reducing latency to task engagement for all participants.     

The Development of Professional Counseling in Botswana

Among African countries, Botswana stands out for achieving lasting political and economic stability, which has enabled the government to develop a strong system of educational and social services for its people. Development of professional counseling in the country has occurred both through targeted efforts to provide a strong system of guidance services in schools and in response to the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. This article reviews the development of professional counseling in Botswana and highlights trends likely to shape its future.     

Relationship-contingent self-esteem and the ups and downs of romantic relationships

Relationship-contingent self-esteem (RCSE) emerges from perspectives on authenticity, need fulfillment, and relationship functioning and is an unhealthy form of self-esteem that depends on one's relationship. Four studies provided evidence of convergent, discriminant, incremental, and predictive validity for RCSE. Study 1 tested associations between RCSE and several conceptually related and unrelated constructs in multiple samples. In Study 2, the authors employed an event-contingent diary procedure to examine reports of self-esteem as a function of everyday relationship events. The association between event valence and changes in self-esteem became stronger with RCSE, and this interaction remained controlling for several parallel interactions by other constructs. Study 3 employed an interval-contingent diary procedure and found support for a mediation model in which the moderating role of RCSE largely occurred through momentary emotions, which in turn predicted momentary self-esteem. Study 4 sampled couples and found that partners who were both higher in RCSE felt more committed but not more satisfied or close.     

Depression Following Traumatic Brain Injury: The Validity of the CES-D as a Brief Screening Device

The validity, reliability, and factor structure of the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D) was examined with 253 patients seen for neuropsychological evaluation following traumatic brain injury (TBI). All patients completed the CES-D; 31 also completed the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and 17 completed the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-II (MMPI-II). The CES-D demonstrated good concurrent, construct validity, significantly correlating with the BDI (r = .673, p < .0001) and the MMPI-II (Depression Scale T score r = .536, p = .027). The CES-D also demonstrated good internal consistency (coefficient alpha = .8195) and split-half reliability (Spearman–Brown r = .8284). Principal components factor analysis with varimax rotation resulted in a four-factor solution that accounted for 56.01% of the variance. The factor structure differed from the originally reported factor structure, and indicated that somatic difficulties were strongly associated with dysphoric affect in TBI patients. The CES-D is a valid and reliable screening instrument for use with TBI patients.