Learning Disabilities and Delinquent Behaviors among Adolescents: A Comparison of Those with and without Comorbidity

Research is inconclusive on whether adolescents with learning disabilities (LD) engage in more delinquency than adolescents without such deficits. Mixed results may result from a failure to account for the effects of co-occurring disabilities. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this study examines delinquency among adolescents without disabilities to youth with LD, Attention Disorder Symptoms (ADS), and comorbid LD/ADS. Results indicate no significant differences in property offenses, or alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use; however, youth with LD reported significantly more violence than non-disabled youth. Findings illustrate the heterogeneous effects various disabilities have on delinquent behavior. Future research and policy implications will be discussed.     

Demonizing ISIL and Defending Muslims: Australian Muslim Citizenship and Tony Abbott's “Death Cult” Rhetoric

In the lead-up to Australia committing military resources and personnel to the coalition opposing the Islamic State in the Levant (ISIL), Prime Minister Tony Abbott consistently categorized the al-Qaeda splinter group as a “death cult.” Examining Abbott's official rhetoric on ISIL and the threat it poses to Australia and the world, this article argues that his use of the term “death cult” reflects patterns in Western political demonology and demonizing enemies, namely, creating adversaries as monsters by highlighting the atrocities they commit in order to garner support for (often lethal) actions against them. In traditional political demonology, establishment representatives often target minority or marginal groups as these pariahs. However, in demonizing ISIL, Abbott deliberately made distinctions between it and its members and the majority of Muslims, including Australian Muslims, and utilized political demonology differently. In so doing, he affirmed this religious minority's status within the parameters of Australian citizenship. This is indeed commendable. However, Abbott rarely mentioned Muslims outside of references to terrorism. Despite the fact that Abbott acknowledges that only a comparative handful of Muslims are indeed violent, he has not yet fully engaged with the broader notions of Australian Muslims’ contributions to Australian society and their citizenship.     

Just a game? Changes in English and Spanish soccer fans’ emotions in the 2010 World Cup

Objectives

To explore English and Spanish fans’ emotional responses to team success and failure and resulting changes in social interaction and spending during the 2010 Soccer World Cup.

Design

A between-group and within-group longitudinal design.

Method

Data on emotion, team identification, social interaction and spending were collected from 59 English fans (47 men, 12 women), and 32 Spanish fans (19 men, 13 women), before, during and after the 2010 Soccer World Cup.

Results

Both English and Spanish fans displayed significant changes in emotional state after the success or failure of their respective teams during the Soccer World Cup. The positive emotional state associated with winning the tournament in the Spanish fans persisted for over four days, and the negative emotional state associated with the early exit from the tournament by the English fans did not. Four days after the tournament the Spanish Fans had a more positive emotional state than the English fans. The changes in emotional state were not associated with greater identification with the team assessed through the use of team identifying pronouns; nor were changes in behavior associated with changes in emotional state. After the tournament the Spanish fans reported spending more time socializing than English fans and also spending more money than usual compared with baseline.

Conclusion

These data provide evidence that group membership influences emotion and that the positive emotional experience associated with group success persist longer than the negative emotional experience associated with group failure.     

Insiders,regulars and tourists: exploring selves and music consumption in adolescence

• Adolescents, with respect to consumption and the symbolic self, are in a crucial period of identity formation. Music is significant in this respect as it has been described as a catalyst for individuals seeking to construct the ‘self’ and can play a central role in forming an identity. This paper seeks to explore the ways in which adolescent music use and consumption facilitates a greater understanding of identity formation and psychological or peer group practices. Twenty four in‐depth interviews were conducted with 12 adolescents over a 6–12 month period. All adolescents were interviewed twice with a view to observing changes in music consumption practices. The author adopts the terms of insiders, regulars and tourists to illustrate the different characteristics of adolescent music consumers in the context of their varying levels of investment and commitment. Initial findings demonstrate that music is used to build social capital, to create boundaries and to enhance social inclusion and exclusion.

Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Swamp Mary’s revenge: deviant phenomenal knowledge and physicalism

Deviant phenomenal knowledge is knowing what it’s like to have experiences of, e.g., red without actually having had experiences of red. Such a knower is a deviant. Some physicalists have argued and some anti-physicalists have denied that the possibility of deviants undermines anti-physicalism and the Knowledge Argument. The current paper presents new arguments defending the deviant-based attacks on anti-physicalism. Central to my arguments are considerations concerning the psychosemantic underpinnings of deviant phenomenal knowledge. I argue that physicalists are in a superior position to account for the conditions in virtue of which states of deviants constitute representations of phenomenal facts.     

A taste of reflecting practice

This article describes a training exercise in which students who are new to systemic practice but have some experience in therapeutic work in other modalities were invited to experience reflecting practice. The students were asked to follow a role‐played therapy session by offering reflections on the connections felt to a ‘family’ member. The students stood beside the ‘family member’, reflected on the problems and accounted for the connections felt in terms of particular resonances felt. The students thus experienced a therapeutic use of self congruent with the reflecting team approach and the therapeutic position adopted in reflecting practice.     

Why Study White Supremacist Terror? A Research Note

This article discusses how the current neglect of white supremacist violence impedes the development of terrorism scholarship. The decentralized organization of contemporary white supremacists is often confused with disorganization that has led some observers to claim that white supremacist terror (WST) poses a relatively benign threat and is essentially irrelevant. In contrast, I argue that white supremacist violence is part of a broader social movement strategy. Lastly, I discuss how four hot-button issues may contribute to a new large-scale wave of WST.     

Decision-making under uncertainty: biases and Bayesians

Animals (including humans) often face circumstances in which the best choice of action is not certain. Environmental cues may be ambiguous, and choices may be risky. This paper reviews the theoretical side of decision-making under uncertainty, particularly with regard to unknown risk (ambiguity). We use simple models to show that, irrespective of pay-offs, whether it is optimal to bias probability estimates depends upon how those estimates have been generated. In particular, if estimates have been calculated in a Bayesian framework with a sensible prior, it is best to use unbiased estimates. We review the extent of evidence for and against viewing animals (including humans) as Bayesian decision-makers. We pay particular attention to the Ellsberg Paradox, a classic result from experimental economics, in which human subjects appear to deviate from optimal decision-making by demonstrating an apparent aversion to ambiguity in a choice between two options with equal expected rewards. The paradox initially seems to be an example where decision-making estimates are biased relative to the Bayesian optimum. We discuss the extent to which the Bayesian paradigm might be applied to the evolution of decision-makers and how the Ellsberg Paradox may, with a deeper understanding, be resolved.     

Preliminary evidence that the limbal ring influences facial attractiveness

The limbal ring of the eye appears as a dark annulus where the iris meets the sclera. Both width and opacity of the limbal ring are influenced by iris pigmentation and optical properties of the region. With age the limbal ring becomes less prominent, making it a probabilistic indicator of youth and health. This raises the question: Are judgments of facial attractiveness sensitive to this signal in a potentially adaptive way? Here we show that the answer is yes. For male and female observers, both male and female faces with a dark and distinct limbal ring are rated as more attractive than otherwise identical faces with no limbal ring. This result is observed not just for upright faces but also for inverted faces, suggesting that the limbal ring is processed primarily as a local feature rather than as a configural feature in the analysis of facial beauty. We also discuss directions for future research that can clarify the role of the limbal ring in the visual perception of facial attractiveness.     

A simple introduction to Markov Chain Monte–Carlo sampling

Markov Chain Monte–Carlo (MCMC) is an increasingly popular method for obtaining information about distributions, especially for estimating posterior distributions in Bayesian inference. This article provides a very basic introduction to MCMC sampling. It describes what MCMC is, and what it can be used for, with simple illustrative examples. Highlighted are some of the benefits and limitations of MCMC sampling, as well as different approaches to circumventing the limitations most likely to trouble cognitive scientists.