Electrodermal Activity Moderates Sleep-Behavior Associations in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Relative to children without autism spectrum disorder (ASD), children with ASD experience elevated sleep problems that can contribute to...     

Methylphenidate Improves Autonomic Functioning among Youth with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Psychostimulants are commonly prescribed medications for youth with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Limited studies have...     

Personality predicts innovation and social learning in children: Implications for cultural evolution

Innovation and social learning are the pillars of cultural evolution, allowing cultural behaviours to cumulatively advance over generations. Yet, little is known about individual differences in the use of social and asocial information. We examined whether personality influenced 7-11-year-old children's (N = 282) propensity to elect to observe others first or independently generate solutions to novel problems. Conscientiousness was associated with electing for no demonstrations, while agreeableness was associated with opting for demonstrations. For children receiving demonstrations, openness to experience consistently predicted deviation from observed methods. Children who opted for no demonstrations were also more likely than those opting for demonstrations to exhibit tool manufacture on an innovation challenge and displayed higher creativity, as measured by an alternate uses task. These results highlight how new cultural traditions emerge, establish and advance by identifying which individuals generate new cultural variants in populations and which are influential in the diffusion of these variants, and help reduce the apparent tension within the ‘ratchet’ of cumulative culture.     

Callous-Unemotional Traits and Antisocial Behavior among Adolescents: the Role of Self-Serving Cognitions

Self-serving cognitions and callous-unemotional traits play important roles in adolescent antisocial behavior. The objective of this study was to cross-sectionally explore the mediating role of self-serving cognitions in the relationship between callous-unemotional traits and antisocial behavior. A sample of 972 high-school students completed self-report questionnaires assessing callous-unemotional traits, self-serving cognitive distortions and antisocial behavior. Two competing models exploring indirect effects accounting for the relationships between self-serving cognitive distortions, callous-unemotional traits and antisocial behaviors were tested. Both models revealed significant indirect effects, suggesting both pathways are possible. Gender was found to moderate these models. These findings suggest the importance of targeting self-serving cognitions in therapeutic interventions and increase our understanding of the role of self-serving cognitions in antisocial behavior.     

Reducing reliance on inaccurate information

People learn from the texts that they read, but sometimes what they read is wrong. Previous research has demonstrated that individuals encode even obvious inaccuracies, at times relying on the misinformation to complete postreading tasks. In the present study, we investigated whether the influence of inaccurate information might be reduced by encouraging the retrieval of accurate knowledge. Participants read an extended text that contained both accurate and inaccurate assertions, after which they evaluated the validity of statements associated with those assertions. In general, participants made more mistakes in their evaluations of statements after having read inaccurate as compared to accurate assertions, offering evidence of the influence of misinformation. However, when participants were tasked with correcting inaccuracies during reading, their mistakes were substantially reduced. Encouraging the retrieval of accurate knowledge during reading can reduce the influence of misinformation. These findings are discussed with respect to the contributions of episodic traces and prior knowledge on learning, as well as to the conditions that support successful comprehension.     

Infants’ ability to associate motion paths with object kinds

The goal of the present research was to examine whether infants associate different paths of motion with animate beings and inanimate objects. An infant-controlled habituation procedure was used to examine 10–20-month-old infants’ ability to associate a non-linear motion path (jumping) with animals and a linear (rebounding) motion path with vehicles (Experiment 1) and furniture (Experiment 2). During the habituation phase, infants saw a dog jumping over a barrier and either a vehicle or a piece of furniture rebounding off the barrier. In the test phase, infants looked longer when another inanimate object jumped rather than rebounded, but showed no such differential looking in the case of another animate object. The ability to restrict the animate motion path of jumping to animate beings was present by 10 months of age. The present findings support the hypothesis that motion path is associated with the animate–inanimate distinction early in infancy.     

Examining the Meaning of Training Animals: A Photovoice Study With At-Risk Youth

Using the photovoice method, we explored the benefits of engaging in a rescue-animal training program for at-risk youth. While participating in the community-based program, five adolescent males in residential care took pictures and shared their experiences through interview and focus groups. Six themes emerged: Gaining patience, forming an attachment to the dog, wanting to better themselves or make better choices, helping others or volunteering, teaching, and relating to the dog. Individually and collectively, the themes suggest that training rescue animals may be a meaningful occupation for at-risk youth and may provide therapeutic benefits.     

Working with unrealistic or unshared hope in the counselling session

Hope has long been identified as an important therapeutic factor in counselling. Further, research evidence for the importance of hope to counselling practice and outcome is abundant. However, the field is only beginning to explicitly consider how hope can be effectively and intentionally practised. One of the most challenging dilemmas encountered by counsellors committed to working with this important therapeutic factor is that of so-called unrealistic hope. In this paper, we outline two real-life counselling vignettes illustrating unrealistic hope, and consider these scenarios alongside relevant scholarship and practice experience. Guiding principles and practices for conceptualising and working with unrealistic hope are offered as a means of beginning the conversation about this complex aspect of working with client hope.     

Stereotype Threat and Attributional Ambiguity for Trans Women

In this paper I discuss the interrelated topics of stereotype threat and attributional ambiguity as they relate to gender and gender identity. The former has become an emerging topic in feminist philosophy and has spawned a tremendous amount of research in social psychology and elsewhere. But the discussion, at least in how it connects to gender, is incomplete: the focus is only on cisgender women and their experiences. By considering trans women's experiences of stereotype threat and attributional ambiguity, we gain a deeper understanding of the phenomena and their problematic effects. ¹      

“There is Something not Quite Right with Brad…”: The Ways in Which Families Construct ADHD Before Receiving a Diagnosis

This study explored how four families who were in the midst of the process of a potential diagnosis of ‘Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder’ (ADHD) for their child negotiated competing explanations of the problems. The research drew on a social constructionist, systemic and attachment lens to understand; (a) the constellations of meanings that are constructed by the families to explain the difficulties and (b) how families use strategies in their talk to account for or contest these constellations of meaning. A discursive analysis revealed that the families in this study, following initial explorations, adopted a sequential and cumulative dismissal of psychosocial explanations. Hence, the thrust of the conversation implicitly added up to the only possibility, the inevitable conclusion that it was ADHD. The malleability and flexibility in which the families explored these explanations varied and for some families the process of closure towards ‘illness’ as a dominant explanation sealed alternative conversations more than in others. The findings also revealed a complexity for the parents in balancing the need to offer discipline versus another response and this has clinical implications and highlights the need for further research in this area.