Fathers' parenting hassles and coping: associations with emotional expressiveness and their sons' socioemotional competence

The present study examined fathers' daily parenting hassles and coping strategies to (a) determine their association with fathers' emotional expressiveness and (b) predict their sons' development of socioemotional competence. Fathers of 148 preschool‐aged boys reported on their parenting hassles, coping strategies, and emotional expressiveness; mothers also reported on fathers' emotional expressiveness; and teachers reported on boys' socioemotional competence. Parenting hassles were associated with less rational, more emotional, and more avoidance coping as well as negative emotional expressiveness. More emotional and less rational coping responses were related to more negative expressiveness, whereas more rational, more emotional, and less coping were related to more positive expressiveness. Fathers' negative expressiveness was predictive of their sons being rated as more aggressive and disruptive by their teachers. In addition, fathers' parenting hassles and coping both predicted teacher ratings of their sons' aggressiveness. Implications of the findings are discussed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The perils of police psychology: 10 strategies for minimizing role conflicts when providing mental health services and consultation to law enforcement agencies

This article addresses common dilemmas faced by mental health professionals working on behalf of law enforcement agencies, focusing on those relating to informed consent; conflicts in values, norms, or their relative importance; and the erosion of professional identity. The authors suggest 10 strategies that mental health professionals may invoke to reduce their risk of confronting ethical dilemmas or of experiencing role conflicts while working on behalf of law enforcement agencies. The need for each strategy is illustrated with one or more examples of problems that have arisen when mental health professionals have failed to obtain consent for their activities, have been insufficiently sensitive to or unaware of conflicts between the usual norms in their professions, and the norms of law enforcement agencies, or have identified too strongly with law enforcement personnel. The 10 strategies recommended here are intended to reduce professional conflicts without compromising operational effectiveness.     

Control Appraisals as Moderators of the Relationship Between Intrusive Thoughts and Coping1

This study examined the relationship between intrusive thinking, control appraisals, and coping strategies within the context of stressful negative events using a short-term longitudinal design. Although intrusive thoughts were not related to problem-focused coping at Time 1, these cognitions were positively associated with problem-focused coping at subsequent reporting periods. Intrusive thoughts were positively associated with behavioral engagement. Perceived control was positively associated with problem-focused coping across all reporting periods, whereas perceptions of other's culpability were positively related to behavioral disengagement for all time periods except Time 1. There was limited support for the hypothesis that appraisals of control would moderate the relationship between intrusive thinking and coping behaviors.     

Preference for and effects of variable-as opposed to fixed-reinforcer duration

Pigeons were trained on multiple schedules in which a fixed number of pecks produced either a fixed or a variable period of access to food, the average variable-duration reinforcement equalling the fixed. Pecking rates were generally higher during the variable-duration component. Subsequent performance on concurrent schedules revealed an initial preference for variable-duration reinforcement for all subjects; for most subjects, this preference was sustained. For one subject, the average variable duration was gradually reduced to half the fixed duration: continued preference for the variable component resulted in a loss of up to 30% of available reinforcement time. A return to multiple schedules with unequal pay-off shifted the preference to the greater fixed duration, and this preference was maintained even when the variable duration was again raised to equal the fixed duration. For the remaining subjects, the initial variable-duration preference on concurrent schedules was gradually replaced by a side preference. When the range of variable durations was varied, keeping the average variable duration equal to the fixed, the occasional longer reinforcers sustained a preference for variable-reinforcer durations for three of the four subjects.     

Independent control of a pre-school child's aggression and peer interaction by contingent teacher attention

This study demonstrated the existent role of contingent teacher attention in maintaining a preschool child's aggression to his peers, as well as an imposed use of contingent teacher attention to increase his low peer interaction. Aggression and peer interaction were analyzed independently as two baselines of multiple baseline design; each was subjected to at least one reversal. The multiple baseline design was used to examine three possibilities: (1) that the high rate of aggressive behavior was in itself impeding the emergence of peer interaction; (2) that contingent teacher attention could be used to maintain a reduced rate of aggressive behavior; and (3) that a similar use of teacher attention could maintain an increased rate of peer interaction. The technique of largely ignoring the subject's aggressive behavior and attending instead to whatever child he was attacking decreased his aggressive behavior to an acceptable rate. Two reversals of this technique displayed experimental control, each recovering the high baseline rate of aggression. After the aggressive behavior was decreased for the final time, teachers attended to the subject only when he was involved in social interaction with peers, and they thus increased his social interaction to a high rate. Later, they withdrew their attention for social interaction and reversed the effect and finally then recovered it.     

Horsley Gantt: Through the camera eye

The following comments were made on some forgotten occasion honoring Gantt in 1968. I submit them now in memory of the anniversary of his birth on October 24, 1893.