Affective communication differences between distressed and nondistressed mother-adolescent dyads

An assessment technique of having mothers and young adolescents describe in brief written form what they like and dislike about each other was evaluated. Distressed dyads (N=38) produced responses that were rated significantly more negative (Demanding, Personal Attack, Anger and Hostility, Complaining About Unfairness or Disrespect) and less positive (Good Relationship, Appreciation of Other, Complimentary, and Enjoyment) than nondistressed dyads (N=40). Evidence of reliability was reported. Ratings of the written responses correlated significantly with independently obtained codings of taperecorded interactions, thus offering support for validity of the method.The authors wish to thank Diane Follingstad and Peter Kilmann for their comments on an earlier draft.     

To reason or not to reason: is autobiographical reasoning always beneficial?

Autobiographical reasoning has been found to be a critical process in identity development; however, the authors suggest that existing research shows that such reasoning may not always be critical to another important outcome: well-being. The authors describe characteristics of people such as personality and age, contexts such as conversations, and experiences such as transgressions, which may hinder adaptive reasoning. They also propose alternatives to autobiographical reasoning for managing challenging events and constructing the life story, which include different kinds of meaning-making than those primarily focused on in the current literature.     

Hippocampal c-fos is necessary for long-term memory of a socially transmitted food preference

The present article examined the requirement of hippocampal c-Fos for learning a socially transmitted food preference (STFP). We reported previously that expression of the c-Fos protein is increased in the dorsal and ventral hippocampus of rats trained on the STFP (Countryman, Orlowski, Brightwell, Oskowitz, & Colombo, 2005). Pretraining intrahippocampal antisense to the immediate early gene c-fos was administered to adult male Long-Evans rats to determine if c-fos expression is necessary for either short- or long-term memory for STFP. Guide cannulae were implanted bilaterally into the dorsal hippocampus. Antisense oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs) were administered unilaterally either 6.5, 8.5, 10.5, or 12.5 h prior to STFP training while either sense ODNs or saline were infused into the opposite hemisphere. Immunocytochemistry was performed, and cells showing c-Fos immunoreactivity (ir) were counted from the antisense-treated hemisphere and compared to cell counts from the control hemisphere. The results indicated significant suppression of learning-induced c-Fos protein at the 8.5 and 10.5 infusion-train intervals. Additional rats were implanted with cannulae into the dorsal and ventral hippocampus, and antisense ODNs, sense ODNs, or saline were administered bilaterally 8.5h prior to training. Rats were tested immediately and 14 days after training. Rats in all groups showed a significant preference for the demonstrated food at the short-term memory test. At the long-term memory test, however, rats infused with c-fos antisense showed no preference for the demonstrated food whereas rats infused with either sense or saline maintained their preference. The present findings suggest that c-fos is necessary for consolidation of non-spatial hippocampal-dependent memory.     

The team halo effect: why teams are not blamed for their failures

In this study, the existence of the team halo effect, the phenomenon that teams tend not to be blamed for their failures, is documented. With 2 studies using both real teams and controlled scenarios, the authors found evidence that the nature of the causal attribution processes used to diagnose failure scenarios leads to individuals being more likely to be identified as the cause of team failure than the team as a collective. Team schema development, as indexed by team experience, influences this effect, with individuals who have more team experience being less likely to show the team halo effect     

Object individuation in young infants: Further evidence with an event-monitoring paradigm

Recent results indicate that, when tested with an event-monitoring task, 7.5- and 9.5-month-olds give evidence that they can individuate objects in different-objects occlusion events – events in which two distinct objects appear successively on either side of an occluder (Wilcox and Baillargeon, in press). The present research sought to confirm and extend these findings. The experiments examined 7.5- and 4.5-month-olds’ ability to correctly interpret a different-objects (ball-box condition) and a same-object (ball-ball condition) occlusion event. The infants in the ball-box condition saw a test event in which a ball disappeared behind the left edge of a screen; after a pause, a box emerged from behind the screen's right edge. For half of the infants (wide-screen event), the screen was wide and could occlude the ball and box simultaneously; for the other infants (narrow-screen event), the screen was narrow and should not have been able to occlude the ball and box at the same time. The infants in the ball-ball condition saw identical wide- and narrow-screen events except that the ball appeared on both sides of the screen. The infants in the ball-box condition looked reliably longer at the narrow- than at the wide-screen event, whereas those in the ball-ball condition tended to look equally at the events. These results suggest that the ball-box infants (a) were led by the featural differences between the ball and box to view them as distinct objects; (b) judged that the ball and box could both be occluded by the wide but not the narrow screen; and (c) were surprised in the narrow-screen event when this judgment was violated. In contrast, the ball-ball infants (a) assumed, based on the featural similarities of the balls that appeared on either side of the screen, that they were one and the same ball, and (b) realized that the ball could be occluded by either the wide or the narrow screen. These results indicate that, by 4.5 months of age, infants are able to use featural information to correctly interpret different-objects and same-object occlusion events. These findings are discussed in the context of the newly-drawn distinction between event-monitoring and event-mapping paradigms (Wilcox and Baillargeon, in press).     

Interpretations of Messages

This research examined interpretations of messages as a function of whether they are equivocal or unequivocal, whether they protect self‐face or other‐face, and whether the perceivers of the messages are directly involved in the conversation or overhear it. The role of self‐monitoring and gender were also assessed. Results of Study 1 (N=463) revealed that equivocation is perceived as more polite but less honest and less competent than unequivocal criticism. Equivocation addressing other‐face is the most polite, and criticism of the other is the least polite. Females perceive equivocation as more polite than do males. Ego‐involvement influences perceptions independently and through its interaction with equivocation. No support was found for the role of self‐monitoring or the notion that equivocation conveys a more positive meaning than unequivocal criticism. Study 2 (N = 496) replicated the findings concerning the politeness, honesty, self‐other differences, gender differences, self‐monitoring, and meaning associated with equivocation.     

Power and Psychological Well-Being in Late Adolescent Romantic Relationships

Using Olsen and Cromwell's (1975) three facetsof interpersonal power (power in resources, process, andoutcomes), we examined the balance of power in lateadolescent romantic relationships and the associations between interpersonal power, adolescents'self-esteem, and depression. Participants were 61adolescent couples who were primarily European-American(90% of girls and 93% of boys), with the remainder being comprised of approximately 2-3% each of NativeAmerican, Asian, African American, and Hispanicindividuals. We assessed power in terms of access toemotional resources, control during video-tapedinteraction, and control over decision-making. Overall,couples were more likely to be described by themselvesand by independent observers as egalitarian, with themajority of couples equally contributing emotional resources, sharing power in interaction, andsharing decision-making responsibility. However,romantic relationships characterized by inequality inthe contribution of emotional resources and indecisionmaking were associated with greater psychologicalsymptomatology, especially for females.     

A New Way of Assessing Ways of Knowing: The Attitudes Toward Thinking and Learning Survey (ATTLS)

In four studies, college students (both male andfemale, predominantly white) filled out a 50-item surveyconsisting of statements illustrating“separate” (critical, detached) and“connected” (empathic) ways of knowing (Belenky, Clinchy, G oldberger,& Tarule, 1986). The instrument showed acceptableinternal reliability. Scores on the two scales wereuncorrelated, supporting the view that the twoepistemological positions are independent. Females consistentlyrated connected knowing (CK) statements higher thanseparate knowing (SK) statements, while males showed aslight, but non-significant difference favoring SK statements. When participants were dividedinto groups using a joint median split of the two ratingscores, females were disproportionately likely to beplaced in the High CK-Low SK group. CK and SK scores were unrelated to performance on avariety of cognitive tasks, but were related to somemeasures of preference, suggesting that ways of knowingmay function more as approaches or styles rather than basic abilities.     

Assessment and Prediction of Stress-Related Growth

This article reports the development of the Stress-Related Growth Scale (SRGS) and its use in a study examining determinants of stress-related positive outcomes for college students. Study 1 analyses showed that the SRGS has acceptable internal and test-retest reliability and that scores are not influenced by social desirability. Study 2 analyses showed that college students' SRGS responses were significantly related to those provided by friends and relatives on their behalf. Study 3 analyses tested the determinants of stress-related growth longitudinally. Significant predictors of the SRGS were (a) intrinsic religiousness; (b) social support satisfaction; (c) stressfulness of the negative event; (d) positive reinterpretation and acceptance coping; and (e) number of recent positive life events. The SRGS was also positively related to residual change in optimism, positive affectivity, number of socially supportive others, and social support satisfaction, lending further support to the validity of this new scale. Results have implications for current theory on stress-related positive outcomes.