Attitudes toward women,personality rigidity,and idealized physique preferences in males

The idealized physique preferences of a group of 94 male college students were measured and correlated with scales measuring attitudes toward women and personality rigidity. Three hypotheses, derived from sex-role research, were tested and confirmed: (1) Males who have negative attitudes toward women would like most to have a tapering V physique. (2) Males who have a rigid personality structure have stronger preference for an idealized muscular physique than males with more flexible personalities. (3) Males have a generally greater preference for a tapering V physique than women. It was concluded, from the results of this and other studies, that body preference is related to certain aspects of sex-role attitudes.     

The American plan completed: Alternative classical-style semantics,without stars,for relevant and paraconsistent logics

American-plan semantics with 4 values 1, 0, { {1, 0}} {{}}, interpretable as True, False, Both and Neither, are furnished for a range of logics, including relevant affixing systems. The evaluation rules for extensional connectives take a classical form: in particular, those for negation assume the form 1 (A, a) iff 0 (A, a) and 0 (A, a) iff 1 (A, a), so eliminating the star function *, on which much criticism of relevant logic semantics has focussed. The cost of these classical features is a further relation (or operation), required in evaluating falsity assignments of implication formulae.Two styles of 4 valued relational semantics are developed; firstly a semantics using notions of double truth and double validity for basic relevant systemB and some extensions of it; and secondly, since the first semantics makes heavy weather of validating negation principles such as Contraposition, a reduced semantics using more complex implicational rules for relevant systemC and various of its extensions. To deal satisfactorily with elite systemsR,E andT, however, further complication is inevitable; and a relation of mateship (suggested by the Australian plan) is introduced to permit cross-over from 1 to 0 values and vice versa.     

Intensive specialised multi-family therapy for multi-stressed families: Therapeutic alliance as predictor for effectiveness

The effectiveness of intense specialised multi-family therapy (ISMFT) for 111 multi-stressed families, and the therapeutic alliance as a possible predictor of outcome, were examined. A repeated measures design was used, where changes in all ISMFT phases (preparation, multi-family therapy and follow-up) were assessed and compared for both mothers and fathers. Evidence was found for improved family functioning after the therapy period, which was maintained at 3 months follow-up, although the multi-stressed families still functioned in the problematic range. The therapy did however not decrease parenting stress, or did so only temporarily. Observations of the therapeutic alliance with the System for Observing Family Therapy Alliances (SOFTA) scales indicated that high therapist engagement was related to positive therapy outcomes, both at the start of therapy and later. High family engagement also predicted therapy effectiveness, but only at the start of therapy. The present study shows that solution-focused multi-family therapy at least seems to provide the first step in alleviating problems in multi-stressed families.     

The Intergenerational Transmission of Party Preferences in Multiparty Contexts: Examining Parental Socialization Processes in the Netherlands

Research shows that parents have a strong influence on the party preferences of their children. Yet little is known about how such preferences are transmitted in multiparty systems with weak party identification and high electoral volatility. We propose a model of intergenerational transmission that includes both direct effects of parents' party preferences on those of their children, as well as indirect effects through left–right and issue positions. We test this model with original survey data of Dutch adolescents (14–20 years old) and their parents (N = 751 adolescent-parent pairs). We find two paths through which parents exert influence on the party preferences of their adolescent children. On the first path, parental party preferences function as a direct predictor of adolescent party preferences. On the second path, adolescent left–right and issue positions function as a mediator between parental left–right and issue positions and adolescent party preferences, with the effect of left–right positions being stronger than that of issue positions. The frequency with which adolescents discuss political topics with their parents moderates these effects.     

Comparison of two video prompting interventions to teach daily living skills to adolescents with autism

The present study used an adapted alternating treatment design to evaluate and compare the effects of video prompting (VP) and video prompting plus frequency building (VP + FB) to teach daily living skills to three adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. Results demonstrated all three students made substantial improvements over their baseline performance using VP and VP + FB. Furthermore, a strong intervention effect emerged for VP and VP + FB conditions when compared to the control task. However, in terms of one intervention proving superior to the other (e.g., VP to VP + FB), the data offer a mixed interpretation with VP + FB affecting changes better for two of the three students. The FB component in the VP + FB produced strong, consistent gains for all students in terms of retention.     

How infant-directed actions enhance infants’ attention,learning, and exploration: Evidence from EEG and computational modeling

When teaching infants new actions, parents tend to modify their movements. Infants prefer these infant-directed actions (IDAs) over adult-directed actions and learn well from them. Yet, it remains unclear how parents’ action modulations capture infants’ attention. Typically, making movements larger than usual is thought to draw attention. Recent findings, however, suggest that parents might exploit movement variability to highlight actions. We hypothesized that variability in movement amplitude rather than higher amplitude is capturing infants’ attention during IDAs. Using EEG, we measured 15-month-olds’ brain activity while they were observing action demonstrations with normal, high, or variable amplitude movements. Infants’ theta power (4–5 Hz) in fronto-central channels was compared between conditions. Frontal theta was significantly higher, indicating stronger attentional engagement, in the variable compared to the other conditions. Computational modelling showed that infants’ frontal theta power was predicted best by how surprising each movement was. Thus, surprise induced by variability in movements rather than large movements alone engages infants’ attention during IDAs. Infants with higher theta power for variable movements were more likely to perform actions successfully and to explore objects novel in the context of the given goal. This highlights the brain mechanisms by which IDAs enhance infants’ attention, learning, and exploration.