Peer Deviance,Parenting and Disruptive Behavior Among Young Girls

This study examined concurrent and longitudinal associations between peer deviance, parenting practices, and conduct and oppositional problems among young girls ages 7 and 8. Participants were 588 African American and European American girls who were part of a population-based study of the development of conduct problems and delinquency among girls. Affiliations with problem-prone peers were apparent among a sizeable minority of the girls, and these associations included both males and females. Although peer delinquency concurrently predicted disruptive behaviors, the gender of these peers did not contribute to girls’ behavior problems. Harsh parenting and low parental warmth showed both concurrent and prospective associations with girls’ disruptive behaviors. Similar patterns of association were seen for African American and European American girls. The findings show that peer and parent risk processes are important contributors to the early development of young girls’ conduct and oppositional behaviors. These data contribute to our understanding of girls’ aggression and antisocial behaviors and further inform our understanding of risk processes for these behaviors among young girls in particular.

Intragroup or Intergroup Attitude Projection Can Increase Opinion Certainty: Is There Classism at College?1

Two processes were examined by which estimation of the attitude positions of others can increase opinion certainty. In Study 1, sophomore and senior students exhibited greater conviction about their own opinions following an opportunity to estimate the attitudes of in‐group members compared to persons who did not receive this opportunity. In an out‐group projection condition, as expected, reduced attitude similarity to freshman students augmented the opinion certainty of sophomores only. In this condition, sophomore opinion certainty was predicted by their perceived status similarity to the freshman out‐group. In Study 2, the relationships between intergroup status similarity, projected intergroup attitudes, and increments in opinion certainty were reexamined and replicated. These findings are discussed in accord with the motivational and cognitive factors that account for the interface between group dynamics and attitude strength.     

The how and the when of the social cure: A conceptual model of group- and individual-level mechanisms linking social identity to health and well-being

In this article, we aim at theoretical specification and integration of mechanisms proposed within the Social Identity Approach to Health and Well-being. We differentiate group-level and individual-level effects of shared social identity by distinguishing three different aspects: individual identification, group identification, and individually perceived group identification. We discuss specific group-level mechanisms (i.e., mutual social support and collective self-efficacy) and individual level-mechanisms (i.e., attribution and appraisal processes regarding stressors and resources) for each of the three aspects. A core conclusion is that the positive effects of shared social identity on health and well-being crucially depend on its close relationship with social support, and that although social support is an interindividual phenomenon, it is intraindividual mechanisms—attribution and appraisal—that shape the psychological partnership between social identity and social support. Therefore, we put special emphasis on cross-level interactions between group- and individual-level mechanisms, which have been widely neglected in earlier research.     

Developmental Timing of Onsets of Disruptive Behaviors and Later Delinquency of Inner-City Youth

A longitudinal sample of 306 males were followed with annual interviews over 4 years to evaluate the role of the timing of onset of different types of disruptive behaviors in predicting later arrest rates. In particular, we applied the Developmental Pathways model to explain progressions from less serious to more serious behaviors and progression along three types of disruptive pathways defined as Overt, Covert, and Authority Conflict behaviors. Results indicated that the sequences and the prognostic properties hypothesized for the model were supported. Most youth showed a progression from behaviors expected to occur earlier to those expected to come later according to the model. In addition, these results showed that onset timing of most types of behavior as well as rapidity of reaching more serious behavior related to arrest rate. This cross-validation extends the model to a high risk inner-city population and to Latino youth. One notable exception to the general trend found was that violence did not always follow earlier involvement in less serious offenses and did not seem to show the same onset timing relation to risk for arrests. Social-ecological differences in the precipitants of violence in the inner-city compared to other developmental settings, as well as the possibility that multiple forms of violence have differing underlying causes, may explain this exception. The model's generality suggests it has utility for guiding and discriminating risk better than simply noting the frequency, seriousness, or onset timing of delinquency.     

Generalizing the nomological network of psychopathy across populations differing on race and conviction status

Psychopathy has shown good construct validity in samples of Caucasian inmates. However, little is known about how well the nomological network surrounding psychopathy generalizes to non-Caucasian and nonincarcerated populations. Using longitudinal and concurrent data from the middle sample of the Pittsburgh Youth Study, this study demonstrates that the validity of total- and facet-level psychopathy is preserved in African American and nonincarcerated samples. Specifically, similar patterns of association were obtained for child variables (child psychopathy, socioeconomic status, risk status, parenting, delinquency, peer delinquency, and impulsivity) and adult variables (children, education, incarceration, unemployment, personality, substance use, and antisocial personality disorder) across ethnicity and conviction status.     

über den Wert des doppelten Blicks

There is a conflict and growing rift in the psychoanalytic community in regard to the relevance and value of systematic research in comparison with clinical research. Basically, the discussion revolves around the issues (1) whether systematic research may explore unconscious levels of processing and (2) whether it may account for the uniqueness of the psychoanalytic couple. On the basis of research examples and findings it is argued that there are systematic empirical methods to explore and describe unconscious processes in treatment and account for individual case differences. It is concluded that psychoanalysis will need both systematic and clinical research in order to develop internally and in order to strengthen its case in a rather hostile ?Umwelt??.