Malinowski's influence on Wittgenstein on the matter of use in language

Language use in social contexts plays a central role in the thinking of philosophers and social scientists. Evidence is presented that suggests that the anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski influenced Ludwig Wittgenstein on the contexted use of language. It is also proposed that non-Western peoples have been a heuristic for Western thinkers on epistemological matters.     

The interaction approach to early intervention

A brief summary of research, supportive of the idea that quality of parent-infant interaction has a powerful effect on infant development, introduces an early intervention model based on that proposition. Also, central to the interaction model is the knowledge that (1) parent and infant both contribute to what happens between them and that (2) a multitude of factors, environmental and internal to parent and infant, affect the parent, the infant, and their interaction. Ten sets of principles and strategies that convey the essence of the interaction model constitute the core of this article. The principles and strategies address the importance of identifying sources of support and stress in the family, of developing relationships with both parents, and of supporting positive interactions between parents and the infant's siblings. The limitations of this model are also addressed, especially in cases where the parent is the primary risk factor. The infant's exposure to nurturing adults in quality day care programs and a more clinical approach with the parent and infant, such as Selma Fraiberg's model, may be more effective with such families.     

Exposure to intergroup conspiracy theories promotes prejudice which spreads across groups

This research experimentally examined the effects of exposure to intergroup conspiracy theories on prejudice and discrimination. Study 1 (N = 166) demonstrated that exposure to conspiracy theories concerning immigrants to Britain from the European Union (vs. anti-conspiracy material or a control) exacerbated prejudice towards this group. Study 2 (N = 173) found the same effect in a different intergroup context – exposure to conspiracy theories about Jewish people (vs. anti-conspiracy material or a control) increased prejudice towards this group and reduced participants’ willingness to vote for a Jewish political candidate. Finally, Study 3 (N = 114) demonstrated that exposure to conspiracy theories about Jewish people not only increased prejudice towards this group but was indirectly associated with increased prejudice towards a number of secondary outgroups (e.g., Asians, Arabs, Americans, Irish, Australians). The current research suggests that conspiracy theories may have potentially damaging and widespread consequences for intergroup relations.     

Toward law–gospel harmony in Lutheran theology and ethics

Lutheran antipathy toward the law is harmful to Christian ethics. This antipathy arises from the false notion that law and gospel are opposed. However, the Lutheran Confessions show that law–gospel distinction does not necessarily imply law–gospel opposition. When law and gospel are properly defined, they interrelate harmoniously within a multiperspectival model of Christian ethics. Moreover, the third use of the law then emerges as the basic and primary use.     

Effect of social organisation on interspecific differences in overmarking behaviour of foals in African equids

Animal Cognition - Overmarking remains an unstudied topic in juvenile mammals. We have previously documented a very high rate of overmarking by foals in four captive African equid species: mountain...     

Seeing red? Colour biases of foraging birds are context dependent

Animal Cognition - Colours are commonly used as visual cues when measuring animals’ cognitive abilities. However, animals can have innate biases towards certain colours that depend on...     

Associative symmetry versus independent associations in the memory for object-location associations

The formation of associations between objects and locations is a vital aspect of episodic memory. More specifically, remembering the location where one experienced an object and, vice versa, the object one encountered at a specific location are both important elements for the memory of an event. Whether episodic associations are holistic representations of individual components or whether there are unidirectional, separately modifiable connections between them has been investigated nearly exclusively using verbal stimuli. A preliminary conclusion concerning this controversy is that verbal associations are, at least, highly correlated (M. J. Kahana, 2002). This theoretical debate, which in the past has undergone a major empirical effort, is still of relevance for the concurrent global matching models of associative memory (S. E. Clark & S. D. Gronlund, 1996). The authors used variations of a novel object-location learning paradigm to complement the accumulated evidence regarding the nature of episodic associations.     

The Temple-Wisconsin Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression Project: lifetime history of axis I psychopathology in individuals at high and low cognitive risk for depression

The authors tested the cognitive vulnerability hypotheses of depression with a retrospective behavioral high-risk design. Individuals without current Axis I diagnoses who exhibited either negative or positive cognitive styles were compared on lifetime prevalence of depressive and other disorders and the clinical parameters of depressive episodes. Consistent with predictions, cognitively high-risk participants had higher lifetime prevalence than low-risk participants of major and hopelessness depression and marginally higher prevalence of minor depression. These group differences were specific to depressive disorders. The high-risk group also had more severe depressions than the low-risk group, but not longer duration or earlier onset depressions. The risk group differences in prevalence of depressive disorders were not mediated by current depressive symptoms.     

Suicidal Adolescents' Social Support from Family and Peers: Gender-Specific Associations with Psychopathology

Perceptions of social support from family, non-family adults, and peers were examined in relation to the psychopathology reported by 220 suicidal adolescents (152 females) during a psychiatric hospitalization. Results of regression analyses showed that, among females, family support was negatively related to hopelessness, depressive symptoms, and suicidal ideation. Among males, peer support was positively associated with depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation. Across gender, more peer support was associated with more externalizing behavior problems; whereas, family support was negatively related to these problems and to alcohol/substance abuse. Paralleling normative findings, age was positively associated with peer support, and females perceived more peer support than did males. Findings extend previous research on social support to suicidal adolescents, and broaden the literature by examining extrafamilial support and a broader range of relevant psychopathology. That is, perceived social support relates to psychiatric impairment differentially by gender, and normative, age-related variations in perceptions of social support are detected even among highly impaired adolescents. Clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed.