Importance of facial physical attractiveness of audiovisual models in descriptions and preferences of children and adolescents

We performed a cross-sectional study with three age groups (8, 14, and 17 years) to evaluate developmental differences in stereotyped beliefs about physical attractiveness and the value of this as perceived by the participants. Given the current importance of television in the development of social knowledge, television models were used. The children and adolescents were asked to evaluate, using bipolar open scales, the physical attractiveness, likeableness, generosity, intelligence, fun, and altruism of 12 television models of both sexes, previously selected by judges, as well as the desire to resemble or feel close to the models. Analysis showed developmental differences across age groups both in the concept of physical attractiveness and in stereotyped beliefs about this. As in other areas of social knowledge, the younger children's responses were bipolar, global, and much more stereotyped, while the adolescents introduced subtle distinctions and elaborated their responses. Nevertheless, physical attractiveness appeared a desirable characteristic for all age groups.     

Individual differences in the emergence of depressive symptoms in children and adolescents: a longitudinal investigation of parent and child reports

The authors address questions about the rate that depressive symptoms emerge, developmental and gender differences in this rate, and differences between parent and child estimates of this rate. In a 12-wave, cohort-sequential, longitudinal design, 1,570 children (Grades 4-11) and parents completed reports about children's depression. Cross-domain latent growth curve analysis revealed that (a) the rate of symptom growth varied with developmental level. (b) gender differences symptom growth preceded emergence of mean level gender differences, (c) the rate of symptom development varied with age, and (d) parent-child agreement about rate of symptom change was stronger than agreement about time-specific symptoms. The authors suggest that predictability of depressive symptoms varies with age and the dimension under investigation.     

Individual Breaches of Environmental Laws in Cases from Public Administration Files

The characteristics of environmental transgressions and transgressors involved in 1,505 files handled by 4 public administrations were assessed. These administrations were in charge of environmental law enforcement in a highly protected setting, across federal, state, island, and municipality jurisdictions. Special attention was given to the transgressors' written responses to administrative sanctions included in the files. These were analyzed integrating the approaches of neutralization techniques and of accounts as strategies of conflict management. Results suggest that most environmental transgressions under study were carried out by private individuals in the personal domain of everyday life, and that transgressors' accounts of environmental transgressions were short, straightforward, and questioned the legitimacy of the environmental law being broken.     

The influence of therapist experience upon evaluative perceptions of family members

Abstract

This study investigated the influence of experience in family therapy on therapists' evaluative perceptions of family members. Beginning students in family therapy, advanced students, and experienced staff rated members of 100 families according to the Semantic Differential technique. Contrary to expectations, beginning students did not evaluate identified patients more favorably than parents. Staff and advanced students, however, rated parents more favorably than identified patients. Beginning students were also found to evaluate all family members more favorably than staff and advanced students. These results were discussed in terms of experienced therapists initially taking the side of the parents and the effects this potential source of bias may have on the course of family therapy.     

Diferencias individuales en autocontrol dentro del paradigma de tolerancia a la estimulación aversiva

Resumen

En esta investigación se evaluó el papel que juegan las diferencias individuales en una situación de tolerancia a la estimulación aversiva. Ochenta sujetos divididos en alto-autocontroladores y bajo-autocontroladores, según la puntuación obtenida en la Escala de Autocontrol de Rosenbaum, fueron sometidos a una prueba de presión por frío. Los objetivos fundamentales del estudio fueron: (1) comprobar si sujetos altos y bajos en autocontrol presentan diferencias al enfrentarse al cold-pressor en tolerancia y malestar percibido; (2) comprobar el tipo de estrategias que utilizan los sujetos altos y bajos para enfrentarse a la estimulación aversiva, y su eficacia; (3) comprobar si la utilización de una estrategia distractiva-agradable o de una estrategia que resalta la propia competencia del sujeto frente a la situación aversiva afecta diferencialmente a los sujetos altos y bajos en autocontrol en las medidas de tolerancia del sujeto frente a la situación aversiva afecta diferencialmente a los sujetos altos y bajos en autocontrol en las medidas de tolerancia y malestar percibido. Los resultados de los análisis de covarianza realizados no mostraron diferencias significativas entre los sujetos altos y bajos en autocontrol en el tiempo de tolerancia al agua helada, ni en el malestar percibido durante la prueba, aunque en esta última variable se encontró una interacción significativa entre grupos experimentales y niveles de autocontrol. Se discuten estos resultados.     

Overt head movements moderate the effect of depressive symptoms on mood regulation

A dysfunction in the regulation of negative mood states is one of the core symptoms of depression. Research has found that levels of depression are associated with the intensity of the mood-regulation deficit. The present study aimed to explore the role the body plays in mood-regulation processes. More specifically, we studied whether head movements can influence mood persistence in dysphoric states. Subsequent to a sad-mood induction, participants were presented with a set of positive pictures immediately after performing either vertical (i.e., nodding) or lateral (i.e., shaking) head movements. We considered changes in mood from before to after the experimental task as an index of the effectiveness of mood regulation. As expected, the results showed that higher initial levels of depressive symptoms were associated with greater persistence of sad mood. More importantly, this association was present in participants who shook their heads, but not in those who nodded. These results show that body movements can contribute to mood-regulation processes, thus expanding our knowledge of the psychopathology of mood disorders.     

The Legal Rights of Students with Disabilities in Christian Schools

The adoption of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504) and the Education for All Handicapped Children's Act, now the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), have had a major impact on the delivery of services for children with special needs.

In light of the legal issues surrounding the delivery of special education to children who attend Christian schools, the remainder of this article is divided into two parts. The first section opens with an overview of relevant litigation pertinent to special education before reviewing Sections 504 and the IDEA, along with its regulations, as they apply to religious schools. The second part offers practical suggestions for educators in Christian elementary and secondary schools as they work to serve children with special needs.     

A Function Acquisition Speed Test for Equivalence relations (Faster)

The Psychological Record - The current study employed a stimulus equivalence paradigm to assess the ability of the recently developed Function Acquisition Speed Test (FAST) to measure the existence...     

Introduction: The Meaning of Work

Abstract

The theme of this special issue is how cultural, societal, group, and individual factors shape what working has meant, means, and is going to mean in future societies. Concepts and empirical data from the Meaning of Working study (MOW, 1987), an eight-country comparison of work-related attitudes and values, and from complementary follow-up studies, serve as the “red thread” or empirical basis throughout the issue. The original MOW (1987) study and some of the follow-up studies reported in this issue are based on a heuristic model for the subjective meaning of work, which is briefly discussed in the first paper by Ruiz Quintanilla and Wilpert. However, as nearly all of the discussants point out, and Heller's paper tries to discuss specifically, there is still a lot of theoretical work to do. The studies reported in this issue provide some empirical data bases and point towards new and crucial questions that are raised by the results. On the other hand, this issue also wants to contribute to a focused discussion about alternative conceptions of the meaning of work and its central role in understanding the concept of work. Since the way we conceptualize a particular problem issue crucially determines the kind of answers and explanations we derive, as Brief points out in his discussant paper, a thorough and lively discussion about how we are to understand work (and “non-work”), what meaning it has in a person's life, what significance the meaning attributed to work has, and by what processes work attains its meaning for society in general, becomes of utmost importance. Moreover, in the light of European integration across cultures and the global internationalization of organizations, differences in cultural contexts for the meaning of work take on a particularly urgent problem for better understanding. Finally, Fineman in his discussant paper raises the crucial point, that the basic epistemological assumptions that guided both the basic conceptual framework and the methodology used in the MOW (1987) and the follow-up studies reported in this issue can be questioned. He argues that these assumptions allow only a rather restricted view of the meaning of work and forego many options in addressing more holistic perspectives of work and its meaning generating processes. Given the fact that meaning is in principle a product of subjective interpretation processes, the question about what social processes form the basis for the meaning of work and its consequences, as well as what epistemological assumptions make sense in trying to understand better the holistic nature of work and its meaning, must be finally addressed.

In this sense this issue attempts: (1) to contribute to the ongoing debate on the concept of meaning of work; as well as (2) to invite interested researchers and practitioners in W & 0 psychology to join in this debate. This journal strongly encourages such a debate and will publish quality rejoinders, commentaries, and critical alternatives to the problems raised in this special issue.