Children's reasoning about the self‐presentational consequences of apologies and excuses following rule violations

The accounts given by those who have violated a rule are likely to have important self‐presentational consequences, potentially reducing the negative impact of the breach on social evaluations of transgressors. However, little is known about young children's self‐presentational reasoning about such accounts. In the present study, a sample of 120 4‐ to 9‐year‐olds responded to rule violation stories where the transgressor uses either an apology, an excuse, or no account. Results showed that whereas children rated both account types similarly in terms of their impact on punishment consequences, even the youngest saw apologies as leading to significantly more positive social evaluation than excuses. Correspondingly, children were more likely to identify prosocial motives for apologies than for excuses, and more likely to identify self‐protective motives for excuses than for apologies. Explicit references to self‐presentational motives when explaining the accounts increased significantly with age, and were more likely following social‐conventional rather than moral rule violations.     

Early understanding of emotion: Evidence from natural language

Abstract

Young children's early understanding of emotion was investigated by examining their use of emotion terms such as happy, sad, mud, and cry. Five children's emotion language was examined longitudinally from the age of 2 to 5 years, and as a comparison their reference to pains via such terms as burn, sting, and hurt was also examined. In Phase 1 we confirmed and extended prior findings demonstrating that by 2 years of age terms for the basic emotions of happiness, sadness, anger, and fear are commonly used by children as are terms for such related states as crying and hurting. At this early age children produce such terms to refer to self and to others, and to past and future as well as to present states. Over the years from 2 to 5 children's emotion vocabulary expands, their discussion of hypothetical emotions gets underway, and the complexity of their emotion utterances increases. In Phase 2 our analyses go beyond children's production of emotion terms to analyses of their conception of emotion. We focus especially on when children use emotion terms to refer to subjective experiential states of persons. From their earliest uses of these terms in our data children     

Post-migration Education Among Recent Adult Immigrants to Canada

The present study examines post-migration educational investment by new immigrants to Canada from two perspectives. First, what are the factors that influence whether a new immigrant invests in post-migration education (PME)? Second, is investment in PME associated with improved earnings? The results indicate that younger immigrants from ??non-traditional?? source countries, who are already well educated, fluent in English or French, and worked in a professional or managerial occupation prior to migration are most likely to enroll in PME. But acceptance of previous work experience by Canadian employers lowers the likelihood of investing in PME. Family obligations also reduce the likelihood of participating in PME. Financial limitations are not found to affect participation in PME. The earnings effect of PME is dependent on the type of course undertaken. In the short term, job-related seminars lead to improved earnings growth, while post-secondary courses result in a period of deceased earnings growth. Policy implications are discussed.     

Maltreated Children’s Social Understanding and Empathy: A Preliminary Exploration of Foster Carers’ Perspectives

Previous research suggests that parental abuse and neglect can have adverse effects on children’s peer relationships and self-perceptions. Emerging theoretical and empirical work suggests that children’s social understanding and empathy could play a key role as mediators of these effects, but we have little knowledge about the viability of such a model in explaining the everyday experiences of children in care. Thus, in order to gain an in-depth insight into the potentiality of this conceptual model, a focus group and detailed semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with a total of 10 foster carers. First, a thematic analysis revealed that problematic self-perceptions and peer relationships were indeed commonplace. Crucially, in line with our theoretical model, carers readily identified children’s difficulties with social understanding and empathy as relevant explanations for their socio-emotional problems. Carers reported using a variety of strategies to help children, but expressed a need for a clearer training package of practical strategies that could be used to encourage social understanding and empathy in children, with the aim of improving their social relationships.     

The moderating influence of socio‐demographic factors on the relationship between consumer psychographics and the attitude towards private label brands

This study examines the moderating influence of socio‐demographic variables (gender, age, education, income and family size) on the relationship between psychographic measures (general deal proneness, price‐related deal proneness, end‐of‐aisle display proneness, impulsiveness, smart‐shopper self‐perceptions and brand loyalty) and consumers' attitude towards private label brands. The proposed hypotheses are tested by collecting data at three different British supermarkets and assessed using structural equation modelling. The study reveals findings contrary to the prevailing views about consumer psychographics and socio‐demographics, including the following: (i) the significance of deal proneness among high‐income consumers; (ii) the end‐of‐aisle display proneness among older, high‐income and highly educated consumers; and (c) the relationship between impulsiveness and brand attitude among low‐income and less‐educated consumers. The study also provides multiple insights relating to psycho‐demographic targeting and display strategies. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

1984 Punjab Tragedy in Hindi Literary Archives: Images Beyond Punjab in India

This paper reviews four Hindi literary works on the Punjab crisis. Two are novels written by Sikhs while the other two are short stories authored by non-Sikhs. With dissimilar social background, religious beliefs and dwelling places, their narratives underline complexities of the Punjab crisis and their varied popular reactions. Creative imaginations were not restricted to Sikh sufferings but spacious enough to include those of non-Sikhs who reside in distant Indian locations. This paper argues how these literary representations introduce a wider space for Sikhs in recent Hindi writings and offer some fresh perspective to the Punjab scenario.     

A variant selection mechanism in the deformed and recrystallized β matrix of a metastable β-titanium alloy

ABSTRACT

The variant selection criteria during β to α phase transformations in a metastable β-titanium alloy (Ti-5553) in the presence of deformation are examined. Two distinct metallurgical states in the β matrix, heavily deformed and fully recrystallized, were obtained from a 90% cold-rolled alloy. The deformed and recrystallized samples were subjected to aging heat treatment for a short time to allow the precipitation of an intragranular α phase. Electron backscattered diffraction was used to assess the α crystallographic variant occurrence in the deformed as well as in the recrystallized β grains. A discrete pole figure analysis revealed that a limited number of variants were evolved in the deformed β grains while there was no variant selection in the recrystallized β matrix. The results suggest that activation of {112}<111>_β slip systems determines a strong variant selection in the plastically deformed β matrix.     

Differentiated associations between childhood maltreatment experiences and social understanding: A meta-analysis and systematic review

The extreme parenting experiences encountered by children who are physically abused or neglected place them at increased risk for impaired socio-emotional development. There is growing evidence that maltreated children may apprehend interpersonal encounters in different ways from children without such traumatic histories. This systematic review examines the links between childhood physical abuse and neglect and various constituent skills of social understanding (including emotion recognition and understanding, perspective taking, false belief understanding, and attributional biases) in 51 empirical studies. The review incorporates a meta-analysis of 19 studies on emotion recognition and understanding in this population. This showed an overall negative effect of maltreatment, but moderation analyses revealed that significantly stronger effects were found for measures of emotion understanding rather than recognition, and for younger rather than older age groups. The broader review also reveals a complex and differentiated profile of social understanding among maltreated children. Directions for future research that addresses individual differences in children’s experiences, both within and outside the maltreatment context, are discussed.