Liking Violence and Action: An Examination of Gender Differences in Children's Processing of Animated Content

It is widely assumed that children like violence in cartoons, but this assumption has not been supported in existing studies that show nonviolent programs are liked just as much or more than violent programs. The present experiment extended enjoyment of media violence research by testing whether violence and action (independently manipulated) influenced children's liking of slapstick cartoons. We also proposed a path model to test potential indirect effects of violence and action on liking. Using animation software, four versions of a slapstick cartoon were created that varied in terms of violence (present, absent) and action (high, low). A total of 128 elementary school children watched one of the four versions of the program. Violence had no direct effect on the liking of the cartoon, but did indirectly decrease liking for males by decreasing boys' wishful identification with the anthropomorphized characters. Action increased liking for males but not for females.     

Presymbolic Processes in Scientific Creativity

Most accounts of scientific thinking emphasize the role of symbolic recombinations as the source of creativity. This misses the important role that presymbolic processes may play. This article argues that the relative neglect is, in part, due to erroneous models of explanation, which dominate much of the literature, and argues instead for a model of explanation based on an analogy to dynamic physical systems. As an example, some of Michael Faraday's work is described and analyzed using dynamic approaches in an informal manner. The results suggest that, using William James's (1890) phrasing, it is possible to seek a 'reinstatement of the vague to its proper place in the mental life.'     

Stereotype accuracy

Methodological issues and empirical findings from stereotype accuracy research are reviewed. Methodological issues include the limitations of accuracy criteria and three methods of comparing perceived to actual group characteristics--signed discrepancies, absolute discrepancies, and within-subject correlations. Empirical findings concern the roles of cognitive processes, status and power, and social ideology in intergroup perceptions; stereotype development; individual differences in stereotyping; and stereotype use. It is argued that stereotype accuracy research is neither easy to do nor politically popular, but that it may challenge existing theory and stimulate new ideas about the nature of stereotyping processes.     

The Effectiveness of Situational Awareness Learning in Response to Video Tennis Match Situations

The purpose of the study was to examine the effectiveness of specially designed instructions on tennis match play training on situation awareness (SA), anticipation (A), and decision-making (DM). Response speed and accuracy measures were taken in videoed match play tennis situations and the effect of perceptual skills training on these behaviors was recorded in a primary and two related tennis situations. Intermediate tennis players (N = 59, M = 21.75 years old, SD = 4.96) were randomly assigned to one of five groups. After receiving instructions, participants responded to a series of edited video clips. A 5 × 3 × 3 (Groups × Condition x Shot Type) repeated-measures multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted to determine differences in perceptual training and learning strategies across three conditions and multiple shot types. Findings indicated that combinational SA/A/DM perceptual training effectively improved performance; however, no difference was found between implicit and explicit learning strategies. Future research possibilities and applied implications are discussed.     

Field and Experience Influences on Ethical Decision Making in the Sciences

Differences across fields and experience levels are frequently considered in discussions of ethical decision making and ethical behavior. In the present study, doctoral students in the health, biological, and social sciences completed measures of ethical decision making. The effects of field and level of experience with respect to ethical decision making, metacognitive reasoning strategies, social-behavioral responses, and exposure to unethical events were examined. Social and biological scientists performed better than health scientists with respect to ethical decision making. Furthermore, the ethical decision making of health science students decreased as experience increased. Moreover, these effects appeared to be linked to the specific strategies underlying participants' ethical decision making. The implications of these findings for ethical decision making are discussed.     

Caregiver Demand and Parent Distress in Juvenile Rheumatic Disease: The Mediating Effect of Parent Attitude Toward Illness

Parents of youth with juvenile rheumatic diseases (JRD) often take on illness management responsibilities that can become burdensome, potentially resulting in poor parent adjustment outcomes. However, not all caregivers will experience increased distress as a result of variability in stress appraisals. The current study examined the role of parent illness attitudes in the relation between perceived caregiver demand and parental distress. Youth (N = 70) ages 7–18 years diagnosed with a JRD and their parents were recruited from a pediatric rheumatology clinic. Parents completed measures of caregiver demand, parental distress, and illness attitudes. Hierarchical regression revealed a relationship between caregiver demand and parental distress. A significant relationship was also found between caregiver demand and parent illness attitudes, as well as parent illness attitudes and parental distress. Thus, parent illness attitudes mediated the relationship between caregiver demand and parental distress. Techniques aimed at altering negative illness attitudes may help parents cope with their caregiving responsibilities.     

The Relation Between Place Attachment and Management Preferences of Visitors at Remote Coastal Campsites in Western Australia

ABSTRACT

Visitors who exhibit place attachment often demonstrate greater concern regarding how a place is managed. However, the extent to which the dimensions of attachment are related to management preferences has not been sufficiently investigated. Place attachment of visitors to coastal campsites along the southern Ningaloo coastline of northwestern Australia and its relation with management preferences were examined via an onsite survey. The relation was investigated using a suite of routines in the non-parametric multivariate statistics package PRIMER v6, providing the first example of the use of these types of statistical approaches in place research. Place attachment was measured using the dimensions of Place Identity, Place Dependence, and Everybody's Happy (a new, affective-based dimension). Within each dimension, significantly different groups of visitors were identified based on differences in their responses to the place attachment survey items. This was achieved using hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis in conjunction with a Similarity Profile (SIMPROF) test. Subsequent analysis using the BVSTEP procedure showed that the pattern of differences among visitors in their responses to place attachment items produced significant though weak correlations with their level of support for various management actions. The authors conclude with a discussion of the implications of the results for future research on place and associated preferences for management actions.     

Examining posttraumatic growth among Japanese university students

Abstract

To determine the underlying factor structure of the Japanese version of the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI-J), a principal components analysis was performed on data from 312 Japanese undergraduate students who reported growth due to their most traumatic event within the last 5 years. Results showed the PTGI-J has high internal consistency and, of the original five factors reported by Tedeschi and Calhoun (1996), three were replicated: Relating to Others, New Possibilities, Personal Strength, and a fourth factor integrating Spiritual Change and Appreciation of Life emerged. There were neither gender differences nor relationships with time since trauma. PTGI-J scores were positively associated with posttraumatic symptoms and correlated with type of traumatic event experienced. These results and future directions are discussed from a cross-cultural viewpoint.     

The Relationship of Trauma to Nonsexual Crimes Committed by Adolescent Sexual Abusers: A New Area of Research

In an early investigation on the topic of the relationship between trauma history and nonsexual crimes committed by sexual offenders, this study examined nonsexual crimes committed by a sample of 451 juvenile sexual abusers. More than 60% of this sample committed quite serious crimes (i.e., animal cruelty, arson, assault, burglary, car theft, drug-related crimes, or theft). Based on the delinquency literature, childhood victimization significantly predicted severity of criminal behavior for this sample. Implications for research and practice are discussed.