Structural and functional MRI- findings in children and adolescents with antisocial behavior

BACKGROUND: The developmental course of children with conduct disorder (CD) is heterogeneous. Especially children who exhibit symptoms early in their lifetimes are characterized by a negative outcome. Neurobiological aspects of CD have been investigated in these children but little is known about structural and functional brain aberrations. METHODS: We describe the developmental taxonomy of children with CD and focus on those with the early onset subtype. Structural MRI data of these children and antisocial adults are recapitulated. The impact of investigating neurobiological underpinnings of antisocial behavior and how this might contribute to future forensic and psychiatric assessments is discussed. RESULTS/ CONCLUSION: Children display similar structural aberrations of fronto-limbic structures to adults with antisocial behavior, and amygdala dysfunction might be closely related to dysregulated emotions. Though the investigation of biological factors in antisocial subjects has made great progress in recent years, today MRI is still a rather complex, expensive and indistinct method for forensic assessment.     

Creative thinking in adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

A widened attentional focus, that is typically associated with ADHD, has been postulated to be accompanied by enhanced creative ability. However, creativity has been only limitedly examined in ADHD. Performance across several creativity measures were investigated in three groups: adolescents with ADHD, those with conduct disorder, and a healthy control sample. The ADHD group exhibited selective cognitive advantages and disadvantages by demonstrating an enhanced ability in overcoming the constraining influence of examples, but a reduced capacity to generate a functional invention during an imagery task. These findings are interpreted with reference to inhibitory control mechanisms and the contextual modulation of creative cognition.     

Prävention in der Arbeitswelt

In the new working world with its growing turbulences and increasing demands prevention is getting more difficult but at the same time increasingly necessary. New forms of working and of organization, the vanishing limits between work and private life and the promotion of patchwork patterns in both areas call for adequately differentiated prevention concepts. People have to be beside the enhancement of their qualification (performance enhancement) prepared for the future in their effectiveness and health (social competence, employability) as the individual aspect. The situation and the organization (structure) have to be preventively shaped in a way, that the desired interactions in the field of performance, health, security and life quality may be experienced. A blueprint for this purposes is presented here accompanied by practical instruments and propositions for prevention as for example bonification.     

The influence of intergroup comparisons on Africans' intelligence test performance in a job selection context

Sub-Saharan Africans living in Belgium (N = 69) completed a culture-free intelligence test in a simulated job selection environment. Prior to testing, the authors instructed participants that Africans' average performance on this test was generally better (positive comparison), worse (negative comparison), or equal to Belgians' performance. In a control condition, no such information was given. Results indicated that, compared with the equal and control conditions, performance was lower when intergroup comparisons were negative. In the former condition, participants were also more likely to endorse external factors that may account for lower performance. The authors interpreted the findings in line with stereotype threat theory (C. M. Steele & J. Aronson, 1995). In the context of job selection, the validity of intelligence tests conducted with members of stigmatized groups may be affected by the salience of social stereotypes and intergroup social comparisons.     

Preference for attractiveness and thinness in a partner: Influence of internalization of the thin ideal and shape/weight dissatisfaction in heterosexual women, heterosexual men, lesbians, and gay men

This study assesses whether characteristics of one's own body image influences preferences of attractiveness in a partner. The role of gender and sexual orientation is also considered. Heterosexual women (n = 67), lesbian women (n = 73), heterosexual men (n = 61) and gay men (n = 82) participated in an internet survey assessing attitudes towards the body and preferences of attractiveness in a partner. Men in particular were found to prefer attractive partners, regardless of sexual orientation. Weight/shape dissatisfaction was found to be a negative predictor for heterosexual men and women. For gay men, preferences were better explained by internalization and weight/shape dissatisfaction. No such associations were found in the lesbian group. Levels of weight/shape dissatisfaction and internalization of socio-cultural slenderness ideals influence expectations of thinness and attractiveness in a partner with this effect being modified by gender and sexual orientation.     

Iron ladies,men of steel: The effects of gender stereotyping on the perception of male and female candidates are moderated by prototypicality

Women remain a minority in politics. In nearly all countries, including parliamentary democracies, women are still underrepresented in national parliament and other representative institutions. Research has argued that there is a bias against women in elections. Here we study the process behind this phenomenon by investigating the effect of a candidate's gender and gender prototypicality on judgment of the suitability of this candidate in elections. The first experiment shows that when voters think topics that stereotypically demand male characteristics (e.g., competitiveness) are important, they prefer male candidates, while they prefer female candidates when topics that stereotypically demand female characteristics (e.g., pro‐sociability) are important. Experiment 2 replicates this and shows that this effect is fully reversed for counterprototypical (i.e., in physical appearance) candidates. This supports a stereotyping as prediction account, and has important theoretical and practical implications. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Perceived teasing experiences in body dysmorphic disorder

Individuals with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) are excessively concerned about imagined or slight defects in their appearance (e.g., asymmetrical facial features). Cognitive-behavioral models of BDD propose that several factors, including dysfunctional appearance-related beliefs and life experiences, such as teasing, contribute to the avoidance behaviors or rituals (e.g., mirror checking, grooming) characteristic of BDD. Previous research has demonstrated an association between perceived teasing and body dissatisfaction. In the current study, we examined whether individuals with BDD (n = 16) report to have been teased more often than do mentally healthy controls (n = 17). The group comprising individuals with BDD reported more appearance- and competency-related teasing than did control participants. This study provides preliminary evidence for the association between perceived teasing and BDD.     

Who is this Donald? How social categorization affects aggression‐priming effects

When investigating the effects of aggression on person perception, many studies have relied on the famous ‘Donald’ paradigm (e.g., Srull & Wyer, 1979 ). Little attention has been paid, however, to the role that is played by the social identity of Donald (the target of perception) in such effects. Three studies with Dutch participants, consistently reveal that judgments of an ingroup (Dutch) target are less prone to be affected by aggression priming than judgments of an outgroup (Moroccan, Surinamese, German) target, and that this effect is moderated by the extent to which the target's group is associated with aggressiveness. Importantly, the studies show that such association can be created not only via well‐established stereotypes (e.g., ‘Moroccans are aggressive’), but also via subtle contextual priming. When priming activates an association between ingroup and aggressiveness (‘The Dutch are aggressive’), the subsequent evaluation of the ingroup targets can also be influenced negatively. The present research thus demonstrates that social categorizations and the contextual associations attached to them delineate an important boundary condition for aggression priming effects. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Recalibration of phonetic categories by lipread speech versus lexical information

Listeners hearing an ambiguous phoneme flexibly adjust their phonetic categories in accordance with information telling what the phoneme should be (i.e., recalibration). Here the authors compared recalibration induced by lipread versus lexical information. Listeners were exposed to an ambiguous phoneme halfway between /t/ and /p/ dubbed onto a face articulating /t/ or /p/ or embedded in a Dutch word ending in /t/ (e.g., groot [big]) or /p/ (knoop [button]). In a posttest, participants then categorized auditory tokens as /t/ or /p/. Lipread and lexical aftereffects were comparable in size (Experiment 1), dissipated about equally fast (Experiment 2), were enhanced by exposure to a contrast phoneme (Experiment 3), and were not affected by a 3-min silence interval (Experiment 4). Exposing participants to 1 instead of both phoneme categories did not make the phenomenon more robust (Experiment 5). Despite the difference in nature (bottom-up vs. top-down information), lipread and lexical information thus appear to serve a similar role in phonetic adjustments.