A Model of Racialized Sexual Harassment of Women in the UK Workplace

This paper examines Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) women’s experiences of sexual harassment in the UK workplace from the perspective of frequency and types of sexual harassment and characteristics of the harasser; ethnic and cultural influences; power, fear of reprisals, and reporting behavior. Using a snowballing technique, in depth interviews with 17 BAME women who had experienced or witnessed BAME sexual harassment reported that they were frequently sexually harassed by men from the same ethnic background. The fear of job loss, reprisals from male family members and negative organizational consequences resulted in over three quarters of the women not reporting incidents. Key questions regarding the factors and influences that are inherent in racialized sexual harassment are integrated into a model.     

Contributions of Studies on Alcohol Use Disorders to Understanding Cerebellar Function

Neuropathological, neuropsychological, and neuroimaging studies of human alcoholism provide evidence for degradation of frontal, pontine, thalamic, and cerebellar brain sites and disturbed associated functions. Current studies using neuroimaging combined with examination of executive functions, traditionally considered the sole purview of the frontal lobes, have identified a role for the cerebellum serving as a compensatory processing adjunct to enable normal performance on challenging tasks tapping executive functions. This overview proposes that disruption of an executive frontocerebellar network is a major contributor to characteristic behaviors of alcoholism that, on the one hand, enable alcohol use disorders, and on the other hand, lead to compensation for dysfunctions in alcoholism traditionally considered frontally-based.     

The Effects of a Data Dissemination Strategy on the Letter Naming and Object Counting Skills of Preschoolers Attending Head Start

The present study utilized a quasi-experimental design to investigate the effects of a data dissemination strategy on the development of letter naming and object counting skills in preschoolers. The intervention involved the repeated assessment of these skills and a framework for how the resulting data were made available to teachers. The framework highlights: (a) limiting data collection to performance assessments of variables under teacher control, (b) frequent assessment of these variables, (c) graphic display of data and (d) presentation of data in peer-group workshops. The intervention resulted in improved performance on both outcome variables relative to a no treatment control group and a phonics control group. In addition, teaching behaviors were observed to occur during the intervention that predicted child academic outcomes. Discussion is focused on how non-directive data management strategies may improve teacher adherence to evidence-based practices and child academic outcomes.     

Developing a Culturally Appropriate Depression Prevention Program: Opportunities and Challenges

This paper describes the experiences of the first author and his colleagues in the development and implementation of a depression prevention program that specifically targets Latina mothers. Building on the earlier papers that highlight the underutilization of mental health services by Latinos in general, this paper will make the case that the situation is particularly concerning with regards to depression. In addition to the fact that depression is a highly prevalent disorder among Latino adults, the potential consequences for children of parents with depression are significant. Thus, the underutilization of formal mental health services by Latinos makes depression a critical public health problem that calls for creative solutions. One possible solution is the careful development and implementation of prevention programs. Depression prevention programs have some advantages over formal mental health treatment in that they can be offered at a relatively low cost, can be packaged in ways that make them less stigmatizing, and if effective, can reduce the incidence of cases that develop into clinical depression.This paper will describe the process of developing a novel depression prevention program, with a particular focus on the attention paid to cultural sensitivity. We describe the complexity inherent in defining cultural sensitivity and illustrate in concrete ways its implementation in the development and evaluation of the prevention program. In addition, we explore some of the challenges that emerge when attempting to balance the creation of a program that is culturally sensitive with the demands of rigorous quantitative evaluation.     

Grandparent-grandchild relationships from the children's perspective: shared activities and socialization styles

The objective of this study is to describe the relationships between grandchildren and their favourite grandparents, by studying the socialization styles used by latter and the shared activities undertaken. The participants were 360 children between 10 and 12 years old, who completed the grandparent-grandchild relationship questionnaire of Rico, Serra and Viguer (2001) and the socialization questionnaire of Rey and Ruiz (1990). The results demonstrate the importance of gender and family line in the selection of the favourite grandparent, differences being shown in the types of shared activities and in socialization styles. It is concluded that in the majority of cases the profile of the favourite grandparent is the maternal grandmother, retired or a house wife, aged between 60-70, who lives in the same city as his/her grandchild, and who has contact with them several times a week. Furthermore, favourite grandparents get more involved with granddaughters than with grandsons, both in support and care activities and in cultural-recreational activities, and they primarily employ a democratic style. However, there are differences depending on the gender of the grandchild, with democratic principles being used more with girls and authoritarian ones with boys.     

Strengths and weaknesses of McNamara's evolutionary psychological model of dreaming

This article includes a brief overview of McNamara's (2004) evolutionary model of dreaming. The strengths and weaknesses of this model are then evaluated in terms of its consonance with measurable neurological and biological properties of dreaming, its fit within the tenets of evolutionary theories of dreams, and its alignment with evolutionary concepts of cooperation and spirituality. McNamara's model focuses primarily on dreaming that occurs during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep; therefore this article also focuses on REM dreaming.     

A developmental shift from similar to language-specific strategies in verb acquisition: A comparison of English,Spanish, and Japanese

The world’s languages draw on a common set of event components for their verb systems. Yet, these components are differentially distributed across languages. At what age do children begin to use language-specific patterns to narrow possible verb meanings? English-, Japanese-, and Spanish-speaking adults, toddlers, and preschoolers were shown videos of an animated star performing a novel manner along a novel path paired with a language-appropriate nonsense verb. They were then asked to extend that verb to either the same manner or the same path as in training. Across languages, toddlers (2- and 2.5-year-olds) revealed a significant preference for interpreting the verb as a path verb. In preschool (3- and 5-year-olds) and adulthood, the participants displayed language-specific patterns of verb construal. These findings illuminate the way in which verb construal comes to reflect the properties of the input language.     

Can Research on Women Be More Effective in Shaping Policy?

The potential usefulness of research on women's issues to the policymaking process is discussed in the context of the arguments both for and against trying to increase the policy utility of social science research in general. J. Weiss's concepts of „intrinsic,”„intellectual,” and „political usefulness” are presented and applied to specific policy issues of importance to women. The paper examines ways in which researchers could enhance the policy relevance of their research and ways in which the psychology establishment could encourage the development of policy-relevant research. The middle section of the paper describes the large array of roles and settings for social scientists in the federal policy structure, treating the executive, legislative, and judicial branches in turn. The history of and dilemmas created by the „Brandeis brief” are presented. The last section of the paper presents some important policy issues affecting women in the next five years and illustrates how one particular area of research could be made more useful.