Hope and Social Support in High School Students from Urban and Rural Areas of Ankara, Turkey

The aim of present study was to investigate the role of specific dimensions of perceived social support from family, gender, and geographic area of residence in predicting hope levels of high school students. Additionally, the factor structure of Turkish Version of the Hope Scale was reexamined due to controversial findings in Turkish literature. The sample was composed of 737 students (407 female, 330 male) from two high schools in rural and urban areas of Ankara, Turkey. Data were collected by administering the Hope Scale (Snyder et al. in J Pers Soc Psychol 60:570–585, 1991), the Perceived Social Support from Family Questionnaire (Güng?r 1996), and a demographic information form. The role of independent variables in prediction of hope was investigated via Multiple Regression Analysis. Due to presence of some suppressor variables in the full model, two separate regression analyses were conducted for rural and urban areas. In the regression analysis for rural area students, informational support was the only predictor of hope levels. On the other hand, urban area students’ hope levels were predicted by love- and esteem-related support, instrumental support, and gender. Lastly, the factor structure of Turkish Version of the Hope Scale was examined through conducting a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to test how well two-factor model fit to current data. Results of the CFA indicated that two-factor model was confirmed.     

Hand preference and its flexibility according to the position of the object: a study in cercopithecines examining spontaneous behaviour and an experimental task (the Bishop QHP task)

The extant literature on manual laterality in non-human primates is inconclusive, plagued by inconsistent or contradictory findings and by disturbing methodological issues (e.g. uncontrolled influential factors, comparability issues). The present study examined hand preference and its flexibility in 15 red-capped mangabeys (C. t. torquatus) and 13 Campbell's monkeys (C. c. campbelli), two species that differ in their degree of arboreality. We investigated the influence of the spatial position of the object on hand preference for reaching. We considered spontaneous behaviour (reaching for food during daily feeding) and an experimental task: the QHP task. The QHP is a task that is used in humans. This is a simple reaching task that involves high spatial constraints on hand use. In our study, the subject had to reach for items that were placed on a semi-circle in front of it on five positions, including in the centre position, in the ipsilateral space and in the contralateral space. We assessed hand preference for reaching in front (baseline condition), and we examined how this preference changed when reaching in lateral positions. For reaching in front, about half of the subjects were lateralized and no group-level bias occurred, for both spontaneous and experimental conditions. When considering reaching in the lateral positions, we observed that the position of the object influenced hand use: individuals used the hand that was closest to the object. The results are discussed in relation to previous findings in humans and in non-human primates and regarding theories on handedness and flexibility of hand preference.     

Tolerant macaque species are less impulsive and reactive

Animal Cognition - Inhibitory control, the inhibition of impulsive behaviours, is believed to be key in navigating a complex social environment. Species characterised by higher social tolerance,...