Subtypes of Victims and Aggressors in Children's Peer Groups

This study reports an investigation of the behavioral profiles and psychosocial adjustment of subgroups of victims and aggressors in elementary school peer groups. Peer nomination scores for aggression and victimization were used to classify 354 inner-city children (mean age of 10.3 years) into one of four subgroups: aggressive victims, nonaggressive victims, nonvictimized aggressors, and normative contrasts. Subgroup comparisons were then conducted using multi-informant assessment of social behavior, social acceptance-rejection, behavioral regulation, academic functioning, and emotional distress. Children in each of the victim-aggressor subgroups were characterized by a degree of social and behavioral maladjustment. However, impairments in behavioral and emotional regulation were most evident for the aggressive victim subgroup. Aggressive victims were also characterized by academic failure, peer rejection, and emotional distress. The results of this investigation highlight the distinctive nature of the aggressive victim subgroup.     

Worries and values

Relations of individuals' value priorities to their worries are investigated in seven samples from four cultural groups (N = 1,441). A social-cognitive analysis suggests that value priorities influence worries by increasing attention to and perception of threats to valued goals. On this basis, we generate hypotheses relating two types of worries, micro (about self and its extensions) and macro (about society and world), to 10 types of values. As predicted, giving priority to self-transcendence values (universalism and benevolence) is associated with low micro and high macro worry, whereas giving priority to self-enhancement values (power, hedonism, and--to a lesser degree--achievement) is associated with high micro and low macro worry. Meaningful associations are also found for other values. Values account for substantially more variance in macro than in micro worries.     

Quantitative analysis of aphasic sentence production: further development and new data

The narrative production of patients with Broca's aphasia and age-and education-matched control subjects was analyzed using the Quantitative Production Analysis (Saffran et al., 1989), a procedure designed to provide measures of morphological and structural characteristics of aphasic production. In addition to providing data for a larger number of subjects than in the original study, we provide data on interrater and test-retest reliability. The data were also submitted to factor and cluster analyses. Two factors characterized the data and the cluster analysis yielded four sets of patients who performed differently on these factors. In particular, there is evidence that agrammatic patients can differ in their production of free and bound grammatical morphemes, substantiating earlier claims in the literature.     

The impersistence of false memory persistence

When subjects study lists of thematically related words they sometimes falsely recognise non-presented words related to the theme. The gist extraction account of these findings provided by fuzzy trace theory suggests that false recognition should decline substantially more slowly than true recognition across a delay. In two experiments we demonstrated that corrected recognition of targets and critical lures can decrease by equivalent amounts across a 48-hour delay. However the results for uncorrected recognition were mixed. In Experiment 1 we found evidence that uncorrected recognition of targets declined more rapidly than uncorrected recognition of critical lures. In Experiment 2, we found evidence that uncorrected recognition of targets and critical lures declined at equivalent rates. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for fuzzy trace and source monitoring accounts of false memories.     

Generalizability of carry-over effects in the emotional Stroop task

The emotional Stroop task has been the most widely used task to examine attentional bias to emotionally salient stimuli. In one format of this task, words are presented to participants in a mixed randomized or quasi-randomized sequence. Using a mixed smoking Stroop task, we have previously demonstrated that smokers are slower to respond to words which follow smoking-related words than words which follow neutral words. Here we show that this carry-over effect is present in heroin addicts-but not control subjects-in a heroin Stroop task, and in normal subjects in a stress Stroop task. Thus, the effect generalizes to other populations. In addition, an examination of the studies that have collected data from both mixed and blocked formats provides converging evidence for the presence of carry-over effects. We discuss the implications of the carry-over effect for research using the emotional Stroop task.     

Sex differences in value priorities: cross-cultural and multimethod studies

The authors assess sex differences in the importance of 10 basic values as guiding principles. Findings from 127 samples in 70 countries (N = 77,528) reveal that men attribute consistently more importance than women do to power, stimulation, hedonism, achievement, and self-direction values; the reverse is true for benevolence and universalism values and less consistently for security values. The sexes do not differ on tradition and conformity values. Sex differences are small (median d = .15; maximum d = .32 [power]) and typically explain less variance than age and much less than culture. Culture moderates all sex differences and sample type and measurement instrument have minor influences. The authors discuss compatibility of findings with evolutionary psychology and sex role theory and propose an agenda for future research.     

Applying the interpersonal circumplex to children's behavior: parent-child interactions and risk behaviors

This article examined the applicability of the interpersonal circumplex (IC) to the observable social behaviors of children during parent-child interactions. In Study 1, the observational ratings of behaviors of 117 children (mean age = 9.88 years) were examined. Randomization tests of hypothesized order relations found that these behaviors tended to occur in the circular pattern predicted by the IC. To illustrate the applicability of the IC to children's behavior, Study 2 (n = 94) used the circular structure of children's behavior to longitudinally examine children's participation in two risk behaviors, smoking cigarettes and consuming alcohol. Results indicated that children who behaved in an arrogant-calculating manner were at risk for smoking cigarettes and children who behaved in an assured-dominate manner were at risk for drinking alcohol 1 year later. Implications of these results are discussed in terms of their relevance for helping researchers better understand and categorize children's interpersonal behaviors.