Effect of listener age and situation on the politeness of children's directives

Twenty-one children between the ages of 46 and 52 years made a speaker doll address other dolls that represented an adult, a peer, and a younger listener in command and request situations. Analyses of the politeness of the elicited directives revealed that the effect of the listener's age was greatest in the command situations,with the adult listener receiving the politest directives, followed by the peer and the younger child, respectively. The listener age effect diminished in the request situations, where the child had to ask a favor of the listener. In these situations, the children were very polite to all three listeners. The results are discussed in terms of status relationships between the speaker and the listener.This article is taken from a doctoral dissertation completed at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, under the direction of D. K. Vetter.     

MULTIVARIATE ASSESSMENT OF CONFLICT IN DISTRESSED AND NONDISTRESSED MOTHER-ADOLESCENT DYADS

A battery of measures was used to assess conflict between mothers and young adolescents (females and males, 11 to 15 years of age). Two groups of families, one composed of a distressed clinical sample (N = 38), the other a nondistressed normative sample (N = 40), participated. The assessment battery included retrospective judgments, frequency estimates, self-monitored home recording, and tape-recorded discussion of a home problem. Content of assessment measures tapped aspects of parental control, decisionmaking, self-reported interaction behavior, arguments, interaction behavior rated by independent “blind” observers, frequency and anger-intensity of specific problematic issues, and perceptions of positive and negative behaviors of the other family member. Based on univariate analyses, 21 of the 26 defined variables discriminated significantly in the predicted direction. Maternal and adolescent reports of behavior and independent ratings of tape-recorded interaction emerged as strong and consistent discriminators. Stepwise multivariate discriminant analysis provided successful classification of 100% of the families based on the inclusion of nine variables. In a cross-validation sample, 84% of the families were correctly classified. Implications for systematic outcome research as well as clinical application are discussed.     

Teacher Beliefs,Classroom Interaction and Personal Causation1

The study reports relationships between teachers' belief systems (Harvey), a teacher-pupil interaction measure of classroom influence, pupils' perception of the dimate of the dassroom, and pupils' academic achievement. Results demonstrate that more complex teachers encourage more pupil influence, and are perceived as having a more origin climate. In classrooms of high pupil influence and perceived origin climate, the pupils have higher academic achievement. These results are discussed in terms of the theory of personal causation and are cited as evidence for the value of the study of action sequences as related to verbal-utterances of the actors.     

Enhanced Cognitive Behavior Therapy: A Single Treatment for All Eating Disorders

Eating disorders are serious mental illnesses affecting a significant proportion of women and a smaller number of men. Approximately half of those with an eating disorder (ED) will not meet the criteria for anorexia or bulimia nervosa, and will be diagnosed with an eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS). Until recently, there were no recommended treatments for EDNOS. This article provides an overview of enhanced cognitive behavior therapy, a validated treatment for all forms of EDs.     

Fear of Punishment in Another World: a Follow-Up Examination of the Religious Beliefs About HIV/AIDS—A Decade of Progress?

Journal of Religion and Health - This study compared 2000 and 2010 data on the religious beliefs about HIV/AIDS among those with HIV in a Deep South state. The percentage agreeing that HIV/AIDS is...