Mediational behaviours of preschoolers teaching their younger siblings

There is very little research on the process of teaching in sibling interaction. The current study was designed to explore teaching behaviours of preschoolers and their effects on their toddler siblings. Participants were 40 dyads of 5‐yr‐olds and their 3‐yr‐old siblings from a middle class urban community in Israel. The children were divided into four equal groups based on gender and age of the siblings in each dyad. The children were visited at home and invited to play with two puzzles and two Lego games. Their play interaction with their siblings was videotaped. The observations were analysed using the observing mediational interaction (OMI) scale, assessing the frequency and style of the following behaviours: Focussing, Affecting, Encouraging, Expanding, and Regulating Behaviour. The younger siblings' success in playing the games was evaluated using a 5‐point scale. The frequency of teaching behaviours in sibling interaction was found to be related to the younger siblings' success on the games. Affecting and Encouraging were significantly related to the younger siblings' level of success on the games. The teaching behaviours of older siblings were characterized by relatively high frequencies of Regulation of Behavior and Encouraging, moderate frequencies of Affecting and low frequencies of Expanding. Boys were found to receive more teaching behaviours than girls. Older brothers and sisters showed higher frequencies of teaching behaviour in interactions with their younger brothers than with their younger sisters. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Patriotic Conscientious Objection to Military Service

The purpose of this paper is to show that conscientious objection (henceforth CO) to military service is essentially not a dilemma of freedom of conscience versus the duty to obey the law, but above all a dilemma between two conflicting patriotic moral obligations. Furthermore, the paper demonstrates that CO is justifiable on the basis of what is known as moderate patriotism, that is, out of a patriotism which is committed simultaneously to universal and particular values. The paper begins with a critical discussion of theoretical weaknesses in liberal thought of CO. Then, the concept of moderate patriotism is presented, followed by a discussion of the notion of patriotic CO (PCO). The next stage presents a step Towards A Theory of PCO to Military Service and shows how it differs from other liberal theories of disobedience. The conclusion is that if CO on patriotic grounds is morally justifiable, it follows that this is an act committed within the framework of legitimate political discourse. Therefore, PCO is politically legitimate even if it is not always legal. In other words, the discussion of PCO offers a theoretical distinction between political legitimacy and legality.     

From career decision-making styles to career decision-making profiles: A multidimensional approach

Previous research on individual differences in career decision-making processes has often focused on classifying individuals into a few types of decision-making styles based on the most dominant trait or characteristic of their approach to the decision process (e.g., rational, intuitive, dependent; Harren, 1979). In this research, an alternative approach, which offers a multidimensional profile characterization of individuals’ career decision-making processes based on a simultaneous consideration of 11 dimensions, is presented. Thus, the proposed model refers to career decision-making profiles rather than career decision-making styles. The model, which emerged from a systematic analysis of previous research, was refined on the basis of preliminary empirical tests (five samples, N = 2764) using the Career Decision-Making Profile (CDMP) questionnaire. Study 1 reports the psychometric properties and the results of an exploratory factor analysis of the CDMP questionnaire, in a sample of young adults deliberating their career decisions (N = 285). Study 2 presents the results of a confirmatory factor analysis, based on Israeli (N = 431) and US (N = 208) samples of young adults. The results of both studies supported the hypothesized 11 dimensions. The implications for future research and for counseling are discussed.     

Never Ending Stories? Hebrew Writers' Creative Journey in the Second Half of Life

This qualitative study explored the relationship between creativity, time, age, and the literary world among 16 award-winning Israeli writers in the second half of their lives. Based on data collected through in-depth interviews with the participants, the findings indicate that the writers' creativity in the second half of life was linked to Preservation, Growth, and Decline, leading to four interrelated dimensions: (a) preserving youth through creativity, (b) enhancing creativity over time, (c) navigating creativity, acclaim, and ageism, and (d) managing creativity amidst a changing world. The study found that the writers' creativity was enhanced over time, as they gained experience and developed their skills. However, some writers experienced a decline in stamina or their ability to write long novels. The study also found that the writers' experiences of acceptance from the literary world and the audience changed over time. Some writers continued to receive acclaim and attention, while others experienced ageism and a decline in the audience's interest in their work.     

Psychoanalysis in Three Dimensions: Ringstrom’s Relational Metapsychology: Discussion of “Three Dimensional Field Theory”

Although the analytic intersubjective field remains infinite in its potential forms, processes, and transformations, this commentary highlights Ringstrom’s 3D model (this issue) as tackling the challenge of theorizing the relational analytic act, explaining simultaneously the dimensions of metapsychology and practice. Within the epistemological premises of information theory, the 3D model offers a triangulation between the asymmetry of hemispheral modes of processing, consciousness as truth seeking and an intersubjective dramaturgic dimension to describe the vicissitudes and evolutions of an intersubjectively embedded subjectivity. Reading Ringstrom’s model through the corridor of some basic Freudian intuitions, I formulate my reading of the model’s unique conceptions of time, nothing, and otherness as agents of transformation in the thick relational web of the analytic dyad.     

Disparities in the moral intuitions of criminal offenders: The role of psychopathy

The present study examined whether and in what ways psychopathy is associated with abnormal moral intuitions among criminal offenders. Using Haidt et al.’s Moral Foundations Questionnaire, 222 adult male offenders assessed for clinical psychopathy reported their degree of support for five moral domains: Harm Prevention, Fairness, Respect for Authority, Ingroup Loyalty, and Purity/Sanctity. As predicted, psychopathy total score explained a substantial proportion of the variance in reduced support for Harm Prevention and Fairness, but not the other domains. These results confirm that psychopathy entails a discrete set of moral abnormalities and suggest that these abnormalities could potentially help to explain the characteristic antisocial behavior of individuals with psychopathy.     

“I May Look 75, but I’m Really a Pioneer”: Concept of Self and Resilience Among Israeli Elder Adults Living in a War Zone

This qualitative study explored concept of self and its connection to resilience among 35 elderly Israeli men and women, who live in a war zone along the border with Gaza. The participants were asked to tell their life stories and to answer questions that dealt with hardships they have faced, including the security threat that characterizes the area. Analyses of the interviews revealed 13 overall themes. The major theme discussed in this article centers on the interviewees’ self concept of being ideological pioneers, who have a strong belonging to the settlements they created in the desert. We conclude that this self-concept relates to resilience among this population, in spite of the hardships they have faced on the personal, familial, communal and social-political levels.     

Older adults’ associative deficit in episodic memory: Assessing the role of decline in attentional resources

In this study, we evaluated an associative deficit hypothesis. This hypothesis suggests that the deficit seen in the episodic memory performance of older adults is due, in considerable part, to older adults’ difficulty in binding together unrelated components of an episode into a cohesive entity (Naveh-Benjamin, 2000). The study extended the conditions under which older adults show a differential deficit in tests requiring associations among the episode components to situations in which the item and the associative recognition tests are equated on the response mode used and on the amount of information displayed. In addition, we tested the potential role of a decrease in attentional resources in the associative deficit of older adults by comparing their performance to that of younger adults under conditions of reduced attentional resources. The results of the study, which indicate that younger adults under divided attention do not show an associative deficit, are interpreted as indicating that the associative deficit of older adults is due to factors other than depleted attentional resources.     

Behavioral interference and C/EBPbeta expression in the insular-cortex reveal a prolonged time period for taste memory consolidation

Memory consolidation is defined as the time window during which the memory trace is susceptible to behavioral, electrical, or pharmacological interventions. Here, we presented rats with two novel tastes at consecutive time intervals. Clear interference was evident when a novel taste formed the second taste input whereby, surprisingly, the time window for interference was found to last more than 10 h. In addition, we detected an increase of C/EBPbeta protein expression in the gustatory cortex 18 h after novel taste learning. This modulation was attenuated by a subsequent novel taste. Our findings reveal temporal constraints and a lingering nature of taste memory consolidation.