Transracial adoptees bridging heritage and national cultures: Parental socialisation,ethnic identity and self‐esteem

Transracial adoptees represent a specific group of immigrants who experience unique immigration processes that bring them face‐to‐face with two cultural backgrounds: that of their heritage culture on one hand and that of their national culture on the other hand. However, there is a scarcity of studies focused on the way these processes unfold within adoptive families. This study was aimed at exploring how transracial adoptees cope with the construction of their ethnic identity. Administering a self‐report questionnaire to 127 transracial adoptees and their mothers, for a total of 254 participants, we first investigated the association between mothers' cultural socialisation (enculturation and preparation for bias strategies) and adoptees' ethnic identity (i.e. ethnic identity exploration and ethnic identity affirmation dimensions). We then investigated whether ethnic identity affects self‐esteem by testing the hypothesis that national identity moderates the relationship between ethnic identity and self‐esteem. Results revealed that mothers' enculturation (but not their preparation for bias) supported adoptees' ethnic identity exploration, which in turn was positively associated with ethnic identity affirmation. Moreover, we confirmed the moderation effect: ethnic identity affirmation enhanced the level of self‐esteem, but only for those adoptees who perceived a higher degree of national identity affirmation.     

History of Religious Delusions and Psychosocial Functioning Among Mexican Patients with Paranoid Schizophrenia

The association between global functionality and religiosity among patients from developing and predominantly Catholic countries warrants attention. To compare religiosity and psychosocial functioning in Mexican schizophrenia patients with and without a history of religious delusions, seventy-four patients with paranoid schizophrenia were recruited. Patients with a history of religious delusions had more psychiatric hospitalizations and poorer psychosocial functioning compared with those without a history of religious delusions. No differences emerged between groups in the total scores of religiosity scales. A history of religious delusions rather than religiosity itself may have an influence on psychosocial functioning among Mexican patients with schizophrenia.     

Development of a Brief Form of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (B–IRI)

The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) is a standardized self-report measure of disposition to empathic responsiveness for the general adult population (the domain for which it was developed), and for the general adolescent population. The IRI has a number of problems, however, including some uncertainty about its factor structure, low reliabilities, and poor readability of some items for people with limited literacy skills. To address these issues, we constructed an abbreviated form of the index, the Brief IRI (B–IRI). Three studies demonstrated that this 16-item B–IRI has a clear and coherent factor structure, adequate internal consistency, measurement invariance across gender and age, and theoretically meaningful associations with a range of external criteria that support its construct validity. The B–IRI substantially preserves the psychometric properties of the long form, and we recommend its use in all research settings.     

Effects of stress across the lifespan

Stress is a known precipitant for metabolic and neurological diseases, with sensitive periods identified across the developmental continuum from conception to old age. However, the effects of stress may vary depending on the point or points along the developmental trajectory when adversity strikes. Past research has emphasized the consequences of stress on fully developed physiological systems in the brain and periphery, but more recent studies have explored the impact of stress on systems at different stages of maturation, with differential effects being revealed. This review provides an overview of the diverse effects of stress at critical developmental stages and the potential outcomes that may be associated with experiencing environmental adversity during ontogeny.     

Better elementary number processing in higher skill arithmetic problem solvers: evidence from the encoding step

This paper addresses the relationship between basic numerical processes and higher level numerical abilities in normal achieving adults. In the first experiment we inferred the elementary numerical abilities of university students from the time they needed to encode numerical information involved in complex additions and subtractions. We interpreted the shorter encoding times in good arithmetic problem solvers as revealing clearer or more accessible representations of numbers. The second experiment shows that these results cannot be due to the fact that lower skilled individuals experience more maths anxiety or put more cognitive efforts into calculations than do higher skilled individuals. Moreover, the third experiment involving non-numerical information supports the hypothesis that these interindividual differences are specific to number processing. The possible causal relationships between basic and higher level numerical abilities are discussed.     

Conceivability and De Re Modal Knowledge

The paper presents a dilemma for both epistemic and non‐epistemic versions of conceivability‐based accounts of modal knowledge. On the one horn, non‐epistemic accounts do not elucidate the essentialist knowledge they would be committed to. On the other, epistemic accounts do not elucidate everyday life de re modal knowledge. In neither case, therefore, do conceivability accounts elucidate de re modal knowledge.     

The contribution of the inferior parietal cortex to spoken language production

This functional MRI study investigated the involvement of the left inferior parietal cortex (IPC) in spoken language production (Speech). Its role has been apparent in some studies but not others, and is not convincingly supported by clinical studies as they rarely include cases with lesions confined to the parietal lobe. We compared Speech with non-communicative repetitive tongue movements (Tongue). The data were analyzed with both univariate contrasts between conditions and probabilistic independent component analysis (ICA). The former indicated decreased activity of left IPC during Speech relative to Tongue. However, the ICA revealed a Speech component in which there was correlated activity between left IPC, frontal and temporal cortices known to be involved in language. Therefore, although net synaptic activity throughout the left IPC may not increase above baseline conditions during Speech, one or more local systems within this region are involved, evidenced by the correlated activity with other language regions.     

What Exactly Is It All About? Puzzled Comments from a French Legal Scholar on the NBIC Convergence

The techno-scientific development has no frontier, but the legal systems still take roots in local and cultural references. French Law is built on a continental model and conveys values and preferences of the French population, including an essential role given to the State and to textual requirements. Until now, French law has been modified to cope with new and emerging technologies issues with the idea that they can be taken one after the other, on the fringes of the classic legal problems. Do the announcement of a convergence between Nanotechnologies, Biotechnologies, the sciences of Information and Cognition (NBIC) change the situation? According to “converging technologies” partisans, a lot of other deep perturbations may occur. Therefore, it could be pertinent to assess the legal implications of NBIC convergence. But trying to do so, a French legal scholar may first feel (and express) perplexity. What is the “convergence NBIC”? To answer, do we have to wonder which reality hides behind the expression or is it necessary to admit that the speeches are here more important to analyze than a hypothetical realization? Does it imply new legal questions? Do we need new methods to enlighten what is at stake? Is it a new challenge, stimulating the imagination of lawyers and legal scholars, or, on the contrary, is it a new illustration of the Economy of the promises, revealing big risks of vain (or inappropriate) intellectual and normative production? This article is dedicated to enlighten the important difficulties which mark out the road towards the answers to the legal questions raised by the “NBIC convergence”.     

Relationship between chronic stress and carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) in elderly Alzheimer's disease caregivers

The stress associated with providing care for a spouse diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease can have adverse effects on cardiovascular health. One potential explanation is that chronic caregiving stress may contribute to the development of atherosclerosis. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the duration that one has provided care is associated with the degree of atherosclerotic burden, as measured by carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT). One hundred and ten Alzheimer caregivers [mean age 74?±?8 (SD) years, 69% female] underwent in-home assessment of carotid artery IMT via B-mode ultrasonography. Data regarding medical history, blood pressure, and multiple indicators of caregiving stress were also collected. Multiple regression indicated that duration of care was positively associated with IMT measured in the internal/bifurcation segments of the carotid artery (β?=?0.202, p?=?0.044) independent of risk factors such as age, gender, body mass index, smoking history, sleep quality, hypertension status, and caregiving stressors. Duration of care was positively associated with IMT in the common carotid artery, but the relationship was not significant. These findings provide more evidence of the link between chronic caregiving stress and cardiovascular disease and indicate that enduring the experience of caregiving over a period of years might be associated with atherosclerotic burden.