Typical intellectual engagement and cognition in the ninth decade of life: The Lothian Birth Cohort 1921

Investment traits-the tendency to seek out and engage in cognitive activity-might affect intellectual growth across the life span, specifically the development from fluid to crystallized intelligence. Here we explore how childhood IQ at age 11 years, IQ at age 79, and the investment trait Typical Intellectual Engagement (TIE) at age 81 affect the mean level and change in verbal fluency scores, used as an indicator of crystallized intelligence, across the ages 79, 83, and 87 in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1921 (maximum N = 569; Deary, Whiteman, Starr, Whalley, & Fox, 2004). A first latent growth model showed significant variance in the mean level of verbal fluency and significant decline in verbal fluency from age 79 to age 87. The rate of change was invariant across study participants in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1921. A second model found that IQ at age 11 significantly predicted IQ at age 79 (β = .66; p < .001), which in turn predicted verbal fluency and TIE in the ninth decade of life with standardized path parameters of .46 and .15 (p < .001), respectively. TIE had a significant association with verbal fluency (β = .14, p = .002); together, IQ at age 11 and 79 and TIE accounted for 25.5% of the variance in verbal fluency. A final model identified the TIE subfactor of intellectual curiosity as a significant mediator of the effect of IQ on verbal fluency; the TIE subfactors abstract thinking, reading, and problem solving showed no significant associations. In summary, TIE-in particular, intellectual curiosity-significantly mediated the effects of IQ on crystallized intelligence in old age. Because there was no significant between-subjects variance in verbal fluency trajectories in the current study, neither TIE nor IQ were associated with individual differences in cognitive decline. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Tuning in to Kids: an effectiveness trial of a parenting program targeting emotion socialization of preschoolers

This article reports on an effectiveness trial of the Tuning in to Kids (TIK) parenting program. TIK aims to improve emotion socialization practices in parents of preschool children; it is a universal prevention program that teaches parents the skills of emotion coaching and also targets parents' own emotion awareness and regulation. The present study followed a 2 × 2 (Treatment Condition × Time) design. One hundred twenty-eight parents of children ages 4.0-5.11 years were recruited from preschools and randomized into intervention and waitlist conditions. Parents in the intervention condition (n = 62) attended a six-session group parenting program delivered by community practitioners who followed intervention fidelity protocols. Parents and preschool teachers completed questionnaires twice during the preschool year: at preintervention and at follow-up (approximately 7 months later). Parents reported on their emotion socialization beliefs and practices, other parenting practices, and on child behavior. Teachers reported on child behavior (Social Competence and Anger-Aggression). Data were analyzed using multilevel modeling. At follow-up, compared to the control group, intervention parents were significantly less emotionally dismissive in their beliefs, less dismissive and more coaching in their practices in response to children's negative emotions, and more positively involved. Although there were improvements in both conditions over time for parent-reported child behavior and teacher-reported social competence, compared to the waitlist group, intervention parents reported a significantly greater reduction in number of behavior problems. This trial demonstrates the potential for community agencies and practitioners in real-world settings to deliver a new parenting program that targets emotional communication in parent-child relationships.     

Critical phenomenology and psychiatry

Continental Philosophy Review - Whereas classical Critical Theory has tended to view phenomenology as inherently uncritical, the recent upsurge of what has become known as critical phenomenology...     

A Qualitative Exploration of Sleep Habits and Intervention Needs Among Youth with Cystic Fibrosis

Evidence suggests that individuals with Cystic Fibrosis (CF) experience difficulties with sleep architecture and hygiene, although research is limited. There are currently no behavioral sleep interventions for youth with CF. The current study used qualitative methods to understand sleep needs and concerns among youth with CF, as well as to obtain feedback about potentially useful behavioral sleep intervention strategies. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with youth with CF between the ages of 11–17 and their parents. Themes were extracted from the data and will be used to inform the development of a brief behavioral sleep intervention for youth with CF. Youth and their parents described several CF-specific sleep concerns, often related to respiratory symptoms, and a number of strategies used to manage these concerns. They also described concerns that apply to the general population, including pervasive use of technology around bedtime. Many evidence-based behavioral sleep intervention strategies are acceptable to youth with CF, although modifications are appropriate to reduce time burden and address CF-specific needs. Youth with CF experience a number of disease-specific and more generalized sleep concerns which are likely amenable to behavioral intervention. Results from this study will be used to inform the development of a brief behavioral sleep intervention for youth with CF.

     

The Role of ‘Peace of Mind’ and ‘Meaningfulness’ as Psychological Concepts in Explaining Subjective Well-being

Journal of Happiness Studies - Although extensive research has been conducted to explain what contributes to subjective wellbeing, still a substantial part of its variance remains unexplained. This...     

Intelligence,gender, and assessment method affect the accuracy of self‐estimated intelligence

Self‐estimates of intelligence (SEI), which influence to what extent people engage in and how well they perform at a task, are subject to distortion. Here, the distortion effects of individual differences in intelligence (IQ), gender, and proximal (with reference to test performance) and distal (with reference to IQ score distributions) assessments of SEI were tested in a sample of 200 British adults. The results showed that (1) people with lower IQ misestimated their SEI to a greater extent than people with high IQ; (2) this effect was more pronounced in distal than proximal measures of SEI; (3) SEI means did not differ significantly across gender but the IQ‐related level of SEI distortion did; (4) this effect was greater for distal than proximal measurement; and (5) proximal SEI were on average less distorted than distal SEI scores and also correlated more closely with IQ. Overall, the findings suggest that the distal SEI assessment method resulted in greater gender‐ and IQ‐related distortions of SEI.     

Escalate shamefully,de‐escalate angrily or gratefully: The influence of discrete emotions on escalation of commitment

Decision makers often tend to escalate their commitment when faced with a dilemma of whether to continue a losing course of action. Researchers recently began to investigate the influence of discrete emotions on this decision tendency. However, this work has mainly focused on negative emotions and rarely considered positive emotions, to say nothing of comparing the effects of both of them simultaneously. The current study addresses this need by presenting the results of three experiments that examined the effects of four emotions of both positive and negative valences in escalation situations. Experiment 1 investigated the relationships of three trait emotions (hope, shame, and anger) and escalation of commitment. Experiments 2 and 3 examined the effects of three induced emotions (anger, shame, and gratitude) on escalation of commitment in a student sample and an employee sample, respectively. The results revealed that the effects of discrete emotions in escalation situations are mainly due to their associated differences on the appraisal dimension of responsibility that is related to escalation situations rather than their valence. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

AMAB: Automated measurement and analysis of body motion

Technologies that measure human nonverbal behavior have existed for some time, and their use in the analysis of social behavior has become more popular following the development of sensor technologies that record full-body movement. However, a standardized methodology to efficiently represent and analyze full-body motion is absent. In this article, we present automated measurement and analysis of body motion (AMAB), a methodology for examining individual and interpersonal nonverbal behavior from the output of full-body motion tracking systems. We address the recording, screening, and normalization of the data, providing methods for standardizing the data across recording condition and across subject body sizes. We then propose a series of dependent measures to operationalize common research questions in psychological research. We present practical examples from several application areas to demonstrate the efficacy of our proposed method for full-body measurements and comparisons across time, space, body parts, and subjects.     

Later language development in narratives in children with perinatal stroke

Studies of young children with unilateral perinatal stroke (PS) have confirmed the plasticity of the developing brain for acquiring language. While recent studies of typically developing children have demonstrated the significant development of language well into adolescence, we know little regarding the course of language development in the PS group as they mature. Will children with PS continue to show the same remarkable plasticity that they exhibited at younger ages? In the present paper we investigate later language and discourse in children with perinatal stroke (ages 7–16) using spoken personal narrative as the discourse context. In contrast to the findings of the discourse studies of younger children with PS, children with left hemisphere lesions made more morphological errors, used less complex syntax and fewer syntactic types than controls; they also produced more impoverished story settings. In contrast, those with right hemisphere lesions performed comparably to controls, except in their impoverished use of complex syntax. The findings provide insight into the nature of later spoken language development in these children, revealing both the nature and extent of neuroplasticity for language as well as potential regional biases.     

Episodic Encoding in Normal Aging: Attentional Resources Hypothesis Extended to Musical Material

The goal of the present study was to examine age-related changes in musical episodic memory for novel tunes. This was conducted by manipulating the encoding condition in a recognition paradigm. After receiving memory instructions (intentional condition), older and younger participants obtained equivalent hits. In contrast, when intentional encoding was accompanied by a dancing judgment (dancing + intentional condition), the recognition performance of the older persons was severely impaired. Impaired recognition was also found when participants only judged the excerpts without being instructed to memorize them (dancing judgment condition). Although older participants demonstrated a preserved ability to perform the dancing judgment on its own, this ability was not optimal and likely precluded the initiation of more elaborate encoding strategies. These results suggest that asking older persons to divide their attention in the study phase reduces the quality of their musical encoding. Given this extension to musical material, we discuss the notion that the age-related attentional resource decline appears to be domain-general rather than specific to verbal material.