Social transmission of disinhibition in young children

The present study examined whether young children's behaviors in the Dimensional Change Card Sorting task can be influenced by their observation of another person performing the task. Experiment 1 showed that after children watched an adult sorting cards according to one rule, although the children were instructed to sort the cards according to a new rule, most 3-year-olds made perseverative errors and used the observed, old rule to sort the cards instead of the new rule. However, only some 4-year-olds and few 5-year-olds made the same mistake. Experiments 2, 3 and 4 showed that the younger children took into consideration social pragmatic information displayed by the adult model when deciding to use the old rule or the new rule. When the model appeared to know that she sorted the cards incorrectly (Experiments 2 and 3), or was uncertain whether she sorted cards correctly (Experiment 4), most 3-year-olds no longer committed perseverative errors. When the adult model was confident about her sorting or oblivious to her sorting errors, most 3-year-olds made perseverative errors. These results taken together suggest that social observation can lead to disinhibitions. In other words, disinhibition can be transmitted socially from one person to another.     

Emotion regulation and culture: are the social consequences of emotion suppression culture-specific?

Emotional suppression has been associated with generally negative social consequences (Butler et al., 2003; Gross & John, 2003). A cultural perspective suggests, however, that these consequences may be moderated by cultural values. We tested this hypothesis in a two-part study, and found that, for Americans holding Western-European values, habitual suppression was associated with self-protective goals and negative emotion. In addition, experimentally elicited suppression resulted in reduced interpersonal responsiveness during face-to-face interaction, along with negative partner-perceptions and hostile behavior. These deleterious effects were reduced when individuals with more Asian values suppressed, and these reductions were mediated by cultural differences in the responsiveness of the suppressors. These findings suggest that many of suppression's negative social impacts may be moderated by cultural values.     

Orthographic combinability and phonological consistency effects in reading Chinese phonograms: an event-related potential study

In this study, event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to trace the temporal dynamics of phonological consistency and phonetic combinability in the reading of Chinese phonograms. The data showed a significant consistency-by-combinability interaction at N170. High phonetic combinability characters elicited greater negativity at N170 than did low phonetic combinability characters, and the combinability effect was only found in the reading of high consistency characters. The results support the phonological mapping hypothesis of the reading-related N170 effect and suggest that the earlier stages of visual word recognition are shaped by the mapping of orthography to phonology even in Chinese. Moreover, our data revealed both consistency and combinability effects at P200 and N400, accounted for by the two-stage framework for visual word recognition. That is, characters with high combinability or high consistency facilitated the earlier stages of orthographic or phonological processing which were due to increased activation at the perceptual level; consequently, less positive P200 was demonstrated. In the later stages, high combinability or high consistency characters were associated with a larger semantic neighborhood, which increased semantic competition and exaggerated the N400 effect. These data support the assumption of radical-based inputs proposed by the lexical constituent model. However, the phonetic consistency effects found at N170 and P200 cannot be reconciled with the current framework of the lexical constituent model. A possible revision will be discussed.     

Body Image Concerns and Contingent Self-Esteem in Male and Female College Students

Body dissatisfaction in females, and to a lesser extent males, is associated with low self-esteem, depression, and eating disorders. This research examined gender as a moderator of the association between contingent self-esteem and body image concerns, including weight and muscularity. Participants included 359 (59.1% female) heavy drinking first-year U.S. undergraduate students who completed a survey assessing health-related risk behaviors. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to examine relations among gender, contingent self-esteem, and body image. Females reported higher levels of contingent self-esteem and greater concerns about their weight, although males reported a greater drive for muscularity. The relationship between contingent self-esteem and weight concerns was stronger among females, and for males, greater contingent self-esteem was associated with a greater drive for muscularity.     

Mobile Snapshots and Private/Public Boundaries

This study attempts to focus on how the boundaries of both the private and the public domain are lived out in people's practices of taking mobile snapshots via camera phones and sharing them on the Web. From private photo-taking practices in public places to online disclosure of camera phone pictures, private/public boundaries are no longer firmly fixed. Based on qualitative interview data collected from 20 Korean camera phone users in their early twenties, this study takes a closer look at how private/public boundaries are blurred or rearranged in people's everyday camera phone usage in a public space, as well as in their sharing of camera phone photos on the Web. By examining the concrete cases of “displaced moments” captured by camera phones and their circulation on the Web as a form of self-presentation, it discusses how mobile snapshots have served as a medium that is shaping the dynamic reconfiguration of private/public boundaries.     

An Investigation of Relationships among Genetic Counselors’ Supervision Skills and Multicultural Counseling Competence

As racial and ethnic diversity increase in the U.S., genetic counselor multicultural competence is growing in importance. In mental health counseling, supervisor multicultural competence has been shown to promote supervisees’ multicultural competence. Moreover, developmentally-advanced supervisors tend to be more effective. This study was designed to investigate relationships among genetic counselor supervisors’ perceived multicultural counseling competence and development as supervisors, and their ability to evaluate a supervisee’s multicultural skills. One hundred twenty-two supervisors completed an online survey of demographics, the Multicultural Counseling Knowledge and Awareness Scale, the Supervisor Development Scale, and a hypothetical vignette in which they evaluated a supervisee’s multicultural skills and provided written feedback. Stepwise multiple regression yielded five significant predictors accounting for 31% of the variance in accuracy of supervisor evaluations of the student: multicultural awareness, multicultural knowledge, age, supervision experience, and supervisor development. Six feedback themes were identified from written responses. Practice and research suggestions are provided.     

The perception of 3-D shape from shadows cast onto curved surfaces

In a natural environment, cast shadows abound. Objects cast shadows both upon themselves and upon background surfaces. Previous research on the perception of 3-D shape from cast shadows has only examined the informativeness of shadows cast upon flat background surfaces. In outdoor environments, however, background surfaces often possess significant curvature (large rocks, trees, hills, etc.), and this background curvature distorts the shape of cast shadows. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which observers can “discount” the distorting effects of curved background surfaces. In our experiments, observers viewed deforming or static shadows of naturally shaped objects, which were cast upon flat and curved background surfaces. The results showed that the discrimination of 3-D object shape from cast shadows was generally invariant over the distortions produced by hemispherical background surfaces. The observers often had difficulty, however, in identifying the shadows cast onto saddle-shaped background surfaces. The variations in curvature which occur in different directions on saddle-shaped background surfaces cause shadow distortions that lead to difficulties in object recognition and discrimination.     

Mindful attention predicts greater recovery from negative emotions,but not reduced reactivity

This study investigated the role of dispositional mindful attention in immediate reactivity to, and subsequent recovery from, laboratory-induced negative emotion. One hundred and fourteen undergraduates viewed blocks of negative pictures followed by neutral pictures. Participants’ emotional responses to negative pictures and subsequent neutral pictures were assessed via self-reported ratings. Participants’ emotional response to negative pictures was used to index level of emotional reactivity to unpleasant stimuli; emotional response to neutral pictures presented immediately after the negative pictures was used to index level of emotional recovery from pre-induced negative emotion (residual negativity). Results indicated that mindful attention was not associated with the emotional response to negative pictures, but it was associated with reduced negative emotion in response to the neutral pictures presented immediately after the negative pictures, suggesting better recovery as opposed to reduced reactivity. This effect was especially pronounced in later experimental blocks when the accumulation of negative stimuli produced greater negative emotion from which participants had to recover. The current study extends previous findings on the relationship between dispositional mindfulness and reduced negative emotion by demonstrating that mindful attention may facilitate better recovery from negative emotion, possibly through more effective disengagement from previous stimuli.     

Emergence and reduction in chemistry: ontological or epistemological concepts?

In this paper I argue that the ontological interpretation of the concepts of reduction and emergence is often misleading in the philosophy of science and should nearly always be eschewed in favor of an epistemological interpretation. As a paradigm case, an example is drawn from the philosophy of chemistry to illustrate the drawbacks of “ontological reduction” and “ontological emergence,” and the virtues of an epistemological interpretation of these concepts.     

Effects of Parent’s Gender, Child’s Gender, and Parental Involvement on the Academic Achievement of Adolescents in Single Parent Families

We used a national database (Educational Longitudinal Study) to investigate the effects of parent’s gender, child’s gender, and parental involvement in school on the academic achievement of adolescents in single-parent families. A three way 2 × 2 × 2 (parent’s gender × child’s gender × parental involvement) MANCOVA was conducted with four student academic achievement indicators as dependent variables and SES as a covariate. The results indicated that parent gender and child gender interact with parent involvement to affect adolescents’ academic achievement differentially. Specifically, daughters who lived with highly involved single-fathers performed better academically than the other groups did. These findings suggest that researchers who study single-parents’ involvement in their adolescents’ academic achievement need to pay more attention to gender-specific effects.