Structure and Validity of Affect Knowledge Test (AKT) in a Sample of Italian Preschoolers

The authors’ main goals were to examine whether the Affect Knowledge Test's (AKT) factor structure would be represented by a two-factor model (i.e., emotion recognition and situation knowledge) or by a one-factor model in Italian preschoolers (N = 164; M = 4.24 years, SD = 1.09 years). The concurrent validity of the AKT was further examined using measures of social competence. The findings replicated a model of emotion knowledge, with emotion recognition and situation knowledge as distinct but interrelated factors. Gender and age differences showed that older children and girls displayed higher scores in situation knowledge than younger children and boys. Additionally, our validity model of the AKT demonstrated that emotion recognition preceded situation knowledge, which in turn was positively related to children's sensitive or cooperative behaviors and negatively associated with anxious or withdrawn behaviors. Our results suggest that the use of the AKT may help the teachers to evaluate children's level on emotional knowledge that in turn might impact on children's positive social relationships within classroom in Italy.     

Observing Preschoolers’ Social-Emotional Behavior: Structure,Foundations, and Prediction of Early School Success

Social-emotional behavior of 352 3- and 4-year-olds attending private childcare and Head Start programs was observed using the Minnesota Preschool Affect Checklist, Revised (MPAC-R). Goals of the investigation included (a) using MPAC-R data to extract a shortened version, MPAC-R/S, comparing structure, internal consistency, test–retest reliability, and stability of both versions; and, using the shortened measure, to examine (b) age, gender, and risk status differences in social-emotional behaviors; (c) contributions of emotion knowledge and executive function to social-emotional behaviors; and (d) contributions of social-emotional behaviors to early school adjustment and kindergarten academic success. Results show that reliability of MPAC-R/S was as good, or better, than the MPAC-R. MPAC-R/S structure, at both times of observation, included emotionally negative/aggressive, emotionally regulated/prosocial, and emotionally positive/productive behaviors; MPAC-R structure was similar but less replicable over time. Age, gender, and risk differences were found. Children's emotion knowledge contributed to later emotionally regulated/prosocial behavior. Finally, preschool emotionally negative/aggressive behaviors were associated with concurrent and kindergarten school success, and there was evidence of social-emotional behavior mediating relations between emotion knowledge or executive function, and school outcomes. The importance of portable, empirically supported observation measures of social-emotional behaviors is discussed along with possible applications, teacher utilization, and implementation barriers.     

On My Becoming a Psychoanalyst

I describe my experience of becoming a psychoanalyst in Germany between 1997 and 2002. The article combines my personal criticism of certain aspects of institutionalized psychoanalysis and some established procedures within psychoanalytic training, which underline the need for more evaluation and more transparency within the institutes and associations.     

Role Satisfaction Mediates the Relation between Role Ambiguity and Social Loafing among Elite Women Handball Players

The aims of the study were to develop a questionnaire on self-reported social loafing (SRSLQ), and then to examine its relations with role ambiguity and role satisfaction in a sample of 110 women handball players competing at the elite level in Norway. Structural equation modeling analyses indicated that the SRSLQ was a psychometrically sound measure. In line with the expectations, role satisfaction fully mediated the positive relation between role ambiguity and self-reported social loafing: The more players experienced role ambiguity, the less satisfied they were with their role in the team, and the more social loafing they reported.     

Stereotypes and stereotyping: What's the brain got to do with it?

Influential social-psychological models suggest that perceivers frequently use information-processing strategies that result in the stereotype-based construal and treatment of other people. To elucidate in greater detail when, why, and how social encounters elicit stereotyping, researchers have begun to incorporate neuroscientific tools into their repertoire of investigative methods. The current article reviews these studies and considers their significance in light of existing theories of person perception, knowledge representation, and impression formation. Finally, using the concrete example of stereotyping, benefits and pitfalls of adopting a social neuroscience approach are discussed.     

Longitudinal Relations Between Theory of Mind and Metacognition and the Impact of Language

This study investigated the longitudinal relation between children's theory of mind and their metacognitive knowledge with a special focus on the impact of language on this relation. Measures of theory-of-mind understanding and metamemory knowledge were assessed in 133 3-year-old children at 4 measurement points separated by half-year intervals. Results revealed a somewhat more pronounced effect of children's early theory of mind on the change in metamemory knowledge than vice versa. This effect was almost independent of the time period under investigation as well as of earlier language and nonverbal competencies and socioeconomic status. Early language competencies had a direct impact on theory-of-mind and metamemory development and moreover indirectly affected metamemory development through children's theory of mind. The results of the study suggest that children's abilities to metarepresent together with their early language competencies are important in the acquisition of metamemory knowledge.     

Concurrent Relations Between Perspective-Taking Skills,Desire Understanding,and Internal-State Vocabulary

Recent studies suggest that there appears to be a similar developmental sequence in the understanding of mental states in both internal-state language and in standard theory-of-mind tasks. These findings suggest possible developmental relations between children's ability to talk and think about the mind. Two experiments investigated the concurrent relations between internal-state vocabulary and theory-of-mind abilities in 30-month-old toddlers. In Experiment 1, children's internal-state language vocabulary was significantly and specifically related to their concurrent understanding of others' visual and emotional perspectives and was less strongly related to desire understanding. Experiment 2 replicated and extended these findings by examining the link between internal-state vocabulary and visual perspective-taking and comprehension of own versus other's desire, controlling for general verbal skills. Children with a more developed internal-state vocabulary performed better on perspective-taking tasks. These findings suggest that labeling and reasoning about mental states are related abilities at the early stages of theory-of-mind development.     

No reason for identity: on the relation between motivating and normative reasons

This essay is concerned with the relation between motivating and normative reasons. According to a common and influential thesis, a normative reason is identical with a motivating reason when an agent acts for that normative reason. I will call this thesis the ‘Identity Thesis’. Many philosophers treat the Identity Thesis as a commonplace or a truism. Accordingly, the Identity Thesis has been used to rule out certain ontological views about reasons. I distinguish a deliberative and an explanatory version of the Identity Thesis and argue that there are no convincing arguments to accept either version. Furthermore, I point out an alternative to the Identity Thesis. The relation between motivating and normative reasons can be thought of as one of representation, not identity.     

Concurrent and prospective relations between attention to emotion and affect intensity: an experience sampling study

Theorists contend that emotional awareness is vital to being able to use emotional information adaptively. The extent to which individuals attend to and value their feelings, or attention to emotion, is a facet of emotional awareness. Little research, however, has examined whether attention to emotion affects the magnitude or intensity of emotional experiences. In the present study we examined the relations between attention to emotion and levels of affect in 53 healthy adults. Participants carried hand-held electronic devices for approximately 7 days and were randomly prompted eight times per day to answer a series of questions. At each prompt, participants reported attention to emotion, current negative affect (NA), and positive affect (PA). All findings presented were computed using multilevel modeling. Replicating findings obtained using trait-level measures, we found that attention to emotion was associated concurrently with higher levels of both NA and PA. We also found prospectively that attention to emotion at one prompt predicted a decrease in levels of NA, but no change in levels of PA, at the subsequent prompt. These findings suggest that emotional processes serve different functions over time and highlight the role of attention to emotion in affect regulation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved).     

Demonstrating knowledge: The effects of group status on outgroup helping

We examined, in two experiments, the notion that members of low status groups, more than members of high status groups, use outgroup helping as a strategic tool to demonstrate their group's knowledge and boost its reputation. In Study 1 (N = 103), we compared outgroup helping in response to requests for help with offering help. As predicted, participants' knowledge was positively related to outgroup helping in response to requests, but only among members of low status groups. Knowledge also predicted the offering of help among members of high status groups. The second study (N = 75) replicated the findings from the requested help condition and showed that the effect disappeared in a condition in which help could not reflect ingroup knowledge. Additional data support a conclusion in terms of a collective strategy to boost the ingroup's reputation by demonstrating ingroup knowledge to the outgroup. The implications for promoting outgroup helping in a salient intergroup context are discussed.