Time perception in response to ashamed faces in children and adults

The present study investigated the effect of the perception of faces expressing shame on time perception in children aged 5 and 8 years, as well as in adults, as a function of their ability to recognize this emotional expression. The participants' ability to recognize the expression of shame among faces expressing different emotions was tested. They were then asked to perform a temporal bisection task involving both neutral and ashamed faces. The results showed that, from the age of 8 years, the participants who recognized the facial expressions of shame underestimated their presentation time compared to that of neutral faces. In contrast, no time distortion was observed in the children who did not recognize the ashamed faces or in those younger children who did recognize them. The results are discussed in terms of self-conscious emotions which develop to involve an attentional mechanism.     

Integrating advice and experience: learning and decision making with social and nonsocial cues

When making decisions, people typically gather information from both social and nonsocial sources, such as advice from others and direct experience. This research adapted a cognitive learning paradigm to examine the process by which people learn what sources of information are credible. When participants relied on advice alone to make decisions, their learning of source reliability proceeded in a manner analogous to traditional cue learning processes and replicated the established learning phenomena. However, when advice and nonsocial cues were encountered together as an established phenomenon, blocking (ignoring redundant information) did not occur. Our results suggest that extant cognitive learning models can accommodate either advice or nonsocial cues in isolation. However, the combination of advice and nonsocial cues (a context more typically encountered in daily life) leads to different patterns of learning, in which mutually supportive information from different types of sources is not regarded as redundant and may be particularly compelling. For these situations, cognitive learning models still constitute a promising explanatory tool but one that must be expanded. As such, these findings have important implications for social psychological theory and for cognitive models of learning.     

Predictors of treatment attendance among adolescent substance abusing runaways: a comparison of family and individual therapy modalities

This study explored and compared predictors of session attendance among substance abusing runaway adolescents and their parents using three manual‐driven interventions: ecologically‐based family therapy (EBFT), motivational enhancement therapy (MET), and the community reinforcement approach (CRA). Individual and family‐level variables, as well as time between intake and first session were used as predictors of session attendance. Adolescents (N=179) between the ages of 12–17 years old were recruited from the only runaway shelter in Columbus, Ohio. The findings showed that adolescents assigned to EBFT were more likely to attend at least one therapy session than those assigned to either CRA or MET. Fewer days between intake and the first therapy session were associated with higher family therapy attendance. Overall, individual and family factors predicted therapy attendance but these factors differed depending upon the treatment modality.     

Transition as Normative: British Quakerism as Liquid Religion

This article presents a consideration of the ways in which current Quaker belief and practice exemplify the condition identified by Zygmunt Bauman as liquid modernity. After a brief overview of Bauman’s thesis, we describe recent patterns of believing within British Quakerism within its socio-cultural context. While belief has been cast as marginal by scholars of this group, with the creation of habitus centred on behavioural codes or values narratives among participants, the way of believing within British Quakerism has rather unusual significance. An ortho-credence of ‘perhapsness’ maintains an approach to believing that is forever ‘towards’, with any truth considered to be solely personal, partial or provisional. From a rationalist liberal faith position, British Quakers have become cautious about theological truth claims that appear final or complete. They accept the principle of continuing revelation, a progressivist theology in which transition becomes sociologically normative. While wider Christianity may be in transition, British Quakers see perpetual modulation (liquifaction) of belief and practice as both logical and faithful.     

Perceived Risks and Benefits in a Text Message Study of Substance Abuse and Sexual Behavior

To inform ethical procedures for human subjects research using mobile health (mHealth), we examined perceived risks and benefits of study participation among emerging adults (N = 54) with drug use who completed text message assessments of substance use and sexual behaviors. Most participants reported comfort with participation and some reported perceived benefits, such as improved relationships. Perceived risks were infrequently reported, including negative emotions and legal or financial concerns. In conclusion, participants from a vulnerable population reported few perceived harms of participation in longitudinal mHealth assessments of sensitive behaviors. Researchers should continue characterizing participants’ perspectives on ethical aspects of mHealth research.     

Development and Psychometric Evaluation of the Father Engagement Questionnaire

While there has been increasing interest in promoting father engagement in parenting interventions for child wellbeing, both research and practice endeavors have been hindered by a lack of a measure of father engagement practices. This paper reports the development and evaluation of a comprehensive, practitioner-report measure of father engagement practices–—the Father Engagement Questionnaire (FEQ). Practitioners (N?=?589; 84.5% females; mean age?=?38.56) involved in delivering parenting interventions in Australia completed the FEQ, along with background demographics and questions regarding their own and organization’s practice. A separate sample of 28 practitioners completed the FEQ twice, with a two-week interim, to assess test–retest stability of the measure. Exploratory factor analysis revealed five factors corresponding to the measure’s five intended content areas: Confidence in Working with Fathers, Competence in Using Engagement Strategies, Perceived Effectiveness of Engagement Strategies, Frequency of Strategy Use, and Organizational Practices for Father Engagement. Each of these scales demonstrated adequate internal consistency reliability and test–retest stability. As the five scales appear to be related but distinct, it is recommended that the FEQ is used as a multidimensional measure of father engagement. In terms of predictive validity, higher scores on the Confidence in Working with Fathers, Frequency of Strategy Use, and Organizational Practices for Father Engagement scales were associated with a higher likelihood of practitioner-reported father attendance. The results provide support for adequate psychometric properties of the FEQ as a research and clinical tool for assessing and monitoring father engagement practices.     

Increasing the salience of fluency cues does not reduce the recognition memory impairment in Alzheimer's disease!

In Alzheimer's disease (AD), it is now well established that recollection is impaired from the beginning of the disease, whereas findings are less clear concerning familiarity. One of the most important mechanisms underlying familiarity is the sense of familiarity driven by processing fluency. In this study, we attempted to attenuate recognition memory deficits in AD by maximizing the salience of fluency cues in two conditions of a recognition memory task. In one condition, targets and foils have been created from the same pool of letters (Overlap condition). In a second condition, targets and foils have been derived from two separate pools of letters (No‐Overlap condition), promoting the use of letter‐driven visual and phonetic fluency. Targets and foils were low‐frequency words. The memory tasks were performed by 15 patients with AD and 16 healthy controls. Both groups improved their memory performance in the No‐Overlap condition compared to the Overlap condition. Patients with AD were able to use fluency cues during recognition memory as older adults did, but this did not allow to compensate for dysfunction of recognition memory processes.     

Teachers Matter: An Examination of Student-Teacher Relationships,Attitudes Toward Bullying,and Bullying Behavior

This study investigated the influence of student-teacher relationships and attitudes toward bullying on middle school students' bullying behaviors. Gender and grade differences were also examined. Data were collected from 435 middle school students. Results indicated that students' attitudes toward bullying mediated the relationship between student-teacher relationships and physical and verbal/relational bullying. There was a significant group difference on student-teacher relationships and attitudes toward bullying between bully, bully-victim, victim, and bystander groups and students not involved in bullying. In addition, sixth graders reported significantly more positive student-teacher relationships than seventh and eighth graders. Implications for the role of both cognitive and behavioral bullying intervention and prevention efforts are discussed.