PATHS in Croatia: A school‐based randomised‐controlled trial of a social and emotional learning curriculum

This study represents the first rigorous evaluation of a social‐emotional learning curriculum, PATHS (P romoting A lternative Th inking S trategies; Kusché & Greenberg, 1994), in elementary schools in Croatia. This study randomly assigned 29 schools to receive the universal preventive intervention or continue with usual practices. Within those schools, this study included 57 classrooms and 568 children. Teachers rated nine child behaviours in the middle of first grade (pre‐intervention) and near the end of second grade (post‐intervention). Hierarchical linear models, nesting children within classrooms, revealed few changes in behaviour across the sample as a whole or among higher risk children. However, there were changes on eight of the nine behaviours for lower risk children. The findings are considered in the context of the classroom culture and teachers' preparation and readiness to implement a social‐emotional learning curriculum in Croatia. This study highlights the need to supplement universal preventive interventions with selective preventive interventions that can provide more intensive and targeted skill practice for higher risk children. This study also highlights the nuanced effects of a universal preventive intervention in helping different children in different ways.     

Playing at Being Gods

The present article commences analyzing the origins and influences of the religious discourse on the configuration of the modern constitutional discourse and the contributions of the jus-positivism in the consolidation of this sacred-civil language. The second issue is the definition of the U.S. Constitution as a mixed and not as a democratic constitution, with regard to the influences of Plato, Aristotle, Cicero and Polybius to the Drafters of the first modern constitutional text; stability and equilibrium took preference over democracy in a wide sense. I also analyze how the Drafter’s decision has conditioned the modern constitutional system up to the present.     

Two sides of the same coin: The differentiating role of need satisfaction and frustration in passion for screen-based activities

Rooted in Self-Determination Theory, the present research sought to investigate whether the “bright” and “dark” side of human functioning (need satisfaction and need frustration, respectively) would, as determinants, differentially predict harmonious passion (HP) and obsessive passion (OP) for screen-based activities such as Facebook use, TV series watching, online gaming, and smartphone gaming. For this purpose, four cross-sectional studies were carried out (N_total = 1,065). Results showed that, across all activities, need satisfaction was negatively related to OP, but not HP. A similar pattern emerged with need frustration: It was positively related to OP, but not HP. Moreover, even after controlling for the self-reported amount of time spent on the activities, HP predicted adaptive, activity-specific outcomes, whereas OP predicted maladaptive ones. These findings suggest that general need satisfaction may be a protective factor against the compensatory function of OP, but need frustration may be a potential risk factor of OP and both should be taken into account in the case of passion for screen-based activities.     

Understanding Prosodic Focus Marking in Mandarin Chinese: Data from Children and Adults

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research - This study investigated whether Mandarin speakers interpret prosodic information as focus markers in a sentence-picture verification task. Previous production...     

Orbitofrontal dysfunction in multiple sclerosis: Iowa Gambling Task

Cognitive dysfunction has been widely studied in multiple sclerosis (MS), however decision-making has been less investigated. The current study examined the decision-making processes of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) using a computerized version of the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). This task was applied to 18 patients with clinically diagnosed MS and 18 healthy control subjects matched for age, sex, and years of education. The results showed that IGT scores differ significantly between patients with MS and the healthy control subjects: the patients with MS made significantly less advantageous decisions than the controls in the IGT. Possible causes of impaired decision-making in multiple sclerosis are discussed.     

Authority-based Argumentative Strategies: A Model for their Evaluation

In this paper, I try to develop an informal model for the analysis and evaluation of argumentative strategies based on active authorities. The explanations necessary to understand the idea of the model and what is modelled are given through the development of the paper. I first give an example of argumentative activities. After that, the main assumption of the model is given. In the third part, the relevant aspects of the argumentative activity are analysed, while the principles of the evaluation are explained in the fourth part. The informal model is presented in the fifth part. In the final remarks, the suggestions for further work are given, as well as a comparison with some related recent works in argumentation theory.     

Decreasing Infant Mortality as a Global Demographic Change: A Challenge to Psychology

Decreasing infant mortality is taken up as a demographic phenomenon which constitutes one aspect of a broader conceptualization of “Global Change”. At the root of the global environmental problems faced today is the population issue. With sharp increases in the rates of infant and child survival, the question of what happens to those who survive assumes greater importance. With new policy shifts focusing on early childhood care and development, psychologists' expertise is now being called upon. Psychological knowledge is required especially in the cross-culturally valid conceptualization and assessment of human development. When made applicable to large numbers of children and parents, such knowledge can be used for detection and screening of risk cases and for establishing the environmental factors promoting psychosocial development.     

A cut-free gentzen-type system for the logic of the weak law of excluded middle

The logic of the weak law of excluded middleKC _p is obtained by adding the formula A A as an axiom scheme to Heyting's intuitionistic logicH _p . A cut-free sequent calculus for this logic is given. As the consequences of the cut-elimination theorem, we get the decidability of the propositional part of this calculus, its separability, equality of the negationless fragments ofKC _p andH _p , interpolation theorems and so on. From the proof-theoretical point of view, the formulation presented in this paper makes clearer the relations betweenKC _p ,H _p , and the classical logic. In the end, an interpretation of classical propositional logic in the propositional part ofKC _p is given.     

Attitudes toward physical education and class preferences of Turkish adolescents in terms of school gender composition

The purpose of this study was to examine attitudes toward physical education (PE and PE class preferences of high school Turkish students in terms of school gender composition; 213 girls and 249 boys from coeducational public schools, and 196 girls and 210 boys from single-sex vocational schools participated in the study. The Attitudes Toward Physical Education Scale was administered and the results of 2 x 2 (Gender x School Type) ANOVA indicated that students in coeducational schools in general, and boys had more favorable attitudes. Additionally, chi-square analysis demonstrated significant differences in PE class preferences between students from single-sex and coeducational schools and between girls and boys.