A multigenerational study on the correlation of values and advance directives

The development of the Values History instrument for use in advance directive decision making has raised the question of the importance of values in eliciting advance directives. This pilot study examines the relationship between the domains of values and advance directives drawn from the Values History in three generation intrafamily triads. Significant correlations between values and advance directives were found primarily within the youngest generation. Results reveal a relatively high familiarity by the participants of the various established forms of advance directives. Also, a significant percentage of parents and grandparents was found to have signed some form of advance directive.     

Seriators' and nonseriators' comprehension of comparative adjective forms

The relationship between comprehension of relational adjective forms and seriation ability was assessed for 60 children aged 4–6. Three groups, operational seriators, intuitive seriators, and nonseriators, were given a test measuring comprehension of affirmative and negative comparative and equative forms. Results indicated that operationals understood more forms than intuitives and that intuitives comprehended more than nonseriators. When age differences between groups were minimized, the latter but not the former difference was preserved. This suggests that significant growth in linguistic com[rehension accompanies the emergence of the ability to order objects by size. Analysis of errors indicated that nonseriators interpreted statements dichotomously and ignored the standard more than seriators. Findings help to clarify the relationship between linguistic and cognitive development for parallel underlying structures.     

Hand Position and Response Assignment Modulate the Activation of the Valence‐Space Conceptual Metaphor

Conceptual metaphor is ubiquitous in language and thought, as we usually reason and talk about abstract concepts in terms of more concrete ones via metaphorical mappings that are hypothesized to arise from our embodied experience. One pervasive example is the conceptual projection of valence onto space, which flexibly recruits the vertical and lateral spatial frames to gain structure (e.g., good is up ‐bad is down and good is right ‐bad is left ). In the current study, we used a valence judgment task to explore the role that exogenous bodily cues (namely response hand positions) play in the allocation of spatial attention and the modulation of conceptual congruency effects. Experiment 1 showed that congruency effects along the vertical axis are weakened when task conditions (i.e., the use of vertical visual cues, on the one hand, and the horizontal alignment of responses, on the other) draw attention to both the vertical and lateral axes making them simultaneously salient. Experiment 2 evidenced that the vertical alignment of participants’ hands while responding to the task—regardless of the location of their dominant hand—facilitates the judgment of positive and negative‐valence words, as long as participants respond in a metaphor–congruent manner (i.e., up responses are good and down responses are bad). Overall, these results support the claim that source domain representations are dynamically activated in response to the context and that bodily states are an integral part of that context.     

The Effectiveness of Using a Video iPod as a Prompting Device in Employment Settings

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of using a video iPod as a prompting device for teaching three job-related tasks to a young man with developmental disabilities in a community-based employment setting. The effectiveness of the prompting device was evaluated using a multiple probe across behaviors design. Results indicated that the introduction of the video iPod was associated with immediate and substantial gains in independent correct responding with an associated decrease in the number of prompts given from a job coach. In addition, the participant used the video iPod independently. Instructional implications and future research will be discussed.     

Child abuse in the early postnatal period: An atypical presentation

In cases of severe physical abuse of babies, the usual dynamics uncovered are a parental history of abuse and deprivation, lack of family support, extreme family stressors, bonding failure to the baby, and/or parental mental illness, including depression or psychosis. This paper presents four cases, from a sample of several hundred abusive families, that do not encompass the usual “abusive” dynamics outlined above. In all four cases, the abuse was perpetrated in the first few months postpartum, against a background of good physical care of the baby, an apparently adequate bond to the baby, and negative psychiatric findings in the abusing parent. The similarities within these four cases were striking, particularly the use of denial to deal with conflicts and long-standing difficulty in expressing any ambivalence in attachment relationships. An explanation of the complex dynamics involved in such cases is offered, and the difficulties in detection and intervention are addressed.     

Breadwinner Seeks Bottle Warmer: How Women’s Future Aspirations and Expectations Predict Their Current Mate Preferences

Contemporary women in Western cultures are often trying to juggle careers alongside personal and societal expectations for childrearing in an effort to “have it all.” We examine the effects of this balancing act on heterosexual women’s mate selection motivations. Across three Canadian samples (n?=?360), we tested concurrent hypotheses about the desirability of both similar and complementary characteristics in a potential mate. Specifically, women’s aspirations (to prioritize career over family) and their expectations for the roles they will most likely adopt within their future partnerships (primary breadwinner and/or caregiver) were tested as key predictors of mate preferences. Although specific effects varied across samples, a mega-analysis of the combined sample and an internal meta-analysis of effect sizes from the three studies provided support for both complementary and similarity motives (controlling for gender role attitudes). Women’s aspirations to prioritize career (over family) predicted greater similarity in mate preferences, such that they placed less importance on men’s parenting qualities, more importance on their access to financial resources, and preferred a career-oriented over family-oriented exemplar. However, women’s expectations of actually taking on the breadwinner role predicted greater complementarity in mate preferences (greater desirability of parenting qualities and a family-oriented partner; with financial resources rated as less important). Our work expands current understanding of women’s decision-making processes when selecting a mate and has implications for men’s changing traits and roles.

     

Gender disparities in common sense models of illness among myocardial infarction victims.

Symptom attributions were contrasted between male and female myocardial infarction victims (N = 157) who were comparable on age, cardiac risk status, medical history, symptom presentation, and other variables. Women were less likely than men to attribute their prehospital symptoms to cardiac causes. In the context of hearing symptom attributions or advice from support persons, women were less likely than men to report receiving a cardiac attribution or advice to seek medical attention. Results have implications for how victim gender influences the lay interpretation of cardiac symptoms.     

The Relationships between Individualism,Nationalism, Ethnocentrism,and Authoritarianism in Flanders: A Continuous Time-Structural Equation Modeling Approach

This article analyzes the relationships among nationalism (N), individualism (I), ethnocentrism (E), and authoritarianism (A) in continuous time (CT), estimated as a structural equation model. The analysis is based on the General Election Study for Flanders, Belgium, for 1991, 1995, and 1999. We find reciprocal effects between A and E and between E and I as well as a unidirectional effect from A on I. We furthermore find relatively small, but significant, effects from both I and E on N but no effect from A on N or from N on any of the other variables. Because of its central role in the N-I-E-A complex, mitigation of authoritarianism has the largest potential to reduce the spread of nationalism, ethnocentrism, and racism in Flanders.