Negative emotionality,attachment quality,and behavior problems in early childhood

Negative emotionality, as well as attachment security and disorganization, are seen as major contributors to social adjustment and maladjustment in childhood. However, relatively little is known about whether infant negative emotionality and attachment quality operate together to affect developing behavior problems. The present study thus aims to contribute to this question. Participants were 64 healthy firstborn children and their primary caregivers. Negative emotionality was assessed at the infant ages of 4, 8, and 12 months using laboratory routines. At 18 months, the Strange Situation procedure was conducted to assess infant attachment security and disorganization, and at 30 months, the child's behavior problems were assessed within a structured clinical interview. Attachment security and attachment disorganization were significantly associated with subsequent behavior problems. There was no significant relation between infant negative emotionality and behavior problems. However, there were indications of a stronger association between attachment disorganization and behavior problems in infants high in negative emotionality. The results underpin the importance of attachment quality as well as negative emotionality in social adjustment. Disorganized attachment precedes poor adjustment, especially in infants high in negative emotionality.     

On the Overuse and Misuse of Mediation Analysis: It May Be a Matter of Timing

Kenny (2008) credited Hyman (1955 Hyman, H. (1955). Survey design and analysis: Principles, cases and procedures. Glencoe, IL: The Free Press. [Google Scholar]) with originally discussing mediation analysis under the name elaboration. Of importance, Hyman's elaboration required a time-ordered relationship among variables, such that the mediator must always intervene in time between the predictor and outcome. However, in the modern discussions of mediation (e.g., Baron & Kenny, 1986 Baron, R., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator–mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1173–1182. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.51.6.1173[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Preacher & Hayes, 2004 Preacher, K. J., & Hayes, A. F. (2004). SPSS and SAS procedures for estimating indirect effects in simple mediation models. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 36, 717–731. doi:10.3758/bf03206553[Crossref], [PubMed] , [Google Scholar]), this crucial point about time-ordered relationships appears to be underemphasized. This article shows that by employing a conceptual timing criterion for all mediation analyses, the overuse of this technique can be curbed, and, simultaneously, researchers will understand when mediation analyses are appropriate across the behavioral and medical science literatures.     

A differentiating empirical linguistic analysis of dreamer activity in reports of EEG-controlled REM-dreams and hypnagogic hallucinations

We present Activity Analysis as a new method for the quantification of subjective reports of altered states of consciousness with regard to the indicated level of simulated motor activity. Empirical linguistic activity analysis was conducted with dream reports conceived immediately after EEG-controlled periods of hypnagogic hallucinations and REM-sleep in the sleep laboratory. Reports of REM-dreams exhibited a significantly higher level of simulated physical dreamer activity, while hypnagogic hallucinations appear to be experienced mostly from the point of passive observer. This study lays the groundwork for clinical research on the level of simulated activity in pathologically altered states of subjective experience, for example in the REM-dreams of clinically depressed patients, or in intrusions and dreams of patients diagnosed with PTSD.     

The impact of prenatal serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SRI) antidepressant exposure and maternal mood on mother–infant interactions at 3 months of age

Exposure to maternal depression increases risks for altered mother–infant interactions. Serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SRI) antidepressants are increasingly prescribed to manage antenatal maternal illness. The impact of SRIs on early mother–infant interactions was unknown. Three-month-old infants of 32 depressed mothers treated with SRI medications during pregnancy and 43 non-medicated mothers were studied. Using an established face-to-face mother–infant interaction paradigm, dyad interactions were studied with and without a toy. Videotaped sessions yielded 4 measures: maternal sensitivity, dyadic organization, infant readiness to interact, and maternal interruptive behaviors. Even with prenatal SRI treatment, depressed mothers interrupted their infants more during toy play. In the absence of prenatal SRI treatment, maternal postnatal depression adversely influenced infant behavior. Higher levels of maternal depression symptoms at 3 months predicted poorer infant readiness to interact during the toy session. Conversely, in the SRI-exposed group, higher prenatal depression scores predicted greater infant readiness to interact at 3 months. Increased infant readiness with SRI exposure suggests a “fetal programming effect” whereby prenatal maternal mood disturbances shaped a future response to a postnatal depressed maternal environment.     

The Emergence of Sex

Biological traits, the foci of natural selection, are by definition emergent from the genes, proteins, and other “nothing-buts” that constitute them. Moreover, and with the exception of recently emergent “spandrels,” each can be accorded a teleological dimension—each is “for” some purpose conducive to an organism's continuation. Sex, which is “for” the generation of recombinant genomes, may be one of the most ancient and ubiquitous traits in biology. In the course of its evolution, many additional traits, such as gender and nurture, have emerged. Patterns of sexual exchange are the basis for patterns of biological evolution and are central to the process of eukaryotic speciation. Human sexuality is central to our selves.     

Mothers with depressive symptoms: cross-situational consistency and temporal stability of their parenting behavior

In the present study, it has been hypothesized that anxious and depressed mothers may show less typical behavior in a laboratory observational setting because they may be more affected by unfamiliarity and the social evaluative meaning of the situation. They may thus show low consistency across laboratory and home assessments. A sample of 101 mother-infant pairs participated in the longitudinal study. Laboratory and home observations of mother-infant interaction episodes were conducted at the infant ages of 4, 8, and 12 months. Consistent with expectations, at 4 months the association between laboratory- and home-assessed maternal sensitivity was significantly moderated by maternal depression/anxiety: in highly anxious/depressed mothers the association between laboratory- and home-assessed sensitivity was weak, whereas a strong association was found in mothers with low anxiety/depression. At 8 months this interaction was still marginally significant and at 12 months it had disappeared. Thus, mothers with depressive symptoms showed less consistent behavior across the two settings of the first assessment wave, and with increased familiarity with the procedures of the longitudinal study, their behavioral consistency increased and no longer differed from that of well mothers.     

Gender Role Self-Concept and Gender-Typed Communication Behavior in Mixed-Sex and Same-Sex Dyads

The focus of this study was the relation between both gender role self-concept and gender role attitudes with gender-related behavior of interacting partners. We observed gender-typed communication behaviors of mixed-sex and same-sex dyads and measured gender role self-concept and gender role attitudes. Thirty mixed-sex dyads, 19 women dyads, and 15 men dyads participated in a behavior observation study. The results revealed that the activation of gender role self-concept varies depending on the gender of the interacting people. Furthermore, we found that context and gender of the interacting persons moderated the relation between self-concept and behavior. Participants' gender role attitudes did not correlate with their own behaviors but did with their partners' behaviors.     

From Biology to Consciousness to Morality

Abstract. Social animals are provisioned with prosocial orientations that operate to transcend self‐interest. Morality, as used here, describes human versions of such orientations. We explore the evolutionary antecedents of morality in the context of emergentism, giving considerable attention to the biological traits that undergird awareness and our emergent human forms of mind. We suggest that our moral frames of mind emerge from our primate prosocial capacities, transfigured and valenced by our symbolic languages, cultures, and religions.     

What elicits third-party anger? The effects of moral violation and others’ outcome on anger and compassion

People often get angry when they perceive an injustice that affects others but not themselves. In two studies, we investigated the elicitation of third-party anger by varying moral violation and others’ outcome presented in newspaper articles. We found that anger was highly contingent on the moral violation. Others’ outcome, although relevant for compassion, were not significantly relevant for anger (Study 1 and Study 2a) or less relevant for anger than for compassion (Study 2b). This indicates that people can be morally outraged: anger can be elicited by a perceived violation of moral values alone, independent of the harm done. A severe negative consequence for others is not necessary to elicit anger.