Developing Sexual Agency: Rethinking Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Theories for the Twenty-First Century

Neo-liberal society asserts that adults should be independent and responsible for themselves, and that children and adolescents should be dependent on their parents. The earlier construction of the concept of adolescence makes this seem obviously true. Yet if we remember that “adolescence” was part of a project of gender, race, and class construction, it becomes easier to ask whether adolescence is a meaningful concept and a stage of life or whether it continues to be a component of an ideology that relies on the construction of “others.” In this chapter, I suggest that adolescence plays the latter role, and that although the naturalization of adolescence is particularly dangerous for groups like queer youth who are at the margins of society, it is dangerous for all young people because it limits sexual agency. This is particularly important because increasingly society requires that young people consider their futures not from the assumption that they will move into well-defined roles, but with the assumption that they will need to define new ways of relating.

Adult attachment and spousal reactions to military deployment separations and reunions

We explored adult attachment and spousal perceptions of intrapersonal and relationship functioning during military deployments. In Study 1, spouses of military members experiencing a separation were assessed, and in Study Two, spouses of military members experiencing a reunion were assessed. Study 3 entailed a large‐scale survey of relationship perceptions of spouses of military members. In Studies One and Two, attachment dimensions were related to perceptions of intrapersonal and relationship functioning during the separation and reunion, with associations moderated by days separated/reunited. In Study 3, attachment dimensions were related to relationship perceptions, with associations moderated by deployment stages. This research not only contributes to the knowledge of attachment processes in military contexts but also has the potential to inform policies and services supporting military families.     

Applicability and attachment findings of the Strange Situation Paradigm in infants with visual impairment

Attachment studies with diverse populations enrich the understanding of infants’ socioemotional development by documenting both universal and idiosyncratic aspects of attachment. Given the effects of attachment in children's socioemotional outcomes, such studies are necessary to investigate the impact of children's sensory impairments on attachment development. Yet, very little attachment research has focused on infants with visual impairment (VI infants), a population in which infant–caregiver emotional exchanges through visual means are reduced/absent. We investigated the applicability of the Strange Situation Paradigm (SSP), with added instructions to compensate for degraded visual input, in 20 VI infants (with no additional disabilities and who were receiving developmental counseling). In all but 1 of the SSPs coded, VI infants displayed observable attachment behavior that was classifiable. Nineteen VI infants showed attachment by 12 months of age. Across the ages tested (fractional age range = 0.9–2.33 months), most VI infants’ attachment patterns were classified as secure and organized.     

An additional antecedent of empathic concern: valuing the welfare of the person in need

Two experiments examined the role of valuing the welfare of a person in need as an antecedent of empathic concern. Specifically, these experiments explored the relation of such valuing to a well-known antecedent--perspective taking. In Experiment 1, both perspective taking and valuing were manipulated, and each independently increased empathic concern, which, in turn, increased helping behavior. In Experiment 2, only valuing was manipulated. Manipulated valuing increased measured perspective taking and, in part as a result, increased empathic concern, which, in turn, increased helping. Valuing appears to be an important, largely overlooked, situational antecedent of feeling empathy for a person in need.     

Fear of Hypoglycemia and Self Reported Posttraumatic Stress in Adults with Type I Diabetes Treated by Intensive Regimens

This study investigated the prevalence of hypoglycemic fear (FH) and hypoglycemia-specific posttraumatic stress (PTS) among individuals with Type I diabetes. Over 25% of participants met diagnostic criteria for current PTSD. High percentages of participants endorsed PTS symptom clusters, suggesting that individuals may be experiencing distress without necessarily meeting diagnostic criteria. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that perceived threat of death from hypoglycemia and FH were significantly related to PTS. Number of recent hypoglycemic episodes did not predict PTS/PTSD. Depression and nonspecific anxiety did not contribute to the statistical prediction of PTSD, suggesting that symptomatology endorsed represents hypoglycemia-specific anxiety rather than global psychological distress. The hypothesis that greater PTS symptomatology would relate to poorer glycemic control was unsubstantiated. Perceived death-threat from hypoglycemia and nonspecific anxiety were the only variables that contributed to prediction of glycemic control, suggesting that PTS did not represent a significant barrier for glycemic control in this sample.     

Naming and categorization in young children: II. Listener behavior training

Following pretraining with everyday objects, 1- to 4-year-old children received listener training with three pairs of arbitrary stimuli of differing shapes. For each pair, 9 children were trained to select one stimulus in response to the spoken word /zog/ and the other to the spoken word /vek/. Next, in the look-at-sample category match-to-sample test, none categorized the six stimuli correctly when asked to look at the sample before selecting from five comparisons. Seven of these children failed a subsequent test of corresponding speaker behavior (tact test); following tact training, 5 of them passed either a repeat of the look-at-sample category test (2 subjects) or an alternative category test (3 subjects) in which they were required to tact the sample before selecting comparisons. The remaining 2 failed both category tests. Of the 2 who passed the tact test, 1 passed the tact-sample category test; the other failed to complete category testing. Two children were next given a second stimulus set. One passed the look-at-sample category test and the tact test; the other failed both tests but passed the tact-sample category test after tact training. The results show that 1- to 4-year-old children may learn listener behavior without corresponding speaker behavior. The results also show that common listener behavior is not sufficient to establish arbitrary stimulus classes, and they are consistent with the proposition that naming may be necessary for categorization of such stimuli.     

Induced biases in emotional interpretation influence stress vulnerability and endure despite changes in context

Previous research has shown that interpretation biases can be experimentally induced and endure for 24 hours. In two experiments, we show that induced biases not only persist but survive changes in environmental context, including transferring to different rooms with different experimenters. In one experiment, training and testing materials were also presented in different sensory modalities without significantly reducing the magnitude of the induced bias. Furthermore, we found evidence of changes in emotional vulnerability, congruent with the direction of induced bias, which also persisted for 24 hours. Together with earlier results, these findings show that induced biases generalize over contexts and have persisting emotional consequences, suggesting that appropriately adapted training methods may contribute to developing therapeutic techniques within clinical settings.     

Confidence and accuracy in deductive reasoning

In two experiments, we investigated the relationship between confidence and accuracy in syllogistic reasoning. Participants judged the validity of conclusions and provided confidence ratings twice for each problem: once quickly and again after further deliberation. Correlations between confidence and accuracy were small or nonexistent. In addition, confidence and accuracy were mediated by different variables. Confidence judgments appeared to reflect external cues, so that confidence was greater when the participants were allowed additional time to think about the problem, as well as when the conclusion was either believable or unbelievable, rather than neutral. In contrast, accuracy changed little as a function of the amount of time available and did not differ for believable and neutral problems. These data support a model in which initial decisions are made quickly, on the basis of heuristic cues, and analytic processes are used to justify or rationalize the earlier decision.     

Account-giving for a corporate transgression influences moral judgment: when those who "spin" condone harm-doing

Generating some types of accounts-justifications, excuses, or apologies--for an organization's harm-doing increases condoning of a transgression compared with generating denials or not having to explain a transgression. In Experiment 1. students (N = 324) were required either to explain a corporation's use of child labor to manufacture its products or merely to read about it. Explaining decreased condemnation of the offense compared with when no explanation was required. In Experiment 2, students (N = 101) either justified the corporation's harm-doing or denied that the corporation had harmed employees, with justifications increasing condoning more than denials. In Experiment 3, students (N = 113) either wrote an apology or wrote a denial, with apologizers condoning harm-doing more than deniers. Differences appear to be due to some accounts eliciting cognitive elaboration on the misdeed.