The relationship between emotional-state language and emotion understanding: A study with school-age children

We carried out an investigation with primary-school children on the relationship between both use and comprehension of emotional-state language and emotion understanding. Participants were 100 students between 7 and 10 years old (mean age=8 years and 10 months; SD=15.3 months), equally divided by gender. They completed four tests evaluating their language ability, use of emotional-state language, comprehension of emotional-state language and emotion understanding (EU) respectively. Significant correlations were found between both use and comprehension of emotional-state talk and children's EU. In addition, regression analyses showed that comprehension of emotional-state language, rather than its use, plays a significant role in explaining children's emotion understanding.     

Body image,dieting tendencies,and sex role traits in urban black women

The present study examined body image satisfaction, dieting tendencies, and sex role traits among a sample of black urban women. While women who felt “too fat” were more likely than other women to engage in both restrictive and nonrestrictive dieting tendencies, in general, the women's body weight and body image did not compel them to utilize extremely restrictive dieting practices. A sizable proportion of the sample reported body image dissatisfaction and weight concerns, yet this did not appear to exert an overwhelmingly negative influence over other aspects of their lives, such as participation in sports, exercise, and sexual activity. Body image satisfaction and sex role traits were related. Dieting tendencies were also related with body image satisfaction. These findings and implications for further research are discussed.     

Differential effects of age on prospective and retrospective memory tasks in young, young-old, and old-old adults

Remembering to do something in the future (termed prospective memory) is distinguished from remembering information from the past (retrospective memory). Because prospective memory requires strong self-initiation, Craik (1986) predicted that age decrements should be larger in prospective than retrospective memory tasks. The aim of the present study was to assess Craik's prediction by examining the onset of age decline in two retrospective and three prospective memory tasks in the samples of young (18-30 years), young-old (61-70 years), and old-old (71-80 years) participants recruited from the local community. Results showed that although the magnitude of age effects varied across the laboratory prospective memory tasks, they were smaller than age effects in a simple three-item free recall task. Moreover, while reliable age decrements in both retrospective memory tasks of recognition and free recall were already present in the young-old group, in laboratory tasks of prospective memory they were mostly present in the old-old group only. In addition, older participants were more likely to report a retrospective than prospective memory failure as their most recent memory lapse, while the opposite pattern was present in young participants. Taken together, these findings highlight the theoretical importance of distinguishing effects of ageing on prospective and retrospective memory, and support and extend the results of a recent meta-analysis by Henry, MacLeod, Phillips, and Crawford (2004).     

I Can't Get You Out of My Head: The Influence of Secrecy on Consumers’ Self‐Brand Connections

Although research provides anecdotal evidence of consumers keeping their brand consumption a secret, there is little empirical corroboration to justify its study or illuminate the resulting consequences. The goals of this research are to provide evidence for the prevalence of keeping brand consumption a secret and to understand the resulting cognitive processing and consequences. Specifically, we first explore the occurrence of secrecy in the context of brand consumption, its types, and its motivations, underscoring the need for further investigation. Then, through a series of three subsequent studies, we demonstrate that keeping brand consumption a secret can lead to enhanced self‐brand connections through the underlying processes of thought suppression and thought intrusion. We rule out alternative explanations and enhance generalizability through the examination of passive (e.g., avoiding) versus active (e.g., lying) secrecy and variations in agency (i.e., instructed vs. voluntary secrecy).     

We Are All Much More Simply Unsettled Than Otherwise: Reply to Commentaries by González,Rozmarin, and Tummala-Narra

In this paper I respond to the commentaries by González, Rozmarin, and Tummala-Narra and address some of the issues they raise. These are the themes of unsettledness, the anxiety of the immigrant as well as of the “native,” the experience of marginalization, and the topic of secrecy and privacy. I appreciate that I am included in this inspiring dialogue and have the opportunity to rethink my paper in the context of the current social and political frame.     

Maintaining Men's Dominance: Negotiating Identity and Power When She Earns More

This article examines the power dynamics in marriages where wives earn substantially more than their husbands based on in-depth interviews with husbands and wives in 30 couples. The results demonstrate how normative gender expectations constrain interactions between spouses and how spouses in these unconventional marriages struggle to construct appropriate gender identities that are more or less consistent with the conventional expectations that men should be breadwinners and women should be homemakers. These data represent an important counterpoint to the growing body of quantitative work that demonstrates that a woman's power diminishes as her income exceeds her husband's by illuminating how men's power is preserved within marriage, even in the absence of their traditional economic dominance.     

Associations between Maternal Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms and Parenting

Mothers of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are at increased risk for an ADHD diagnosis themselves, which is likely associated with impairments in parenting. The present study utilized a multi-method assessment of maternal ADHD and parenting to examine the extent to which maternal ADHD symptoms are associated with maladaptive parenting. Participants included 70 6–10 year old children with DSM-IV ADHD and their biological mothers. Results suggested that mothers with higher levels of ADHD symptoms reported lower levels of involvement and positive parenting and higher levels of inconsistent discipline. During observed parent–child interactions, maternal ADHD symptoms were negatively associated with positive parenting, and positively associated with negative parenting and repeated commands before giving the child an opportunity to comply. Given prior research suggesting that maladaptive parenting behaviors are risk factors for the later development of conduct problems among children with ADHD, these findings have important clinical implications for family-based assessment and treatment of ADHD.