Validation study of the Questionnaire on School Maladjustment Problems (QSMP)

The aim of this study was to analyze the exploratory and confirmatory structure, as well as other psychometric properties, of the Cuestionario de Problemas de Convivencia Escolar (CPCE; in Spanish, the Questionnaire on School Maladjustment Problems [QSMP]), using a sample of Spanish adolescents. The instrument was administered to 60 secondary education teachers (53.4% females and 46.6% males) between the ages of 28 and 54 years (M= 41.2, SD= 11.5), who evaluated a total of 857 adolescent students. The first-order exploratory factor analysis identified 7 factors, explaining a total variance of 62%. A second-order factor analysis yielded three dimensions that explain 84% of the variance. A confirmatory factor analysis was subsequently performed in order to reduce the number of factors obtained in the exploratory analysis as well as the number of items. Lastly, we present the results of reliability, internal consistency, and validity indices. These results and their implications for future research and for the practice of educational guidance and intervention are discussed in the conclusions.     

The Impact of Depressive Symptoms and Health on Sexual Satisfaction for Older Couples: Implications for Clinicians

This study of 535 older married couples examined the relationship between depression and health and sexual satisfaction directly and when mediated by communication. The sample included 535 older couples who completed a survey questionnaire known as Project Couple Retire. Among the items in the questionnaire were measures of depression, health, perception of sexual intimacy, communication and other demographic information. Results from Structural Equation Modeling indicated that for women, health was a significant predictor of sexual satisfaction. For both genders, the results suggest that depression, when mediated by communication, is a predictor of sexual satisfaction among older couples. Implications for clinicians are discussed.     

Youth Experiences of Family Violence and Teen Dating Violence Perpetration: Cognitive and Emotional Mediators

This article describes a conceptual model of cognitive and emotional processes proposed to mediate the relation between youth exposure to family violence and teen dating violence perpetration. Explicit beliefs about violence, internal knowledge structures, and executive functioning are hypothesized as cognitive mediators, and their potential influences upon one another are described. Theory and research on the role of emotions and emotional processes in the relation between youths’ exposure to family violence and teen dating violence perpetration are also reviewed. We present an integrated model that highlights how emotions and emotional processes work in tandem with hypothesized cognitive mediators to predict teen dating violence.     

Rhesus monkeys (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Macaca mulatta</Emphasis>) show robust evidence for memory awareness across multiple generalization tests

The possibility that memory awareness occurs in nonhuman animals has been evaluated by providing opportunity to decline memory tests. Current evidence suggests that rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) selectively decline tests when memory is weak (Hampton in Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 98:5359–5362, 2001; Smith et al. in Behav Brain Sci 26:317–374, 2003). However, much of the existing research in nonhuman metacognition is subject to the criticism that, after considerable training on one test type, subjects learn to decline difficult trials based on associative learning of external test-specific contingencies rather than by evaluating the private status of memory or other cognitive states. We evaluated whether such test-specific associations could account for performance by presenting monkeys with a series of generalization tests across which no single association with external stimuli was likely to adaptively control use of the decline response. Six monkeys performed a four alternative delayed matching to location task and were significantly more accurate on trials with a decline option available than on trials without it, indicating that subjects selectively declined tests when memory was weak. Monkeys transferred appropriate use of the decline response under three conditions that assessed generalization: two tests that weakened memory and one test that enhanced memory in a novel way. Bidirectional generalization indicates that use of the decline response by monkeys is not controlled by specific external stimuli but is rather a flexible behavior based on a private assessment of memory.     

Different cues of personality and health from the face and gait of women

Redundant cues for attractiveness in humans have been identified, but the idea of multiple systems displaying different socially-relevant traits has yet to be extensively examined. We compared the accuracy with which observers could identify socially-relevant information of female targets, both from static images of their faces, and from point-light displays of their gait. Perception of extraversion was at chance. However, agreeableness and sociosexuality were more accurately perceived from the face than gait, while physical health showed the opposite pattern. This double dissociation suggests different information can be carried in different modalities. In addition, partial correlation analyses suggested that even when both modalities allowed accurate trait identification, the information content was different. Our results demonstrate that cues of different socially-relevant traits are communicated more effectively through different modalities, and these modality-specific cues contain distinctive information, supporting a "multiple messages" hypothesis.     

The pragmatics of defining religion in a multi-cultural world

Few seem to have difficulty in distinguishing between religious and secular institutions, yet there is widespread disagreement regarding what “religion” actually means. Indeed, some go so far as to question whether there is anything at all distinctive about religions. Hence, formulating a definition of “religion” that can command wide assent has proven to be an extremely difficult task. In this article, I consider the most prominent of the many rival definitions that have been proposed, the majority falling within three basic types: intellectual, affective and functional definitions. I conclude that there are pragmatic reasons for favouring the formerly popular view that essentialist definitions of “religions” are inadequate, and that religions should be construed, instead, as possessing a number of “family resemblances.” In so arguing, I provide a response to the view that there is nothing distinctive about religions, as well as to the recent claim that religions do not exist.     

Conceptual and Moral Development of Substance Abuse Counselors: Implications for Training

The relationship among substance abuse counselors' education, experience, recovery status, and cognitive development (conceptual complexity and moral reasoning levels) was examined in a simultaneous multiple regression. Significant relationships were found between counselors' level of conceptual complexity and moral reasoning and their education. Implications for counselor training are presented.     

IMPROVING RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT SERVICES: IMPLEMENTATION AND NORM-REFERENCED EVALUATION OF A COMPREHENSIVE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Ensuring effective service delivery by direct-care personnel in institutional living units for persons with developmental disabilities historically has been a difficult process, despite considerable attention from researchers, service providers, and governmental regulatory agencies. In this investigation, we conducted a normative evaluation of the extent and quality of treatment services currently provided in residential living units (Experiment 1) and evaluated a comprehensive management system designed to improve such services (Experiment 2). Results of the first experiment, encompassing 22 living units in three states, indicated that on the average two thirds of observed resident behavior did not involve any therapeutic activity. The results also provided social validity for the criteria used to evaluate the quality of treatment provision based on opinions of mental retardation professionals. Results of the second experiment indicated that a behavioral management program implemented during 23 separate time periods across five living units was accompanied by consistent and durable decreases in resident nontherapeutic activity as well as increases in specifically designated habilitative activity. The results provide support for the successful incorporation of behavioral management technology into human service settings on a large-scale, long-term basis.     

Pitch of infant crying and caregiver responses in a natural setting

The naturally occurring cries of 13 infants in a day-care center were tape-recorded and spectrum-analyzed for the peak fundamental frequency. Caregivers' responses to higher-pitched cries were rated by observers as more urgent, and they more frequently included additional attempts to soothe the infant. These results provide some of the first ecologically valid evidence that the pitch of infant crying is related to the urgency and nature of caregivers' responses.     

Preferences of infants for regular and distorted natural speech stimuli

The schema hypothesis proposed by Kagan (Science, 1970, 170, 826–832) andLewis (Developmental Psychology, 1969, 1, 75–86) was used to make predictions concerning the preferences of infants 3 to 14 months old for speech stimuli. An operant response method was used in determining the infants' preferences for inflected, monotone, and scrambled natural speech stimuli. Although the infants' preferences did not change with age as predicted, the infants produced clear preference orderings for the three stimuli. The speech preferences were interpreted as being based on stimulus variables (e.g., word order, inflection, and speech rate) in addition to the realism variables assumed by the schema hypothesis.