Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma: The Mediating Role of Parenting Styles on Toddlers' DSM-Related Symptoms

Although the intergenerational transmission of trauma has been well documented, the pathways by which trauma symptoms are passed between parents and children remain unclear. This study examined the mediating role of parenting styles in the transmission of maternal trauma to children. Participants were a sample of 105 mothers of toddlers (18–30 months old). Mothers who had experienced interpersonal trauma were more likely to have an authoritarian parenting style, including verbal hostility, physical coercion, and low nurturance. Verbal hostility especially predicted more prevalent and increasing toddler symptoms associated with affective, hyperactive, and oppositional defiant disorders. Thus, the verbal hostility component of authoritarian parenting could serve as a major intergenerational pathway between maternal trauma and early child symptoms.     

A glimpse is not a glimpse: Differential processing of flashed scene previews leads to differential target search benefits

The question of whether words can be identified without spatial attention has been a topic of considerable interest over the last five and a half decades, but the literature has yielded mixed conclusions. The present experiments manipulated the proportion of valid trials (the proportion of trials in which a cue appeared in the same location as the upcoming target word) so as to encourage distributed (50% valid cues; Experiments 1 and 3) or focused (100% valid cues; Experiments 2 and 4) spatial attention in a priming-type paradigm. Participants read aloud a target word, and the impact of a simultaneously presented distractor word was assessed. Semantic and orthographic priming effects were present when conditions promoted distributed spatial attention but absent when conditions promoted focused spatial attention. In contrast, Experiment 5 yielded a distractor word effect in the 100% valid cue condition when subjects identified a colour (Stroop task). We take these results to suggest that (1) spatial attention is a necessary preliminary to visual word recognition and (2) examining the role of spatial attention in the context of the Stroop task may have few implications for basic processes in reading because colour processing makes fewer demands on spatial attention than does visual word recognition.     

Visual attention and manual response selection: Distinct mechanisms operating on the same codes

In four experiments, participants made a speeded manual response to a tone and concurrently selected a cued visual target from a masked display for later unspeeded report. In contrast toaprevious study of H.Pashler (1991), systematic interactions between the two tasks were obtained. First, accuracy in both tasks decreased with decreasing stimulus (tone-display)-onset asynchrony (SOA)— presumably due to a conflict between stimulus and response coding. Second, spatial correspondence between manual response and visual target produced better performance in the visual task and, with short SOAs, in the tone task, too— presumably due to the overlap of the spatial codes used by stimulus- and response-selection processes. Third, manual responding slowed down with increasing SOA — reflecting either a functional bottleneck or strategic queuing of target selection and response selection. Results suggest that visual stimulus selection and manual response selection are distinct mechanisms that operate on common representations.     

Conflict management and job characteristics of nurses in South African public hospitals

This study sought to determine whether job demands and job resources predicted conflict handling styles among nurses within South African public hospitals. A convenience sample of 205 nurses were included (males?=?10.7%; age range 46 to 60 years?=?38.5%, experience of 5 years and more?=?70.8%, African?=?92.2%). They completed Rahim's Organisational Conflict Inventory – II (ROCI–II: Rahim, 1986) and a job characteristics measure developed for this study. Data were analysed to assess which job demands and resources predicted which conflict handling styles. From the results, time demands, crisis management and colleague support predicted the use of an avoiding style, whereas workload, time demands, job security, feedback and colleague support predict the use of the integrating style. Time demands and payment predicted the use of the obliging style, while workload, crisis management and payment predicted the use of the dominating style. The compromising style was predicted by colleague support. It seems from the findings that conflict is frequently predicted by time demands.     

Aspectual Shape: Presentational Approach

Aspectual shape is widely recognized property of intentionality. This means that subject’s access to reality is necessarily conditioned by applied concepts, perspective, modes of sensation, etc. I argue against representational and indirect-realist account of this phenomenon. My own proposition—presentational and direct realist—is based on the recognition of historical contexts, in which the phenomenon of aspectuality should be reconsidered; on the other hand—it is based on Ludwig Wittgenstein’s conception of aspectual perception. Moreover I apply some results from the area of logicophilosophical investigations called qua theory.     

Love and Eschatology

Abstract : This article reflects on the connection between Christian hope for salvation and Christian praxis today. Following a discussion of Christian approaches to hope, salvation, and reconciliation, the eschatological potential of love is explored in conversation with significant theologies of love in Western Christianity. It is argued that love, properly understood, offers the most adequate and dynamic horizon for approaching God's coming reign and for being transformed in the process.     

Differential dynamics of spatial and non-spatial stimulus-response compatibility effects: a dual task LRP study

Choice reaction times are shorter when stimulus and response features are compatible rather than incompatible. Recent studies revealed that spatial compatibility effects in Simon tasks are strongly attenuated when there is temporal overlap with a different high-priority task. In contrast, non-spatial variants of the Simon task appear to be unaffected by task overlap. The present study used the lateralized readiness potential (LRP) within a dual task design to elucidate the dynamics underlying these differential effects for a color and a spatial variant of the Simon task. In the color version there was no sign of early response priming by irrelevant stimulus features in the LRP. The color compatibility effect was independent of task overlap and reflected in the LRP onset latency. In contrast, in the spatial version, priming by irrelevant stimulus location showed up and was mirrored by early LRP activation. Response priming and the corresponding Simon effect, however, were present only in case of little temporal overlap with the primary task. The absence of spatial compatibility effects at strong temporal overlap suggests that response conflicts due to stimulus-related priming depend on the availability of processing resources.     

Do hostile attribution biases in children and parents predict relationally aggressive behavior?

Relatively little is understood about the role of hostile attributions in children's use of relational aggression with peers, or about the impact of family processes on children's attributions about ambiguous provocations. This cross-sectional study investigated associations among hostile attributions made by children, mothers, and fathers, and children's use of relational aggression with peers. The sample included 91 children in Grades 3-5 (43 girls), and their mothers (n = 90) and teachers (n = 88). Fathers also participated for a subsample of children (n = 53). Results showed that relational aggression is associated with a hostile attribution bias in children and parents, although findings varied as a function of gender of parent and child, provocation type, and informant of aggression. Overall, mothers' attributions were more closely related to daughters' attributions and aggressive behavior than to sons'. Implications of these findings for social information processing models and family-focused prevention of relational aggression are discussed.     

Steigerung des ?empowerment“ bei Angeh?rigen von schizophren Erkrankten

Objective

Enhancing empowerment is one of the aims of psychoeducational family interventions but it has never been examined in psychoeducational groups for relatives led by professionals. This study investigated the knowledge gain and the increase of empowerment of psychoeducational group programs for relatives in a naturalistic setting.

Methods

A total of 54 relatives of persons with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorders took part in a psychoeducational group program of 8 sessions. A short questionnaire was used to assess the empowerment before and after the group programs. Knowledge gain was measured with the knowledge of illness about schizophrenia questionnaire (WFB).

Results

Among the participants of the psychoeducational groups the level of empowerment was significantly enhanced and the knowledge was significantly increased (p?<?0.01). The improvement of empowerment was independent of the knowledge gain and did not correlate with gender, age, education or group attendance.

Conclusions

Psychoeducational groups for family members not only reduce the rehospitalization rates of the ill relatives but also have additional positive effects on the family members themselves: better knowledge of the illness and enhanced empowerment. The findings emphasize the importance of psychoeducational groups for the relatives of persons with schizophrenia.