Risk and protective factors associated with patterns of antisocial behavior among nonmetropolitan adolescents

This study used latent class analysis (LCA) to identify patterns of antisocial behavior (ASB) in a sample of 1,820 adolescents in a nonmetropolitan region of the Northeast. Self-reported ASBs including stealing, fighting, damaging property, and police contact were assessed. LCA identified four classes of ASB including a non-ASB class, a mild, a moderate, and a serious ASB class. Multinomial logistic regression indicated that parent-child relationships served as a protective factor against engaging in ASB and peer, school, and community risk and protective factors differentiated mild patterns of ASB from more intense patterns of involvment. These findings suggest utility in using the LCA to better understand predictors of adolescent ASB to inform more effective prevention and intervention efforts targeting youth who exhibit different patterns of behavior.     

Psychoanalytische Kompetenzen

The author presents a project trying to gain as transparent as possible criteria for a competent psychoanalytic practice. The project is oriented at David Tuckett’s (2005) proposal of tracing the implicit knowledge of psychoanalytic experts on quality and of making it explicit. Thirty written comments by experienced training analysts on candidate‘s case reports are utilized. A qualitative content analysis leads to the formulation and explanation of ten psychoanalytic competences. They are framed by a model that conceptualizes psychoanalytic practice by three steps: (1) perceiving unconscious material in a participant–observational frame, (2) reflecting it in a conceptual frame and (3) interpreting it in an interventional frame. The competences of the first frame involve the abilities of evenly suspended attention and abstinence, of working with the countertransference and with psychoanalytic interaction and intersubjectivity, the ability to establish an as helpful experienced relationship, the ability to tolerate and to handle anxiety, tensions and conflicts, and the ability to give psychic space and developmental freedom to the patient. The conceptual frame comprehends the ability to establish, form and end a psychoanalytic process, the ability to utilize theoretical concepts and that of selfreflection. The last but not least ability is related to interpretation in the interventional frame. It is not possible in this survey to characterise the competences in a more detailed way nor to add the indispensable vignettes in order to anchor the competences in practice. Some most interesting questions on plurality and competence in psychoanalytic work are raised.     

The Ethics Trapeze

This article constitutes the introduction to a collection of essays in volume 4 of JAE, representing an extremely diverse collection of pieces written by authors from equally diverse backgrounds with the purpose of sharing the theoretical and practical issues related to research-ethics, or on ethics more generally. All of the articles are fresh contributions to the research-ethics review debate. The 17 authors of the 12 articles come from the United States, South Africa, and Canada. Their disciplinary or research backgrounds include Aboriginal literatures, English literature, English-as-a Second-Language pedagogy, French literature, history, language and literacy, liberal arts, and linguistics – all fields in the cluster of the humanities. The volume also has contributions from social work, sociology, and speech pathology. The world of research-ethics review has become so pervasive that it invades all areas of research: it does not respect disciplinary boundaries. The articles in this special volume represent, in short, a microscope of the research world.     

Parametric coupling and generalized decoupling revealed by concurrent and successive isometric contractions of distal muscles

In two experiments we examined the hypothesis of transient parametric coupling during the specification of peak forces of isometric contractions produced by the left and right hand. In the first experiment participants had to produce bimanual contractions with same and different target forces as rapidly as possible in response to an auditory signal; target forces were cued visually with variable cueing intervals. At short cueing intervals reaction times were longer when different peak forces had to be specified than when same peak forces were cued, and this reaction-time difference declined as the cueing interval was increased. Independent of the cueing interval intermanual correlations of peak forces, rise times, and reaction times were smaller in conditions with different peak forces than in those with same peak forces. In the second experiment imperative signals for left-hand and right-hand contractions were separated in time. Target forces for the first response were cued with variable cueing intervals, while for the second response the cues were presented simultaneously with the second imperative signal. Reaction time of the second response was longer when target forces for the two successive responses were different rather than same, and this reaction-time difference declined when the delay of the second signal was increased as well as when the cueing interval for the first response became longer. These results are consistent with the hypothesis of a transient cross-talk between concurrent processes of peak-force specifications; in addition they indicate generalization of the decoupling required to specify different peak forces concurrently to the specification of temporal response characteristics and to processes of response initiation.     

Monkey see,monkey do: The effect of social influence on selective‐exposure bias

Selective‐exposure bias refers to the tendency to predominantly seek out attitude‐consistent information and avoid attitude‐inconsistent information. Although researchers have proposed and tested several underlying psychological factors that might contribute to this tendency, the potential role of social influence has not been addressed. In the present research, we address this issue. In four experiments (total N = 645), participants’ selective‐exposure bias was significantly reduced when the bias was portrayed as non‐normative (vs. normative). In Experiment 4, we obtained evidence for the possibility that this social‐norm manipulation could result in effects on attitudes through information selection. Overall, this research contributes novel evidence for the effect of social influence on selective‐exposure bias.     

Secure Attachment to God Uniquely Linked to Psychological Health in a National,Random Sample of American Adults

Relationships between religiousness and psychological health are well established. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate whether perceived relationship with God (i.e., attachment to God) or how people view God (i.e., image of God) account for variation in psychological distress and well-being. Statistical relationships between two attachment to God dimensions (avoidance, anxiety), two dimensions of God image (forgiving, wrathful), and general psychological well-being were investigated in a convenience sample (Study 1) and nationally representative sample (Study 2) of American adults who expressed belief in God or a higher power. In both studies, secure attachment to God (i.e., lower avoidance, lower anxiety) and religious service attendance were positively correlated with self-reported psychological well-being. Hierarchical regressions indicated that attachment to God dimensions account for unique variability in reported mental health even after religious service attendance, prayer frequency, God image and demographic variables were statistically controlled. Negligible associations were found between images of God as forgiving or wrathful and psychological well-being. Perceived relationship with God appears to be an important factor in the connection between religiousness and psychological health.     

Doctrinal Drift,Dance or Development: How Truth Takes Time in the Life of Communion

In recent ecclesiology, which highlights the value of diversity and dialogue and the difficulty of resolving complex issues, the concept of doctrinal development is sometimes reduced merely to the notion that we cannot be sure of things we once thought we knew. While affirming the need for ecclesial humility and uncertainty, the article insists that a truly questioning church is one that also has hope of arriving, eventually, at answers to history's new questions. Passages from Scripture, Augustine and J.H. Newman are used to show that in recent ecclesiological statements of the Anglican Primates, the World Council of Churches and the Catholic theologian Stan Chu Ilo commenting on the 2014–15 Synods on the Family, an imbalanced vision of a church of only questions – prone to doctrinal drift or ‘dance’ – has supplanted a proper vision of a church of both questions and answers, in which authentic development of doctrine is possible.     

The concept of the 50-minute hour: Time forming a frame for the unconscious

Abstract

The 50-minute hour is a feature of psychoanalytic work that is most commonly discussed in the context of case reports. This paper examines it as a concept. The author starts by describing the origin of the 50-minute hour and its development as an element of the psychoanalytic setting or framework. Next, he considers the significance of the clock as a relational factor in the session and reflects on the alienness of the time of day to the unconscious, and the consequences of this alienness. He then uses a clinical example to illustrate the phenomenon of the stretching effect of time in analytic sessions. Finally, the author demonstrates how cleverly the 50-minute hour excises the time needed for unconscious processes from our accelerated present; he shows that it challenges the social convention of time, and has a structuring effect in that it “times” psychic processes.     

The medium can influence the message: Print-based versus digital reading influences how people process different types of written information

While electronic reading devices are extremely popular, research is equivocal regarding their benefits for outcomes such as reader comprehension. Integrating literatures on reading medium comparisons and matching effects in persuasion, this research tested whether comprehension is maximized when the content of the material (e.g., whether it is traditional vs. modern) matches the medium (e.g., reading from a traditional book vs. digital e-reader). In Study 1, participants read a traditional- or modern-themed short story from either a book or an e-reader. Story comprehension was greater when participants read from the printed medium compared to the e-reader, an effect that was marginally moderated by story content, consistent with a matching effect. In Study 2, participants read a persuasive message that emphasized either a traditional versus modern solution to improving health in either a magazine format or on an iPad. Message comprehension was marginally greater among participants who read their message in a printed format. Participants’ interest in weight loss showed evidence of a matching effect – participants were more interested in losing weight when a modern solution to obesity article was presented on an iPad compared to a printed format. The results are applied to the study of reading and attitude change.     

Numerosity discrimination in deep neural networks: Initial competence,developmental refinement and experience statistics

Both humans and non‐human animals exhibit sensitivity to the approximate number of items in a visual array, as indexed by their performance in numerosity discrimination tasks, and even neonates can detect changes in numerosity. These findings are often interpreted as evidence for an innate ‘number sense’. However, recent simulation work has challenged this view by showing that human‐like sensitivity to numerosity can emerge in deep neural networks that build an internal model of the sensory data. This emergentist perspective posits a central role for experience in shaping our number sense and might explain why numerical acuity progressively increases over the course of development. Here we substantiate this hypothesis by introducing a progressive unsupervised deep learning algorithm, which allows us to model the development of numerical acuity through experience. We also investigate how the statistical distribution of numerical and non‐numerical features in natural environments affects the emergence of numerosity representations in the computational model. Our simulations show that deep networks can exhibit numerosity sensitivity prior to any training, as well as a progressive developmental refinement that is modulated by the statistical structure of the learning environment. To validate our simulations, we offer a refinement to the quantitative characterization of the developmental patterns observed in human children. Overall, our findings suggest that it may not be necessary to assume that animals are endowed with a dedicated system for processing numerosity, since domain‐general learning mechanisms can capture key characteristics others have attributed to an evolutionarily specialized number system.