Developing a culturally appropriate depression prevention program: the family coping skills program

Depression is a disorder that can have particularly deleterious effects on individuals from racial/ethnic minority and low-income backgrounds. Culturally appropriate prevention programs offer a way to provide accessible and effective mental health services to these underserved populations. The authors introduce the Family Coping Skills Program (FCSP), a novel depression prevention program developed specifically for low-income Latina mothers. The authors present the theoretical underpinnings of the FCSP and describe their efforts to make the program culturally appropriate and to enhance recruitment and retention of participants. Initial outcome data from an uncontrolled trial were promising and support continued development and evaluation of the FCSP and other similar programs.     

Individual differences in FFA activity suggest independent processing at different spatial scales

The brain processes images at different spatial scales, but it is unclear how far into the visual stream different scales remain segregated. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we found evidence that BOLD activity in the fusiform face area (FFA) reflects computations based on separate spatial frequency inputs. When subjects perform different tasks (attend location vs. identity; attend whole vs. parts) or the same task with different stimuli (upright or inverted) with high- and low-pass images of cars and faces, individual differences in the FFA in one condition are correlated with those in the other condition. However, FFA activity in response to low-pass stimuli is independent of its response to highpass stimuli. These results suggest that spatial scales are not integrated before the FFA and that processing in this area could support the flexible use of different sources of information present in broad-pass images.     

An outdoor 3-D visual tracking system for the study of spatial navigation and memory in rhesus monkeys

Previous studies of the navigational abilities of nonhuman primates have largely been limited to what could be described by a human observer with a pen and paper. Consequently, we have developed a system that uses a pair of cameras to automatically obtain the three-dimensional trajectory of rhesus monkeys performing an outdoor spatial navigation and memory task. The system provides trajectories, path length, speed, and other variables that would be impossible for an unaided observer to note. From trajectory data, we computed and validated a path-length measurement. We use this measurement to compare the navigation abilities of several animals. In addition, we provide quantitative data on the accuracy of a method for automatic behavior detection. Currently, the system is being used to examine the sex differences in spatial navigation of rhesus monkeys. We expect that measures derived from the trajectory data will reveal strategies used by animals to solve spatial problems.     

A Critical Reading of Jean-Luc Marion's Interpretation of Anselm's Ontological Argument

In this essay, I qualify Jean-Luc Marion's anti-ontological interpretation of Anselm's argument. Marion claims that the argument is not ontological but in line with Dionysian apophatic theology. To substantiate his anti-ontological reading, Marion suggests that the main regulative idea of the Proslogion is bonum. The final regulative idea, however, is gaudium, since gaudium, not bonum, leads the argument to the beatific vision. If we reformulate the Proslogion focusing on gaudium, we find that Marion's analysis misses the evident ontological aspects of the argument, such as the tradition of prayer and hermeneutics. Since Anselm promulgated the argument within the Benedictine tradition of Bec, the practice of prayer or meditation is the legitimate context of the argument. However, because of his emphasis on the structure of call and response over the ontological and hermeneutical aspects of revelation, his analysis neglects the importance of the hermeneutic relation within which the Proslogion is born.     

Mask-wearing increases present-mindedness

Besides health consequences, in what subtle ways do mask-wearing affect our psychology? In this research, we explored whether the experience of mask-wearing, like other disruptive visceral states (e.g., hunger), affects our time perspective. In two experiments (total N = 596), we examined if mask-wearing temporarily generates present-mindedness (more focus on present than future). Study 1 found that mask-wearing (vs. no-mask) lowered considerations about the future, which was mediated by a sense of stuffiness. Study 2 extended this finding and examined whether the effect spillovers to other time-relevant judgments, such as ideals about a good life. Again, when experiencing stuffiness because of mask-wearing, people were more likely to favor pleasure in current life than future life meaning. Our finding implies that concrete visceral experience (stuffiness) linked with the pandemic may shape our mind in subtle, unforeseen ways.     

Why Are You Doing Things for the Environment? The Motivation Toward the Environment Scale (MTES)1

This paper presents 4 studies which were conducted for the purpose of constructing and validating a new measure of people's motivation for environmental behaviors, namely the Motivation Toward the Environment Scale (MTES). The MTES consists of subscales that measure an individual's level of intrinsic, extrinsic, and a motivation for environmental behaviors. These subscales correspond to the different forms of motivation identified by Deci and Ryan in their self-determination theory (SDT, 1985, 1991). Results from the first study supported the factor structure of the scale and revealed a satisfactory level of internal consistency. Consistent with the SDT, the more self-determined forms of motivation were associated with more positive responses on the related variables. Implications for the manner in which the public could be encouraged to do environmental behaviors are discussed.     

Notions of Destiny in Women’s Self-Construction

What can women become? How is their becoming fashioned? What forces affect it? What sense do they make of their becoming? In this article the author aims to raise issues which pertain to women and their conceptions of destiny, and to consider these in the light of recent feminist analyses. Three issues are discussed: the ‘good woman’, or the impact of gendered norms and expectations upon women’s destinies; women’s self-construction and the possibility of women envisioning or creating their own destinies; and the becoming of the woman-subject, the desire of women collectively to accomplish their subjectivity as women. The themes of determinism and women’s differences are also considered.     

Connections Between BCK-algebras and Difference Posetse

We discuss the interrelations between BCK-algebras and posets with difference. Applications are given to bounded commutative BCK-algebras, difference posets, MV-algebras, quantum MV-algebras and orthoalgebras.     

Teacher practices associated with students' sense of the classroom as a community

Data from observations of 232 elementary classrooms and from student questionnaires were used to test a model linking teacher classroom practices to students' sense of the classroom as a community (assessed by questionnaire) through intermediate effects on students' classroom behavior. The model was generally confirmed and showed that teacher practices (emphasis on prosocial values, elicitation of student thinking and expression of ideas, encouragement of cooperation, warmth and supportiveness, andreduced use of extrinsic control) were related to student classroom behaviors (engagement, influence, andpositive behavior), which, in turn, were related to students'sense of community. Teachers' encouragement of cooperative activities appeared to be particularly important in this sequence. The appropriateness of the model was tested for schools serving populations that were both high and low in level of poverty, and all estimates of path coefficients were found to be invariant across these groups. Developmental Studies Center This research is part of a larger project that is being funded by grants from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; the San Francisco Foundation; the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; the Danforth Foundation; the Stuart Foundations; the Pew Charitable Trusts; the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; the Annenberg Foundation; Spunk Fund, Inc.; the DeWitt Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, Inc.; Louise and Claude Rosenberg; and the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The views expressed in the paper are those of the authors and not necessarily of the funders. We are grateful to the many educators, students, and colleagues who cooperated with us on this project and to several anonymous reviewers who provided helpful suggestions.