Effects of peer presence on sex-typing of children's play behavior

Effect of peer presence on the sex-typed toy choices of 3- and 4-year-olds was investigated in a repeated measures experimental design. Twenty-six girls and thirty-six boys were tested under three conditions: (a) alone; (b) in the presence of a same-sex peer; and (c) in the presence of an opposite-sex peer. Amount of time spent playing with three feminine- and three masculine-stereotyped toys was recorded. For both boys and girls, play with “sex role-inappropriate” toys was significantly lower in the presence of an opposite-sex peer than in the solitary condition. Across conditions boys exhibited less play with opposite-sex-typed toys than girls. Rate of play with opposite-sex-typed toys increased in successive trials for both sexes. These results indicate that the presence of an opposite-sex peer functions as a discriminative stimulus for avoidance of “sex role-inappropriate” play in preschoolers and suggests that preschoolers may have a history of differential reinforcement for sex-typed play in the presence of peers.     

Subjective contours and the Poggendorff illusion

Poggendorff illusions were generated by real edges, subjective contours, and various control patterns. Using both magnitude estimation and reproduction measures of illusion strength, it was found that subjective contours produced a reliable Poggendorff illusion. This clarifies previous reports which could not demonstrate a subjective contour-based illusion.     

Family and psychosocial predictors of obsessive compulsive disorder in a community sample of young adolescents

A two-stage epidemiologic study conducted between 1986 and 1988 in the southeastern United States investigated family and psychosocial predictors of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and subclinical OCD in young adolescents. In the first stage, a life-event schedule and a family adaptability and cohesion scale were administered to a community sample of 3,283 adolescents. In stage two, the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia in School Age Children and the Children's Global Assessment Scale were administered to 488 mother-child pairs. In multivariable models family cohesion was the only significant correlate of OCD (odds ratio=0.95, 95% confidence interval 0.91–0.98). Gender, race, age, socioeconomic status, guardian status, adaptability, undesirable life events and desirable life events were not found to be significant predictors of OCD in models adjusting for cohesion. Note of the above variables were significantly associated with subclinical OCD. However, separate analyses of the 41 individual life events indicated seven specific events were significantly associated with OCD or subclinical OCD. These findings are at odds with the theory that overinvolvement of family members is a risk factor for OCD, though an association with overly rigid family structure cannot be eliminated based on these data. Further exploration of family characteristics is warranted.     

Since she's my queen well I must be king

Conclusion Against the ideology of conflict in which uncompromising violence is the winning attribute in the contest for political supremacy and superiority, Plato seeks to balance the oppositions of masculinity and femininity evenly in the single soul, to rethink manliness and allow it to be a disposition developed out of gentleness as well as spiritedness, and allowing men to draw on feminine characteristics to construct a new ideal of human nature. Socrates, we have seen, argues that guardian natures must be both gentle and spirited, and that a harmonious tension between these traits is conducive to the good of the soul and the city. There is no equivalent re-evaluation of womanliness however, no interest in re-evaluating the female role in the generation of children, and no interest in re-assessing the ontological dependencies of form and matter and their relation to reproduction and identity. Plato complicates and allows variations within the logic of gender relations which privilege the male as ideal, but these moves could not remove that structural inequality. Meanwhile, real women continue to be born withsexed bodies on whichgendered meanings are already inscribed (in a variety of different ways as deformed, inchoate, and lacking specificity), providing the ground and matter on which a creative principle gets to work and produces children, ideas and meanings.Ultimately, reason is master of the self in service of which spirit and gentleness are employed, and the inclusion of feminine gentleness into that service is no threat to the dominance of patriarchal hierarchy; both conceptually and empirically, woman and women remain source and resource for the patriarchal order. Reforming gender roles and abolishing the patrilinear genealogy is Plato's well-intentioned aim, but his failure to achieve this is inevitable, I have argued, as long as a specific identity for woman remains untheorised and a maternal genealogy unrecognized. Unless the ideal human being is re-conceptualised, giving a specific identity and value to the different morphologies of male and female humans, ignoring gender will never allow women an equivalentvalue: for, if women may be queens, this necessarily makes men their kings in the ideal republic.A Jonathan Richman song.     

Category-Based and Feature-Based Cognitive Processes: The Role of Unfavorable Information1

Recent research on selection decisions suggests that favorable features (e.g., attractive physical features or positively-evaluated personality traits) can enhance ratings of applicant suitability, but little research has examined the impact of unfavorable features. Theories of person perception distinguish between two information processing strategies: category-based and feature-based. We predicted that unfavorable features would influence selection decisions only when raters used feature-based processing strategies. Results suggest that applicant features' prototypicality and favorability can compensate for one another, with applicants' negative features resulting in a disadvantage only when the applicant is perceived as nonprototypical.     

The relations between emotional understanding,intellectual functioning,and disruptive behavior problems in elementary-school-aged children

This study examined individual differences in children's emotional understanding and behavioral adjustment. Participants included 220 first- and secondgrade children (75% regular education, 25% special education) who were individually interviewed using the Kusche Affective Interview—Revised. Dependent measures of emotional understanding and experience included the ability to provide personal examples of 10 different emotions and the cues used for recognition of five emotions in oneself and other persons. Children were also administered the WISC-R Vocabulary, Block Design, and Coding subtests. One parent independently completed an Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist for each child. Results indicated that children who were rated as higher in behavior problems showed deficits in emotional understanding. Intellectual functioning was negatively associated with behavior problems and attenuated the effects of behavior problems on emotional understanding. Implications of the current findings for prevention and treatment programs for children with behavior problems are discussed.This research was supported by Grant PHS RO1 MH42131 from the Prevention Branch, National Institute of Mental Health. The authors thank Lisa Anderson and Dawn Kresevich for their invaluable help with data collection; Bob Beilke for his assistance in the development of the KAI-R coding system; and the dedicated coders of the KAI-R for their careful work.     

Aiding the parolee adjustment process: A systemic perspective on assessment

Addressing the mental health needs of inmates and parolees is a complex process. The authors have found a family systems approach useful in conceptualizing the complexities of the adjustment process faced by parolees. The inmate/parolee is embedded in a number of complex systems that present difficulties related to boundary maintenance, hierarchy struggles, and family-of-origin loyalties. The authors suggest crucial areas for assessment and some common dysfunctional systems dynamics that are encountered.     

Being a good witness: The roles of benevolence and working memory capacity in rapport’s effect on eyewitness memory

Prior studies suggest that building rapport with eyewitnesses can produce measurable recall improvements, but the underlying mechanisms of rapport’s possible effects on recall remain underexplored. The present study investigated two possible mechanisms for rapport’s impact: (1) improved working memory capacity and (2) increased benevolence. Participants (N = 105) viewed a mock theft video, followed by one of two possible pre-interview interactions: rapport-building or a control interaction. Next, participants completed measures of working memory, altruism, and benevolence (pre-interview and post-interview), before recalling details of the theft. Analyses revealed that, when controlling for the effects of the interaction duration and participants’ pre- and post-interview benevolence, rapport did not affect eyewitness recall directly. However, rapport building did increase benevolence measured after and associated with the substantive eyewitness interview, which in turn predicted more accurate and new details reported, and fewer subjective/other details reported. These findings support benevolence toward the interviewer as a mechanism behind rapport’s effect on eyewitness recall. Implications for investigative interviews in relation to benevolence and motivating reciprocation are discussed.