An Extension of SIC Predictions to the Wiener Coactive Model

The survivor interaction contrasts (SIC) is a powerful measure for distinguishing among candidate models of human information processing. One class of models to which SIC analysis can apply are the coactive, or channel summation, models of human information processing. In general, parametric forms of coactive models assume that responses are made based on the first passage time across a fixed threshold of a sum of stochastic processes. Previous work has shown that the SIC for a coactive model based on the sum of Poisson processes has a distinctive down-up-down form, with an early negative region that is smaller than the later positive region. In this note, we demonstrate that a coactive process based on the sum of two Wiener processes has the same SIC form.     

Gender differences in subjective well-being, self-esteem and psychosocial functioning in adolescents with symptoms of anxiety and depression: findings from the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study

Derdikman‐Eiron, R., Indredavik, M. S., Bratberg, G. H., Taraldsen, G., Bakken, I. J. & Colton, M. (2011). Gender differences in subjective well‐being, self‐esteem and psychosocial functioning in adolescents with symptoms of anxiety and depression: Findings from the Nord‐Trøndelag health study. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology52, 261–267. Gender differences in the prevalence of symptoms of anxiety and depression during adolescence are well documented. However, little attention has been given to differences in subjective well‐being, self‐esteem and psychosocial functioning between boys and girls with symptoms of anxiety and depression. The aim of this study was to investigate gender differences in the associations between such symptoms and subjective well‐being, self‐esteem, school functioning and social relations in adolescents. Data were taken from a major population‐based Norwegian study, the Nord‐Trøndelag Health study (HUNT), in which 8984 (91% of all invited) adolescents, aged 13–19 years, completed an extensive self‐report questionnaire. Although prevalence rates of symptoms of anxiety and depression were higher in girls than in boys, a significant interaction between gender and symptoms of anxiety and depression was found in respect of each of the following outcome variables: subjective well‐being, self‐esteem, academic problems, frequency of meeting friends and the feeling of not having enough friends. These interactions indicate that the associations between symptoms of anxiety and depression and lower subjective well‐being and self‐esteem, more academic problems in school and lower social functioning were stronger for boys than for girls. Our findings may contribute to an earlier assessment and more efficient treatment of male adolescent anxiety and depression.     

Economic Hardship, Neighborhood Context, and Parenting: Prospective Effects on Mexican�CAmerican Adolescent��s Mental Health

This study examined family and neighborhood influences relevant to low-income status to determine how they combine to predict the parenting behaviors of Mexican-American mothers and fathers. The study also examined the role of parenting as a mediator of these contextual influences on adolescent internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Study hypotheses were examined in a diverse sample of Mexican-American families in which 750 mothers and 467 fathers reported on their own levels of parental warmth and harsh parenting. Family economic hardship, neighborhood familism values, and neighborhood risk indicators were all uniquely associated with maternal and paternal warmth, and maternal warmth mediated the effects of these contextual influences on adolescent externalizing symptoms in prospective analyses. Parents' subjective perceptions of neighborhood danger interacted with objective indicators of neighborhood disadvantage to influence maternal and paternal warmth. Neighborhood familism values had unique direct effects on adolescent externalizing symptoms in prospective analyses, after accounting for all other context and parenting effects.     

Six-Year Sustainability of Evidence-Based Intervention Implementation Quality by Community-University Partnerships: The PROSPER Study

There is a knowledge gap concerning how well community-based teams fare in implementing evidence-based interventions (EBIs) over many years, a gap that is important to fill because sustained high quality EBI implementation is essential to public health impact. The current study addresses this gap by evaluating data from PROSPER, a community-university intervention partnership model, in the context of a randomized-control trial of 28 communities. Specifically, it examines community teams' sustainability of implementation quality on a range of measures, for both family-focused and school-based EBIs. Average adherence ratings approached 90% for family-focused and school-based EBIs, across as many as 6 implementation cohorts. Additional indicators of implementation quality similarly showed consistently positive results. Correlations of the implementation quality outcomes with a number of characteristics of community teams and intervention leaders were calculated to explore their potential relevance to sustained implementation quality. Though several relationships attained statistical significance at particular points in time, none were stable across cohorts. The role of PROSPER's continuous, proactive technical assistance in producing the positive results is discussed.     

Behavioral Health Services ��Don��t Work for Us��: Cultural Incongruities in Human Service Systems for Alaska Native Communities

Community psychology emphasizes the importance of context in the study of people's lives, and culture influences this in profound ways. To develop programs that effectively address diverse communities' problems, it is essential to recognize how Euro-American human service systems are understood and responded to by the many different people being served by them. The article describes how some broadly defined social services-conceptualized and implemented within a Euro-American framework-are ill suited for the everyday realities of Alaska Native villages. The cultural discontinuities are illustrated through ethnographic vignettes. The article concludes with suggestions for developing more culturally-responsive ways to conceive of and do programming for Alaska Native and possibly other Indigenous and minority communities.     

From ��Water Boiling in a Peruvian Town�� to ��Letting them Die��: Culture, Community Intervention, and the Metabolic Balance Between Patience and Zeal

While the concept of culture has long been central to community psychology research and intervention, it has most frequently referred to the communities in which such work occurs. The purpose of this paper is to reframe this discussion by viewing community interventions as instances of intercultural contact between the culture of science, reflected in community intervention research, and the culture of the communities in which those interventions occur. Following a brief discussion of the complexities of culture as a concept, two illustrative stories of failed community interventions are provided to highlight the centrality of cultural and contextual understanding as prelude to community intervention. These stories, set 50 years apart, reflect the depth and pervasive influence of both the culture of science and the culture of communities. Next, a series of propositions about the culture of social science as a partial reflection of the broader culture of the United States are offered, and their implications for the conduct of community interventions drawn. The paper concludes with a series of recommendations which, together, provide an ecological mind-set for taking culture seriously in community interventions. Central to this mind set are the importance of focusing on communities rather than programs and emphasizing the intervention goal of choice over change.     

Mobilizing Communities to Implement Evidence-Based Practices in Youth Violence Prevention: The State of the Art

Community mobilization can increase the effective implementation of evidence-based practices (EBPs) in youth violence prevention. These strategies bring together people and organizations in a community to try to solve or reduce a problem. They help communities address the challenges of identifying EBPs, disseminating them to local decision-makers, and then implementing and sustaining them if they are successful. Science-based systems for implementing EBPs such as PROSPER and Communities That Care can help to integrate this complex work in communities. Further insight about implementing EBPs in youth violence prevention is being developed through the CDC-funded Academic Centers for Excellence in Youth Violence Prevention. Community mobilization approaches for seven of these programs are discussed, highlighting successful approaches and challenges encountered.     

Humor ability reveals intelligence, predicts mating success, and is higher in males

A good sense of humor is sexually attractive, perhaps because it reveals intelligence, creativity, and other ‘good genes’ or ‘good parent’ traits. If so, intelligence should predict humor production ability, which in turn should predict mating success. In this study, 400 university students (200 men and 200 women) completed measures of abstract reasoning (Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices), verbal intelligence (the vocabulary subtest of the Multidimensional Aptitude Battery), humor production ability (rated funniness of captions written for three cartoons), and mating success (from the Sexual Behaviors and Beliefs Questionnaire). Structural equation models showed that general and verbal intelligence both predict humor production ability, which in turn predicts mating success, such as lifetime number of sexual partners. Also, males showed higher average humor production ability. These results suggest that the human sense of humor evolved at least partly through sexual selection as an intelligence-indicator.     

The association between cognitive ability across the lifespan and health literacy in old age: The Lothian Birth Cohort 1936

Three hundred and four participants in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 study took a validated IQ-type test at age 11 years and a battery of cognitive tests at age 70 years. Three tests of health literacy were completed at age 72 years; the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM), the Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (S-TOFHLA), and the Newest Vital Sign (NVS). Participants who had a lower childhood IQ exhibited poorer performance on all three tests of health literacy taken in older adulthood. Relative cognitive change from age 11 to 70 and education were also important factors influencing performance on health literacy tasks, independent of childhood cognitive ability. It is important to understand the determinants of low health literacy in order to support individuals in managing their own health.     

The Big-Five, sense of control, mental health and fear of crime as contributory factors to attitudes towards punishment

Low sense of control (SoC), mental health problems and fear of crime (FoC) have separately and previously been linked to the Big-Five personality dimensions, but no study to date has sought to integrate these constructs simultaneously in relation to overall punitiveness. These constructs were assessed in 232 participants using an online survey to examine hypothesised relations between FoC and SoC, poorer mental health, Neuroticism (N), Extraversion (E) and Conscientiousness (C), and any resultant punitiveness. Measures were highly correlated, and an exploratory factor analysis summarised these as ‘instability’ and ‘crime attitude’ dimensions. A structural equation model found that high levels of N and poor mental health, as well as low levels of C, E and SoC were related to a latent variable of ‘distress’, which fed into heightened FoC. High levels of C further influenced FoC, which subsequently had an effect on individuals’ greater punitiveness. The current study supports the previous literature regarding variables that influence FoC and attitudes to punishment, and establishes novel associations involving personality.