COGNITIVE AND SOCIOEMOTIONAL FUNCTIONING AT 4½ YEARS IN CHILDREN BORN TO MOTHERS WHO HAVE RECEIVED TREATMENT FOR SUBSTANCE‐ABUSE PROBLEMS WHILE PREGNANT

Cognitive and socioemotional functioning at 4½ years of age were examined in children born to mothers with substance‐abuse problems (n = 22) recruited from residential treatment institutions while pregnant, and then compared to children born to mothers with mental health problems (n = 18) and children from a low‐risk group (n = 26). No significant group differences in cognitive functioning were found, but the children born to mothers with substance‐abuse problems showed more caregiver‐reported socioemotional problems than did the low‐risk children, like the children born to mothers with mental health problems. Birth weight had an effect on internalizing problems at 4½ years and mediated the relation between group and socioemotional problems, although not when controlling for caregiver education, single parenthood, and anxiety and depression. At 4½ years, 7 children born to mothers with substance‐abuse problems were placed in foster care. These children had lower birth weight and higher caregiver‐rated internalizing problems. In addition to emphasizing the importance of the quality of the prenatal environment, this study suggests that families with previous substance abuse are in need of long‐term follow‐up to address socioemotional problems and enhance further positive child cognitive development. The foster‐placed children may be in particular need of long‐term follow‐up.     

Being a good or a just teacher: Which experiences of teachers’ behavior can be more predictive of school bullying?

In two cross‐sectional questionnaire studies with N = 2,931 German students, aged between 12 and 17 years (M = 14.1, SD = 0.5), we investigated the relation between students’ bullying behavior and their personal belief in a just world (BJW). We considered students’ personal experience of teacher justice as a possible mediator in this relation and investigated whether the students’ experiences of their teachers’ classroom management explained bullying behavior in addition to personal BJW and teacher justice, while statistically controlling for sex and school type. In both studies, multilevel modeling results showed that the more students endorsed personal BJW and the more they evaluated their teachers’ behavior toward them personally as being just, the less likely they were to report that they bullied others. The students’ personal experience of teacher justice mediated the association of personal BJW with bullying. Furthermore, the students’ personal experience of classroom management significantly predicted bullying in addition to personal BJW and teacher justice. The observed relations were mainly significant at the individual level. The pattern of results persisted when we controlled for school type and when we considered student sex as a moderator. We discussed the adaptive functions of BJW and implications for future school research and practice.

     

IMPLEMENTATION OF AN EVIDENCED‐BASED PARENTING PROGRAM IN A COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH SETTING

The process of mental health intervention implementation with vulnerable populations is not well‐described in the literature. The authors worked as a community‐partnered team to adapt and pilot an empirically supported intervention program for mothers of infants and toddlers in an outpatient mental health clinic that primarily serves a low‐income community. We used qualitative ethnographic methods to document the adaption of an evidence‐based intervention, Mothering from the Inside Out, and the pilot implementation in a community mental health clinic. Seventeen mothers and their identified 0‐ to 84‐month‐old children were enrolled in the study. Key lessons from this implementation include (a) the importance of formative work to build community relationships and effectively adapt the intervention to meet the needs of the therapists and their clients, (b) the importance of designing plans for training and reflective supervision that fit within the flow of the clinic and can tolerate disruptions, and (c) that use of an interdisciplinary approach is feasible with the development of a plan for communication and the support of a trained reflective clinical supervisor. These key lessons advance the scientific knowledge available to healthcare managers and researchers who are looking to adapt mental health clinical interventions previously tested in clinical trials to implementation in community settings.     

FOOD NEGLECT AND INFANT DEVELOPMENT

The impact of food insecurity on child development in the general U.S. population is well‐established, yet little is known about the harm of food neglect relative to other types of maltreatment. Due to the harmful physiological impact of inadequate nutrients and the social impact of food‐related stress, it was hypothesized that food neglect would be more likely to impair infant cognitive and language development than physical abuse, sexual abuse, and other forms of neglect. Families of infants (N = 1,951) investigated by Child Protective Services were studied using the second cohort of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well‐Being (NSCAW II; NSCAW Research Group, 2002). Results from multivariable logistic regression models that controlled for likely confounding variables showed that the odds of impairment in cognition and language were significantly greater when food neglect was the most serious form of maltreatment. Considering that both food insecurity and child neglect are associated with poverty and parental mental health problems, it will be important for child welfare and mental health professionals to work collaboratively to better the health of these vulnerable children.     

Aspiring to become a therapist: Personal strengths and challenges,influences, motivations,and expectations of future psychotherapists

Ten female students who were considering therapy as a career path wrote self-reflection papers and were interviewed regarding their career choice. Consensual qualitative research was used to analyze the data. These participants all indicated a passion for helping others, believed in the importance of giving back, and had prior experiences in helping activities. They considered themselves to have personal helping-related strengths (e.g. empathy) as well as challenges (e.g. avoidance of interpersonal conflict), and worried about potential problems they would encounter as therapists (e.g. being too emotionally invested). Participants expressed both other-oriented (e.g. to help others who had similar painful experiences) and self-oriented (e.g. to help self) motivations for wanting to become therapists. Implications for helping undergraduate students reflect about therapy as a career choice are offered.     

Two Kinds of Definition in Spinoza's Ethics

Spinoza scholars have claimed that we are faced with a dilemma: either Spinoza's definitions in his Ethics are real, in spite of indications to the contrary, or the definitions are nominal and the propositions derived from them are false. I argue that Spinoza did not recognize the distinction between real and nominal definitions. Rather, Spinoza classified definitions according to whether they require a priori or a posteriori justification, which is a classification distinct from either the real/nominal or the intensional/extensional classification. I argue that Spinoza uses both a priori and a posteriori definitions in the Ethics and that recognizing both types of definitions allows us to understand Spinoza's geometric method in a new way. We can now understand the geometric method as two methods, one resulting in propositions that Spinoza considers to be absolutely certain and another resulting in propositions that Spinoza does not consider certain. The latter method makes use of a posteriori definitions and postulates, whereas the former method uses only a priori definitions and axioms.     

Estética y constructivismo: filogenia,historia y vida humana

Resumen

Partiendo de una perspectiva constructivista se analiza el lugar de la experiencia estética en una teoría psicológica general y se discute el enfoque de la actual estética evolucionista. La psicología genética y la evolución vista a través de la teoría de la selección orgánica son dos de los pilares de este constructivismo, que no coincide con los constructivismos relativistas. Se describe primero el significado funcional y evolucionista del juicio estético, pero se subraya la existencia de rasgos específicos de la experiencia estética humana, que se focalizan en la progresiva conciencia humana de la muerte. De este modo, la experiencia de lo bello no se explicaría esencialmente a través de los “detectores de belleza” propios de la estética evolucionista, sino como proceso biográfico, históricamente contextualizado, de construcción del valor de las cosas, del sentido de los placeres y de la vida.     

Entrevista con Henri Tajfel

RESUMEN

En la entrevista de David Cohen a Henri Tajfel se repasan algunos aspectos de la vida y de la obra, así como las opiniones del entrevistado en torno a la Psicología Social del momento. El psicólogo polaco recuerda las casualidades y motivaciones que hicieron que se interesase por la Psicología. Reconoce a Bruner y a su escuela, el “New Look”, como la principal influencia y responde a cuestiones relativas a sus primeros años de formación, donde podemos apreciar la influencia que estos años tuvieron en la evolución posterior de su carrera profesional. Tajfel defiende una concepción de la psicología científica basada en el concepto de comprensión (“Verstehen”). El entrevistado mantiene una postura enfrentada tanto a la psicología más positivista como a la de los psicólogos humanistas. Los comentarios de Carmen Huici y David Cohen acerca del autor -uno de los principales responsables de la creación de una identidad de la psicología social europea- introducen la entrevista.     

Manipulación de objetos y comunicación en crías gorila cautivas. Nuevos comentarios para un debate inacabable

RESUMEN

Es este un artículo que trata de dar una réplica a uno anterior de J. C. Gómez, sobre la comunicación en gorilas que analizaba de forma crítica un trabajo del autor del presente artículo. Para esta réplica, se recogen los puntos claves del debate, como son: a) la manipulación de objetos en gorilas en particular, y los primates en general, b) la comunicación de los pequeños gorilas con humanos y c) la intersubjetividad secundaria en gorilas. Al final del trabajo se reflexiona sobre el futuro de la investigación de la conducta en primates antropoides a la vista de las divergencias que se han presentado en los diversos estudios con gorilas.