The Role of Social Toxicity in Responses to a Slowly-Evolving Environmental Disaster: The Case of Amphibole Asbestos Exposure in Libby,Montana, USA

Experiencing a disaster has significant negative effects on psychological adjustment. Case study accounts point to two consistent trends in slowly-evolving environmental disasters: (a) patterns of negative social dynamics, and (b) relatively worse psychological outcomes than in natural disasters. Researchers have begun to explicitly postulate that the social consequences of slowly-evolving environmental disasters (e.g., community conflict) have their own effects on victims’ psychological outcomes. This study tested a model of the relationship between those social consequences and psychological adjustment of victims of a slowly-evolving environmental disaster, specifically those whose health has been compromised by the amphibole asbestos disaster in Libby, MT. Results indicate that experiencing greater community conflict about the disaster was associated with greater family conflict about the disaster which, in turn, was associated with greater social constraints on talking with others about their disease, both directly and indirectly through experiencing stigmatization. Experiencing greater social constraints was associated with worse psychological adjustment, both directly and indirectly through failed social support. Findings have implications for understanding pathways by which social responses create negative effects on mental health in slowly-evolving environmental disasters. These pathways suggest points for prevention and response (e.g., social support, stigmatization of victims) for communities experiencing slowly-evolving environmental disasters.     

Examining antecedents of infant attachment security with mothers and fathers: An ecological systems perspective

Taking an ecological systems perspective, early parent–child relationships can be affected by interactions between systems where some are more proximally linked to the child than others. Socioeconomic status, a distal factor, is associated with social functioning during childhood, but research on its association with functioning during infancy, particularly attachment, is scant and inconsistent. Moreover, it is not clear how distal factors affect infant functioning. Other systems such as marital adjustment and parenting may moderate or mediate relations between distal factors and infant attachment. The current longitudinal study (n = 135) examined the role of various systems – parental resources, marital functioning, parental sensitivity and involvement – in early infancy (3-, 5-, 7-months) on infant–mother (12-months) and infant–father (14-months) attachment security. Findings supported moderating processes but in different ways for infant–mother versus infant–father dyads. Implications for future studies and interventions are discussed.     

Cultivating a Sense of Place in Religious Studies

This essay analyzes student learning through place‐based pedagogies in an American Religions course. In the course, students analyzed cultural meanings and practices of regional religious communities and participated in sensory awareness and ecological learning in a campus garden. Embodied learning increased student understanding and appreciation of land‐based religious practices and epistemologies, and promoted multiple student literacies. In Religious Studies, place‐based learning is vital to the examination of the rich dimensions and expressions of religious experience. Across disciplines, place‐based pedagogies can expand and deepen text‐based learning, cultivate recognition of various ways of knowing, foster affective connections to the local community, and develop critical skills for addressing patterns of displacement and ecological denigration.     

The intricacies of verbalizations,gestures, and game outcome using sequential analysis

ObjectivesThe purpose of the present study was to identify the intricacies of verbalizations, gestures, and game outcome during competition.DesignThe behavioral research software Observer XT^® using sequential analysis was used to analyze our data.MethodParticipants were 34 junior tennis players with a mean age of 13.68 (SD = 1.8). Youth players were observed during 17 matches using the Self-Talk and Gestures Rating Scale and were examined by a built-in application (Observer XT^®) of mapping of verbalizations, gestures, and performance.ResultsSequences indicated negative verbalizations were the most frequently exhibited form of overt verbalizations, followed by positive and instructional verbalizations. Furthermore negative verbalizations for either the server or the receiver decreased the probability of winning a game and showed verbalizations from the server related to the receiver's verbalizations and game outcome, and vice versa.ConclusionsThe results shed light on how verbalizations and gestures interact differently according to the context, which may have important implications for research that has focused on verbalizations and has neglected gestures and contextualized performance in sport.     

Properties of hypothesis testing techniques and (Bayesian) model selection for exploration‐based and theory‐based (order‐restricted) hypotheses

In this paper, the performance of six types of techniques for comparisons of means is examined. These six emerge from the distinction between the method employed (hypothesis testing, model selection using information criteria, or Bayesian model selection) and the set of hypotheses that is investigated (a classical, exploration‐based set of hypotheses containing equality constraints on the means, or a theory‐based limited set of hypotheses with equality and/or order restrictions). A simulation study is conducted to examine the performance of these techniques. We demonstrate that, if one has specific, a priori specified hypotheses, confirmation (i.e., investigating theory‐based hypotheses) has advantages over exploration (i.e., examining all possible equality‐constrained hypotheses). Furthermore, examining reasonable order‐restricted hypotheses has more power to detect the true effect/non‐null hypothesis than evaluating only equality restrictions. Additionally, when investigating more than one theory‐based hypothesis, model selection is preferred over hypothesis testing. Because of the first two results, we further examine the techniques that are able to evaluate order restrictions in a confirmatory fashion by examining their performance when the homogeneity of variance assumption is violated. Results show that the techniques are robust to heterogeneity when the sample sizes are equal. When the sample sizes are unequal, the performance is affected by heterogeneity. The size and direction of the deviations from the baseline, where there is no heterogeneity, depend on the effect size (of the means) and on the trend in the group variances with respect to the ordering of the group sizes. Importantly, the deviations are less pronounced when the group variances and sizes exhibit the same trend (e.g., are both increasing with group number).     

Skill transfer specificity shapes perception and action under varying environmental constraints

Using an ecological dynamics framework, this study investigated the generality and specificity of skill transfer processes in organisation of perception and action using climbing as a task vehicle. Fluency of hip trajectory and orientation was assessed using normalized jerk coefficients exhibited by participants as they adapted perception and action under varying environmental constraints. Twelve recreational climbers were divided into two groups: one completing a 10-m high route on an indoor climbing wall; a second undertaking a 10-m high route on an icefall in a top-rope condition. We maintained the same level of difficulty between these two performance environments. An inertial measurement unit was attached each climber’s hips to collect 3D acceleration and 3D orientation data to compute jerk coefficient values. Video footage was used to record the ratio of exploratory/performatory movements. Results showed higher jerk coefficient values and number of exploratory movements for performance on the icefall route, perhaps due to greater functional complexity in perception and action required when climbing icefalls, which involves use of specific tools for anchorage. Findings demonstrated how individuals solve different motor problems, exploiting positive general transfer processes enabling participants to explore the pick-up of information for the perception of affordances specific to icefall climbing.     

Laying down a path in talking

This paper aims to provide a starting point for a non-representational approach to language. It will do so by undoing some of the reifying tendencies that are at the heart of the ontology of scientific psychology. Although non-representational theories are beginning to emerge, they remain committed to giving explanations in terms of ontological structures that are independent of human activity. If they maintain this commitment it is unlikely that they will displace representationalism in domains such as language. By following some of Wittgenstein’s remarks on language, I explain the phenomenon of reification by carefully considering the formative, situational flow of language—thus without invoking representations. In this way, the paper sketches a direction of approach for a non-representational theory of language, undercutting the most important assumptions that justify an explanatory ontology devoid of human activity.     

Infant effects on experimenter behavior

The present study explored experimenters’ looking behavior in a gaze-following task as a function of infant temperament. Two experienced female experimenters ran 62 15-month-olds through a six-trial gaze-following procedure in which infants were not distracted on the first three trials, but were distracted on the latter three trials by an Elmo video playing in the background. Although experimenters were trained to look at target objects for eight seconds per trial and were blind to infant temperamental status, both experimenters looked significantly longer during the non-distracted trials when infants were rated by their caregivers as high on effortful control or surgency. These results suggest that even experienced experimenters are susceptible to infant-driven influences. More importantly, these results highlight the importance of conceptualizing lab-based infant research involving human experimenters as, in Bronfenbrenner’s (1977) terms, representing the totality of a functional social system that does not exclude the experimenters.     

How does the manipulation of time pressure during soccer tasks influence physical load and mental fatigue?

This study aimed to analyze whether having more or less time to solve soccer tasks influences physical load and mental fatigue. 48 semi-professional soccer players, from teams in national leagues participated (M_age = 22.4, SD_age = 2.25). They carried out 2 sessions with 4 tasks in each session. In one session, there was more time available; in the other, there was less time available. GPS technology was used to measure physical load, and an adaptation of NASA and Visual Analog Scale to measure mental load and mental fatigue. A related-samples T-test and magnitude based on inference were used to determine the possible effect. Soccer players reported that tasks with less available time were more mentally demanding. Moreover, less available time to solve the tasks significantly increased players’ RPE and decreased their Heart Rate and external physical load. Therefore, the available time significantly affects mental and physical load and mental fatigue.