Maternal and paternal infant representations: A comparison between parents of term and preterm infants

Objective

Research on parental attachment representations after preterm birth is limited and inconclusive. The present study is the first in which maternal and paternal attachment representations after term, moderately and very preterm birth are compared. In addition, special attention was directed toward disrupted attachment representations.

Method

Mothers and fathers of term infants (≥37 weeks of gestational age, n = 71), moderately preterm infants (≥32–37 weeks of gestational age, n = 62) and very preterm infants (<32 weeks of gestational age, n = 56) participated in the present study. Attachment representations (balanced, disengaged, distorted) about their infants were evaluated with the Working Model of the Child Interview (WMCI). To asses disrupted representations the coding of the WMCI was extended with the disrupted scale (WMCI-D).

Results

The three main classifications of attachment representations were not affected by preterm birth. In addition, there were no gender differences in the rate of balanced representations. In case of non-balanced representations however, maternal representations were more often distorted, whereas fathers showed more often disengaged representations. Results further revealed that maternal disrupted attachment representations were marked by role/boundary confusion or disorientation, whereas paternal disrupted attachment representations were characterized by withdrawal.

Conclusion

Given the gender differences it is essential to tailor interventions according to the attachment representations of the parent, in order to be able to alter their non-balanced and/or disrupted attachment representations.     

Extrapolation and direct matching mediate anticipation in infancy

Why are infants able to anticipate occlusion events and other people's actions but not the movement of self-propelled objects? This study investigated infant and adult anticipatory gaze shifts during observation of self-propelled objects and human goal-directed actions. Six-month-old infants anticipated self-propelled balls but not human actions. This demonstrates that different processes mediate the ability to anticipate human actions (direct matching) versus self-propelled objects (extrapolation).     

Análisis factorial confirmatorio de la Escala de habilidades sociales en universitarios chilenos

This paper presents a psychometric study performing a confirmatory factor analysis of Gismero's Social Skills Scale. A background review is conducted on evaluation tools generally used for social skills, and the general characteristics of the scale are presented for the tool studied. A review is also conducted on psychometric properties of this tool. The sample consisted of 1206 college students at the Universidad Católica de Temuco, Chile. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted using a polychoric correlation matrix, and the structure proposed by Gismero was analyzed. Reliability assessment procedures, such as internal consistency (Ordinal Alpha) and discriminant validity analysis, were also conducted using AF5 factors. The results show good internal reliability of the tool, suitability of the model to the data, and good discriminant validity. In conclusion, the Gismero's Social Skills Scale is considered as a suitable tool for assessing social skills in Chilean university students. A slight modification of the model structure in the second order factor level is proposed.     

Social anxiety and depressive symptoms mediate instrumentality and maladaptive interpersonal styles

This study sought to examine the relationships between stereotypically masculine (instrumentality) and feminine (expressiveness) personality traits, social anxiety and depressive symptoms, and three interpersonal styles of relating: destructive overdependence (DO), dysfunctional detachment (DD), and healthy dependence (HD). Based on theories of social anxiety and recent research on social anxiety and close relationships, it is argued that individuals with higher levels of social anxiety would display greater detachment and overdependence in their interpersonal relationships. Students at an Australian university (n = 524) completed a battery of online self-report measures. The findings suggest that low levels of instrumentality are related to social anxiety and depressive symptoms, which both mediate the relationship between instrumentality and the two maladaptive interpersonal styles of relating: DO and DD.     

Social environment elicits lateralized navigational paths in two populations of typically developing children

The current study provides the first evidence of human lateralized navigation of a social space within a naturalistic environment. We employed a quantitative, observational approach and report on a detailed set of nearly 700 independent navigational routes from two separate child populations consisting of over 300 typically developing children, aged five to fourteen years. The navigational path was considered across the sagittal plane (left, right) around three distinct target types (peer, adult and object). Both child populations expressed a significant bias for choosing a rightward navigational path around a human target (e.g. peer, adult) and no lateral preference for navigation around fixed, inanimate objects. A rightward navigational path provides an advantage for the left visual field and the right hemisphere, facilitating both the production and perception of social-emotion stimuli. The findings are consistent with evidence from studies of non-human animal species demonstrating that the social environment elicits predictable lateralized behavior, and support an early evolutionary delineation of functional processing by the two hemispheres.     

Collaborative mother–toddler communication and theory of mind development at age 4

Focusing on social pragmatics, this longitudinal study investigated the contribution of mother–toddler collaborative communication to theory of mind (ToM) development at age 4. At age 2½, 78 toddlers (42 boys) and their mothers were observed during pretend play. At age 4, children were tested using 4 false belief understanding tasks. Both mothers and toddlers engaged in more collaborative (inform, guide/request, and support/confirm) than non-collaborative communication acts. Other-focused collaborative acts of support/confirm by mothers and toddlers predicted children's false belief understanding, even after controlling for 5 covariates. In addition, as active agents in their own ToM development, the contribution of toddlers' collaborative acts to false belief understanding was independent of their mother's. Finally, the way toddlers and their mothers co-constructed their communication mattered. Only when toddlers engaged in high levels of collaborative acts, the mothers' high levels of collaborative acts demonstrated a positive effect on children's ToM development. The applied implications of these findings are discussed.     

Evaluations Versus Expectations: Children's Divergent Beliefs About Resource Distribution

Past research reveals a tension between children's preferences for egalitarianism and ingroup favoritism when distributing resources to others. Here we investigate how children's evaluations and expectations of others' behaviors compare. Four‐ to 10‐year‐old children viewed events where individuals from two different groups distributed resources to their own group, to the other group, or equally across groups. Groups were described within a context of intergroup competition over scarce resources. In the Evaluation condition, children were asked to evaluate which resource distribution actions were nicer. In the Expectation condition, children were asked to predict which events were more likely to occur. With age, children's evaluations and expectations of others' actions diverged: Children evaluated egalitarian actions as nicer yet expected others to behave in ways that benefit their own group. Thus, children's evaluations about the way human social actors should behave do not mirror their expectations concerning those individuals' actions.     

Not by Labor Alone: Considerations for Value Influence Use of the Labor Rule in Ownership Transfers

People often assign ownership to the person who has invested labor into making an object (labor rule). However, labor usually improves objects and increases their value, and it has not been investigated whether these considerations underlie people's use of the labor rule. We presented participants with third‐party ownership conflicts between an owner of materials and an artist who used the materials for some artwork. Experiment 1 revealed that participants were more likely to transfer ownership to the artist for low‐value materials than for high‐value materials, and Experiment 2 showed that this effect was further moderated by the amount of effort the artist had invested. A third experiment confirmed that participants transferred ownership more often if the artist's labor had increased the value of the materials than when it had added no value. These findings suggest that considerations for value underlie ownership transfers following the investment of labor.     

Do the right thing! A study on social representation of obedience and disobedience

The present research is aimed at investigating through a mixed-method approach the dimensions underlying the psychosocial constructs of obedience, disobedience and the relations between them. To this end, we consider the attitudes toward (dis)obedience being socially constructed, and we chose the theory of social representations (Abric, 2003; Moscovici, 1961) as the theoretical framework of this study.The data, collected on a sample of 190 individuals, allowed us to define these social objects, reducing both their complexity and polysemy.Obedience and disobedience were both seen by research participants as context-dependent behaviours, neither positive nor negative, per se. Also, both related to the concept of authority (individuals, institutions, and society). However, while obedience was mostly considered an uncritical response to laws, social norms or physical authorities, disobedience was defined as an active, conscious line of conduct. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Cultural determinants of status: Implications for workplace evaluations and behaviors

Status is a valued workplace resource that facilitates career success, yet little is known regarding whether and how cultural orientation affects status attainment. We integrate status characteristics theory with the literature on individualism and collectivism and propose a cultural patterning in the determinants of status. Four studies (N = 379) demonstrate that cultural orientation influences the tendency to view high status individuals as competent versus warm (Study 1), uncover cultural differences in both individuals’ tendency to engage in competence and warmth behaviors to attain workplace status (Study 2) and evaluators’ tendency to ascribe status to individuals who demonstrate competence versus warmth (Study 3), and verify that cultural differences in the effects of competence and warmth on status perceptions, and in turn performance evaluations, generalize to real world interdependent groups (Study 4). Our findings advance theory on the cultural contingencies of status attainment and have implications for managing diversity at work.