Initial Reliability and Validity of the Life Satisfaction Scale for Problem Youth in a Sample of Drug Abusing and Conduct Disordered Youth

Responses to Life Satisfaction Scale for Problem Youth (LSSPY) items were examined in a sample of 193 substance abusing and conduct disordered adolescents. In responding to the LSSPY, youth endorse their percentage of happiness (0 to 100%) in twelve domains (i.e., friendships, family, school, employment/work, fun activities, appearance, sex life/dating, use of drugs, use of alcohol, money/material possessions, transportation, control of one's life). Results indicated that the LSSPY yielded three factor structures (i.e., Social Satisfaction, External Obligations Satisfaction, Substance Use Satisfaction), demonstrated good initial psychometric properties, and appears to be a useful instrument in the evaluation of treatment outcome in problem youth. Males were more satisfied in the Social and External Obligations domains than females, although no gender differences were indicated in Substance Use Satisfaction. Caucasian, African-American, and Hispanic youths responded to LSSPY items similarly. Future directions are discussed in light of these results.     

初中生饮酒期望及其与饮酒行为关系的研究

本研究通过对 1 73 4名初中生的问卷测查 ,考察了当前初中生饮酒期望的性别和年级差异 ,并进一步探讨了饮酒期望与饮酒行为之间的关系。结果表明 :( 1 )初中男生的饮酒积极期望和女生相比没有明显差异 ,但饮酒的消极期望显著低于女生 ;( 2 )随着年级的升高 ,初中生的饮酒积极期望和消极期望都呈降低的趋势 ;( 3 )性别、年级、饮酒积极期望和饮酒消极期望对于饮酒行为都有显著的作用 ,饮酒消极期望对于饮酒行为的解释率要高于饮酒积极期望 ;( 4)饮酒消极期望对于饮酒积极期望和饮酒行为的关系有重要的调节作用。     

Utilizing Family Strengths and Resilience: Integrative Family and Systems Treatment with Children and Adolescents with Severe Emotional and Behavioral Problems

Community mental health agencies are consistently challenged to provide realistic and effective home-based family-centered treatment that meets local needs and can realistically fit within available budget and resource capabilities. Integrated Family and Systems Treatment (I-FAST) is developed based on existing evidence-based approaches for working with at-risk children, adolescents, and families and a strengths perspective. I-FAST identified 3 evidence-based, core treatment components and integrated them into a coherent treatment protocol; this is done in a way that builds on and is integrated with mental health agencies' existing expertise in home-based treatment. This is an intervention development study in which we conducted an initial feasibility trial of I-FAST for treating families with children at risk of out-of-home placement. The outcomes of the study provide initial empirical evidence that supports the effectiveness of I-FAST. Findings indicate that there were significant improvements in child behavior, significant increases in parental competency, and significant increases in the level of cohesion and adaptability in these families. All observed changes were significant from pre- to posttreatment with the families able to maintain these positive changes at 6-month follow-up. A more rigorous and robust research design, however, will be needed to establish definitive evidence of the effectiveness of I-FAST.     

Accidental Rightness

In this paper I argue that the disagreement between modern moral philosophers and (some) virtue ethicists about whether motive affects rightness is a result of conceptual disagreement, and that when they develop a theory of ‘right action,’ the two parties respond to two very different questions. Whereas virtue ethicists tend to use ‘right’ as interchangeable with ‘good’ or ‘virtuous’ and as implying moral praise, modern moral philosophers use it as roughly equivalent to ‘in accordance with moral obligation.’ One implication of this is that the possibility of an act being right by accident does not pose a problem for consequentialism or deontology. A further implication is that it reveals a shortcoming in virtue ethics, namely that it does not—yet needs to—present an account of moral obligation.

Beyond “accident-proneness”: Using Five-Factor Model prototypes to predict driving behavior

Research on the association between personality traits and driving behavior as well as accident involvement has produced mixed results. In order to obtain empirical evidence for a consistent relation between personality and driving behavior, a prototype approach based on the Five-Factor Model (FFM) was applied. In two samples of drivers, cluster analyses of FFM scales revealed three prototypes that replicate previous ones. The prototypes, labeled Resilient, Overcontrolled, and Undercontrolled, were found to differ reliably in accident involvement and driving behavior, indicating differential accident liability. Undercontrollers are the most problematic drivers followed by Resilients, whereas Overcontrollers most consistently obey traffic rules and drive accordingly.     

大脑前扣带回皮层与执行功能

回顾了近期有关大脑前扣带回皮层（ACC）参与执行功能的研究资料。结果显示,ACC可以对正在进行的目标定向行为实施在线监控,在出现反应冲突或错误时提供信号,以便能及时调整与分配注意资源,因此可能是一个行为规划与执行的高级调控结构。这两年来的新发现提示,ACC的执行监控作用可能是基于动机与奖赏期待做出的对“意志行动”的整合性控制,并可能具有对行动结果的情绪评价意义。     

选择、自我表达与选择扩散效应

自我表达会影响西方人的态度, 产生选择扩散效应。国外相关的跨文化研究发现东方人不存在该效应。通过4个实验研究中国文化下自我表达对选择态度的影响, 发现选择方式(主动、被动)和自我表达形式(直接、间接)对选择态度产生影响。无论是自己的主动选择还是强加的被动选择, 直接的自我表达会增加对所获对象的喜爱程度, 表现为对获得性的肯定。研究者认为, 两种选择方式下不同的心理加工过程导致了这种获得性：直接表达使个人态度暴露在外, 进行主动选择时要对他人的给予做出肯定回应; 而进行被动选择时, 人们要减缓因利益受损可能导致的失调, 同时中国文化下的面子策略也使人们增加对所获对象的喜爱程度。不过, 间接的自我表达对选择态度的影响不明显。研究者认为, 多个影响因素的相互消长使选择态度得以维持。     

青少年的气质与烟酒使用:交互效应检验

考察气质(意志控制、愤怒挫折、感觉寻求)对青少年烟酒使用的主效应,气质与教养方式(权威、专制、纵容)对烟酒使用的交互效应以及气质间的交互效应.采用随机整群抽样的方法,选取660名青少年为被试,匿名完成气质问卷、教养方式问卷和烟酒使用问卷.结果显示:(1)在控制了性别、年龄、社会经济地位后,气质对青少年烟酒使用具有预测作用,低意志控制、高愤怒挫折、高感觉寻求正向预测烟酒使用;(2)教养方式调节部分气质因素与烟酒使用的关系,具体为:权威和专制教养缓冲感觉寻求的风险作用,符合风险缓冲模型;纵容教养增强感觉寻求的风险作用,符合风险增强模型;(3)气质内部在影响青少年烟酒使用时也存在交互作用,愤怒挫折增强感觉寻求的风险作用,符合风险增强模型.因此,烟酒使用是气质与教养方式及气质间交互作用的产物.     

Barrier effects in the cognitive maps of children and adults

To study spatial representation, Kosslyn, Pick, and Fariello (Child Development, 1974, 45, 707–716) asked preschoolers and adults to learn toy locations in a room divided into quadrants. When asked to rank order the closeness of toys, preschoolers exaggerated distances between objects separated by opaque or transparent barriers; adults distorted across opaque barriers only. The findings were interpreted as showing that children's spatial representations may rely more than adults' on functional distance and/or that children may have more difficulty than adults keeping many objects in mind simultaneously (integrative processing capacity). The Kosslyn et al. procedure was repeated here with first graders and adults, using either rank ordering techniques or direct distance estimations. Interactions of age and barrier appeared for the rank ordering measure only. Children showed a greater tendency than adults to group their rankings by quadrant. With the distance estimation measure, adults were quantitatively more accurate than children, at least among males; barrier effects interacted with sex and distance, but not age. These findings suggest the importance of integrative processing capacity, and that different dependent measures may tap different processes.     

Brainstem auditory electrical response characteristics of stutterers and nonstutterers: A preliminary report

In the present study, eight adult male stutterers and nonstutterers showed no significant latency or amplitude differences in BSERs recorded in response to monaural and binaural clicks. However, significantly greater variance was found in the stutterers' group under the monaural stimulation condition at click rates of 12/sec and 5/sec. Left and right monaural waveforms were subtracted individually from the binaural waveform. The resultant binaural interaction difference traces were examined to determine auditory tract preference for binaural stimulation. While some subjects from both groups showed no auditory tract preference, it was found that the significant variance between groups for wave V latency was attributable to the subset of stutterers without auditory tract preference. This finding is interpreted as evidence of neurological differences in stutterers' auditory processing at the brainstem level.