Children's Social and Moral Reasoning About Exclusion

ABSTRACT— Developmental research on social and moral reasoning about exclusion has utilized a social-domain theory, in contrast to a global stage theory, to investigate children's evaluations of gender- and race-based peer exclusion. The social-domain model postulates that moral, social-conventional, and personal reasoning coexist in children's evaluations of inclusion and exclusion, and that the priority given to these forms of judgments varies by the age of the child, the context, and the target of exclusion. Findings from developmental intergroup research studies disconfirm a general-stage-model approach to morality in the child, and provide empirical data on the developmental origins and emergence of intergroup attitudes regarding prejudice, bias, and exclusion.     

Is it better to be an English little pea than a Mexican little pea?: The role of the categorization process on the evaluation of football players

Two studies investigated the effects of manipulating team membership on the evaluation of a football player. We hypothesized that the evaluations of the same football player, Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez, would vary as a function of the categorization process. For study 1, participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: Manchester United, Mexican National team or control. Results showed that “Chicharito” obtained better evaluations when his membership to Manchester United was made salient. In study 2, participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: Manchester United and Mexican National team condition. We found support for the mediating role of team evaluation on the relationship between team membership and the evaluations of Chicharito. The theoretical and applied implications were discussed.     

White Noise to Decrease Problem Behaviors in the Classroom for a Child With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

Continuous white noise played through headphones was used as a classroom intervention to reduce off-task behavior and increase assignment production and accuracy for a child with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). When listening to white noise the student's off-task behavior decreased from 89% during baseline to 62%. Subsequently, he began taking a stimulant medication for his ADHD. Pharmacotherapy alone (65% off task) was approximately equivalent to white noise alone. When medication was combined with white noise his off-task behavior decreased to 45%. Assignment production was also enhanced while listening to white noise, whereas accuracy remained high throughout.     

Sound attenuation and preferred music in the treatment of problem behavior maintained by escape from noise

We examined the extent to which different sounds functioned as motivating operations (MO) that evoked problem behavior during a functional analysis for two participants. Results suggested that escape from loud noises reinforced the problem behavior for one participant and escape from arguing reinforced problem behavior for the other participant. Noncontingent delivery of preferred music through sound‐attenuating headphones decreased problem behavior without the use of extinction for both participants. We discuss the results in terms of the abolishing effects of the intervention.     

Causal Exclusion and Causal Autonomism

The causal exclusion problem is often considered as one of the major difficulties for which non-reductive physicalists have no easy solution to offer. Some non-reductive physicalists address this problem by arguing that mental properties are to some extent causally autonomous. If this is the case, then mental properties will not be causally excluded by their physical realizers because causation, in general, is a relation between properties of the same level. In this paper, I argue that the response from causal autonomy cannot be successful for two reasons. First, it does not offer a satisfactory explanation for how mental particulars can have causal efficacy in a non-reductive physicalist framework. Second, the causal considerations underpinning this response do not really support the conclusion that mental properties are causally autonomous.     

Decision-makers are resilient in the face of social exclusion

A growing body of evidence suggests that social exclusion impairs people's capacity for active deliberation and logical reasoning. Building on this finding and on the postulate from the dual-process theory that analytical thinking is essential in order to make good judgements and decisions, we hypothesized that social exclusion will alter judgement and choice behaviour. We tested this hypothesis in three experiments in which social exclusion was manipulated using the Cyberball paradigm, an online ball-tossing game in which participants either received the ball a fair number of times or were excluded by the other two players. We focused on a range of tasks designed to be sensitive to participants’ ability to engage in analytical thinking and careful deliberation, including the cognitive reflection test (Experiment 1) and a set of anchoring, intertemporal preference, disjunction, and confidence tasks (experiments 2 and 3). Our results unanimously failed to support the hypothesis that social exclusion influences people's judgements and decision-making. We discuss the implications of our findings for social exclusion theory.     

Effects of background chewing sounds on learning: The role of misophonia sensitivity

Misophonia refers to one's sensitivity to specific sounds, which can range from minor annoyance to extreme distress. This experiment tested the role of individual differences in misophonia sensitivity on learning. College students read a text passage about migraines in a quiet room with 2 or 3 other participants and 1 confederate. In some sessions, the confederate audibly chewed gum while reading the text (sound group); in other sessions, the confederate read silently (control group). All participants then completed a comprehension test on the material, followed by an assessment of their misophonia sensitivity. Although there was no overall difference between the two groups on the comprehension test, misophonia sensitivity significantly moderated the effect of the trigger sound on learning. Students who scored relatively high on misophonia sensitivity performed worse on the comprehension test if they were in the sound group but performed better if they were in the control group.     

校园排斥对初中生外化问题行为的影响：有调节的中介效应

为考察初中生外化问题行为的心理机制,研究采用青少年行为自陈量表、青少年遭受校园排斥问卷、领悟社会支持量表、冷酷无情特质量表对黑龙江、福建两省的1284名初中生进行调查。结果表明：（1）校园排斥对初中生的外化问题行为具有正向预测作用;（2）冷酷无情特质在校园排斥与外化问题行为之间具有中介作用;（3）领悟社会支持调节了初中生冷酷无情特质对校园排斥与外化问题行为中介过程的后半段路径。研究结果为初中生群体的校园排斥、冷酷无情特质、领悟社会支持和外化问题行为之间的动态关系提供了有效的数据支持。     

校园排斥对初中生内外化问题的影响:同伴关系与核心自我评价的中介作用

该研究探讨了校园排斥和初中生内外化问题的关系,结合资源保存理论,进一步考察同伴关系（条件性资源）与核心自我评价（人格特质资源）对该效应的链式中介作用。采用青少年校园现实受排斥量表、同伴关系量表、核心自我评价量表、焦虑抑郁量表和外化行为倾向量表,对辽宁省2所中学540名初中生进行调查。结果表明：（1）校园排斥对于初中生的内化及外化问题均具有正向预测作用;（2）同伴关系、核心自我评价在校园排斥与内化问题中起完全中介作用,而在校园排斥与外化问题中起部分中介作用。具体而言,校园排斥通过三条路径影响内外化问题：一是同伴关系的单独中介作用;二是核心自我评价的单独中介作用;三是同伴关系—核心自我评价的链式中介作用。