The Relation of Personal Epistemology to Parenting Style and Goal Orientation in College Mothers

This study sought to establish the relevance of mothers’ epistemic beliefs to their parenting style and preferred academic goals for their child. College mothers (N = 163) from primarily working class families completed a variety of self-report measures including a modified version of Schommer’s [(1990). Journal of Educational Psychology, 82, 498–504] Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire, the Parental Attitudes Questionnaire-Revised [Reitman, Rhode, Hupp, & Altobello (2002). Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 24(2), 119–127], and several goal orientation scales. Results indicated that a view of learning as effortful and under the learner’s control and a view of knowledge as actively constructed were associated with an authoritative parenting style and with a preference for their child to focus on learning, improvement, and effort in approaching academic tasks. By contrast, a view of learning as quick, straightforward, relatively passive and as based in innate constraints and a view of knowledge as consisting of discreet, unambiguous facts were associated with authoritarian and permissive styles and the adoption of performance goals for one’s child. Portions of this study were presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development in Atlanta, April, 2005.     

Group-directed criticism in Indonesia: Role of message source and audience

Research in individualist cultures has shown that group members are more likely to agree with criticisms of their group when the criticisms are made by another ingroup member as opposed to an outgroup member (the intergroup sensitivity effect). However, evaluations of ingroup critics are often harsher when they take their comments to an outgroup audience. In light of research on facework and tolerance for dissent, it seems important to test whether these effects are generalizable to a collectivist culture. Indonesian Muslims ( N  = 191) received a criticism of their religion stemming either from another Muslim or a Christian, and published in either a Muslim or a Christian newspaper. Participants agreed with the comments more when they were made by an ingroup as opposed to an outgroup member. Furthermore, consistent with previous research in Australia, the effects of audience on agreement were moderated by levels of group identification. Results are discussed in relation to theory about the functional role internal critics can play in group life.     

Maternal sensitivity moderates the impact of prenatal anxiety disorder on infant responses to the still-face procedure

Animal studies have demonstrated the interactive effects of prenatal stress exposure and postnatal rearing style on offspring capacity to manage stress. However, little is known about how parenting quality impacts the association between maternal prenatal anxiety and stress reactivity in human infants. This prospective study examined the impact of prenatal anxiety disorder and maternal caregiving sensitivity on infants’ responses to a standardised interactive stressor (still-face procedure). Eighty-four women completed a clinical interview during pregnancy to assess anxiety symptoms meeting DSM-IV diagnostic criteria. At infant age 7 months, maternal sensitivity to infant distress and infant negative affect were observed and coded during the still-face procedure. Maternal postnatal (concurrent) anxiety and depression were also assessed at this time. Results indicated a negative association between maternal sensitivity to infant distress and infant negative affect responses to the still-face procedure. An unexpected finding was a positive association between parity and infant reactivity. The main effect for sensitivity was qualified by a significant interaction, p < .05, suggesting that the impact of sensitivity was particularly marked among infants of women who experienced an anxiety disorder during pregnancy. This finding is consistent with a cumulative risk model suggesting that maternal prenatal anxiety and quality of maternal care act in concert to shape infant outcomes.     

Empathy constrained: Prejudice predicts reduced mental simulation of actions during observation of outgroups

Perception-action-coupling refers to the vicarious activation of the neural system for action during perception of action, and is considered important for forms of interpersonal sensitivity, including empathy. We hypothesize that perception-action-coupling is limited to the ingroup: neural motor networks will fire upon the perception of action, but only when the object-person belongs to the ingroup; if the object-person belongs to an outgroup these motor neurons will not fire. Using electroencephalographic oscillations as an index of perception-action-coupling, we found exactly this: participants displayed activity over motor cortex when acting and when observing ingroups act, but not when observing outgroups - an effect magnified by prejudice and for disliked groups (South-Asians, then Blacks, followed by East Asians). These findings provide evidence from brain activity for yet another detrimental aspect of prejudice: a spontaneous and implicit simulation of others’ action states may be limited to close others and, without active effort, may not be available for outgroups.     

Parental media monitoring,prosocial violent media exposure,and adolescents' prosocial and aggressive behaviors

Prosocial violent media (e.g., media that combines both violent and prosocial content) is especially popular in entertainment media today. However, it remains unclear how parental media monitoring is associated with exposure to prosocial violent content and adolescent behavior. Accordingly, 1,193 adolescents were asked about parental media monitoring, media content exposure, and behavior. Main findings suggest that autonomy supportive restrictive monitoring was associated with lower levels of exposure to prosocial violent content, but only among older adolescents. Additionally, autonomy supportive restrictive monitoring was the only form of parental media monitoring associated with lower levels of violent content and higher levels of prosocial content, and autonomy supportive active monitoring was the only parental monitoring strategy that promoted prosocial behavior via exposure to prosocial media content. Discussion focuses on the importance of autonomy supportive parental monitoring, as well as the implications of parents encouraging their children to watch media with limited violent content—even if it is prosocial violent content.     

语音象征的产生机制：基于敏感期的先天后天作用模型

Bouba-Kiki效应(简称BK效应)指语音和形状特征之间的映射关系。针对BK效应的产生机制,先天论和后天论之间争论激烈。先天论的观点认为人们对语音象征的敏感性是出生时便存在的一种语言机制。而后天论的观点则强调语音象征是语言经验的产物。上述理论均获得大量研究证据的支持,且均无法完全否定对方。这表明,上述理论可能均未完整揭示语音象征的产生机制。鉴于此,针对BK效应的产生机制,梳理先天论与后天论的支持证据,并率先提出语言相关的BK效应敏感期假设。同时,梳理了支持BK效应敏感期的初步研究证据及可能的影响因素。进而,以语言相关的BK效应敏感期假设为基础,提出语音象征产生的先天后天相互作用模型,以整合以往研究中的矛盾。最后,展望了语音象征的未来研究进展和方向。