The Peer Attitudes Toward Children who Stutter scale: Reliability, known groups validity, and negativity of elementary school-age children's attitudes

Psychometric properties of the Peer Attitudes Toward Children who Stutter (PATCS) scale (Langevin, M., & Hagler, P. (2004). Development of a scale to measure peer attitudes toward children who stutter. In A.K. Bothe (Ed.), Evidence-based treatment of stuttering: empirical bases and clinical applications (pp. 139–171). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.) and the extent to which peer attitudes are negative were re-examined. Results show that internal consistency was .97 and test–retest reliability was .85. In a known groups analysis participants who had contact with someone who stutters had statistically significant higher mean scores (more positive attitudes) than those who had not had contact. Nonsignificant findings for gender and grade call into question the usefulness of these variables as discriminators in future tests of known groups validity of peer attitudes toward children who stutter. Approximately one-fifth of participants had PATCS scores that were somewhat to very negative. These findings support calls for school-based education about stuttering.

Educational objectives

The reader will be able to: (1) summarize the social impacts of stuttering on school-age children who stutter, (2) describe the known groups method to test construct validity, (3) evaluate the psychometric properties of the Peer Attitudes Toward Children who Stutter scale, and (4) provide information about the proportion of students who appear to hold negative attitudes toward children who stutter.     

Socio‐economic,socio‐political and socio‐emotional variables explaining school bullying: a country‐wide multilevel analysis

Why do some countries, regions and schools have more bullying than others? What socio‐economic, socio‐political and other larger contextual factors predict school bullying? These open questions inspired this study with 53.316 5th‐ and 9th‐grade students (5% of the national student population in these grades), from 1,000 schools in Colombia. Students completed a national test of citizenship competencies, which included questions about bullying and about families, neighborhoods and their own socio‐emotional competencies. We combined these data with community violence and socio‐economic conditions of all Colombian municipalities, which allowed us to conduct multilevel analyses to identify municipality‐ and school‐level variables predicting school bullying. Most variance was found at the school level. Higher levels of school bullying were related to more males in the schools, lower levels of empathy, more authoritarian and violent families, higher levels of community violence, better socio‐economic conditions, hostile attributional biases and more beliefs supporting aggression. These results might reflect student, classroom and school contributions because student‐level variables were aggregated at the school level. Although in small portions, violence from the decades‐old‐armed conflict among guerrillas, paramilitaries and governmental forces predicted school bullying at the municipal level for 5th graders. For 9th graders, inequality in land ownership predicted school bullying. Neither poverty, nor population density or homicide rates contributed to explaining bullying. These results may help us advance toward understanding how the larger context relates to school bullying, and what socio‐emotional competencies may help us prevent the negative effects of a violent and unequal environment. Aggr. Behav. 35:520–529, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

The Distance from Psychological Research to Real Life

Considering our experiences in everyday life, the result of research based on sample assumed to be derived from a “population” cannot afford individual predictions. That is because the variabilities within individuals which play an important role in actual psychological processes are erased from the data in samples-based studies. In this article, we begin the discussion with how the intra-individual variance contributes to individual prediction. As case study works on the basis of variability within each individual, it explores the intrinsic mechanism of development and emphasize the connection between person and environment. The question of how to generalize from case studies requires that the researcher to selectively consider some of the variance and construction of a hypothetical model that shows how different features of oppositions (Yin and Yang) are integrated into an abstract whole that is applicable to all individual cases.

Effects of cohabitation with another female on aggressive behaviour in pregnant mice

Pregnant, nonpregnant (but mated) and virgin females were individually housed or lived with a pregnant or nonpregnant cagemate. They were subjected to a series of successive daily encounters with a male intruder, the cagemate being excluded. The most aggressive subjects were pregnant females living with a pregnant cagemate. Isolated pregnant females were as aggressive as pregnant females with a nonpregnant cagemate. Nonpregnant and virgin females were the least aggressive. Nevertheless nonpregnant subjects living with a pregnant cagemate generated higher aggressive scores than nonpregnant females living alone. The way in which a pregnant cagemate influences the aggressive behaviour of another pregnant or nonpregnant female is discussed.     

Protest symbology: Political content and demonstration outcomes

Political symbologists generally concur that the use of symbols by regimes and citizens often leads to favorable outcomes for the manipulators. However, the various impacts of the different politcal contents, or “messages,” within the symbolic containers, or “media,” have gone unstudied. Thus, a major theoretical question arises: Do all messages of political symbols have similar political outcomes? The present investigation examines the impact of the various political contents of symbols manipulated by protest groups during demonstrations in the U.S.S.R. The findings suggest that the higher the politicality of the symbolic content, the fewer the concessions and the greater the repressions meted out to demonstrators by Soviet regime officials. Thus, although a deprived citizen group can obtain favorable regime policies through the political use of symbols, it might benefit most by depoliticizing their content.     

论政治道德的定位

政治生活的整合和政治文明的建设要求对政治道德进行合理的定位。政治道德的定位问题既涉及政治道德体系的内容问题,又关涉什么样的政治道德才是合理的问题。政治道德应该定位于政治公共领域这一客观基础;应该定位于个人权利与公共利益相结合的视角;应该定位于目的（或者功利）与道义（或者义务）的统一。     

民初政治道德建构思想的历史透视——以《正谊》杂志为中心

民国初期,部分社会志士以《正谊》杂志为阵地,以道德救亡为主旨,围绕高扬道德为共和所需理念、确立道德因时更张理论、主张铸就共和道德精神、提倡规范国民言行、坚信重塑人格为救亡要途展开政治道德的理论诠释。此举与学理清算道德堕落、名实相悖,官僚治国、“恶精神”泛滥,官无人格、寡廉鲜耻,人心颓废、思潮隳堕等弊端联系在一起。欲藉反省自爱、外力逼迫、典型示范、塑造人格等方法以重铸近代政治理想人格,进而达到实际救亡之目的。     

对友谊关系社会认知发展的跨文化比较研究

该研究以友谊许诺为主题的故事分别对冰岛（雷克雅未克市）和中国（北京市）的７岁和９岁小学儿童作个别随访,探查儿童在友谊矛盾冲突情景中是如何作出行动决定选择及道德评价的。研究结果揭示了文化及年龄变量对儿童有关社会认知发展的影响。     

The origins and function of the reference point in risky group decision making the case of the Cuban missile crisis

This case study explores reference level effects on group decision making during the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. The group is composed of American President John F. Kennedy and his advisers. The results are consistent with much experimental evidence showing that reference levels play an important role in determining preferences. The results also extend the notion of reference-dependent risky choice to the group level, where the group consists of seasoned experts who each have a different role to play within the group and who are dealing with an issue of great importance.