Use of peer-mediated intervention in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

The present experiment extended and replicated the use of functional analysis and a peer-mediated intervention to decrease disruptive behavior displayed by children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in an afterschool program. After determining that the participants displayed off-task behavior maintained by peer attention via a functional analysis, peer-implemented differential reinforcement of other behavior with extinction was effective in reducing participants' off-task behaviors. The use of peers as behavior-change agents is discussed, as are avenues for future research.     

Cultural,contextual, and gender differences in peer talk: A comparative study

Tulviste, T., Mizera, L., De Geer, B. & Tryggvason, M.‐T. (2010). Cultural, contextual, and gender differences in peer talk: A comparative study. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology. The study focused on cultural, contextual, and gender differences in children’s peer talk. Same‐sex dyads of Estonian (n = 38), Finnish (n = 38), and Swedish (n = 34) preschool age children were videotaped during unstructured and structured play settings. We found only one gender difference in children’s talkativeness and in the use of regulatory speech: during free play, Swedish boys used more imperatives per directives than Swedish girls. At the same time there were significant cultural and contextual differences. Estonian children were most directive and Swedish children were least directive. Finnish children were less directive than Estonian children but more directive than Swedish children. It was concluded that cultural and contextual factors strongly influence the likelihood, extent, and nature of gender differences in peer talk.     

Prosodic boundaries, comma rules, and brain responses: the closure positive shift in ERPs as a universal marker for prosodic phrasing in listeners and readers

Just as the false comma in this sentence, shows punctuation can influence sentence processing considerably. Pauses and other prosodic cues in spoken language serve the same function of structuring the sentence in smaller phrases. However, surprisingly little effort has been spent on the question as to whether both phenomena rest on the same mechanism and whether they are equally efficient in guiding parsing decisions. In a recent study, we showed that auditory speech boundaries evoke a specific positive shift in the listeners' event-related brain potentials (ERPs) that indicates the sentence segmentation and resulting changes in the understanding of the utterance (Steinhauer et al., 1999a). Here, we present three ERP reading experiments demonstrating that the human brain processes commas in a similar manner and that comma perception depends crucially on the reader's individual punctuation habits. Main results of the study are: (1) Commas can determine initial parsing as efficiently as speech boundaries because they trigger the same prosodic phrasing covertly, although phonological representations seem to be activated to a lesser extent. (2) Independent of the input modality, this phrasing is reflected online by the same ERP component, namely the Closure Positive Shift (CPS). (3) Both behavioral and ERP data suggest that comma processing varies with the readers' idiosyncratic punctuation habits. (4) A combined auditory and visual ERP experiment shows that the CPS is also elicited both by delexicalized prosody and while subjects replicate prosodic boundaries during silent reading. (5) A comma-induced reversed garden path turned out to be much more difficult than the classical garden path. Implications for psycholinguistic models and future ERP research are discussed.     

青少年社会行为对同伴关系的影响

以349名初中一至三年级青少年为被试,采用同伴提名法和"班级戏剧"量表收集数据,考察社会行为对同伴关系的影响。结果表明:(1)"班级戏剧"量表中的30种社会行为可划分为亲社会行为、攻击行为、退缩行为和有争议行为四个方面;(2)亲社会行为和有争议行为能够正向预测同伴的正向提名,攻击和退缩行为能够正向预测同伴的反向提名,亲社会行为能正向预测社会喜好程度,而社会影响程度则主要是由亲社会、攻击和有争议行为预测的。(3)受欢迎组青少年的亲社会行为和有争议行为较多;被拒绝组的攻击和退缩行为较多;被忽视组的退缩行为最多;有争议组青少年的攻击行为、有争议行为和亲社会行为均较多,退缩行为最少。其中,受欢迎组和被拒绝组又可以根据被欢迎和拒绝的理由而划分出亚类型。     

同伴依恋与初中生手机成瘾的关系：有调节的中介效应分析

为明确同伴依恋与手机成瘾的关系及其机制,本研究构建了一个有调节的中介模型,重点考察了消极情绪的中介作用以及独处能力的调节作用。采用问卷法,对729名初中生的同伴依恋、消极情绪、独处能力及手机成瘾的情况进行调查。结果显示:(1)在控制性别、年龄、年级、是否独生、手机使用年限后,同伴依恋对手机成瘾具有显著的负向预测作用;(2)消极情绪在同伴依恋与手机成瘾的关系中起完全中介作用;(3)同伴依恋对手机成瘾的直接作用及消极情绪的中介作用均会受到独处能力的调节。研究结果不仅有利于从依恋理论及客体关系理论的视角理解同伴依恋与手机成瘾的内在机制,而且对引导初中生形成良好人际关系为其心理社会功能服务具有启示意义。     

中国儿童的亲子关系、社会行为及同伴接受性的研究

追踪考察亲子关系、儿童社会行为及同伴接受性之间的关系。结果表明,在儿童社会性发展过程中,儿童社会行为和同伴接受性相互影响。亲子关系与儿童攻击性之间也具有相互作用。此外,儿童的社会行为具有高度的稳定性,亲子关系呈现中等程度的稳定性,而同伴接受性的稳定性取决于社会行为的维持效用。     

餐后低血压的原发高血压患者24h动态血压特点

为了分析餐后低血压（PPH）患者的24h 动态血压变化特点,选择150例原发性高血压患者进行24h 动态血压监测,分成 PPH 组（n＝85）和非 PPH（n＝65）。观察两组平均血压、血压负荷值、晨峰值、血压变异性等指标。结果显示,（1） PPH 组年龄明显高于非 PPH 组（P＜0．05）;（2）PPH 组患者24h 及日间、夜间平均收缩压及平均收缩压负荷高于非PPH 组（P＜0．05）,但舒张压无统计学差异（P＞0．05）;（3） PPH 组患者血压变异性明显高于非 PPH 组（P ＜0．05）;（4） PPH 组患者血压晨峰数值及晨峰发生率明显高于非 PPH 组（P＜0．05）;（5） PPH 组夜间血压下降率及非勺型率较非 PPH 组无统计学差异（P＞0．05）。因此,PPH 患者易发生于高龄患者,且具有收缩压、血压变异性增高,更易发生晨峰现象的特点。     

Looking at the eyes of happiness: Positive emotions mediate the influence of life satisfaction on attention to happy faces

Despite significant advancements in the research of subjective well-being (SWB), little is known about its connection with basic cognitive processes. The present study explores the association between selective attention to emotional stimuli (i.e. emotional faces) and both the emotional and cognitive components of SWB (i.e. emotional well-being and satisfaction in life, respectively). Participants (N?=?83) were asked to freely watch a series of 84 pairs of emotional (happy, angry, or sad) and neutral faces from the Karolinska Directed Emotional Faces database. Eye-tracking methodology measured first fixations, number of fixations, and the time spent looking at emotional faces. Results showed that both the emotional and cognitive components of SWB were related to a general bias to attend to happy faces and avoid sad faces. Yet, bootstrapping analyses showed that positive emotions, rather than life satisfaction, were responsible for the positive information-processing bias. We discuss the potential functionality of these biases and their implications for research on positive emotions.     

“创伤后成长”--理解癌症患者的一个新视角

“创伤后成长”是积极心理学的一个新概念,指个体在与创伤性事件或情境进行抗争后体验到的心理上的正性变化。研究发现癌症患者在经历苦难的同时,也会产生创伤后成长,表现在对新的可能性、与他人关系、生活感恩、个人优势等方面的新感知和精神领域的改变。创伤后成长与患者年龄及心理痛苦水平负相关,与受教育水平、家庭收入、积极应对方式、情绪表达和社会支持正相关。这些结果给临床护理的提示是,重视患者的内在潜能,鼓励患者以积极的应对方式、外化的情绪表达来缓解心理痛苦,通过提供充分的社会支持促进其成长,提高患者抗癌的内在力量。