The development of social value orientation across different contexts

This study aimed to explore Chinese children's social value orientation across different ages and contexts. Revised decomposed games were used to measure the social value orientation of 9‐, 11‐, and 14‐year‐old children and college students as an adult group. About half of them were assigned to the hypothetical context of “equal payment group,” providing equal compensation for participation in the study, and the others to the “real payment group,” who got payment according to their own choices in the games. Results showed that 9‐ and 11‐year‐old children's choices differed between the two contexts: They made more prosocial choices in the hypothetical context, and more competitive choices in the “real payment” context. The 14‐year‐olds’ and adults’ choices were not significantly different in the two contexts. These results may imply that by 14 years of age, children have stable social value orientation, and their behavior reflects this value.     

Differentiation of stages in joke comprehension: Evidence from an ERP study

This study aimed to investigate the mechanisms underlying joke comprehension using event‐related potentials (ERPs). Fourteen healthy college students were presented with the context of a story without its joke or nonjoke ending, and then, when the story ending was presented, they were asked to make a funny/unfunny judgment about these endings. The behavioral results showed that there was no significant difference between funny and unfunny items, which meant that subjects could understand funny items as easily as unfunny ones. However, the ERP results showed that funny items initially elicited a more negative ERP deflection (N350–450) over frontocentral scalp regions. Dipole analysis localized the generators in the left temporal gyrus and the left medial frontal gyrus; it is suggested that these areas might be involved in detecting the incongruent element in joke comprehension. Between 600 and 800 ms, funny items subsequently elicited a more negative ERP deflection (N600–800) over frontocentral scalp regions and a more positive ERP deflection (P600–800) over posterior scalp regions. Dipole analysis localized the generator in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), an area involved in the breaking of mental set/expectation and the forming of novel associations. Finally, funny items elicited a more positive ERP deflection (P1250–1400) over anterior and posterior scalp regions. Dipole analysis localized the generators in the middle frontal gyrus and the fusiform gyrus, areas that might be related to the affective appreciation stage in joke process. Unlike that of Coulson and Kutas (2001), the present study might support the hypothesis of a three stage model of humor processing (humor detection, resolution of incongruity and humor appreciation).     

‘Black holes’: escaping the void

The ‘black hole’ is a metaphor for a reality in the psyche of many individuals who have experienced complex trauma in infancy and early childhood. The ‘black hole’ has been created by an absence of the object, the (m)other, so there is no internalized object, no (m)other in the psyche. Rather, there is a ‘black hole’ where the object should be, but the infant is drawn to it, trapped by it because of an intrinsic, instinctive need for a ‘real object’, an internalized (m)other. Without this, the infant cannot develop. It is only the presence of a real object that can generate the essential gravity necessary to draw the core of the self that is still in an undeveloped state from deep within the abyss. It is the moving towards a real object, a (m)other, that relativizes the absolute power of the black hole and begins a reformation of its essence within the psyche.     

Numerical approximation abilities correlate with and predict informal but not formal mathematics abilities

Previous research has found a relationship between individual differences in children’s precision when nonverbally approximating quantities and their school mathematics performance. School mathematics performance emerges from both informal (e.g., counting) and formal (e.g., knowledge of mathematics facts) abilities. It remains unknown whether approximation precision relates to both of these types of mathematics abilities. In the current study, we assessed the precision of numerical approximation in 85 3- to 7-year-old children four times over a span of 2 years. In addition, at the final time point, we tested children’s informal and formal mathematics abilities using the Test of Early Mathematics Ability (TEMA-3). We found that children’s numerical approximation precision correlated with and predicted their informal, but not formal, mathematics abilities when controlling for age and IQ. These results add to our growing understanding of the relationship between an unlearned nonsymbolic system of quantity representation and the system of mathematics reasoning that children come to master through instruction.     

EMG Activity as a Function of the Performer's Focus of Attention

In previous studies of attentional focus effects, investigators have measured performance outcome. Here, however, the authors used electromyography (EMG) to determine whether differences between external and internal foci would also be manifested at the neuromuscular level. In 2 experiments, participants (N = 11, Experiment 1; N = 12, Experiment 2) performed biceps curls while focusing on the movements of the curl bar (external focus) or on their arms (internal focus). In Experiment 1, movements were performed faster under external than under internal focus conditions. Also, integrated EMG (iEMG) activity was reduced when performers adopted an external focus. In Experiment 2, movement time was controlled through the use of a metronome, and iEMG activity was again reduced under external focus conditions. Those findings are in line with the constrained action hypothesis (G. Wulf, N. McNevin, & C. H. Shea, 2001), according to which an external focus promotes the use of more automatic control processes.     

Repeated measurement of salivary cortisol within and across days among shy young adults

Temperamental shyness emerges early in childhood and remains relatively stable throughout development and has been associated with high and low levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Studies examining the relation between shyness and cortisol have been limited because they have traditionally collected only one measure of cortisol on a single day in the laboratory, restricting the reliability and diurnal profile of the measure in the participant’s everyday environment. We collected 15 saliva samples across three separate days (i.e., upon waking, +60 min post-waking, +8 h post-waking, +10 h post-waking, and bedtime) in a sample of healthy young adults selected for high and low shyness in order to characterize a portion of the diurnal cortisol rhythm. Overall, shy individuals demonstrated relatively lower cortisol across the day and across multiple mornings than non-shy adults. Higher self-reported social anxiety across multiple measures was also related to lower total cortisol levels across all participants. The present study replicates and extends our previous findings of low salivary cortisol measured in the laboratory in shy adults to repeated measurement in their everyday environments.     

Toward an Understanding of the Connections in Creating Lasting Family Connections

Abstract

The Creating Lasting Family Connections^® (CLFC) program is designed to help improve relationship skills and reduce antisocial behaviors. Strader and colleagues propose that prosocial connectedness is responsible for program outcomes. We propose that the intersection of high agreeableness and low impulsivity represent an operational definition. We examined this definition in the context of a RCT with 246 men in prison reentry. CLFCFP increased the number of connected individuals. Being connected and the program independently impacted relationship skills, but no evidence was found to support the hypothesis that the program impacts would be more pronounced among those who were connected.     

Psychological consequences of collective violence in childhood: the case of Monterrey,Mexico / Consecuencias psicológicas de la violencia colectiva en la niñez: el caso de Monterrey,México

Abstract

During the last years, different types of violence have severely damaged Mexico. In this paper we examine the consequences that violence could have in children, one of the most vulnerable segments of society. In short, we predict that exposure to any type of violence will lead to higher depression and that this could be explained through the effects of violence on childhood well-being. Our hypothesis was supported in two studies, showing that exposure to street violence (Study 1, N = 607) and exposure to collective violence (Study 2, N = 172) can increase childhood depression. Moreover, in both studies, this effect was explained by the decrease of childhood well-being caused by violence exposure. The implications of these results are discussed.     

Versión española del “Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (TEOSQ)” adaptado a Educación Física

Resumen

El propósito de este trabajo es analizar las propiedades psicométricas del TEOSQ, en una muestra española, aplicado al contexto de la educación física escolar. Con ello se pretende determinar si constituye un instrumento válido y fiable para utilizar en futuras investigaciones en la Educación Física. Se administró a 6170 estudiantes representativos de las provincias de Almería, Granada y Murcia de ESO y ESPO, de edades comprendidas entre 12 y 19 años. El análisis factorial confirmatorio apoyó el modelo teórico hipotetizado de dos factores (orientación a la tarea y orientación al ego) para el TEOSQ-12EF. La baja correlación entre los factores demostró la independencia de los mismos y los coeficientes alfa mostraron una consistencia interna aceptable de las dos subescalas. Las pruebas indican que existen diferencias significativas por sexo, los alumnos presentan una mayor orientación al ego que las alumnas.