Coping with Crisis Across the Lifespan: The Role of a Telephone Hotline

We describe over 300,000 crisis calls made to a large national hotline over a 5-year period. Callers consisted of males and females between the ages of 10 and 89. Overall, a slight majority of callers were first time callers (52%) and most (73%) sought assistance with issues related to parenting, youth concerns, and mental health. Across the lifespan, issues dealing with loneliness increased with age whereas depression-related calls decreased. Additionally, females were more likely than their male counterparts to call the hotline by over a 2- to 1-margin. Findings lend preliminary support to the efficacy of crisis call centers to utilize a flexible, yet well-defined problem-solving approach to assist those of all ages calling with the wide range of problems.     

Telomeres in a Life-Span Perspective: A New "Psychobiomarker"?

ABSTRACT— In order to more fully understand associations between psychological stress and health, it is helpful for researchers to identify "psychobiomarkers," or biological measures that are regulated in part by psychological function and that predict longevity. Telomere length appears to be such a measure. Telomeres, the protective caps at the tips of chromosomes, shorten with age, and this shortening predicts disease and longevity. Leukocyte telomere length may be best viewed through a life-span approach, as it reflects in part the cumulative number of cell divisions that have occurred and the long-term biochemical environment. Recently, a critical mass of studies demonstrated that telomeres appear to shorten with chronic stress, although the mechanisms are unknown. This paper reviews what appear to be malleable determinants of rate of telomere attrition, focusing on early life chronic stressors and metabolic adversity (poor nutrition during development, and obesity). The next generation of research will benefit from experimental and longitudinal models integrating genetic variation, social environments, life experience, and health behaviors.     

远外侧入路治疗颅颈交界区腹侧病变

探讨远外侧入路在颅颈交界区腹侧病变治疗中的应用。14例患者全部采用远外侧入路显微手术治疗。11例肿瘤全切除7例,次全切除2例,大部切除2例;3例动脉瘤均顺利夹闭;行枕颈融合术3例。术后最常见的并发症是后组脑神经损伤症状;获得随访11例,恢复良好。远外侧入路是治疗颅颈交界区腹侧病变的理想入路,但治疗方案应个体化。     

Socio-Ecological Predictor Model of Parental Intention to Participate in Triple P-Positive Parenting Program

We examined variables associated with parental intention to participate in a parenting program viewed within a socio-ecological framework. In two metropolitan areas in Japan, 222 families voluntarily completed a series of questionnaires. A series of multiple regression analyses was used to evaluate the Socio-Ecological Predictor Model that was able to account for 50% of the variance associated with parental intention to participate in a parenting program. The most significant predictor in the model was program features, which accounted for 30% of the variance. It is important to consider program features that make it more likely that parents will engage positively in a parenting program. We discuss parental intention to participate in a parenting program as well as the limitations of the study and areas for future research.     

计算机适应性测验条件下认知设计项目预测参数的影响

自动化项目生成(Automatic Item Generation)中的项目参数是基于认知项目设计的刺激特征集预测的, 在不确定性来源上较之用经验数据标定的参数更为复杂。文章通过实证研究分析了在计算机适应性测验条件下基于认知设计系统法生成的抽象推理测验(ART)项目预测参数对能力参数估计的精确性。研究表明, 项目预测参数比相应标定参数分布更为趋中。这种回归效应既影响到能力参数估计误差大小, 也导致适应性测验过程中项目选择的差异。在控制了项目选择差异之后, 能力参数估计误差较之基于项目标定参数的能力估计误差大, 但差别并不明显。两者相应的能力估计值相关很高, 对应能力值之间的差异很小, 且几乎贯彻整个能力分布区间。     

从贝叶斯主义的视角看迪昂问题

对于迪昂问题,贝叶斯主义有着独特的视角。本文主要通过介绍多林与斯特雷文斯各自运用贝叶斯方法解决迪昂问题的两个方案,试图说明迪昂问题在贝叶斯机制中的处理方式,并且对这两个方案作出比较,认为斯特雷文斯的方案更为客观与合理。     

Physical attractiveness in preschoolers: Relationships with power, status, aggression and social skills

Several lines of theory and research suggest that power (e.g., social dominance) and status (e.g., social prominence and positive peer regard) are enjoyed by those blessed with good looks. The present work addresses the relations among physical attractiveness, power, status, and aggression from a resource control theoretic perspective that suggests that group members find power holders physically attractive, even if they are aggressive. Teacher ratings of physical attractiveness, social dominance, peer reception, aggression, and social skills were collected on 153 preschoolers (3-6 years) from a Midwestern city. Positive peer regard was derived via sociometric nominations. Raters unfamiliar with the children assessed their physical attractiveness from photographs. Results show that teachers' perceptions of physical attractiveness are a function of power, status, and social skills. Additionally, teachers rated aggressive children who employ both prosocial and coercive strategies of resource control (bistrategic controllers) to be among the most physically attractive. These relations did not emerge for raters unbiased by children's behavior. Results suggest social dominance achieved via prosocial means begets attractiveness ratings, even if accompanied by high levels of aggression. The implications for intervention are discussed.     

Does empathy predict adolescents' bullying and defending behavior?

Through structural equation modeling, this study tested a path of relations in which different levels of empathic responsiveness were posited to be differently associated to bullying and defending behavior. Three hundred and eighteen Italian adolescents (142 girls and 176 boys; mean age = 13.2 years) completed the Davis's Interpersonal Reactivity Index [Davis, 1983] for empathy and the Participant role scales [Salmivalli et al., 1996] for bullying and defending behavior. The results revealed that the model fitted the data adequately, but only in the case of boys. As hypothesized, low levels of empathic responsiveness were associated to students' involvement in bullying others. In contrast, empathy was positively associated with actively helping victimized schoolmates. However, the estimates algorithm did not reach convergence with girls' data. The current findings confirm and extend the literature on the relation between empathy, prosociality and aggressive behavior. Educational implications are also discussed.     

Experience,action and representations: Critical realism and the enactive theory of vision

This paper defends a dynamic model of the way in which perception is integrated with action, a model I refer to as ‘the navigational account’. According to this account, employing vision and other forms of distance perception, a creature acquires information about its surroundings via the senses, information that enables it to select and navigate routes through its environment, so as to attain objects that satisfy its needs. This form of perceptually guided activity should be distinguished from other kinds of semi-automatic responses to visual stimuli that do not necessarily involve conscious experiences. It essentially involves inner states, which involve both the awareness of phenomenal qualities, and also a representational component. The navigational account is compared here with the enactive approach to perception, which opposes the view that perceptual experiences are inner states. This paper argues that a full account of perception raises a number of different questions. One central explanatory project concerns questions about the kinds of processes that currently enable a creature to identify and respond appropriately to distant objects: the answer, it is argued, lies in acknowledging the role of conscious inner representations in guiding navigational behaviour through complex environments. The fact that perception and action are interdependent does not conflict with the claim that inner representational states comprise an essential stage in visual processing.

On the Conditions for Generative Collaboration: Learning Through Collaborative Research

Drawing on autobiographical recollections, I propose to see collaborative research as a learning experience. I assume a sociocultural psychological approach to the social understanding and interpretation of different scientific research practices. I examine the modalities of collaboration in my first experience of managing an important national research project on Italian families’ dinner table conversations, and in a larger collaborative research endeavor concerning the everyday life of middle-class Italian, Swedish and US families from a comparative view (the Sloan project). On the basis of these experiences, I highlight some of the difficulties met by two other projects presented in this special issue, the DUNES project (Tartas and Muller Mirza, this issue) and the Transition project (Markova and Plichtova, this issue). I conclude by suggesting a provisional criterion for generativity in collaborative research. I suggest that generativity occurs when the more expert and academically oldest ones become conscious that they are learning something new from the group and from some other, independently from age and experience.