在家庭自由游戏和智力任务游戏中亲子交往行为特征

本研究采用家庭录像观察,考察了53名4岁儿童及其父母在自然的家庭环境中的两个情境———自由游戏和完成拼图任务的智力游戏情境中儿童与其父母交往的行为特征和互动类型。结果发现:(1)在儿童4岁时,在家庭自由游戏情境中母亲的各种行为均显著多于父亲的各种行为,这表明在游戏过程中,母亲是儿童主要的交往对象。在拼图游戏情境中,除了父亲和母亲在商量和交流行为上没有显著差异之外,母亲的其他行为显著多于父亲的其他行为。儿童在这两个游戏情境中均表现出较多的顺从行为。(2)在自由游戏情境中,亲子互动类型包括四种:父母交流-儿童不交流型、母亲高控-儿童顺从型、父亲控制-儿童不顺从型和母亲不交流-儿童交流型。拼图游戏情境中,亲子互动类型有四种:父母放任-儿童独立型、父母控制-儿童顺从型、母子交流型和父亲控制-儿童顺从型。     

Visuo‐spatial play experience: forerunner of visuo‐spatial achievement in preadolescent and adolescent boys and girls?

This cross‐sectional study explored whether participation, from early childhood, in play involving different cognitive abilities predicts visuo‐spatial achievement at ages 9, 12, and 15. Based on parental assessment, prior and present practice of spatial manipulation play was found to be consistently more frequent in boys than in girls; the reverse held true for verbal expression play. Whereas boys did not significantly outperform girls in three visuo‐spatial tasks, girls were superior on a contrastive vocabulary task. In general, with IQ statistically controlled, regression analyses showed that estimated past and present spatial manipulation play predicted both genders' proficiency in the water‐level task and Embedded Figures Test, as did mothers' socioeconomic status for Block Design performance. Contrastingly, a negative relation was established between spatial manipulation play and vocabulary scores. Similar to the activity‐ability association often identified among adults, the relation established here between spatial play experience and visuo‐spatial ability was only modest. Further research should aim at more definitive conclusions through augmenting both diversity in the visuo‐spatial skills measured and sophistication in play behaviour appraisal. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Where science starts: spontaneous experiments in preschoolers' exploratory play

Probabilistic models of expected information gain require integrating prior knowledge about causal hypotheses with knowledge about possible actions that might generate data relevant to those hypotheses. Here we looked at whether preschoolers (mean: 54 months) recognize “action possibilities” (affordances) in the environment that allow them to isolate variables when there is information to be gained. By manipulating the physical properties of the stimuli, we were able to affect the degree to which candidate variables could be isolated; by manipulating the base rate of candidate causes, we were able to affect the potential for information gain. Children’s exploratory play was sensitive to both manipulations: given unambiguous evidence children played indiscriminately and rarely tried to isolate candidate causes; given ambiguous evidence, children both selected (Experiment 1) and designed (Experiment 2) informative interventions.     

Behavioral intervention to treat selective mutism across multiple social situations and community settings

We evaluated a behavioral intervention for a 9-year-old girl with selective mutism. The intervention consisted of role play and video self-modeling. The frequency of spoken initiations, responses to questions, and communication breakdowns was measured during three social situations (i.e., ordering in a restaurant, meeting new adults, and playing with new children) and in three community settings. Results demonstrated increases in spoken initiations and responses and decreases in communication breakdowns across all situations and settings.     

学前儿童合作认知及合作行为的培养研究

选取幼儿园大、中、小12个自然班,共317名幼儿为被试,进行为期四周的观点采择合作认知故事及游戏形式的合作行为训练。结果表明：①合作认知故事及游戏形式的合作行为训练,对提高学前儿童合作认知及合作行为水平影响显著,两者结合的训练方式最有效。②合作认知故事的培养训练对不同年龄儿童合作认知水平的提高影响显著;合作游戏训练对中班儿童合作水平的提高影响显著。③合作认知及合作行为训练的性别差异不显著。     

The Mother Relationship and Artistic Inhibition in the Lives of Leonardo da Vinci and Erik H. Erikson

In four earlier articles, I focused on the theme of the relationship of melancholia and the mother, and suggested that the melancholic self may experience humor (Capps, 2007a), play (Capps, 2008a), dreams (Capps, 2007c), and art (Capps, 2008b) as restorative resources. I argued that Erik H. Erikson found these resources to be valuable remedies for his own melancholic condition, which had its origins in the fact that he was illegitimate and was raised solely by his mother until he was three years old, when she remarried. In this article, I focus on two themes in Freud’s Leonardo da Vinci and a memory of his childhood (1964): Leonardo’s relationship with his mother in early childhood and his inhibitions as an artist. I relate these two themes to Erikson’s own early childhood and his failure to achieve his goal as an aspiring artist in his early twenties. The article concludes with a discussion of Erikson’s frustrated aspirations to become an artist and his emphasis, in his psychoanalytic work, on children’s play. Donald Capps is Professor of Pastoral Psychology at Princeton Theological Seminary. His books include Men, Religion, and Melancholia (1997), Freud and Freudians on Religion (2001), and Men and Their Religion: Honor, Hope, and Humor     

Adult modelling facilitates young children's generation of novel pretend acts

The present work investigated the effect of modelling on children's pretend play behaviour. Thirty‐seven children aged between 27 and 41 months were given 4 min of free play with a dollhouse and associated toy props (pre‐modelling phase). Using dolls, an experimenter then acted out a series of vignettes involving object substitutions, imaginary play and attribution of properties. Children were subsequently provided with an additional 4 min free play (post‐modelling phase). Consistent with past research, more pretence was exhibited after modelling than before. Furthermore, in the post‐modelling phase, children were as likely to generate their own novel pretence as they were to copy the actions demonstrated by the experimenter. They also increased the number of novel symbolic acts involving imaginary play from the pre‐ to the post‐modelling phase. This study highlights how young children will not only imitate a model's demonstration of pretend acts but also use this demonstration to catalyze the creation of their own pretence. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

亲子互动中游戏参与方式、情感交流和儿童心理理论的关系

本研究通过亲子互动游戏观察来考查亲子游戏参与方式、情感交流与儿童心理理论发展的关系。实验结果如下:第一,控制了年龄因素后,儿童的亲子游戏参与方式中的主动参与和建议游戏两种方式与儿童心理理论发展之间存在显著的相关;而对于母亲来说,指导游戏的参与方式和儿童心理理论发展存在显著相关。第二,控制了年龄因素之后,儿童情感交流方面的分享积极情感和心理理论发展之间存在显著相关。而母亲这方面的指标和儿童心理理论发展没有显著相关。文章对上述结果进行了分析讨论。     

Effects of a Dependent Group-Oriented Contingency on Middle School Physical Education Students’ Fair Play Behaviors

This study investigated the effects of a dependent group-oriented contingency on the supportive and non-supportive fair play behaviors of 6th grade students engaged in volleyball games as part of their physical education instruction. Six students, one male and one female per class, from three classes, identified as demonstrating low incidences of supportive behaviors during volleyball games, were participants in this study. A multiple baseline across classes design was used to examine the data. During baseline few incidences of non-supportive behaviors occurred among all six students. However, the participants seldom displayed supportive behaviors during games (i.e., encouraged each other). Following the introduction of the dependent group contingency, supportive behaviors for all participants increased. Follow-up data, collected in an alternative setting, indicated variable maintenance. The results are discussed in the context of group contingencies and social behaviors in sports.     

'The healing power of love': The literary/analytic bond of marriage in Freud's essay on Gradiva

Freud 's declared position regarding the management of 'transference love' advocated 'abstinence', objectivity and even 'emotional coldness in the analyst'. However, his essay on Jensen's Gradiva reveals an identification with an involved and responsive 'maternal' analytic position associated with theorists such as Ferenczi, Balint and Winnicott. These theorists attribute the origins of transference love to the pre-oedipal stage, shaping their analytic model on the basis of the early relationship with the mother. Freud generally had difficulty identifying with such a position, since it entailed addressing his own inner feminine aspects. Yet a literary analysis of his 'Gradiva' reveals this stance in his textual performance, i.e. in the ways in which he reads and retells Jensen's story. Freud 's narration not only expresses identification with Zoe, the female protagonist, but also idealizes her 'therapeutic' conduct, which is closer in spirit to that of object-relations theorists. His subtext even implies, however unintended, that an ideal treatment of transference love culminates in a psychical 'marriage' bond between the analytic couple, a metaphor used by Winnicott to describe the essence of the mother–baby (analyst/patient) bond. Freud 's reading process is itself analogous to Zoe's 'therapeutic' conduct, in that both perform a creative and involved interaction with the text/patient.