Do physical and relational aggression explain adolescents' friendship selection? The competing roles of network characteristics,gender, and social status

The role of physical and relational aggression in adolescents' friendship selection was examined in a longitudinal sample of 274 Chilean students from 5th and 6th grade followed over 1 year. Longitudinal social network modeling (SIENA) was used to study selection processes for aggression while influence processes were controlled for. Furthermore, the effects of network characteristics (i.e., reciprocity and transitivity), gender, and social status on friendship selection were examined. The starting assumption of this study was that selection effects based on aggression might have been overestimated in previous research as a result of failing to consider influence processes and alternative characteristics that steer friendship formation. The results show that selection effects of both physical and relational aggression disappeared when network effects, gender, and social status were taken into account. Particularly gender and perceived popularity appeared to be far more important determinants of friendship selection over time than aggression. Moreover, a peer influence effect was only found for relational aggression, and not for physical aggression. These findings suggest that similarity in aggression among befriended adolescents can be considered to be mainly a by-product rather than a leading dimension in friendship selection.     

Predictors of treatment attendance among adolescent substance abusing runaways: a comparison of family and individual therapy modalities

This study explored and compared predictors of session attendance among substance abusing runaway adolescents and their parents using three manual‐driven interventions: ecologically‐based family therapy (EBFT), motivational enhancement therapy (MET), and the community reinforcement approach (CRA). Individual and family‐level variables, as well as time between intake and first session were used as predictors of session attendance. Adolescents (N=179) between the ages of 12–17 years old were recruited from the only runaway shelter in Columbus, Ohio. The findings showed that adolescents assigned to EBFT were more likely to attend at least one therapy session than those assigned to either CRA or MET. Fewer days between intake and the first therapy session were associated with higher family therapy attendance. Overall, individual and family factors predicted therapy attendance but these factors differed depending upon the treatment modality.     

On the Knowledge of Politics and the Politics of Knowledge: How a Social Representations Approach Helps Us Rethink the Subject of Political Psychology

Fifty years ago, Serge Moscovici first outlined a theory of social representations. In this article, we attempt to discuss and to contextualize research that has been inspired by this original impetus from the particular angle of its relevance to political psychology. We argue that four defining components of social representations need to be taken into account, and that these elements need to be articulated with insights from the social identity tradition about the centrality of self and group constructions in order to develop original insights into political psychological phenomena. First, social representations are shared knowledge, and the way interpretations of the world are collectively elaborated is critical to the way people are able to act within the world. Second, social representations are meta‐knowledge, which implies that what people assume relevant others know, think, or value is part of their own interpretative grid, and that collective behavior can often be influenced more powerfully at the level of meta‐representations than of intimate beliefs. Third, social representations are enacted communication, which means that social influence is exerted by the factors that constrain social practices as much as by the discourse that interprets these practices. Fourth, social representations are world‐making assumptions: collective understandings do not only reflect existing realities but often bring social reality into being. Put together, these four components provide a distinctive theoretical perspective on power, resistance and conflict. The added conceptual value of this perspective is illustrated by showing how it allows revisiting ethnic conflict in the former Yugoslavia. We conclude with implications for research practices and discuss how the proposed model of social representations invites us to define new priorities and challenges for the methods used to study political psychological phenomena.     

On Epistemological Shifts and Good Old French Wine (in New Bottles): Commentary on Elcheroth,Doise, and Reicher

In this article, we first suggest that the approach presented by Elcheroth, Doise, and Reicher is particularly relevant in view of the “neuroscientific turn” that faces political psychology. Thus, we note that the distinction between content and process and the predilection for general, intrapsychological, and content‐free explanations of political cognition and behavior are encouraged by these developments. We contrast the contribution of the social representations approach to the understanding of social conflict and social change with the approach promoted by these new perspectives. Next, we consider the four themes highlighted by Elcheroth et al. as distinctive of the social representations approach. We notice convergences between these themes and several areas of “mainstream” social and political psychology and show that several of these themes have surfaced in these fields without making reference to this approach.     

We're Closer than I Thought: Social Network Heterogeneity,Morality, and Political Persuasion

Literature in the area of social networks indicates that increases in perceived social network attitudinal heterogeneity generate increased openness to attitude change. Recent evidence in the area of morality, however, shows that morally based attitudes are particularly resistant to persuasion and can result in the rejection of disagreeing others. Positing that considering morality would reduce network influence, an experiment varied moral cues presented along with a non‐network persuasive message while holding the actual content constant. Results demonstrate that morality and network composition interact to predict persuasion, such that when people are not cued to consider morality increased network heterogeneity predicts increased persuasion, but when identical messages are presented in a way that invokes morality the impact of network heterogeneity disappears or even reverses marginally. This interactive effect was replicated in two very different political issues: gay adoption and nationalized healthcare. Implications for persuasion by morally motivated sources independent of the effects of specific moral arguments are discussed.     

Haptics in teaching handwriting: the role of perceptual and visuo-motor skills

Two studies were carried out in order to better understand the role of perceptual and visuo-motor skills in handwriting. Two training programs, visual-haptic (VH) and visual (V), were compared which differed in the way children explored the letters. The results revealed that improvements of VH training on letter recognition and handwriting quality were higher than improvements after V training. We suppose that VH training was more efficient because it improved both perceptual and visuo-motor skills. In the second experiment, in order to investigate the part of each component, we assessed the link between visuo-motor skills, perceptual skills and handwriting. The results showed that only the visuo-motor tasks predict handwriting copying performance. These results are discussed in relation to the respective roles of the perceptual and visuo-motor skills on letter shape learning and handwriting movement execution.     

Effects of the global and local attention on the processing of categorical and coordinate spatial relations

Participants made categorical or coordinate spatial judgments on the global or local elements of shapes. Stimuli were composed of a horizontal line and two dots. In the Categorical task, participants judged whether the line was above or below the dots. In the Coordinate task, they judged whether the line would fit between the dots. Stimuli were made hierarchical so that the global patterns composed of a “global line” made of local dots-and-line units, and “global dot” made of a single dots-and-line unit. The results indicated that the categorical task was better performed when participants attended to the local level of the hierarchical stimuli. On the other hand, the coordinate task was better performed when they attended to the global level. These findings are consistent with computer simulation models of the attentional modulation of neuronal receptive fields’ size suggesting that (1) coordinate spatial relations are more efficiently encoded when one attends to a relatively large region of space, whereas (2) categorical spatial relations are more efficiently encoded when one attends to a relatively small region of space.     

Mechanism of isoflavone aglycone's effect on cognitive performance of senescence-accelerated mice

This study investigated the effect of isoflavone aglycone (IA) on the learning and memory performance of senescence-accelerated mice, and explored its neural protective mechanism. Results showed that SAM-P/8 senescence-accelerated mice treated with IA performed significantly better in the Y-maze cognitive test than the no treatment control (P<0.05). The cortex AchE activity, serum SOD and GSH-Px activities were notably higher (P<0.05). MDA concentration and the β-secretase activity in the hippocampal tissue were both lower (P<0.05). Additionally, the number of hippocampal neurons was increased and cell morphology was significantly improved. Data suggested that IA could indirectly increase concentration of the cholinergic neural transmitter Ach through regulation of AchE, therefore improving the central cholinergic function and enhancing the learning and memory ability. By reducing the β-secretase activity, IA could decrease the formation and deposition of insoluble Adebris, relieve the resulted toxicity and damage to neurons, and thereby effectively protect the nervous system.     

Marcus Borg's Emerging Paradigm for Christianity: The Interplay of GLBT Readers,Religious Text,and Social Environment

This study considered how participants affiliated with a Christian church responded to and socially constructed information while reading and discussing Marcus Borg's book The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering a Life of Faith. Borg argues that the traditional paradigm of American Christianity must be replayed with a more progressive Christianity. This church serves a largely (but not exclusively) gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgender congregation (GLBT). The entire reading church cohort consisted of twelve groups with 96 participants and an outside comparison group of six readers. Group 10 of the church groups was studied using a field-based, research-participant approach. Members of Reading Group 10 reacted positively to Borg and appeared to have personally accepted levels of social constructionism. Other reading groups reacted more negatively to Borg. Pastoral assessments of the effectiveness are also offered.     

The Role of Goal Orientations in Explaining Academic Cheating in Students With Learning Disabilities: An Application of the Cusp Catastrophe

The purpose of the present study was to predict and explain the academic cheating behaviors of elementary school students with learning disabilities (LD) by applying the cusp catastrophe model. Participants were 32 students with identified LD from state governmental agencies although all both them and the typical students participated in the experimental manipulation (N = 480). Academic cheating was assessed using an empirical paradigm where true achievement was subtracted from achievement in a test without proper invigilation. Data analysis supported the proposed cusp catastrophe models, where mastery-related motives acted as asymmetry and performance goals as bifurcation variables respectively. These findings were confirmed with application of the interactive goal hypothesis (Barron & Harackiewicz, 2001), where the interactive approach and avoidance performance goal term functioned as a splitting factor in the relationship between adaptive motivation and performance.