Dangerous Transitions and the Traumatized Adolescent

One of the developmental tasks for the adolescent is to construct a new transitional space that leads to internal changes and adapts to the external world. When a nurturing matrix is unavailable, adolescents experience the entrance into the adult world as a dangerous transition. The author bases his arguments on psychoanalytic theories, mostly Winnicott's, and illustrates these with clinical material. He suggests that, even though these traumatized adolescents experienced nonfunctional transitional spaces, it is proven that they could be treated psychoanalytically. Here, the main task of the analyst is to establish a holding environment as a type of transference, resulting in less emphasis on interpretation of inner conflicts.     

The significance of organizational factors for the incidence of bullying

It is frequently assumed that a poor psychosocial working environment will create conditions that encourage bullying. However, few studies have examined this assumption while comparing work environment ratings of bullied and non-bullied employees who work in the same organization and/or department. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between organizational factors and the incidence of acts of bullying based on two different approaches: the first by comparing bullied with no-bullied, the second by comparing departments with widespread bulling with departments with little bulling. The study was a part of a general survey study of the work environment and employee well-being in 12 different local social security offices. A total of 898 persons participated in the study (a response rate of 88%).
First, the results showed a clear relationship between bullying and fear of organizational change; secondly, weak, but significant, correlations between bullying and other organizational factors; thirdly, the subsequent analyses compared departments in which bullying were most widespread with the rest of the departments. The results supported the hypothesis that departments that suffer from much bullying also have a poorer psychosocial work environment, results that support the assumption that organizational factors such as changes in one's position, pressure of work, performance demands, autocratic management and role conflict and lack of role clarity, as well as a poor social climate can contribute to the emergence of higher incidences of bullying.     

The nature (and nurture) of personality disorders

Personality disorders have a long history in the literature but a short scientific history. The point prevalence of personality disorders is 10%, but the lifetime prevalence is probably 30–40%. Genetic factors contribute to around 40–50% of the variation in the development of personality disorders. The effect of shared environment is very small or non‐existent. Some researchers have tried to promote gene‐environment interaction. However, in reality, the studies investigated gene‐situation interaction, as the “environment” may in reality be partly of a genetic nature. Thus, we are dealing with an unknown part of gene‐gene interaction. Gene‐experience (not gene‐environment) correlations are the rule in human life. Personality disorders co‐occur (are comorbid) with symptom disorders (Axis I) and correlate with common personality dimensions. Possibly, the concept of personality disorder could merge with dysfunctional personality types. But it is likely that the concept will survive on its own.     

Local Food Environments: They’re All Stocked Differently

The obesity epidemic has widened the aims of prevention research to include the influence of local food environments on health outcomes. This mixed methods study extends existing research focused on local food environments by examining whether community members’ find food accessible. Data from food store audits and one-on-one interviews were analyzed. Results reveal that most of the food stores surrounding the three research sites were convenience stores and non-chain grocery stores; interviewees did not perceive these stores to be “real” food stores. Tobacco and alcohol products were more prevalent in the food stores than all varieties of milk, fresh fruits, or fresh vegetables. Food access varied by site in a manner that was designed to appeal to customers’ race, class, gender, or environment. Findings reveal that local food environments are reflections of social hierarchies. Unraveling the politics of space ought to be a part of broader efforts to promote the public’s health.     

Fishing for the right words: decision rules for human foraging behavior in internal search tasks

Animals depleting one patch of resources must decide when to leave and switch to a fresh patch. Foraging theory has predicted various decision mechanisms; which is best depends on environmental variation in patch quality. Previously we tested whether these mechanisms underlie human decision making when foraging for external resources; here we test whether humans behave similarly in a cognitive task seeking internally generated solutions. Subjects searched for meaningful words made from random letter sequences, and as their success rate declined, they could opt to switch to a fresh sequence. As in the external foraging context, time since the previous success and the interval preceding it had a major influence on when subjects switched. Subjects also used the commonness of sequence letters as a proximal cue to patch quality that influenced when to switch. Contrary to optimality predictions, switching decisions were independent of whether sequences differed little or widely in quality.     

躯体运动促进空间更新的环境依赖效应

Kelly, Avraamides和Loomis (2007)发现被试在新环境中空间更新失败, 而肖承丽和刘传军(2014)发现被试在新环境中可使用想象平移等策略来实现空间更新。为了探索该两项研究的异同, 本研究采用与Kelly等相同的实验范式进行研究。实验1被试在原学习环境中完成实验任务。实验2被试记忆完物体空间位置后, 转移至新环境, 在只依靠离线表征、离线表征与在线表征相协调和离线表征与在线表征相矛盾三种条件下完成相同的实验任务。结果发现, 被试在原环境中通过躯体运动和记忆两种方式促进空间更新, 具有同等有效性, 而在新环境中躯体运动显著差于记忆对空间更新的促进作用; 躯体运动和记忆对空间更新的促进作用在两种环境中均高度相关。研究表明, 躯体运动促进空间更新具有环境依赖效应, 与记忆对空间更新的促进作用相比, 躯体运动对空间更新的促进作用会随着环境的改变而降低。     

家庭环境与高中生发展:自主的中介作用及其性别差异

从浙江省三所全日制高中选取348名高一到高三的学生为被试, 采用集体上机填答的方式实施问卷调查, 考察家庭环境对高中生发展的影响及作用机制, 探讨自主的中介作用及其性别差异。使用描述检验、相关分析和结构方程模型等方法, 结果发现:(1)男生的情感自主显著高于女生, 感知到的家庭亲密度水平显著低于女生;(2)家庭环境和自主与积极发展呈显著正相关, 与消极发展呈显著负相关, 积极发展与消极发展呈显著负相关;(3)家庭环境对积极发展有显著的正向预测作用, 对消极发展有显著的负向预测作用, 且对积极发展的预测作用显著高于消极发展;(4)总体上, 自主在家庭环境和高中生积极、消极发展的关系中起显著的中介作用;自主在家庭环境和积极发展间的中介作用在男生和女生样本中均达到显著水平, 而在家庭环境和消极发展间的中介作用在男生样本中为完全中介, 在女生样本中不显著。研究结果为从家庭角度促进高中生的积极发展、降低消极发展的可能性提供了依据。     

气质稳定性与发展性新进展*

气质的稳定性和发展性是心理学研究争论已久的问题。遗传×环境的研究视角再次打破了传统研究模式,取而代之的是气质稳定性与发展性的共存,遵循传统先天论——环境论——先天论——先天论×环境论的总体发展态势。该视角在拓展气质研究领域的同时,也成为未来研究的主要取向。本文首先综述了由于研究手段的更新和多元化而引发的气质稳定性和发展性两方面的最新实证研究,探讨了稳定性中遗传基因加性效应和非加性效应、脑生理基础以及个体气质发展性的内部、外部影响因素。然后,从研究样本的年龄段、气质的生理机制和儿童气质的纵向研究、亲子互动及师生互动方面的研究等方面提出目前我国气质研究未来方向。     

Life at Home: Same Time,Different Places — An Examination of the HOME Inventory in Different Cultures

In this paper we review literature on the use of the HOME Inventory across cultures. We address issues pertaining to measurement equivalence and validity. Specifically, we focus on: (a) changes in the content of HOME made by researchers, (b) distributional properties of HOME scores, (c) the factor structure of HOME, and (d) correlations between HOME, family characteristics, child characteristics and environmental conditions. In most affluent, western countries, with their individualist orientations, HOME was used essentially as it was originally constructed. Researchers in less industrialized, more collectivist countries tended to express greater scepticism about the appropriateness of some HOME items, and several teams of researchers made modifications in the instrument. The HOME total score showed theoretically meaningful (and similar) correlations with family structure, family status and child outcome measures across many cultures. Evidence attesting to the cultural equivalence (and validity) of HOME subscales was far less plentiful and compelling. In general, there seemed greater cross-cultural equivalence for items assessing cognitively stimulating aspects of the environment than for items assessing socioemotional support. The usefulness of the Inventory in other cultures and for cross-cultural comparisons depends on the purposes one has for using a measure of the home environment. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.