Aggression in toddlers: Responses to the assertive acts of boys and girls

Sex Roles - Forty-eight toddler boys and girls, 18 to 36 months of age, were observed in play groups. The assertive acts of each child and the responses of peers and teachers were recorded. The...     

Vasopressin prolongs bradycardiac response during orientation

Adult male rats were implanted with transcutaneous ECG electrodes and habituated to a dark chamber with elevated background noise levels. ECG was recorded prior to, immediately after, and 3 min after sudden elimination of background noise. The orienting response to the stimulus offset was accompanied by transient bradycardia. Neither AVP (1 microgram/rat) nor oxytocin (1 microgram/rat) injected subcutaneously 1 hr prior to testing altered baseline heart rate or the immediate bradycardiac response to stimulus offset. However, AVP, and to a lesser extent oxytocin, prolonged the bradycardia induced by stimulus offset. The results show that neurohypophyseal peptide hormones enhance the cardiovascular component of orienting to stimulus change.     

MMPI-2-RF characteristics of custody evaluation litigants

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF) is a 338-item objective self-report measure drawn from the 567 items of the MMPI-2. Although there is a substantial MMPI-2 literature regarding child custody litigants, there has been only one previously published study using MMPI-2-RF data in this population that focused on Validity scales L-r and K-r. The current study evaluated the MMPI-2-RF results of 344 child custody litigants and showed substantial consistency between T-score elevations typically found on MMPI-2 Validity scales L and K, and comparable elevations for MMPI-2-RF validity scales L-r and K-r. Mean T-scores well within normal limits characterized results for clinical scales on both instruments. The RC scale intercorrelation patterns, and alpha coefficient values found for MMPI-2-RF scales in a custody population, were also found to be very similar to those reported for other populations. Directions for future research are presented.     

Predictable Mispredictions in the Context of Physical Activity and Sport: A Review

Theoretical models and research that aim to identify antecedents of participation in physical activities or sport can measure antecedents of physical activity behaviour through instruments that involve subjective predictions. In this article, we argue that such instruments may not reflect physical activity experiences or behaviour accurately because people are not very good predictors of future states. Additionally, we propose that mispredictions may be predictable because they are “caused” by tendencies to neglect processes related to hedonic adaptation and competing alternatives. We also suggest that it may be possible to improve measurement of antecedents through methods that focus respondents' attention on factors that cause mispredictions or through experiential sampling methods.     

Effects of Exposure to Physique Slides on the Emotional Responses of Men and Women

The purpose of this study was to examine high and low body dissatisfied (BD) men's and women's in-task emotional responses to the acute exposure of sex-specific physique slides of the aesthetic ideal (i.e., ideal slides) and themselves (i.e., self-slides). Participants were 35 male and 30 female university students who reported their immediate in-task emotional responses (i.e., pleasure and arousal) to viewing the self- and ideal slides. It was found that the (a) high BD women reported the least amount of pleasure while viewing the self- and ideal slides; (b) women reported less pleasure while viewing the self-slides than did the men; (c) The high BD group reported less pleasure while viewing the self- vs. the ideal slides than did the low BD group, and (d) the high BD men reported the most arousal of any of the groups while viewing the self- and ideal slides. The differing emotional responses of the men and women and the high and low BD groups to viewing the self- vs. ideal slides are discussed, and future research directions are suggested.     

If at first you don't succeed: the neuroendocrine impact of using a range of strategies during social conflict

Using a variety of cognitive or behavioral strategies to manage stressful situations may be more adaptive than relying on a narrow selection. Although research has explored the psychological benefits of a range of coping responses, the physiological impact within and across stressful situations has not been examined. Moreover, research has primarily relied upon self-reports of what people believe they generally do across stressful situations, which may be subject to recall bias. This study observed and coded the range of behavioral response strategies that young adults (n=74, mean age 18.1) used to manage a laboratory-based, interpersonal conflict task and collected self-reports of the cognitive strategies used to manage similar stressors. Analyses examined the impact of response range on cortisol activity during the task. Greater range of observed response strategies predicted lower cortisol reactivity (t(133)=2.65; p=.009), whereas the range of self-reported strategies was unrelated to cortisol reactivity (t(133)=.53; p=.60). Results support observational assessment as an important supplement to self-reports of responses to stress and suggest that the range of strategies used to manage the momentary demands of a stressful situation may help explain individual differences in the impact of stress on physiological systems.     

Parental Distress Tolerance in Three Periods of Child Development: The Moderating Role of Child Temperament

Emotion regulation (ER) is essential to everyday, normative functioning. One aspect of ER is distress tolerance—the ability to persist in goal-directed activities when experiencing aversive states. Despite an assumption that ER improves with age, very little is known about ER across parenthood. Emotion regulation may be taxed by parenthood with implications for negativity in the family environment. The purpose of the current study was to describe levels of distress tolerance across periods of parenthood and to evaluate child temperament as a moderator of the relationship between child’s age and parents’ distress tolerance. A total of 602 parents (66.3% female, M _age ? =?32.31 years, SD?=?7.07) whose eldest child belonged to one of three developmental periods (i.e., infancy, n?=?187; early childhood, n?=?214; late childhood, n?=?201) completed an online survey. While we found no evidence for a main effect of child’s age on parent distress tolerance, children’s negative affectivity moderated the association between period of parenthood and parent distress tolerance. Specifically, children who were higher in negative affectivity had parents who reported less distress tolerance between the developmental periods. The implications of the current study are discussed in the context of current and future research on emotional regulation among parents.