“We're not gonna be friends anymore”: Associations between viewing relational aggression on television and relational aggression in text messaging during adolescence

A number of studies suggest that adolescents who view relational aggression on television are more likely to engage in higher levels of subsequent relational aggression in social interactions. This study examined longitudinal associations between viewing relational aggression on television and relationally aggressive behavior in text messaging over a 1-year period during adolescence. Participants were 197 adolescents who completed a number of questionnaires regarding media use and aggression. Adolescents were each given a BlackBerry device and a sample of text messages was coded for aggressive behavior. Results revealed that exposure to relational aggression on television was associated with higher levels of relational aggression in texting one year later, but only for girls. Results are discussed with reference to the General Aggression Model.     

Response latency in visual search with redundancy in the visual display

Two experiments were run to investigate the effects of redundant display items upon response latency in a visual search task. In the first study, Ss searched five-letter displays for a predesignated critical letter. Both critical and noncritical letters could be repeated in the displays. Mean response latency decreased markedly with increasing redundancy in the critical letter and was affected to a lesser extent by redundancy in the noncritical letters. In the second study, Ss were required to detect the presence of redundant letters in displays of from two to five letters, first with no information as to what letter might be repeated, then with knowledge of which letter would be repeated if the display contained a redundant letter. Response latencies in the former case were much slower than in the latter. The implications of these findings for current views of visual information processing were discussed.     

The Role of Hostile and Benevolent Sexism in Women's and Men's Perceptions of the Menstruating Woman

Perceptions of menstruating women were studied in a sample of 244, predominantly European American, college freshmen. Both women and men rated the menstruating woman, as compared with the average woman, as higher on the Neuroticism factor from Lippa's (1991) measure of the Big Five personality factors. Men also rated her as lower on the Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness factors, and women rated her lower on the Extraversion factor. Women rated her as perceiving herself as less masculine and more feminine. Both women and men rated her as less "energized" and "sexy," but more "irritable,""sad," and "angry." In addition, men rated her as less "clean and fresh,""nurturing," and "reasonable," and more "spacey" and "annoying." Significant relationships were found between negative impressions of the menstruating woman and the Hostile Sexism Scale ( Glick & Fiske, 1996 ). Although most ratings by men and women were negative, women perceived the menstruating woman as more "maternal,""strong," and "trustworthy."     

The Relations of Regulation and Emotionality to Children's Situational Empathy-Related Responding

The relations of dispositional regulation (attentional control, ego control), ego resiliency, and emotionality (general emotional intensity and negative emotionality) to situational measures of sympathy and personal distress were examined. Situational sympathy and personal distress were assessed with facial, self-reported, and heart rate reactions to an empathy-inducing film. Teachers and parents completed measures of children's dispositional regulation and emotionality. In general, children who evidenced sympathy (e.g., facial sadness, mean heart rate decline, and self-reported sympathy) were rated higher in regulation and resiliency, although findings sometimes were obtained for only one sex. Children who evidenced personal distress (e.g., facial distress), as well as facial sadness, were rated relatively high in emotionality. Gaze aversion from the film was correlated with regulation and boys' resiliency, and was negatively related to negative emotionality.     

Visual search in a forced-choice paradigm

The processing of visual information was investigated in the context of two visual search tasks. The first was a forced-choice task in which one of two alternative letters appeared in a visual display of from one to five letters. The second task included trials on which neither of the two alternatives was present in the display. Search rates were estimated from the slopes of best linear fits to response latencies plotted as a function of the number of items in the visual display. These rates were found to be much slower than those estimated in yes-no search tasks. This result was interpreted as indicating that the processes underlying visual search in yes-no and forced-choice tasks are not the same.     

A Systematic Review of the Effects of Horticultural Therapy on Persons with Mental Health Conditions

A systematic review of the benefits of horticultural therapy (HT) on persons with mental health conditions was conducted. A review of research from 1992 through 2015 located 14 studies. The studies were analyzed using the McMaster’s Critical Review Form for Quantitative Studies (MQCRF), a scale by Barras (2005 Barras, S. (2005). A systematic and critical review of the literature: The effectiveness of occupational therapy home assessment on range of outcome measures. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, 52, 326–336. doi:10.1111/j.1440-1630.2005.00496.x[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), and the Levels of Evidence for Occupational Therapy Outcomes Research. Eleven of 14 studies reported statistically significant findings in support of HT for at least one dependent variable. The findings were found in a variety of settings, mental health conditions, and with both genders. This review found moderate initial evidence that HT can improve client factors and performance skills.