Loving and angry? Happy and sad? Understanding and reporting of mixed emotions in mother–child relationships by 6‐ to 12‐year‐olds

The Evaluative Space Model of emotions allows for the coactivation of positive‐appetitive and negative‐avoidant systems, but few studies have examined mixed emotions in child development. Existing research suggests children's understanding of opposite valence emotion combinations emerges by approximately 11 years of age. However, it is not yet clear whether various opposite valence combinations are understood at different ages, nor whether children can understand them in others before they have experienced such mixed emotions themselves. Semi‐structured interviews with 97 children investigated whether they regarded six combinations of opposite valence mixed emotions as possible, could provide reasons for them, and report their own experience of each in the context of mother–child relationships. Both understanding that such combinations are possible and ability to provide reasons for them increased after age 6 and up to age 11, but were still incomplete in 12‐year‐olds. Understanding of different opposite valence combinations developed at different rates. At each age, fewer children who showed understanding of these combinations in others reported having had a similar experience themselves. The findings suggest a need to systematically examine a range of mixed emotions in order to develop a comprehensive theory of the development of mixed emotion understanding. They also suggest extending research into adolescence.     

Attributions of Responsibility for Obesity: Narrative Communication Reduces Reactive Counterarguing Among Liberals

Informed by theory and research on attributions and narrative persuasion, we compared the effectiveness of narrative and nonnarrative messages in changing attributions of responsibility for causes and solutions related to obesity in the United States. We randomly assigned 500 adults to view one of three messages (narrative, evidence, and a hybrid of the two) emphasizing environmental causes of obesity, or a no‐exposure control condition. The narrative condition increased the belief that societal actors (government, employers) are responsible for addressing obesity, but only among liberals. This pattern of results was partially explained by the success of the narrative condition in reducing reactive counterarguing, relative to the evidence condition, among liberals. We conclude with theoretical and practical implications.     

Continuity in intellectual functioning: the role of self-reported health

Surviving members of the Berkeley Older Generation Study were interviewed and tested with the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale in 1969-1970 and again in 1983-1984, when subjects' ages ranged from 73 to 93. Health was assessed by self-reports at both measurement periods. Although many individuals showed some decline in intellectual functioning, substantial individual differences were apparent at all age levels. More than one half of the subjects showed no reliable change, and a minority showed a reliable increase in verbal scores. The role of self-reported health has increasing importance in the maintenance of intellectual functioning in advanced old age.     

Right hemisphere contribution to lexical access in an aphasic with deep dyslexia

Three hemifield tachistoscopic studies of a right-handed patient with acquired Broca's aphasia and deep dyslexia, but with intact visual fields, are presented to support the hypothesis of right hemisphere (RH) participation in deep dyslexic reading. A systematic comparison of this deep dyslexic with the disconnected RHs of two patients with complete cerebral commissurotomy disclosed a similar, but not identical, pattern of abilities. The results demonstrate partial reliance on the RH for accessing the meaning of single words, but not for phonological encoding in this patient.     

Effects of maternal unavailability on mother-infant interactions

To determine the differential effects of maternal emotional and physical unavailability on infant interaction behavior, 4-month-old infants were subjected to the mothers' still-face and to a brief separation from the mother. Although the infants became more negative and agitated during both conditions, the still-face was more stressful.     

An adjusting avoidance procedure with multiple auditory and visual warning stimuli

Male albino rats were trained on an adjusting avoidance schedule in which each lever press accumulated a given amount of shock-free time. Multiple auditory and visual stimuli were programmed for each discrete temporal distance from the shock in an effort to place the avoidance behavior under the control of the shock proximity. The effects of the stimuli were further examined by presenting part of them and then by removing them altogether. With the combined auditory and visual stimuli, the rat spent most of the time relatively close to the shock and usually started to respond only when the shock was near. With the visual stimuli only, the rat kept the shock at intermediate temporal distances and responded more variably. The behavior with the auditory stimuli alone was quite similar to that produced by the combined stimuli, thus indicating that the auditory stimuli exercised the greater control. When all stimuli were removed, the animal usually kept the shock as far away as the procedure permitted. When only a single pre-shock stimulus was presented, the rat remained quite close to the shock and started to respond predominantly in the pre-shock step.