Llamas use social information from conspecifics and humans to solve a spatial detour task

Animal Cognition - Learning by observing others (i.e. social learning) is an important mechanism to reduce the costs of individual learning. Social learning can occur between conspecifics but also...     

The Use of Stimulant Medication and Behavioral Interventions for the Treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A Survey of Parents’ Knowledge, Attitudes, and Experiences

We examined parents’ knowledge, attitudes, and information sources regarding Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), including treatment with stimulant medication and behavioral interventions. Responses from parents with a child diagnosed with ADHD and parents without a child diagnosed with ADHD were also compared. Participants consisted of 146 parents of elementary age children from Wisconsin. The surveyed parents were aware of issues surrounding ADHD and the use of stimulant medication, but there were several areas where they possessed inaccurate or incomplete factual information. Parents who had a child diagnosed with ADHD rated the effects of stimulant medication more positively and side effects as less severe than other parents. They also rated behavioral interventions as less effective on all questions. Implications of the study are discussed.     

Smoking among New Yorican adolescents: time 1 predictors of time 2 tobacco use

The authors identified longitudinal relationships between early risk and protective factors from the domains of family, personality, and peer influences and later tobacco use in Puerto Rican adolescents living in New York. Aspects of the ethnic minority experience as moderators of familial risk and protective factors were investigated. Participants were 282 female and 276 male Puerto Rican adolescents interviewed twice, 5 years apart. The authors used hierarchical regression analyses to identify a model with direct and indirect paths. Family, personality, peer, and early smoking domains were directly related to later adolescent smoking. Partial mediation occurred. The authors identified risk-protective and protective-protective interactions between variables from the ethnic minority experience and family domains. Interventions to reduce smoking among Puerto Rican adolescents should focus on multiple contexts, including aspects of the ethnic minority experience.     

Towards a Marine Mindset: Visiting an Aquarium Can Improve Attitudes and Intentions Regarding Marine Sustainability

ABSTRACT

The oceans are crucial for human survival, yet they are under serious threat from humans, for example through overfishing and poor waste management. We investigated two questions. First, does a leisure visit to an aquarium improve visitor attitudes and intentions towards marine sustainability, specifically regarding overfishing and pollution? Second, does an information booklet handed out in addition to the visit have additional measurable impact? Aquarium visitors (n = 104) completed a questionnaire on marine sustainability attitudes and behavioral intentions before and after their visit. Half of the visitors also were given informational materials that offered behavioral solutions to the problem of overfishing. The aquarium visit significantly improved visitors’ overall attitudes and intentions. The information booklet additionally improved intentions significantly, but not attitudes. These findings show that a visit to an aquarium can help individuals develop what we term a marine mindset, a state of readiness to address marine sustainability issues. Implications, limitations, and ideas for further research are discussed.     

Growing up with severe learning difficulties: A longitudinal study of young people and their families

The paper reports on a longitudinal study of young people with severe learning difficulties. Two types of comparison are made: changes between Time 1 and Time 2, and comparisons with the younger age group in the study. The young adults acquired considerably more self-help and communication skills between Time 1 and Time 2. They were less likely to require help with self care than the younger age group and their carers were less stressed. Parents' needs for additional service provision fell into three categories: information needs, help with communication and other skills, and practical help. The greatest need was for information. The main concerns of the mothers at Time 1 and Time 2 are documented. The young adults' preparation for leaving school, current day placements at Social Education Centres and employment prospects are discussed. It is concluded that there are few opportunities to move on to less sheltered environments.     

Stress and coping in mothers caring for a child with severe learning difficulties: A test of Lazarus' transactional model of coping

The literature on psychological stress among women consistently points to the adverse effects of child rearing on mothers, particularly those caring for children with physical or mental handicaps. Early studies of the effects on family functioning of caring for a child with severe learning difficulties adopted a pathological approach in which it was assumed that psychological distress was inevitable among family members, particularly mothers. Recent research has emphasised that many families cope with and adapt to the stress they experience, and seeks to discover how they do so. The paper reports on a study of 166 mothers caring for a child with severe learning difficulties. The aim of the study was to investigate both the factors associated with maternal stress and those which might mediate or buffer the effects of stress. The study used the Folkman and Lazarus' (1979) transactional model of stress. Stress is the condition that results when person/environment transactions lead the individual to perceive a discrepancy between the demands of a situation and his/her resources or ability to cope with those demands. The nature and type of coping generated by a person will be determined by the coping resources in the person's environment. The model identifies five categories of coping resource: utilitarian resources, health/morale, social networks, general and specific beliefs, and problem solving skills. In our study, the five coping resources were represented by the mother's social class and appraisal of her financial worries, physical health, social support, acceptance of and adjustment to the child, and assessment of coping skills. Stress was measured by the Malaise Inventory (Rutter, 1970). Four of the five coping resources were found to be significant contributors in a hierarchical regression analysis of stress scores, contributing additional variance beyond that of behavioural and other child characteristics. Altogether, 55% of the variance in stress scores was explained.     

Trajectories of perceived adult and peer discrimination among Black, Latino, and Asian American adolescents: patterns and psychological correlates

This article presents results from a 3-year longitudinal study of the growth patterns and correlates of perceived discrimination by adults and by peers among Black, Latino, and Asian American high school students. Results revealed a linear increase over time in levels of perceived discrimination by adults, whereas perceptions of discrimination by peers remained stable over time. Asian American and non-Puerto Rican Latino adolescents (primarily Dominican) reported higher levels of peer and/or adult discrimination than did Puerto Rican youth, whereas Black adolescents reported a steeper increase over time in levels of perceived discrimination by peers and by adults than did Puerto Rican adolescents. Peer and adult discrimination was significantly associated with decreased self-esteem and increased depressive symptoms over time. Ethnic identity and ethnicity were found to moderate the relationships between perceived discrimination and changes in psychological well-being over time. Results underscore the need to include perceptions of discrimination when studying the development and well-being of ethnic minority adolescents.     

The protective role of ethnic and racial identity and aspects of an Africentric orientation against drug use among African American young adults

In this study, the authors examined (a) the protective potential of multiple components of ethnic and racial identity and (b) the aspects of an Africentric orientation for moderating psychobehavioral risk and protective factors for drug use among a sample of 333 urban low-income African American young adults. Ethnic and racial identity and Africentric variables moderated the relationship between psychobehavioral variables and drug stage in 32.5% of the cases. Ethnic and racial identity and Africentric values for African American young adults seemed to be important as moderators of the association between psychobehavioral factors and young adult drug use. The authors suggested implications for future research and interventions.     

Would I bet on beating you? Subtly increasing other-focus helps overcome egocentrism

Two studies investigated egocentrism in competitive situations. Specifically, the aim was to test novel subtle debiasing techniques for the shared-circumstance effect whereby people bet more money on winning in easy than difficult knowledge quizzes. In Study 1, participants took part in a quiz competition with a friend. Being asked to complete 10 sentence stems about the opponent eliminated the shared-circumstance effect, compared to completing 10 sentences about the self. In Study 2, circling third-person pronouns in an unrelated task eliminated the shared-circumstance effect compared to circling first-person pronouns. The research is the first to show that subtly directing attention to the opponent or to a generic third person can eliminate egocentrism effects.     

Valence, comparison focus and self-positivity biases: does it matter whether people judge positive or negative traits?

The present research questions whether mere valence affects self-other comparisons in the domain of trait characteristics. While some previous studies have reported greater positivity bias for the self when traits were positive than when traits were negative, we suggest that this is an ambiguous finding, because valence and content were confounded. When we unconfounded content and valence, valence had no effect on the magnitude of self-positivity bias displayed. We also replicate several findings for our unconfounded set of traits. Firstly, comparing others to the self, rather than comparing the self to others, lowered self-positivity for positive and negative traits (focus effect). Secondly, extremely positive and negative traits triggered greater positivity bias than did more moderately evaluated ones. Finally, we suggest that comparative self-positivity biases may be based on a general positivity bias.