Diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of externalizing problems in children: The role of longitudinal data.

Prospective longitudinal studies that pertain to the stability, developmental pathways, and long-term outcome for the 2 primary forms of externalizing behavior problems (conduct problems [CPs] and hyperactivity [HA]) are described. Treatment outcome studies for CPs and HA with at least 1 yr of follow-up data are reviewed. The implications of longitudinal research for the diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of externalizing behavior problems in children are discussed. Greater attention must be paid to issues related to comorbidity, developmentally appropriate assessments, and long-term outcome of interventions. Longitudinal-experimental investigations that serve to delineate developmental pathways as well as assess the effects of developmentally sensitive, comprehensive interventions are recommended. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Incest and the borderline syndrome: The mediating role of identity.

This article reviews psychoanalytic theory, clinical studies, and empirical investigations regarding the pathological effects of father-daughter incest. This literature suggests strong links between childhood incest and serious psychopathological sequelae, particularly borderline personality disorder. I propose a model for understanding the impact of incest, using the concept of identity as a mediating construct. Particular emphasis is placed on the role played by incest in the disruption of the developing boundary between internal and external reality. Such defects may result in the failure of age-appropriate divestment of the illusion of omnipotent control and the inappropriate persistence of efforts to control others. Thus, such disruptions may account for major aspects of borderline syndrome including identity diffusion, affective instability, and primitive defenses. A case vignette is presented as an illustration of the model's cogency with respect to the treatment of a borderline incest victim. Theoretical, treatment, and research implications are noted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Remembering, forgetting, and the effects of trauma on memory: a developmental psychopathology perspective

A developmental psychopathology framework, with its emphasis on an interdisciplinary perspective, the interplay between work conducted with normal and atypical populations, and its focus on investigating functioning in multiple domains of development concurrently, possesses significant potential for advancing work on memory and trauma. A brief historical overview of memory and trauma is provided. Significant issues are highlighted that must be confronted in order to advance the understanding of the effects of trauma on memory and the utility of a developmental psychopathology perspective for informing research efforts is examined. The implications of a developmental psychopathology perspective for guiding research, clinical, and social policy initiatives of relevance to trauma and memory are discussed.     

Elevated social anxiety among early maturing girls.

Adolescence is a key period in terms of the development of anxiety psychopathology. An emerging literature suggests that early pubertal maturation is associated with enhanced vulnerability for anxiety symptomatology, although few studies have examined this association with regard to social anxiety. Accordingly, the current study was designed to further elucidate the relation between pubertal timing and social anxiety, with a focus on clarifying the role of gender. Participants were 138 adolescents (ages 12–17 years) recruited from the general community. Level of social anxiety was examined as a function of gender and within-sample pubertal timing. As expected, early maturing girls evidenced significantly higher social anxiety, compared with on-time girls and early maturing boys, and no other differences were found as a function of gender or developmental timing. Findings and future directions are discussed in terms of forwarding developmentally sensitive models of social anxiety etiology and prevention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Religion as a Resource for Positive Youth Development: Religion, Social Capital, and Moral Outcomes.

Although existing literature demonstrates that developmental benefits are associated with religion for adolescents, little is understood about the dynamics of this relationship. Drawing on social capital theory, this study tested a conceptual model exploring socially embedded religious influences on moral outcomes. A three-dimensional model of social capital demonstrated how social interaction, trust, and shared vision enable social ties associated with religiousness to influence moral behavior. Structural equation modeling was used with data gathered from 735 urban youths to test a proposed model of the effects of religiousness on moral outcomes. Results suggested that religiously active youths report higher levels of social capital resources and that the influence of adolescent religiousness on moral outcomes was mediated through social capital resources. Suggestions for further research and implications for faith-based youth development organizations are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development during adolescence: The impact of stage€nvironment fit on young adolescents' experiences in schools and in families.

Although most individuals pass through adolescence without excessively high levels of "storm and stress," many do experience difficulty. Why? Is there something unique about this developmental period that puts adolescents at risk for difficulty? This article focuses on this question and advances the hypothesis that some of the negative psychological changes associated with adolescent development result from a mismatch between the needs of developing adolescents and the opportunities afforded them by their social environments. It provides examples of how this mismatch develops in the school and in the home and how it is linked to negative age-related changes in early adolescents' motivation and self-perceptions. Ways in which more developmentally appropriate social environments can be created are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Risk for psychopathology in the children of depressed mothers: A developmental model for understanding mechanisms of transmission.

A large body of literature documents the adverse effects of maternal depression on the functioning and development of offspring. Although investigators have identified factors associated with risk for abnormal development and psychopathology in the children, little attention has been paid to the mechanisms explaining the transmission of risk from the mothers to the children. Moreover, no existing model both guides understanding of the various processes' interrelatedness and considers the role of development in explicating the manifestation of risk in the children. This article proposes a developmentally sensitive, integrative model for understanding children's risk in relation to maternal depression. Four mechanisms through which risk might be transmitted are evaluated: (a) heritability of depression; (b) innate dysfunctional neuroreguIatory mechanisms; (c) exposure to negative maternal cognitions, behaviors, and affect; and (d) the stressful context of the children's lives. Three factors that might moderate this risk are considered: (a) the father's health and involvement with the child, (b) the course and timing of the mother's depression, and (c) characteristics of the child. Relevant issues are discussed, and promising directions for future research are suggested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental Psychology and Public Policy: Progress and Prospects.

This article outlines a framework for developmentally oriented policy research. Drawing from U. Bronfenbrenner's (1995) dynamic developmental systems theory, the authors suggest ways in which the key tenets of process, persons, context, and time can inform policy research in developmental psychology and can be used to support a causal interpretation of the results of those analyses. Conceptualizing public policies from a dynamic developmental systems perspective has a variety of implications for future research, and this article considers some of these implications. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Institutional effects on the psychosocial development of African-American college students.

This study examined the widely reported contention that the social and intellectual development of African-American college students is nurtured better by traditionally Black collegiate institutions (TBIs) than by predominantly White collegiate institutions (PWIs). It was hypothesized that if the reported environmental effects exist, then students at TBIs ought to be more developmentally advanced than their counterparts at PWIs. Three areas of psychosocial development were examined for 250 African-American students attending the 2 types of institutions in the same northeastern state. The Racial Identity Attitude Scale (T. A. Parham and J. E. Helms; see record 1981-21936-001), the Student Development Task Inventory, and the Career Decision Scale were used. The results did not provide clear support for the superiority of the TBIs in facilitating the development of African-American college students. Results and implications for counseling and future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Infants with autism: an investigation of empathy, pretend play, joint attention, and imitation

Systematic studies of infants with autism have not been previously carried out. Taking advantage of a new prospective screening instrument for autism in infancy (S. Baron-Cohen et al., 1996), the present study found that, compared with developmentally delayed and normally developing children, 20-month-old children with autism were specifically impaired on some aspects of empathy, joint attention, and imitation. Infants with autism failed to use social gaze in the empathy and joint attention tasks. Both the infants with autism and the infants with developmental delay demonstrated functional play, but very few participants in either group produced spontaneous pretend play. In the developmental delay group, but not the autism group, pretend play was shown following prompting. The implications of these findings for developmental accounts of autism and for the early diagnosis of the disorder are discussed.     

Developmental factors in the treatment on adolescents.

Most empirically supported interventions for adolescent mental health problems are either downward adaptations of adult treatments or upward adaptations of child treatments. Although these treatments show respectable effects with teens, a review of the outcome research reveals significant gaps, both in coverage of adolescent conditions and problems (e.g., eating disorders, suicidality) and in attention to the biological, psychological, and social dimensions of adolescent development. The authors critique the field, propose a biopsychosocial framework for the development of dysfunction and intervention, and discuss ways the developmental literature can and cannot inform intervention and research. A long-term goal is an array of developmentally tailored treatments that are effective with clinically referred teens and an enriched understanding of when, how, and why the treatments work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The self-system during childhood and adolescence: Development, influences, and implications.

Research on the development of the self-system is briefly reviewed, with a special focus on major themes and issues related to childhood and adolescence. Important tasks and characteristics of the self-system that emerge during infancy, toddlerhood, childhood, and adolescence are described, helping to illustrate the numerous factors that influence changing perceptions of the self. Relationships between the self-system and social agents also are described, showing the influence of schooling and parental involvement on the development of the self. Examples from the authors' research on the relationships between gender and the development of self-beliefs are reviewed. They include examples of atypical development throughout the article, and conclude with a discussion regarding the implications of developmental research for clinical practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social competency in young children.

Discusses the tenacity of IQ measurement and problems of societal values and goal definition in the light of a discouraging history of attempts to cope with the complexities of human competence. 29 statements defining "social competency" in young children are presented, which involve many important conceptual problems. These problems relate to ecological and population generality of constructs, distinctions between proficiency and performance and between positive components of competency and negative characteristics that obstruct development, discontinuities in the meaning of variables at different scale points, classification of variables by developmental trends, and the importance of dynamic as opposed to static assessment. The implications of the 29 competency statements for measurement, research, and policy relating to young children are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of affect on social-information processing

This study examined the impact of four affect induction conditions (self-induced positive affect, music-induced positive affect, music-induced negative affect, and neutral affect) on the social-information-processing skills of 96 seventh-grade students with and without learning disabilities using the Dodge (1983) model of social skills. Following a 1-minute affect induction, students were presented with a social problem and asked a series of questions that tested their social skills. Although the results did not find significant differences between school-identified students with and without learning disabilities, there were significant main effects for language skills and affect induction. Students above the median on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills language test generated more solutions and fewer negative responses than students below the median. Students in the self-induced positive affect condition generated more solutions, whereas students in the music-induced positive affect condition generated more embellishments and perceived less interpretation (negative/positive), than students in the neutral and negative affect conditions. The implications of these results for research and practice are discussed.     

Mood and the correction of positive versus negative stereotypes.

The present research examined the effects of sadness on the correction of social stereotypes. Participants who either were or were not induced to feel sad were asked to form an impression of a single individual who belonged to a group that had either stereotypically positive or negative implications. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that sad people corrected for their negative, but not for their positive stereotypes. Experiment 3 demonstrated that this asymmetry was not due to stereotype valence per se but to whether the stereotype was perceived as an inappropriate basis for judgment. A model is presented that suggests that sad people do not simply ignore category-based information, but rather correct for their stereotypes only when they are perceived as inappropriate, which tends to be more often the case if the stereotype is negative than if it is positive. The implications of the present results for 4 extant models of mood and information processing are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attributional and social comparison processes in depression.

In this study we examined the consequences for depressed and nondepressed individuals of receiving comparison feedback regarding their causal understanding of an event. Specifically, the effects of similar, dissimilar, or no-comparison feedback on depressed and nondepressed subjects' evaluations of the comparison other and on their feelings about themselves were investigated. Because the reduction of uncertainty about one's conception of social reality is a major motive underlying social-comparison processes, we expected that depressed individuals, who are assumed to have experienced heightened uncertainty associated with frequent exposure to uncontrollable life events, would be more motivated to engage in social comparison and would be more sensitive to social-comparison feedback. Results generally were consistant with this reasoning. The implications of the results in terms of the development and maintenance of depression were discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

College students’ social justice interest and commitment: A social-cognitive perspective.

In this study, the authors examined the degree to which social-cognitive career theory (SCCT; R. W. Lent, S. D. Brown, & G. Hackett, 1994) explained the development of social justice interest and commitment. Data from 274 college students and latent variable path modeling were used to test theoretically and empirically derived SCCT direct and indirect effects structural models. The direct effects model estimated the direct effect of social supports and barriers on social justice commitment and the indirect effects model estimated the effect of social supports and barriers indirectly through self-efficacy. Overall, the present findings supported the use of SCCT within the social justice domain, as social justice self-efficacy and outcome expectations were useful in explaining the development of college students’ social justice interest and commitment. The present findings supported the indirect effects model of social justice interest and commitment over the direct effects model. Finally, unique to prior tests of SCCT in vocational and academic domains, social supports and barriers exhibited an indirect effect on commitment through outcome expectations. Study limitations, future directions for research, and implications for facilitating college students’ social justice interest and commitment are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some issues of ethics and social psychology.

Reviews the implications of tightening ethical standards for social psychology, and contends that there is a current shift in the field toward investigating neutral or positive, rather than negative, aspects of human behavior. The major methodological approaches (laboratory experiments, field experiments, role playing, and complex correlational methods) are discussed with respect to the issues of validity of causal inference, ecological validity, and ethics. It is argued that there is a fundamental difference in the perception of the nature of man on the part of humanistic critics and traditional experimental social psychologists that leads to different assessments of the long-term effects of deception research on Ss. Long-term follow-up studies are proposed as a source of empirical information on which investigators and ethics committees may base decisions about the acceptability of the level of risk associated with experimental manipulations. (40 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

To Have But One True Friend: Implications for Practice of Research on Alcohol Use Disorders and Social Network.

Although social networks play an integral role in the recognition and resolution of drinking problems, social network influences may be positive, negative, or mixed. The author reviewed empirical literature on positive and negative aspects of the structure of problem drinkers' social networks, the impact of the social network on problem recognition, social network predictors of treatment outcomes, treatments that involve the social network in treatment, and posttreatment changes in social network structure and functioning. Future directions for research and clinical implications of research findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of comparative performance information on the accuracy of self-ratings and agreement between self- and supervisor ratings.

The manner in which social comparison performance information affects the accuracy of self-ratings and the agreement between self- and supervisor ratings was investigated in a laboratory experiment using 163 undergraduates. Ss proofread a series of articles for 30 min and then made self-ratings of work performance. Half of the subjects received social comparison information prior to making self-ratings. Correlations between self- and supervisor evaluations and between self-evaluations and objective performance indicators were significantly larger when self-raters were presented with the same comparative performance information that was available to supervisors. Implications of the findings for future research on self- and supervisor evaluations are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)