Control of human aggression: A comparative perspective.

Recent animal research has demonstrated that humans are not a uniquely aggressive species and that even in so-called violence-prone animals, aggression is always an optional strategy. Although some form of intraspecific aggression exists in every vertebrate species studied thus far, it is also true that all organisms have coevolved equally potent inhibitory mechanisms that enable them to use an aggressive strategy selectively or to suppress aggression when it is in their interest to do so. Parallel studies of aggression in children, assaultive adults, and even entire societies have suggested that humans are exquisitely sensitive to subtle social controls that could be used to reduce the frequency of individual acts of violence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Positive-engagement behaviors in observed family interactions: A social relations perspective.

The present study investigates the nature of positive engagement (an interpersonal style characterized by attentiveness, warmth, cooperation, and clear communication) in family interactions involving at least one adolescent. Approximately 400 families (mothers, fathers, and two siblings) were videotaped during brief conflict-resolution discussions that occurred on a yearly basis for 3 years. Coders rated the degree to which each family member was positively engaged with every other family member during the interactions. The social relations model was used to partition variation in positive-engagement behavior into family-level, individual-level, and dyad-level effects. Results demonstrated the importance of family norms and individual factors in determining the expression of positive-engagement behaviors in dyadic family relationships. Moreover, longitudinal analyses indicated that these effects are stable over a 3-year period. Finally, results highlighted the relative distinctiveness of the marital and sibling relationships, as well as the existence of reciprocity within these dyads. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

A legal perspective on family psychology and family law: Comment on the special issue.

A certified family law practitioner reviews the articles in this special issue and discusses how the research and conceptual discussions in the articles are invaluable to family law professionals. The recognition of the interaction between mental health and family court professionals is essential to strengthen collaboration and more positive outcomes. Some questions are raised about the sampling and generalizability of some of the studies, and there is strong encouragement for further scholarship in these areas and dissemination to family law professionals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Early ambulatory experience in the undergraduate education of family physicians

A number of benefits have been claimed for early ambulatory experience in the training of family physicians, although few practical examples have been reported. This paper describes an approach to the education of first and second year medical students interested in family medicine which places heavy emphasis on community-based ambulatory care. During the first year, an elective introductory preceptorship permits students to participate in the office practice of a family physician in a limited role. Seminars are offered concurrently to provide integrating principles and perspective. In the second year, a nine-month-long continuity clerkship is offered in which students gain intimate contact with a small panel of families and practice the skills of primary care in the offices of family physicians. Clinical experience is accompanied by weekly seminars and integrated with elements of the required curriculum. Selected evaluation data are presented, which attest to the achievement of course objectives and provide support for the claim that this approach is beneficial to students seeking careers in primary care.     

The supervisory experience: An object relations perspective.

Provides a theoretical framework based on D. W. Winnicott's (1965, 1971) theory of object relations for understanding aspects of the supervisory process. Focus is on the early caregiving relationship as a metaphor in delineating important aspects of the therapeutic experience. A case illustration (a male rape victim in his early 30s with a history of nonpsychotic depression), which demonstrates supervision of a student in psychotherapy training, is interpreted in light of parallel caregiving processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Early manifestations of personality and adult health: A life course perspective.

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate whether individual personality or temperamental qualities that emerge early and persist over the life course, predict adult midlife health. Specific childhood personality attributes considered include distress proneness, behavioral inhibition, and ability to stay focused on a task. Design: Prospective data are from 569 individuals followed from birth into adulthood. Main Outcome Measures: Outcomes include two different measures of adult health: self-rated general health, and number of illnesses in adulthood. Results: Childhood personality attributes related to attention and distress were significantly associated with adult health, with stronger effects evident among women. Children with high attention reported better self-rated health (b = 0.12, p     

Early experience in domestication.

Conducted 2 experiments to assess the ontogenetic as well as phylogenetic influences of early experience on domestication. A total of 40 Long-Evans hooded and 32 Sprague-Dawley albino domestic rats and 72 1st generation, laboratory-reared wild rats were the Ss. Exp I was a factorial, reciprocal cross-foster study. Exp II was a factorial assessment of the combined effects of preweaning handling and postweaning enriched environments. These experiments on rat domestication show that preweaning handling had a strong influence on the ontogenetic development of the S in terms of reduced emotionality. Handled wild Ss became much more like domestic Ss in their behavior. This finding for handling contrasted with minimal effects for cross-fostering and enriched environments. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Family support, family income, and happiness: A 10-year perspective.

This study examined the role of 2 central aspects of family life--income and social support--in predicting concurrent happiness and change in happiness among 274 married adults across a 10-year period. The authors used hierarchical linear modeling to investigate the relationship between family income and happiness. Income had a small, positive impact on happiness, which diminished as income increased. In contrast, family social support, measured by 3 subscales, Cohesion, Expressiveness, and Conflict, showed a substantial, positive association with concurrent happiness, even after controlling for income. Furthermore, family income moderated the association between family social support and concurrent happiness; family social support was more strongly associated with happiness when family income was low than when family income was high. In addition, change in family social support was positively related to change in happiness, whereas change in family income was unrelated to change in happiness. These findings suggest that happiness can change and underscore the importance of exploring more deeply the role that family relationships play in facilitating such change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Competence in early adult romantic relationships: A developmental perspective on family influences.

The present prospective, longitudinal study of 193 young adults (85 men, 108 women, M?=?20.7 years old) and their partners in ongoing romantic relationships in 1997 was initiated in 1989, when the 193 target youths were in the 7th grade. On the basis of the model for the development of early adult romantic relationships (DEARR; C. Bryant & R. D. Conger, in press), the authors hypothesized that interactional processes in the family of origin would predict interpersonal skills by the target youths, which would be positively related to the early adult couple's relationship quality. Observational ratings showed that nurturant–involved parenting in the family of origin predicted behaviors by the target youth to a romantic partner that were warm, supportive, and low in hostility. These competent behaviors of the target youth were positively associated with relationship quality for the early adult couple and also mediated or explained the connection between parenting and relationship quality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Task experience and children's working memory performance: A perspective from recall timing.

Working memory is an important theoretical construct among children, and measures of its capacity predict a range of cognitive skills and abilities. Data from 9- and 11-year-old children illustrate how a chronometric analysis of recall can complement and elaborate recall accuracy in advancing our understanding of working memory. A reading span task was completed by 130 children, 75 of whom were tested on 2 occasions, with sequence length either increasing or decreasing during test administration. Substantial pauses occur during participants' recall sequences, and they represent consistent performance traits over time, while also varying with recall circumstances and task history. Recall pauses help to predict reading and number skills, alongside as well as separate from levels of recall accuracy. The task demands of working memory change as a function of task experience, with a combination of accuracy and response timing in novel task situations being the strongest predictor of cognitive attainment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The ontogeny of human memory: A cognitive neuroscience perspective.

The relation between early memory development and corresponding changes in brain development is explored in this article. It is proposed that a form of preexplicit memory (dependent on the hippocampus) develops in the 1st few months. Between 8 and 12 mo, a more adultlike form of explicit memory emerges, which draws broadly on limbic and cortical structures. Two types of implicit memory also make their appearance in the 1st few months: procedural learning (dependent on striatal structures) and conditioning ( which may rely on the olivary-cerebellar complex and possibly the hippocampus). Finally, working memory (dependent on the prefrontal cortex and associated neural circuitry) is also present early in life, although the ability to use working memory when motoric ability is also required (e.g., reaching for hidden objects) has a protracted developmental course relative to other forms of memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Early intervention and early experience.

For 4 decades, vigorous efforts have been based on the premise that early intervention for children of poverty and, more recently, for children with developmental disabilities can yield significant improvements in cognitive, academic, and social outcomes. The history of these efforts is briefly summarized and a conceptual framework presented to understand the design, research, and policy relevance of these early interventions. This framework, biosocial developmental contextualism, derives from social ecology, developmental systems theory, developmental epidemiology, and developmental neurobiology. This integrative perspective predicts that fragmented, weak efforts in early intervention are not likely to succeed, whereas intensive, high-quality, ecologically pervasive interventions can and do. Relevant evidence is summarized in 6 principles about efficacy of early intervention. The public policy challenge in early intervention is to contain costs by more precisely targeting early interventions to those who most need and benefit from these interventions. The empirical evidence on biobehavioral effects of early experience and early intervention has direct relevance to federal and state policy development and resource allocation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adolescent satisfaction in family rituals and psychosocial development: A developmental systems theory perspective.

Adolescent satisfaction in family rituals and psychosocial development (E. Greenberger & A. B. Sorenson, 1974) were explored in the context of adolescent personality characteristics (International Personality Item Pool, 1999) and family environment characteristics (S. M. Gavazzi, M. J. Reese, & R. M. Sabatelli, 1998; D. H. Olson et al., 1983). Data were collected from 159 female undergraduates with the Adolescent Satisfaction in Family Rituals Scale (D. G. Eaker & L. H. Walters, 1999). Family ritual satisfaction was positively related to late adolescent psychosocial development and mediated the relation between family boundaries and psychosocial development. Furthermore, the relation between personality (measured as discontentedness, an aspect of neuroticism) and satisfaction with family rituals was found to be mediated by family boundaries in preliminary analyses. These results suggest that the relevance of family ritual experiences to adolescent psychosocial development is in part a function of an individual's personality and the family environment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depressive vulnerability in parents and their 5-year-old child's temperament: A family system perspective.

The actor-partner interdependence model was used to test whether one parent's depressive vulnerability (self-criticism and dependency) was associated with the same parent's own (an intraparental association) and the other parent's (a cross-parental association) ratings of their 5-year-old child's temperament (536 parents, 268 dyads). The more vulnerable the parents were, the more the children showed negative affectivity and lack of effortful control. Significant interactions with the parent's gender and between the spouses' depressive vulnerabilities were found, highlighting the fact that child outcomes are dependent on family processes. All associations were independent of maternal and paternal depressive symptoms. The influence of personality-based depressive traits on child temperamental outcomes and effective parenting is discussed with reference to between-dyad family dynamics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Family psychology and family law--a family court judge's perspective: Comment on the special issue.

This comment presents the responses of an experienced family court judge to the eight articles published in this special issue. The value of these scholarly articles to family court judges is enormous. Judges have little, if any, formal training in family dynamics and child development, yet are called upon to make rulings in complex cases that have life-long ramifications for all family members. The changing demographics and current realities of traditional and nontraditional family structures in our society as well as the increasing divorce rates have widened the gap between legal precedence and current social science research. It is essential that the material covered in this issue can be accessible to family law personnel in language that they can understand and learn from. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attachment and the experience and expression of emotions in romantic relationships: A developmental perspective.

In this longitudinal study, the authors tested a developmental hypothesis derived from attachment theory and recent empirical findings. Target participants were 78 individuals who have been studied intensively from infancy into their mid-20s. When targets were 20-23 years old, the authors tested the way in which interpersonal experiences at 3 pivotal points in each target's earlier social development--infancy/early childhood, early elementary school, and adolescence--predicted the pattern of positive versus negative emotions experienced with his or her romantic partner. A double-mediation model revealed that targets classified as securely attached at 12 months old were rated as more socially competent during early elementary school by their teachers. Targets' social competence, in turn, forecasted their having more secure relationships with close friends at age 16, which in turn predicted more positive daily emotional experiences in their adult romantic relationships (both self- and partner-reported) and less negative affect in conflict resolution and collaborative tasks with their romantic partners (rated by observers). These results are discussed in terms of attachment theory and how antecedent life experiences may indirectly shape events in current relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Early mothering experience and personality change.

This study examined the context of the early mothering experience and how that experience was related to personality change in 48 members of a longitudinal sample of women from age 21 (in 1958 or 1960), before any of them were married, to age 27 (in 1963 or 1964). Early motherhood was analyzed in terms of (a) how positively the woman described her experience and (b) how willing and able she was to maintain the full-time commitment considered necessary in the early 1960s. Path analyses showed that these two dimensions had somewhat different interrelations with mother's personality, the marriage, and husband's personality and participation as a father. However, both dimensions were related to relative increase in ego-resiliency and to relative decrease in feelings of vulnerability between ages 21 and 27, even when family and work variables were taken into account. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stress, neuromotor noise, and human performance: A theoretical perspective.

A new theory on stress and human performance is proposed in which physical and cognitive stressors enhance the level of neuromotor noise in the information-processing system. The neuromotor noise propagates in time and space. A 2nd assumption states that such noise facilitates easy tasks but disrupts complex tasks. In 4 experiments, 2 graphic tasks (number writing and graphic aiming) were crossed with 2 stressors (cognitive stress from a dual-task situation and physical stress in the form of loud auditory noise). Reaction time (RT), movement time (MT), and axial pen pressure were measured. In the RT phase, stress was predicted to lead to decreased RT with easy tasks and to increased RT with difficult tasks. In the execution phase, biomechanical adaptation to enhanced levels of noise was expected to manifest in higher levels of limb stiffness. In all 4 experiments, an increase of axial pen pressure with higher levels of stress evidenced the generality of biomechanical adaptation as a response to stress. RT and MT showed differential effects among the 4 experiments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)