Depressed Mood and Smoking Experimentation Among Preteens.

The authors examined children's depressed mood, parental depressed mood, and parental smoking in relation to children's smoking susceptibility and experimentation over 20 months in a cohort of 418 preteens (ages 10-12 at baseline) and their parents. Depressed mood in preteens was strongly related to experimentation but not to susceptibility. In cross-sectional analyses parental depressed mood was related to children's experimentation, but in longitudinal analyses parental depressed mood at baseline did not differentiate children who experimented from those who did not. Although parental smoking was strongly related to experimentation, it was not related to susceptibility either cross-sectionally or longitudinally. Depressed mood among preteens and parents appeared to be more strongly related to children's smoking behaviors than to their intentions to smoke. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of chloride ion upon chicken visual pigments

Diagnostic and therapeutic proceeding involves usually that physician/psychologist became the subject and patient/client the object in a rational process. - Exactly this can cause disturbances of this process, especially in cases of psychosomatic diseases and emotional disturbances. It will be considered (a) whether a more flexible relationship between physican/psychologist and patient/client can be established, (b) whether reflection of the concordance (or discordance) in "defining the situation" leed to new aspects of physicans/psychologists proceeding. (c) Implications for training, methods, therapy and rehabilation will be discussed.     

Review of Maternal Desire: On Love, Children, and the Inner Life.

Reviews the book Maternal Desire: On Love, Children, and the Inner Life by Daphne de Marneffe (2004). This book is based on the premise that the desire to care for one's children is one of life's great pleasures and opportunities for fulfillment. In creating a relationship, and, by extension, a psychological life, suggests de Marneffe, women find particular and crucial meaning and authenticity. Grounded in psychoanalytic, attachment, and feminist theory as well as de Marneffe's own personal journey, Maternal Desire is a subtle rebuke to feminists' inherent derogation of motherhood and a far less subtle encouragement to women to open themselves to feelings that, in this day and age, may seem heretical. De Marneffe, who is a clinical psychologist and mother of three, was powerfully affected by the experience of struggling to balance the demands of her own career with her growing and ultimately grounding desire to care for her children. By the time she gave birth to her third child, she had decided to stop practicing in order to stay at home. The intensely personal nature of her evolution is at the heart of this book; the richness, the sensuousness, and the depth of her longing to care for her children are its emotional core. This revolutionary book challenges women (and men) to take on all the complex pleasures of motherhood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioral "Medicine" and the Collaboration Model of Knapp and Vandecreek.

Knapp and Vandecreek's (1981) article provided a helpful outline of some ethical and legal considerations of the health psychologist. Their recommendations regarding "physician collaboration" (p. 679) in the psychological management of physiological health concerns lead to practical problems that require further ethical and legal inquiry. Some concerns arising from efforts to apply the collaboration model are considered here: interaction with physicians who are minimally sophisticated about the psychological aspects of illness; collaboration with physicians who routinely equate patient's health psychology concerns only with emotional disorder and consign these individuals to the psychologist; and whether health psychologists can select an accurate diagnosis for conditions that are not psychological in nature. Health psychologists may ultimately resolve these issues as the professional identity of behavioral "medicine" and its practitioners develops. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive and academic problems associated with childhood cancers and sickle cell disease.

Childhood cancers and sickle cell disease represent some of the most complex medical conditions of childhood, impacting development in all domains. The influence of these conditions on cognitive functioning and academic achievement has particular relevance for the school psychologist, who is poised to promote the positive adaptation of children with these chronic illnesses in the school setting. This article provides a review of the research related to cognitive aspects of pediatric cancer and sickle cell disease. Based on that literature, science-based practice recommendations of relevance to the school psychologist are offered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Serendipity in psychotherapy.

Presents in illustration the case of an 8-yr-old girl whose emotional upsets in the classroom led to the finding that the child's parents needed medical care. It is suggested that the psychologist—who is aware of the psychogenic, psychosomatic, and somatogenic aspects of life—is in a good position to come upon such serendipitous findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Integrated psychological services in the Greeley-Evans public schools.

Integrated school psychological services were implemented 12 years ago in the Greeley-Evans Public Schools by combining the positions of school psychologist and school social worker and placing each professional in an elementary school full-time. After 5 years, services were expanded to secondary schools such that all schools had a full-time school psychologist. Using Bennett's (1988) model for the evaluation of alternative services to determine success in meeting stated goals, a number of positive outcomes were achieved. A time-use survey indicated increased involvement with a variety of interventions for school psychologists. The results of a consumer satisfaction questionnaire given to teachers, administrators, and support personnel also suggested positive perceptions of the new role. Additionally, placement of students with significant emotional disturbance decreased over this time period relative to a 34% student enrollment increase. It is hoped that the long-term implementation of an alternative school psychological services model such as this one will encourage others to enact ecologically responsive services relative to their unique systems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stanley Schachter (1922-1997): Obituary.

Presents an obituary for Stanley Schachter, who died on June 7, 1997, in East Hampton, New York. It is doubtful that any social psychologist ever produced so many distinguished students. Stanley Schachter's contributions to psychology were extraordinarily broad. They included research and theory on group processes, communication, social influences on personal construction of reality, the affiliation motive, correlates of birth order, the nature of emotional experience, people's ability to attribute the causes of their behavior to external or internal factors, the causes of obesity and eating behavior disorders, and the addictive nature of nicotine. He made psychological research seem extremely exciting, and he convinced his students that they had the capability to do it well. His students, in turn, have themselves been successful as mentors. A remarkable fraction of the most highly regarded social psychologists in the country are the intellectual children, grandchildren, and now even great-grandchildren of this multiply talented investigator with protean interests. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptions of the duties and functions of the school psychologist.

Obtained the opinions of 100 school psychologists and 296 experienced teachers concerning the role of the school psychologist as he sees it and as it is perceived by the teacher. The psychologist's perception of the necessity for communication with the child's position was also explored. It was found that the psychologist is not completely sure of his role and, consequently, has difficulty in communicating with other disciplines. The procedure involving psychological evaluations of school children is therefore often surrounded by confusion and antagonism. Findings have significance for training programs of school psychologists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Understanding of emotional experience in autism: Insights from the personal accounts of high-functioning children with autism.

In this study, the authors investigate emotional understanding in autism through a discourse analytic framework to provide a window into children's strategies for interpreting emotional versus nonemotional encounters and consider the implications for the mechanisms underlying emotional understanding in typical development. Accounts were analyzed for thematic content and discourse structure. Whereas high-functioning children with autism were able to discuss contextually appropriate accounts of simple emotions, their strategies for interpreting all types of emotional (but not nonemotional) experiences differed from those used by typically developing children. High-functioning children with autism were less inclined to organize their emotional accounts in personalized causal-explanatory frameworks and displayed a tendency to describe visually salient elements of experiences seldom observed among comparison children. Findings suggest that children with autism possess less coherent representations of emotional experiences and use alternative strategies for interpreting emotionally evocative encounters. Discussion focuses on the significance of these findings for informing the nature of emotional dysfunction in autism as well as implications for theories of emotional understanding in typical development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

E. Donald Longenecker (1924–2001).

Memorializes E. Donald Longenecker, psychologist, educator, and advocate for special needs children. Longecker was an early specialist in the diagnosis and treatment of pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) in children. His service to children with PDD and their families spanned five decades and included direct care, education, service, and advocacy. In 1965, he was awarded the Gallantry Award by the Easter Seals Society. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An Opinion on Expressing Opinions to Influence Social Policy.

First, I would like to commend C. Hosticka, M. Hibbard, and N. Sundberg ("Improving psychologists' contributions to the policymaking process," in Professional Psychology: Research & Practice. Vol 14(3), June, 1983, pp. 374-385) on their presentation of the role of the psychologist as scientist to the policy-making process. They treated the subject in a thorough and professional manner. I do, however, have a minor clarification that I believe is important to consider when psychologists attempt to contribute to the formation of public policy. This clarification has to do with the tertiary nature of the professional psychologist--that is, the psychologist as scientist, as practitioner, and as human being. Hosticka et al. do an admirable job of delineating the many problems that confront the psychologist who attempts to influence public policy as a scientist/researcher. However, they neglect to mention the role of the psychologist as a practitioner/clinician or as a human being/citizen. Granted, these roles are probably less complex and perhaps require less attention. Nonetheless, they do warrant at least a cursory review. As scientists, psychologists conduct research in order to accumulate scientific evidence that can be given to policymakers in an effort to influence policy decisions. As practitioners, psychologists have taken a clinical pledge to help others through their potential emotional reactions to public policy. Finally, as human beings, psychologists are free to express opinions and spew out personal beliefs with respect to public policy. However, one note of caution is recommended, that is, we ought not confuse the three roles. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Activity of the psychologist within the inpatient psychotherapy of behavior disordered children and adolescents

The author, after discussing the problem of cooperation between the physician and psychologist within the framework of psychotherapeutic activity, deals with the special functions of psychologists. Work done in this respect at the Dresden Medical Academy's department for psychotherapy of malbehaving children and juveniles of normal intelligence is described. Also outlined in this paper are the role played by the psychologist in the use of various methods of therapy and his cooperation in the continuing education and training of nurses, the psychometric control of the course of therapy, and the rehabilitation of children and juveniles.     

School psychologists serving at-risk and handicapped infants, toddlers, and their families.

Discusses early intervention, the Education of the Handicapped Act Amendments of 1986 (PL 99-457), Individualized Family Service Plans (IFSP), multidisciplinary teams, case management, and the school psychologist's role in providing full educational services to at-risk and handicapped infants, toddlers, and their families. It is anticipated that the school psychologist will play a role in home and family problems, emotional and behavior concerns, and academic issues. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recognizing emotion in faces: Developmental effects of child abuse and neglect.

The contributions to the recognition of emotional signals of (a) experience and learning versus (b) internal predispositions are difficult to investigate because children are virtually always exposed to complex emotional experiences from birth. The recognition of emotion among physically abused and physically neglected preschoolers was assessed in order to examine the effects of atypical experience on emotional development. In Experiment 1, children matched a facial expression to an emotional situation. Neglected children had more difficulty discriminating emotional expressions than did control or physically abused children. Physically abused children displayed a response bias for angry facial expressions. In Experiment 2, children rated the similarity of facial expressions. Control children viewed discrete emotions as dissimilar, neglected children saw fewer distinctions between emotions, and physically abused children showed the most variance across emotions. These results suggest that to the extent that children's experience with the world varies, so too will their interpretation and understanding of emotional signals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prenatal and perinatal factors in child development: A commentary.

School adjustment and achievement are at the heart of a child's development. Both are influenced by a myriad of factors that are complex and interconnected. For children with difficulties, school psychologists are integral to the assessment of those diverse factors and to the implementation of intervention strategies that help those children reach their potential. The traditional role of the school psychologist as an evaluator has often required a focus on the immediate results of psychological and emotional assessment and an interpretation of those results for placement. Nonetheless, environmental factors affect learning and behavior and influence children throughout their lives--even from before birth. Those variables interact during critical developmental periods, thereby affecting the youngster's function in substantial ways. This set of articles addresses some of the varied preconceptional and perinatal influences that may affect a child's performance in school, at home, and in his community--the knowledge of which will assist the school psychologist in helping the child and family. The articles combine concern for individual functioning with a public health model, addressing broader population-based data. The intersection of school psychology and public health has been too little explored, and this volume helps to close that gap. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Retrieval failure in the presence of retrieval cues: A comparison of three age groups.

Cued recall of preteens, young adults, and senior adults (480 Ss) was compared under 7 conditions of practice. (Preteens were 11–12 yrs old; young adults were college students; senior adults had a mean age of 47.5 yrs.) The independent variable was the number of items in the list which began with the same letter of the alphabet; the number of items per alphabetic cue was 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, or 12. The interaction between age and the number of items per cue was not significant, thus permitting the inference that retrieval failure due to the number of items per cue was invariant with age. This result is discussed in terms of cue overload, and the suggestion is offered that cue overload may result from information lost when memory traces carrying the same retrieval information interact and are recoded. Further analyses pursued the nature and locus of the items not recalled by preteens and senior adults, and the judgment is made that the retrieval failure in these 2 age groups, although comparable in quantity, is probably different in quality. Also reported is the finding that, under free-recall conditions, senior adults were able to recall as well as young adults, and this result was related to the greater opportunity for meaningful organization in free recall than in cued-alphabetic recall. (French summary) (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Les conversations mère-enfant et l'attachement des enfants à la période préscolaire.

This study examines whether mother-child conversation patterns are associated with child attachment classifications at preschool age (N=80). Results revealed that a child's discourse style is similar to that of her or his mother. In comparison with mothers of insecure ambivalent or disorganized children, mothers of secure children made more frequent verbal statements that elaborated emotional content. Mothers of avoidant children were more inclined to minimize emotional content than mothers of secure children. In comparison with other mothers, those with a disorganized child were sharing more frightening and hostile content, or made more verbal statements accompanied by aggressive behaviors. Secure children made more frequent verbal statements that elaborated emotional content than avoidant and disorganized children. Disorganized children made more controlling verbal statements as well as statements accompanied by aggressive or flight behaviors. Finally, our results showed that child capacity to elaborate emotional experiences partially mediated the link between maternal capacity to elaborate emotional content and child security of attachment. Our results emphasize the importance of mother-child conversational exchanges for the development of attachment in preschool children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recognition of facial expressions of mixed emotions in school-age children exposed to terrorism.

This exploratory study aims at investigating the effects of terrorism on children’s ability to recognize emotions. A sample of 101 exposed and 102 nonexposed children (mean age = 11 years), balanced for age and gender, were assessed 20 months after a terrorist attack in Beslan, Russia. Two trials controlled for children’s ability to match a facial emotional stimulus with an emotional label and their ability to match an emotional label with an emotional context. The experimental trial evaluated the relation between exposure to terrorism and children’s free labeling of mixed emotion facial stimuli created by morphing between 2 prototypical emotions. Repeated measures analyses of covariance revealed that exposed children correctly recognized pure emotions. Four log-linear models were performed to explore the association between exposure group and category of answer given in response to different mixed emotion facial stimuli. Model parameters indicated that, compared with nonexposed children, exposed children (a) labeled facial expressions containing anger and sadness significantly more often than expected as anger, and (b) produced fewer correct answers in response to stimuli containing sadness as a target emotion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mothers' attitudes toward seeking help for their children from school and private psychologists.

What inhibits parents from seeking psychological help for their children? This study examined the attitudes of mothers of school-age children toward seeking psychological help from school psychological services and from private psychologists. Mothers express greater and more intense worries in relation to seeking help from school psychological services as compared to private psychologists. Hypothetical vignettes about a problematic child also showed that mothers prefer to refer both their own child and that of a friend to a private psychologist. Reducing the threat aroused by public sector psychologists should increase the utilization of psychological help for children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)