Executive functions and social competence in young children 6 months following traumatic brain injury.

Objective: This study examined the impact of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in young children on executive functions and social competence, and particularly on the role of executive functions as a predictor of social competence. Method: Data were drawn from a prospective, longitudinal study. Participants were children between the ages of 3 years 0 months and 6 years 11 months at time of injury. The initial sample included 23 with severe TBI, 64 with moderate TBI, and 119 with orthopedic injuries (OI). All participants were assessed at 3 and 6 months postinjury. Executive functions were assessed using neuropsychological tests (Delayed Alternation task and Shape School) and parent ratings on the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function and Child Behavior Questionnaire. Parents rated children's social competence on the Adaptive Behavior Assessment System, Preschool and Kindergarten Behavior Scales, and Home and Community Social Behavior Scales. Results: Children with severe TBI displayed more negative outcomes than children with OI on neuropsychological tests, ratings of executive functions, and ratings of social competence (η2 ranged from .03 to .11). Neuropsychological tests of executive functions had significant but weak relationships with behavioral ratings of executive functions (ΔR2 ranged from .06 to .08). Behavioral ratings of executive functions were strongly related to social competence (ΔR2 ranged from .32 to .42), although shared rater and method variance likely contributed to these associations. Conclusions: Severe TBI in young children negatively impacts executive functions and social competence. Executive functions may be an important determinant of social competence following TBI. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Initial behavior outcomes for the PeaceBuilders universal school-based violence prevention program.

PeaceBuilders is a universal, elementary-school-based violence prevention program that attempts to alter the climate of a school by teaching students and staff simple rules and activities aimed at improving child social competence and reducing aggressive behavior. Eight matched schools (N > 4,000 students in Grades K-5) were randomly assigned to either immediate postbaseline intervention (PBI) or to a delayed intervention 1 year later (PBD). Hierarchical linear modeling was used to analyze results from assessments in the fall and spring of 2 consecutive school years. In Year 1, significant gains in teacher-reported social competence for students in Grades K-2, in child self-reported peace-building behavior in Grades K-5, and reductions in aggressive behavior in Grades 3-5 were found for PBI but not PBD schools. Differential effects in Year 1 were also observed for aggression and prosocial behavior. Most effects were maintained in Year 2 for PBI schools, including increases in child prosocial behavior in Grades K-2. Implications for early universal school-based prevention and challenges related to evaluating large-scale prevention trials are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

School climate support for behavioral and psychological adjustment: Testing the mediating effect of social competence.

The present study used an ecological framework to examine the relationships among adolescents’ perceptions of school climate, social competence, and behavioral and psychological adjustment in the middle school years. This study improved upon prior studies by using structural equation modeling to investigate the hypothesized mediating effect of social competence and to account for measurement error. The sample included 1,042 participating students from 23 middle schools. Results showed that school mastery goal structure, promotion of autonomy and discussion, and teacher emotional support were negatively related to the levels of adolescents’ deviant behaviors and depression, while performance goal structure was positively related to deviant behaviors and depression. Social competence was a mediator between perceived school climate variables and adolescent adjustment, with the exception of the relationship between mastery goal structure and adjustment variables. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Early school competence: The roles of sex-segregated play and effortful control.

The purpose of this research was to examine the role that young children's same-sex peer interactions play in influencing early school competence. The authors also examined the degree to which effortful control (EC) moderated these relations. The same-sex play preferences of 98 young children (50 boys and 48 girls; mean age = 54.77 months) were observed during the fall semester. At the end of the fall semester, one set of teachers reported on children's EC, and at the end of the following spring semester, another set reported on children's school competence (social, academic, and perceptual-motor). Results revealed that EC moderated the relations of children's same-sex play to their school competence. These patterns differed for boys and girls such that same-sex play was positively related to school outcomes for boys high in EC and for girls low in EC. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Engineering new designs for school psychological service delivery: A commentary on School Psychology: A Blueprint for Training and Practice..

Responds to School Psychology: A Blueprint for Training and Practice (National School Psychology Inservice Training Network, 1984) by asserting that when making plans that further the application of psychology to the educational process and to the development of new designs for service delivery, more attention should be given to theoretical and empirical knowledge for school psychological practice, the necessary linkages between knowledge and practice, as well as specific implications for education and training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Blueprint for Training and Practice: A contemporary design for school psychology.

Suggests that School Psychology: A Blueprint for Training and Practice (National School Psychology Inservice Training Network, 1984) and School Psychology: The State of the Art by the 2nd author (1984) are not finished products; detailed designs—the specifications for building contemporary models of practice and training—need to be charted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Many hands make light the work: The causes and consequences of social loafing.

As reported in summary form by W. Moede (1927), an unpublished study found that in a rope-pulling task, while collective group performance increased somewhat with group size, it was less than the sum of the individual efforts (IE). IE decreased as group size increased. The present 2 experiments with 84 undergraduates investigated this effect using clapping and shouting tasks. Results replicate the earlier findings. The decrease in IE, which is here called social loafing, is in addition to losses due to faulty coordination of group efforts. The experimental generality, theoretical importance, widespread occurrence, and negative social consequences of social loafing are examined, along with ways of minimizing it. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An emerging consensus on school psychology's future.

Describes School Psychology: A Blueprint for Training and Practice (National School Psychology Inservice Training Network, 1984) as a conceptual statement around which a consensus for action in school psychology can be built. It is argued that systemic change in the categorical program structure is essential to bring about better services for children and to effect change in the way school psychologists practice. Implications of revised definitions of school psychology for the future of school psychology are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual differences in social loafing: Need for cognition as a motivator in collective performance.

Numerous situational factors have been found to moderate the extent to which individuals engage in social loafing, but few studies have investigated the influence of individual differences on individual motivation within groups. The present study examined whether need for cognition, an individual's tendency to engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive endeavors, moderates social loafing effects. It was predicted that individuals with a high need for cognition would be less likely to loaf on a cognitively engaging task. Individuals with a low need for cognition performed significantly better in the coactive than in the collective condition, whereas individuals with a high need for cognition worked just as hard collectively as coactively. Results were interpreted within the collective effort model (S. J. Karau & K. D. Williams, 1993). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Distinguished scientific award for the applications of psychology: Aaron T. Beck.

The Distinguished Scientific Award for the Applications of Psychology is presented to a person who, in the opinion of the Committee on Scientific Awards, has made distinguished theoretical or empirical advances leading to the understanding or amelioration of important practical problems. In accordance with established custom, the award winner will be invited to present an address on some phase of his or her scientific work at the 1990 APA Convention. The winner for 1989 is Aaron T. Beck. He received this award "for advancing our understanding and treatment of psychopathology." His pioneering work on depression has profoundly altered the way this disorder is conceptualized, assessed, diagnosed, and treated. Beck's citation, biography, and selected bibliography are presented here. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gold medal award for life contribution by a psychologist in the public interest: Norman Garmezy.

Presents the citation and biography for Norman Garmezy, recipient of the American Psychological Association's Gold Medal Award for Life Contribution by a Psychologist in the Public Interest. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The impact of Daubert and its progeny on the admissibility of behavioral and social science evidence.

Although Daubert (1993) describes a test for admissibility that applies to all proffers of scientific evidence in the federal courts and many state courts, its application has not been uniform across the sciences. To assess Daubert's impact for behavioral and social science evidence, the authors describe and analyze the application of a set of criteria that include whether Daubert has mattered, whether the context in which Daubert is applied should matter, whether one can operationalize the application of the Daubert criteria to predict its outcome in specific cases, whether Daubert can assist in getting admissibility decisions right, and whether there are broader lessons beyond admissibility to be learned from Daubert . (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gold Medal Award for Life Contribution by a Psychologist in the Public Interest.

The American Psychological Foundation (APF) Gold Medal Awards recognize distinguished and enduring records of accomplishment in four areas of psychology. The 1995 recipient of the Gold Medal Award for Life Contribution by a Psychologist in the Public Interest is Leonard D. Eron. Enron's citation, biography, and selected bibliography is presented here. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The social parameter of "learned" helplessness: Its recognition and implications.

Reexamines experiments on learned helplessness that have been interpreted previously as involving a solitary person experiencing uncontrollable and inescapable events. It is suggested that the belief that the outcomes are uncontrollable precludes the possibility that control of the outcomes can be transferred to the experimental Ss. An alternative interpretation is that the outcomes in learned helplessness experiments, rather than being uncontrollable, are controlled by the experimenter. Helplessness could be reduced by transferring this control to Ss, giving them control over their contingencies. This analysis has implications regarding both the accuracy of depressed people's perceptions and the desirability of making depressed people perceive an internal locus of control. It is further suggested that depressed people should have more control over their contingencies. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Award for Distinguished Scientific Applications of Psychology.

The Award for Distinguished Scientific Applications of Psychology is presented to persons who, in the opinion of the Committee on Scientific Awards, have made distinguished theoretical or empirical advances leading to the understanding or amelioration of important practical problems. This document lists the winners of this award from 1973 to 2001, and provides the citation, biography, and selected bibliography for the 2001 recipient, David T. Lykken. Lykken's award address, entitled "Parental Licensure," is also included. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

American Psychological Foundation Awards for 1989: Gold Medal Awards for Life Achievement in Psychological Science; Life Achievement in the Applications of Psychology; Life Contribution by a Psychologist in the Public Interest; and Distinguished Teaching in Psychology Award.

On August 12, 1989, at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association (APA) in New Orleans, Louisiana, the American Psychological Foundation (APF) announced the recipients of the Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in Psychological Science, Donald Benjamin Lindsley; Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in the Applications of Psychology, PauI Everett Meehl; Gold Medal Award for Life Contribution by a Psychologist in the Public Interest, Norman Garmezy; and the Award for Distinguished Teaching in Psychology, Charles L. Brewer. The citations and biographies of the recipients are presented here. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neighborhood safety and social involvement: Associations with parenting behaviors and depressive symptoms among African-American and Euro-American mothers.

The relation between neighborhood characteristics and parenting and the mediating role of maternal depressive symptoms was examined among African American and Euro-American mothers of kindergarten children. Mothers' ratings of neighborhood safety were related to disciplinary strategies for both African American and Euro-American mothers but not to expressions of affection. Interviewers' ratings of safety were related to mothers' use of hostile socialization strategies. Both mothers' and interviewers' reports of safety were linked with maternal depressive symptoms. Depressive symptoms mediated the relation between neighborhood safety and inconsistent discipline, suggesting that the influence of safety on inconsistent discipline was due to its impact on maternal depression. Although there were similarities across ethnic groups, the relation between social involvement and mothers' withdrawal of interactions with their children differed across groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Schooling and traditional collaborative social organization of problem solving by Mayan mothers and children.

Traditional indigenous social organization in the Americas has been characterized as involving horizontal multiparty engagements, in contrast with schooling, which often relies on hierarchy and division of labor. This study examined whether the social organization of problem solving of Guatemalan Mayan indigenous mothers and children varied with the mothers' extent of experience with school. We observed 47 mothers as they constructed a puzzle with 3 children (ages 6-12 years). Mayan mothers with little schooling (0-2 grades) were involved more in horizontal, multiparty engagements, whereas Mayan mothers with extensive experience with schooling (12 or more grades) were involved more in hierarchical, division-of-labor engagements with the children. The results suggest that Western formal schooling contributes to the reshaping of traditional collaborative social organization among indigenous Mayan people. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)