Reflected Appraisals, Academic Self-Perceptions, and Math/Science Performance During Early Adolescence.

The authors tested a model of the relations among adolescents' perceptions of parents', teachers', and classmates' support for, valuing of, and beliefs about their competence in math/science; adolescents' own academic self-perceptions concerning math/science; and their academic performance. The sample included 378 middle school students; 65% were Latino, and 21% were European American. Reflected appraisals of adults' beliefs concerning both the importance of and students' competence in math/science, as well as perceived support, predicted students' own self-perceived importance, competence, scholastic behavior, and performance in these courses. Latino students reported lower mean levels of perceived competence than did European American students (controlling for maternal education). Findings have important implications for understanding achievement socialization in ethnically diverse populations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Why Are You Bringing Up Condoms Now? The Effect of Message Content on Framing Effects of Condom Use Messages.

According to prospect theory (A. Tversky & D. Kahneman, 1981), messages advocating a low-risk (i.e., easy, low-cost) behavior are most effective if they stress the benefits of adherence (gain framed), whereas messages advocating a risky behavior are most effective if they stress the costs of nonadherence (loss framed). Although condom use is viewed as a low-risk behavior, it may entail risky interpersonal negotiations. Study 1 (N = 167) compared ratings of condom use messages advocating relational behaviors (e.g., discussing condoms) or health behaviors (e.g., carrying condoms). As predicted, loss-framed relational messages and gain-framed health messages received higher evaluations. Study 2 (N = 225) offers a replication and evidence of issue involvement and gender as moderators. Results are discussed with reference to the design of condom use messages. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accountability in Child Welfare Services: Developing a Statewide Outcome Evaluation Program.

Questions are often raised regarding the effectiveness and value of treatment programs for children and families. Recently, programs have been increasingly held accountable for services offered. In response, the member agencies of IARCCA have developed a comprehensive outcome measurement program. This article describes the project, focusing on the conditions that led to its inception and how the measurement plan was developed. In addition, the article includes information on the selection of personnel, measurement instruments, and methods and on the process of data collection. Summary results are provided, including how these results are utilized to improve services. Finally, the continued expansion and future directions of the Outcome Project are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

EMDR Therapy Following the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks: A Community-Based Intervention Project in New York City.

This article presents the results of a time-limited psychological relief effort using eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) following the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Clients made highly significant positive gains on a range of outcome variables, including validated psychometrics and self-report scales. Analyses of the data suggest 2 broad conclusions: EMDR is a useful treatment intervention both in the immediate aftermath of disaster as well as later; the longer treatment is delayed, the greater the level of disturbance experienced by clients. Also discussed are problems in conducting research during mass disaster response situations. A demonstration of an analog to a wait-list control group is provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Electronic window dressing: impression management with Websites

Businesses have embraced the Internet to reap economic advantages through the use of Websites. Most Website design guidelines fail to address issues of branding and identity formation, focusing instead on concerns adapted from previous technologies. However, many firms are not getting their desired results from the Website investments they have made following design guidelines reflecting graphic layout and system usability issues. We suggest that Websites should be considered ‘electronic storefronts’ or public work areas providing frames of symbolic representations that create impressions of their sponsoring firms. Our exploratory study shows that Websites influence potential customers' impressions of firms' legitimacy, innovation and caring, and that these impressions vary significantly across firms and industries. Website visitors encounter symbols that are compared to mental models stored in memory and used to form impressions of the site and to draw inferences about the firm. These inferences have previously been found to influence purchasing behavior. Designers should be cognizant of these aspects of e-Business and executives should recognize the power of Web-based impression management. Identity management must take center stage in creating a Web presence.     

Pragmatic navigation: reactivity, heuristics, and search

FORR (FOr the Right Reasons) is an architecture for learning and problem solving that integrates a possibly incomplete and overlapping set of solution methods to address complex problems. Each method, although it represents some facet of domain expertise, may vary in reliability and speed. The principal contribution of this paper is the extension of FORR to include situation-based behavior (the serial testing of known, triggered techniques for problem solving in a domain) with reactivity and heuristic reasoning. FORR categorizes methods as reactive, heuristic, or situationbased, and addresses problem solving with one category of methods at a time. A hierarchical reasoner first has the opportunity to react correctly. If no ready reaction is computed, the reasoner activates a set of reactive triggers for time-limited search procedures tailored to specific situations. If they, too, fail to produce a response, the reasoner resorts to collaboration among heuristic rationales. All three components reference knowledge learned from experience. In a series of experiments, this architecture is shown to be effective and efficient. Ablation experiments demonstrate how each component plays an important role in problem solving. Additional contributions of this paper include a FORR-based, pragmatic, cognitively plausible approach to navigation with learned heuristic approximations that describe two-dimensional territory and travel experience through it, and a careful study of how situation-based behavior, reactivity, and heuristics interact there. Empirical evidence demonstrates that the resultant system is both effective and efficient, and guidelines for generalization to other domains are provided.     

Links Between Sex-Typed Time Use in Middle Childhood and Gender Development in Early Adolescence.

The authors studied sex-typing in the kinds (e.g., sports, handicrafts) and social contexts (same- vs. other-sex companions) of children's free time activities, and the links between sex-typed activities and gender development over 2 years. Participants were 200 White, working- and middle-class children (103 girls, 97 boys; mean age = 10.86 years). In annual home interviews, children rated their self-esteem, gender role attitudes and sex-typed personality qualities, academic interests, and school grades. During 7 nightly phone interviews each year, children reported on their activities. Boys were more sex-typed than girls in their peer activities, and children were least sex-typed in their activities with siblings. Sex-typed activities in middle childhood predicted individual differences in gender development in early adolescence (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hope and Guidance for Parents of Children with OCD: A Review of Freeing Your Child from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

Reviews the book "Freeing Your Child from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder," by T.E. Chansky (see record 2000-16012-000). This is a concise and helpful resource for parents who are seeking active participation as an agent in their child's treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). It is likely that one book alone will never be sufficient to help a child and/or parent through an entire course of treatment for OCD; rather, change appears to come through a combination of many resources, including information, books, professional support, and skill development. As part of a comprehensive intervention approach, this book provides a "roadmap" for parents seeking a helping role in supporting their child's treatment trajectory. Although this book contains invaluable information for parents, the information and guidelines will be best understood and most effectively employed when parents are consulting with a qualified psychologist. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Electronic trading and the process of globalization in traditional futures exchanges: a temporal perspective

This paper develops a temporal perspective to examine information and communication technologies (ICT) adoption and processes of globalization. The foundations of our theoretical approach explicitly draw upon three intersecting planes of temporality implicit in structuration; namely reversibility, irreversibility and institutionalization. We further develop our theoretical perspective by extending the scope of structuration to incorporate temporal features of Adam's social theory on ‘global time’. We then use this temporal perspective to examine the emergence of electronic trading and the process of globalization across London and Chicago futures exchanges. Our analysis provides insights into the IT-enabled reconfiguration of these exchanges during processes of reproduction and change associated with globalization. We conclude with some key implications for e-trading strategy and consider changes in trader work life associated with the adoption of e-trading.     

Poly(L‐lactic acid) with added α‐tocopherol and resveratrol: optical,physical, thermal and mechanical properties

Poly(L ‐lactic acid) (PLLA) films containing various concentrations of two natural antioxidants, α‐tocopherol and resveratrol, were fabricated by a melt compounding and compression molding process. The influence of the antioxidants on the optical properties such as color and UV‐visible light transmission was analyzed. The thermal, mechanical, rheological and physical properties of PLLA films with added antioxidants were assessed. PLLA films with added α‐tocopherol and resveratrol showed a yellowish brown color and the lightness was influenced by the presence of the antioxidants. The glass transition and melting temperatures were significantly reduced with the addition of antioxidants while enhanced thermal stability was observed, which could be a benefit and important for processing and production. PLLA films with added antioxidants were slightly more hydrophobic than neat PLLA. The combination effect of plasticizing and enhancement of the elastic modulus with differing concentrations of two antioxidants played a critical role in the mechanical and thermomechanical properties of PLLA films. The melt viscosity of the PLLA films with added antioxidants was substantially higher than that of neat PLLA. The higher melt viscosity and G′(ω) could be an indication of formation of entanglement between PLLA and the two antioxidants. Copyright © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry