Risk moderation of parent and child outcomes in a preventive intervention: a test and replication

Family risk-related variations in proximal parent and young adolescent outcomes of a universal family-focused preventive intervention were examined using a cumulative index of risk incorporating sociodemographic characteristics and social-emotional adjustment measures. Results of an initial investigation involving 209 families of young adolescents suggested that intervention efficacy was largely unrelated to cumulative family risk. These findings were replicated with a second sample of 428 families. Implications for future intervention applications and outcome research are discussed.     

Considering the opposite: A corrective strategy for social judgment.

Proposes that several biases in social judgment result from a failure to consider possibilities at odds with beliefs and perceptions of the moment. Individuals who are induced to consider the opposite position, therefore, should display less bias in social judgment. In 2 experiments, with 150 undergraduates, this reasoning was applied to 2 domains—biased assimilation of new evidence on social issues and biased hypothesis testing of personality impressions. Ss were induced to consider the opposite through explicit instructions to do so and through stimulus materials that made opposite possibilities more salient. In both experiments, the induction of a consider-the-opposite strategy had greater corrective effect than more demand-laden alternative instructions to be as fair and unbiased as possible. Results are consistent with previous research on perseverance, hindsight, and logical problem solving, and they suggest an effective method of retraining social judgment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Is a rose always a rose? The role of social category exemplar change in attitude stability and attitude-behavior consistency.

Three experiments tested whether changes in social category exemplars affect attitude stability, attitude–behavior consistency, or attitude change. In Experiment 1, participants displayed greater attitude stability across 1 month, in several social categories, when they named the same rather than different exemplars. In Experiment 2, participants displayed greater attitude–behavior consistency toward each of 2 social categories when they named the same rather than different exemplars at behavior assessment and at attitude assessment. Participants who named a more likable exemplar behaved more positively, and those who named a less likable exemplar behaved more negatively, than their initial attitudes predicted. In Experiment 3, participants changed their attitudes in the predicted direction after estimating the height of an exemplar who was either more or less likable than the one they had earlier named. The results are interpreted as consistent with recent theory and research on attitude introspection, the matching hypothesis, and models of social judgment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of praise on children's intrinsic motivation: A review and synthesis.

The authors argue against a purely behavioral definition of praise as verbal reinforcement in favor of the view that praise may serve to undermine, enhance, or have no effect on children's intrinsic motivation, depending on a set of conceptual variables. Provided that praise is perceived as sincere, it is particularly beneficial to motivation when it encourages performance attributions to controllable causes, promotes autonomy, enhances competence without an overreliance on social comparisons, and conveys attainable standards and expectations. The motivational consequences of praise also can be moderated by characteristics of the recipient, such as age, gender, and culture. Methodological considerations, such as including appropriate control groups and measuring postfailure outcomes, are stressed, and directions for future research are highlighted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Microcomputers in education: Motivational and social issues.

Presents a conceptual analysis of four sets of research issues raised by the rapid intrusion of microcomputers into the lives of children. The first involves use of the computer as a vehicle for studying the determinants of intrinsic motivation. The second involves the study of the relationships between intrinsic motivation and instructional effectiveness in educational software. The third involves the empirical examination of contrasting philosophies of instruction embodied in different current approaches to the design of computer-based educational programs. The final set of issues concerns the effects of the widespread introduction of the computer on social equality, the process of social development, and the goals of formal education. It is argued that these issues should be examined before this technology becomes part of daily life. (99 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A whole much less than the sum of its parts.

Comments on R. Eisenberger and J. Cameron's (see record 1996-06440-007) discussion of the detrimental effects of reward. The author discusses limitations to the original article and notes that many of these limitations stem from the fact that this article was based on a previous meta analysis by J. Cameron and W. D. Pierce (1994) that had the same difficulties. These limitations include the treatment of experiments that reported significant interactions between reward variables and other factors not included in the analysis and and small effect-size estimates. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Automatic Construction of XML-Based Tools Seen as Meta-Programming

This article presents XML-based tools for parser generation and data binding generation. The underlying concept is that of transformation between formal languages, which is a form of meta-programming. We discuss the benefits of such a declarative approach with well-defined semantics: productivity, maintainability, verifiability, performance and safety.     

Synthese von Aldehyden und Carbonsäuren durch katalytische Oxidation vicinaler Diole

Synthesis of Aldehydes and Carboxylic Acids by Catalytic Oxidation of Vicinal Diols Results of studies on oxidative cleavage of aliphatic vicinal diols by oxygen in the presence of cobaltous compounds are reported. The effect of experimental conditions on the yield of aldehydes and acids are presented. Yields of 90% resp. 86% of these compounds are obtained.     

Isomerisierung von Dienfettsäuren mit Rhodiumverbindungen

Isomerisation of Bis Olefinic Acids with Rhodium Compounds Isolated double bonds of bis olefinic acids or their esters are conjugated in good yields using rhodium and ruthenium compounds. The complexes and [(C₆H₅)₃P]₃RhCl, and [(C₆H₅)₃P]₂RhCOCl in the presence of SnCl₂ · 2H₂O, isomerise linoleic acid or its esters to conjugated cis-trans and trans-trans dienoic acids with yields of ca. 80%. The dependence of the yield on the catalyst composition and the reaction conditions was studied; included are some studies concerning the mechanism of the isomerisation.