Depressed and Well Mothers' Emotion Interpretation Accuracy and the Quality of Mother—Infant Interaction

The inadequate parenting associated with mothers' depression may be related to mothers' problems in interpreting infants' emotional expressions. The relations between depressed and well mothers' accuracy at interpreting babies' facial expressions and the quality of the mothers' interactions with their infants were examined. In partial support of our hypotheses, depressed mothers' level of depressive symptoms was associated with less accuracy, especially regarding positive emotions. Contrary to expectations, depressed mothers did not differ from well mothers in terms of their emotion accuracy. Furthermore, depressed mothers' accuracy at interpreting infants' emotions was not significantly related to the quality of their interaction with their infants; in contrast, well mothers' accuracy for infants' negative emotions was associated with better interaction quality. These findings provide new information about depressed mothers' emotional interpretations and their parenting. The different pattern of findings for depressed and well mothers suggests that other mediating factors are important, which are discussed.     

Investigating Gender Differences in the Meaning of Household Chores and Child Care

This study examines factors related to the affective meanings (evaluation, potency, and activity) that spouses and cohabitors (N= 309) attach to child care, baby care, and 9 household chores. Gender is related to about a third of these task meanings. Consistent with the feminine care hypothesis, women consider baby care and laundry especially good, potent, and active and consider meal preparation particularly powerful, although contrary to this hypothesis women evaluate washing dishes less positively than men. Consistent with the masculine care hypothesis, men consider auto work and yard work especially good and powerful. When paid and unpaid work patterns are controlled, however, 9 of the 12 gender differences become nonsignificant and 4 new gender differences are identified, suggesting that work patterns both mediate and suppress some gender differences in task meanings. Gender also moderates the relationship between work and 12 task meanings. In several of these equations, women's proportion of nonmasculine work is negatively related to the goodness or the power they associate with a nonmasculine task.     

Notation Systems for Reading and Writing Sign Language

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior - Without written forms, signed languages do not permit the type of textual record available to speakers of English and other written languages. Deaf signers have...     

Self- and family-expressiveness styles in the experience and expression of anger

To assess the relationship between expressivity styles and the experience and expression of anger, 79 college students and adults filled out questionnaires on self-expressiveness, family expressiveness, and anger in social situations. Also, 60 subjects designated a friend, family member, or spouse who filled out short questionnaires about the subject. Agreement between subjects and designated others was strong for self- and family expressiveness, but somewhat weaker for anger.Self-expressiveness was only slightly related to anger expression, and only when the designated other was describing the subject's anger experiences. Negative family expressiveness, however, was related to subjects' anger expression, and to some degree to their anger experience, when assessed by either the subject or the designated other, and when self-expressiveness was partialled out. The results suggest the importance of family expressive background on individuals' present-day expressions and experiences of anger.We gratefully acknowledge the financial assistance of the Vassar Research Fund and the comments of Randolph Cornelius and Judith Hall on an earlier draft of the paper.     

Stalker profiles with and without protective orders: reoffending or criminal justice processing?

Research indicates that stalking is an extension of intimate partner violence. The overall purpose of this study was to better understand stalkers by examining the association between a protective order history and the court's processing of subsequent stalking, and to examine patterns of reoffending. This study examined a sample of 346 males who were charged with stalking in 1999 in one state. Subjects were partitioned into three groups: (1) males without protective orders; (2) males with one prior protective order; and (3) males with two or more prior protective orders. Almost two-thirds of the stalkers had a protective order against them at some point in the study, suggesting that stalking is associated with intimate partner violence. Results also found a linear trend with many of the criminal justice involvement variables and protective order history prior to 1999. Those charged with first-degree stalking were more likely to be found guilty initially, and about one-third of all three study groups had the initial felony stalking charge amended. Of those charged with second-degree stalking, only 7% of the group with two or more protective orders was initially found guilty, which was substantially less than the other two groups. And, when all the amendment dispositions were considered, there were no significant differences by group in guilty and dismissed dispositions for the index stalking charge. Further, consistent with previous criminal justice involvement, the group with two or more protective orders was more likely to have subsequent felony charges than the other two groups. Implications are discussed.     

Freshman 15: valid theory or harmful myth?

The authors investigated whether the perception that freshmen gain 15 pounds during their 1st year of college is related to either actual or perceived weight gain. Forty-nine incoming freshmen at a small liberal arts college completed the study by filling out questionnaires and health data at the beginning and end of their 1st year on campus. The findings revealed no significant weight gain at the end of the year. The "Freshman 15" myth was found to play an important role in perpetuating negative attitudes toward weight. Freshmen who were concerned about gaining 15 pounds were more likely to think about their weight, have a poorer body image than others, and categorize themselves as being overweight.     

Urbanization and warming of Phoenix (Arizona,USA): Impacts,feedbacks and mitigation

This paper examines the impacts, feedbacks, and mitigation of the urban heat island in Phoenix, Arizona (USA). At Sky Harbor Airport, urbanization has increased the nighttime minimum temperature by 5°C and the average daily temperatures by 3.1°C. Urban warming has increased the number of misery hours per day for humans, which may have important social consequences. Other impacts include (1) increased energy consumption for heating and cooling of buildings, (2) increased heat stress (but decreased cold stress) for plants, (3) reduced quality of cotton fiber and reduced dairy production on the urban fringe, and (4) a broadening of the seasonal thermal window for arthropods. Climate feedback loops associated with evapotranspiration, energy production and consumption associated with increased air conditioning demand, and land conversion are discussed. Urban planning and design policy could be redesigned to mitigate urban warming, and several cities in the region are incorporating concerns regarding urban warming into planning codes and practices. The issue is timely and important, because most of the world's human population growth over the next 30 years will occur in cities in warm climates.