Gaze Following in Newborns

Eye gaze has been shown to be an effective cue for directing attention in adults. Whether this ability operates from birth is unknown. Three experiments were carried out with 2‐ to 5‐day‐old newborns. The first experiment replicated the previous finding that newborns are able to discriminate between direct and averted gaze, and extended this finding from real to schematic faces. In Experiments 2 and 3 newborns were faster to make saccades to peripheral targets cued by the direction of eye movement of a central schematic face, but only when the motion of the pupils was visible. These results suggest that newborns may show a rudimentary form of gaze following.     

全球修辞学史研究

今天,我演讲的是关于共性和个性的问题.我想讨论当下全球修辞学史研究的多样性,学术研究为何因国家不同而变化,思考该研究多样化的原因.我今天的论点是,我们的研究方法不止一种,在一个国家行得通的方法,在另一个国家未必行得通.     

Popularity as an Affordance for Friendship: The Link Between Group and Dyadic Experience*

The associations between measures of popularity (acceptance, rejection and preference) and friendship were examined in three independent samples of elementary and middle school children. Data were obtained by means of sociometric nomination and rating scale procedures. Results reveal that, regardless of measurement technique, acceptance is generally more strongly related to friendship than is either rejection or preference. The size of the association between popularity and friendship decreases with age. Mean comparisons show that popularity is a predictor and/or is temporally antecedent to friendship rather than vice-versa. These results indicate that the association between popularity and friendship derives from their conceptual dependence on the construct of liking.     

Studying Hate Crime with the Internet: What Makes Racists Advocate Racial Violence?

We conducted semistructured interviews with 38 participants in White racist Internet chat rooms, examining the extent to which people would, in this unique environment, advocate interracial violence in response to purported economic and cultural threats. Capitalizing on the anonymity and candor of chat room interactions, this study provides an unusual perspective on extremist attitudes. We experimentally manipulated the nature and proximity of the threats. Qualitative and quantitative analyses indicate that the respondents were most threatened by interracial marriage and, to a lesser extent, Blacks moving into White neighborhoods. In contrast, job competition posed by Blacks evoked very little advocacy of violence. The study affords an assessment of the advantages and limitations of Internet-based research with clandestine populations.     

Impact of Adult Sons’ Incarceration on African American Mothers’ Psychological Distress

This longitudinal study examines the effect of sons’ incarceration on their mothers’ psychological distress. Interviews were conducted over the life course with a community cohort of African American mothers who had children in first grade in 1966 – 1967 when the study began (N =615). Thirty years later, their sons had significant rates of incarceration (22.4%). Structural equation modeling showed that the more recent the incarceration, the greater the mothers’ psychological distress, even controlling for earlier socioeconomic status and psychological well‐being. Financial difficulties and greater burden of grandparenting are associated with having a son incarcerated and they mediate the relationship between the incarceration and a mother’s psychological distress. Results suggest that incarceration has important effects on family members’ well‐being.     

IMPASSE AND CHANGE: A SYSTEMIC/STRATEGIC VIEW OF THE THERAPEUTIC SYSTEM*

This paper examines how clients and therapists, together, create impasses or change. First, the general concept of a “therapeutic system” (therapist-plus-client) is briefly reviewed. Second, a model is described that synthesizes systemic and strategic ideas about therapeutic systems. Third, a series of questions based on this model is proposed for analyzing and resolving impasses. Finally, application of this framework is illustrated with a case.     

Predictors of contraceptive use by adolescent mothers

This study examines the differences between adolescents who do versus those who do not use contraceptives after the birth of their first child. The sample consists of 89 low-income mothers in the state of Indiana. A discriminant function analysis is used to determine if the adolescents' home environment, financial resources, self-esteem, or future orientation discriminates between contracepting and noncontracepting adolescents. If the adolescent is not receiving financial support from a romantic partner, intends to have another child within the next year, and expects to be a single parent in one year, she is less likely to be using contraceptives.     

Reducing bias in ecological studies: an evaluation of different methodologies

Summary.  Statistical methods of ecological analysis that attempt to reduce ecological bias are empirically evaluated to determine in which circumstances each method might be practicable. The method that is most successful at reducing ecological bias is stratified ecological regression. It allows individual level covariate information to be incorporated into a stratified ecological analysis, as well as the combination of disease and risk factor information from two separate data sources, e.g. outcomes from a cancer registry and risk factor information from the census sample of anonymized records data set. The aggregated individual level model compares favourably with this model but has convergence problems. In addition, it is shown that the large areas that are covered by local authority districts seem to reduce between-area variability and may therefore not be as informative as conducting a ward level analysis. This has policy implications because access to ward level data is restricted.