Let Me Go: The Influences of Crawling Experience and Temperament on the Development of Anger Expression

Infants’ emerging ability to move independently by crawling is associated with changes in multiple domains, including an increase in expressions of anger in situations that block infants’ goals, but it is unknown whether increased anger is specifically because of experience with being able to move autonomously or simply related to age. To examine the influence of locomotion on developmental change in anger, infants’ (N = 20) anger expressions during an arm restraint procedure were observed longitudinally at a precrawling baseline assessment and 2 and 6 weeks after the onset of crawling. Infant age at each crawling stage was unrelated to the frequency of anger expressed in response to arm restraint. At 6 weeks postcrawling onset, infants whose mothers rated them as temperamentally higher in distress to limitations, compared with those rated lower, showed a greater increase in the frequency of anger expressed during the arm restraint relative to earlier assessments and took longer to reduce the frequency of anger expressed when no longer restrained. Findings suggest that experience with autonomous crawling has an effect on anger expression, independent of age, and that a temperamental tendency to become distressed by limitations may exacerbate the effect of crawling on anger expression.     

Rational-experiential thinking style and rational intergroup cooperation: the moderating role of intergroup conflict / Estilos de pensamiento racional-experiencial y la cooperación intergrupal racional: el rol modulador del conflicto intergrupal

Cooperative relationships between groups are difficult because of the high human capability to differentiate between in-group vs. out-group members. This obstacle exists even when the groups can obtain benefits for themselves from cooperation with other groups (rational cooperation). Based on an interactionist approach, the authors propose that personal (individual differences) and situational (conflicts) factors contribute to rational intergroup cooperation. The authors conducted a preliminary correlational study (Study 1) and an experimental investigation (Study 2). In Study 1, the authors examined, with 105 participants, the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Rational–Experiential Inventory (REI), measuring individual differences in information processing. In Study 2, the authors conducted an experimental investigation with 141 participants, testing the role of individual differences and conflict in intergroup rational cooperation. Findings of Study 1 showed that the scale has adequate psychometric properties. Results of Study 2 confirmed that the existence of both manipulated and perceived intergroup conflict reduces the magnitudes of the relationships between rational ability and rational cooperation. In addition, perceived intergroup conflict increased the magnitude of the links from experiential ability and experimental engagement to rational cooperation. Both individual differences and previous conflict have a role in predicting rational intergroup cooperation. According to the interactionist approach, personal and situational factors should be considered in the understanding of intergroup relationships.     

Bidirectional Linkages Between Emotion Recognition and Problem Behaviors in Elementary School Children

Cross-sectional studies support negative associations between children’s skills in recognizing emotional expressions and their problem behaviors. Few studies have examined these associations over time, however, precluding our understanding of the direction of effects. Emotion recognition difficulties may contribute to the development of problem behaviors; additionally, problem behaviors may constrain the development of emotion recognition skill. The present study tested the bidirectional linkages between children’s emotion recognition and teacher-reported problem behaviors in 1st and 3rd grade. Specifically, emotion recognition, hyperactivity, internalizing behaviors, and externalizing behaviors were assessed in 117 children in 1st grade and in 3rd grade. Results from fully cross-lagged path models revealed divergent developmental patterns: Controlling for concurrent levels of problem behaviors and first-grade receptive language skills, lower emotion recognition in 1st grade significantly predicted greater internalizing behaviors, but not hyperactivity or externalizing behaviors, in 3rd grade. Moreover, greater hyperactivity in 1st grade marginally predicted lower emotion recognition in 3rd grade, but internalizing and externalizing behaviors were not predictive of emotion recognition over time. Together, these findings extend previous research to identify specific developmental pathways, whereby emotion recognition difficulties contribute to the development of internalizing behaviors, and early hyperactivity may contribute to the development of emotion recognition difficulties, thus highlighting the importance of examining these processes and their mutual development over time.     

Intention Understanding and Partner-Sensitive Behaviors in Young Children's Peer Interactions

Recent research on peer interaction shows that complex, coordinated play emerges around 24 months. Increased understanding of others' intentions has been proposed as a reason for its emergence at this juncture. In this study, we assessed understanding of the intentional structure of human action in children aged 19 to 39 months by eliciting verbal explanations of observed action. We hypothesized that more elaborated understanding of intention would be related to more partner-sensitive behaviors during interactions with familiar, same-age peers at home. We found that level of intention understanding predicted types of overtures made, types of objects offered, monitoring partner responses, partner compliance, and types of speech acts addressed to partners. Results are discussed in terms of the contribution of intention understanding to interactive competence, the role of linguistic competence in conceptual development, the effects of context on the production of speech acts and developing theory of mind.     

The Other-Than-Human and the “User Unconscious”

Expanding on psychoanalysts’ treatment of online interaction between analyst and analysand, I take up digital media and computational technologies in terms of their more general transformation of the liberal configuration of state, economy, and civil society. From this perspective, I indicate the subjectivity that is being constructed and the indeterminate potentiality (or temporality) of its unconscious, what I call the user unconscious.     

Public Sociology and the Public Turn in the Social Sciences

Public sociology broadly conceptualized is a form of intellectuality involving dialogue between sociologists and the publics with whom they are concerned. Beyond this broad framing, what type of dialogue, with what purpose, which public(s), and the functions of intellectuals and the knowledge they produce are widely contested. In this essay, I explore the politics of academic disciplines, knowledge, and discourse as it has emerged within the debate over public sociology, while also highlighting what public sociology and the rise of other ‘public’ disciplines tells us about these themes in relationship to the possibility of public culture.     

Training Intraverbal Naming to Establish Matching-to-Sample Performances

The current study evaluated whether training intraverbal naming would be sufficient to establish visual-visual matching-to-sample (MTS) performances in college students. In the first experiment, we used a multiple-probe design across stimulus sets to assess whether six participants could match arbitrary visual stimuli (AB) after learning to tact their two experimentally defined classes (A’ and B’) and then intraverbally relate their names (i.e., “A’ goes with B’”). All participants matched the stimuli accurately after training, as well as emitted the trained intraverbals. In the second experiment, we used a multiple baseline design across four participants to assess whether the same training would produce bi-directional intraverbals in the form of “B’ goes with A’,” and MTS performance consistent with symmetry (BA). All participants responded accurately during matching and intraverbal tests. Across both experiments, participants stated the trained intraverbals while performing the matching task. Results showed that MTS performance can be established solely by verbal behavior training.     

Getting real: heuristics in sociological knowledge

Theory and Society - This article examines the connections among heuristics, the epistemological and ontological presuppositions that underlie theorizing, and substantive explanations in sociology....     

The role of woodpeckers (family: Picidae) as ecosystem engineers in urban parks: a case study in the city of Madrid (Spain)

Urban Ecosystems - Many species of the family Picidae, such as the woodpeckers, excavate the tree-cavities where they nest. Frequently the cavities are used during a single breeding season and...