Rhianon Allen

Contributors to attachment in normal and physically handicapped infants

Abstract To assess whether contributors to attachment security vary with infant risk, this study examined contributors to attachment in normal infants and in those born with physical handicaps. Thirty-six nonretarded infants with facial/orthopedic anomalies and 46 normal infants, and their mothers, were videotaped longitudinally at 9 and 12 months in a variant of the “strange situation,” and 12-month attachment was assessed. Mothers of handicapped infants were significantly lower in 9- and 12-month responsivity, but more available and positive at 12 months. High-risk and normal infants did not differ in attachment. For mothers, 9-month responsivity, availability and age-increments in positive affect, all contributed significantly to attachment security, while neither risk nor its interactions did so. Mothers of handicapped and control infants differ in the component behaviors used to promote attachment; however, either pattern, used in either group, would have the same effect. Despite early problems, improvements in the mother-infant relationship by the end of the first year are associated with more optimal attachment outcome: even after 9 months, such changes continue to have a further impact upon attachment.

Achievement orientation and fear of success in Asian American college students

One hundred eighty-five Asian American undergraduates participated in a study designed to examine the relationships among gender, acculturation, achievement orientation, and fear of academic success. Acculturation was modestly correlated with achievement orientation. Endorsement of Asian and Anglo values were significantly related to individual-oriented achievement. Marginal significance, however, was obtained for endorsement of Asian values and beliefs to social-oriented achievement. These findings suggest that persons with a bicultural identity tend to adopt a multifaceted achievement style. Achievement orientation, in turn, predicted fear of academic success, with gender and perceived discrepancies from parental achievement values contributing minimal additional variance. Social-oriented achievement was related to high fear of academic success, whereas an individualistic orientation buffered against such conflicts.

Productive language of premature and physically handicapped two-year-olds

Structural and functional features of the productive language of healthy and at-risk 2-yr-olds were compared. Subjects were normal, full-term toddlers (n = 15), toddlers with either cosmetic or orthopedic anomalies (n = 15), and premature toddlers (n = 15). Transcripts of the language of each child were compiled from 30-min videotapes of mother and child engaged in a variety of semistructured activities. Although premature and physically handicapped toddlers did not differ significantly from each other, both groups of medical risk toddlers were delayed in a variety of structural indices of their productive language. In comparison to normal children, they had a shorter MLU and upper bound, and a smaller vocabulary, including fewer verbs. On functional features of language usage, however, there were few differences between normal and high-risk toddlers. Results are discussed in the context of developmental and learning models that posit a relationship between maternal and child behavior.

“Let's Get Down to Business: A Validation Study of the Psychopathic Personality Inventory Among a Sample of MBA Students.”

While the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI) has gained increasing attention as a measure of noncriminal psychopathy, absent has been research involving samples including business people. This study investigated the validity of the PPI with such a population by examining the association between psychopathic traits and moral decision-making among MBA students. Sixty-six MBA students were assessed using the PPI, the MACH-IV (a measure of Machiavellianism), the Ethical Position Questionnaire (EPQ), and the Defining Issues Test (DIT-2). Only PPI Machiavellian Egocentricity was associated with level of post-conventional moral reasoning. MACH-IV Machiavellianism was a stronger predictor of the Subjectivist ethical position than were PPI subscales. However, a combination of MACH-IV Machiavellianism and four PPI scales accounted for 46% of the variance in Subjectivism. Results suggested that Machiavellian Egocentricity and Machiavellianism are distinct constructs. Benning, Patrick, Hicks, Blonigen, & Krueger (2003)s two factor model of the PPI was also supported. In general, the findings provided further validation for the PPI as a tool for assessing psychopathic traits among mainstream individuals, including business people.

Body-Image Distortion and Mental Imagery

This study explored whether body-image distortion is a function of difficulties with imagery or problems with judgment. 49 subjects were given the Modified Video Camera Technique to measure body-image distortion. Mental imagery was measured by a modified version of the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire and the Spatial Relations subtest of the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-educational Battery. Visual recall was assessed on the Meier Art Judgment Test. Judgment bias was assessed by the Stunkard Silhouette Method and the shape and weight subscales of the Eating Disorder Examination. Subjects who distorted body-image scored significantly more poorly on mental imagery than those who did not distort. No differences were found between groups on visual memory recall or in judgment bias.

Maternal interaction and language development in children with and without speech-related anomalies

This study explores relationships among maternal behavior, child language, and location of congenital structural anomaly in three groups of 24-month-old children: 21 with speech-related anomalies (SRA), 13 with non-speech-related anomalies (NSRA), and 45 normal controls. In addition to standardized assessment of intelligence and language, children and mothers were observed in a half-hour videotaped play session, later coded for maternal and child interactive behavior. SRA children showed significantly poorer performance than controls on standardized tests. Mothers of SRA children showed significantly more Physical Teaching and Initiating relative to controls. Mothers of both SRA and NSRA children used significantly more Attention Management than did controls. The pattern of poorer child performance and maternal interactive compensations is largely confined to children whose structural disabilities are speech-related. Maternal interactive behavior is not global in its response to child disability; rather, it varies with the particular pattern of child disabilities found.

Multiple Belief Systems in Psychotherapy: The Effects of Religion and Professional Beliefs on Clinical Judgment

This study examined the effects of religious and professional beliefs on clinical judgment. Eighty-seven psychotherapists completed a religious belief survey and a professional belief survey, as well as a questionnaire concerning internal conflict between professional and religious beliefs. The subjects then read two brief vignettes, describing a religious and a non-religious patient, and rated the patients with regard to optimism or pessimism concerning responsiveness to treatment. The results showed that there was no significant relationship between religious and professional beliefs. However, the strength of religious beliefs predicted optimism for the religious patient. In addition, there was a significant interaction effect between strength of religious beliefs and strength of professional beliefs on clinical ratings.

Maternal Regulation Strategies in the United States and Turkey: A Brief Report:

This study examines the cultural and socioeconomic differences in the regulation strategies of Euro-American and Turkish mothers. Participants are interviewed about how they would manage their childrens problem behaviors under hypothetical scenarios. American mothers are found to rely more extensively on appeals to their own authority and on rules, whereas Turkish mothers employ appeals to consequences and other-oriented strategies to a greater degree. Higher socioeconomic status (SES) mothers use strategies that emphasize decision-making capacities more frequently.

“Don't go on my property!”: A case study of transactions of user rights

Two hours of conversation among three children were examined for oral disputes concerning use of beds in their bedroom. Examination of transcript segments revealed that the children signaled a social order governing use of property and objects. The children were found to negotiate such use on an ongoing basis, and the form and content of the disputes differed dramatically according to whether the beds were being claimed for the purpose of play or sleep. The conversations reflected the ongoing construction and negotiation of social representations, within shared frames or finite provinces of meaning, for use of space and objects. (Ethnomethodology, conversation analysis, property, ownership)* At times, the function of a conversation is nothing beyond the prolongation of an interaction; in general, however, members of an interaction accomplish certain ends and constitute social orders with their talk. Through talk, members of society win fights (Brenneis & Lein 1977), change or mark social structure (Labov 1982, Mehan 1983, Katriel 1985, Maynard 1985), coordinate cognitions (Resnick 1991), and (as Rommetveit MS puts it), create and transmit social representations. The social representation under consideration here is use of space and the objects in it. The focus is on the social order which children construct in their argumentation over (a) who gets rights to particular objects, and (b) of what those rights consist. As Goffman 1971 so aptly pointed out, territorial claims are at the crucial center of social organization, with cultural members signaling and defending claims within a culturally shared and created system of reference. Snare 1972, in his analysis of ownership, also argued that property and possession are fundamentally involved in ordinary speech, and that language is used to index ownership. This state is not unique to adults. James ([1890] 1950:422) was one of the first to note in print that many of the earliest words and quarrels of children (D 1995 Cambridge University Press 0047-4045/95

Integration of communicational cues by very young children

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