Suzanne Dziurawiec

Newborns' preferential tracking of face-like stimuli and its subsequent decline.

Goren, Sarty, and Wu (1975) claimed that newborn infants will follow a slowly moving schematic face stimulus with their head and eyes further than they will follow scrambled faces or blank stimuli. Despite the far-reaching theoretical importance of this finding, it has remained controversial and been largely ignored. In Experiment 1 we replicate the basic findings of the study. In Experiment 2 we attempt a second replication in a different maternity hospital, and extend the original findings with evidence suggesting that both the particular configuration of features, and some aspects of the features themselves, are important for preferential tracking in the first hour of life. In Experiment 3 we use a different technique to trace the preferential tracking of faces over the first five months of life. The preferential tracking of faces declines during the second month. The possible causes and consequences of this observation are discussed.

Are average and symmetric faces attractive to infants? Discrimination and looking preferences

Young infants prefer to look at faces that adults find attractive, suggesting a biological basis for some face preferences. However, the basis for infant preferences is not known. Adults find average and symmetric faces attractive. We examined whether 5–8-month-old infants discriminate between different levels of averageness and symmetry in faces, and whether they prefer to look at faces with higher levels of these traits. Each infant saw 24 pairs of female faces. Each pair consisted of two versions of the same face differing either in averageness (12 pairs) or symmetry (12 pairs). Data from the mothers confirmed that adults preferred the more average and more symmetric versions in each pair. The infants were sensitive to differences in both averageness and symmetry, but showed no looking preference for the more average or more symmetric versions. On the contrary, longest looks were significantly longer for the less average versions, and both longest looks and first looks were marginally longer for the less symmetric versions. Mean looking times were also longer for the less average and less symmetric versions, but those differences were not significant. We suggest that the infant looking behaviour may reflect a novelty preference rather than an aesthetic preference.

Men’s Voices: Postnatal Depression From the Perspective of Male Partners

Postnatal depression (PND) is a serious and debilitating condition that is recognized as being disruptive to women’s lives at a time when they are already under stress adapting to the demands that a new baby creates. What has not always been fully acknowledged is that PND is linked with elevated levels of depression in male partners. In this article, the authors report on men’s experiences of PND and of participation in a 6-week group treatment program specifically designed for male partners. The men experienced their partners’ PND as overwhelming, isolating, stigmatizing, and frustrating. Coping with PND was assisted by participation in the men’s group. Men reported lowered levels of depression and stress, and higher levels of social support, as a result of their participation. The men valued highly the opportunity to share experiences with peers, to hear strategies for engaging in their relationship, and to gain factual information.

Construction errors as a key to perceptual difficulties encountered in reading technical drawings

A large number of subjects drawn from a variety of populations was required to build simple models in response to diagrams. Their responses were evaluated with especial reference to the errors made. It seems that the errors were largely due to misperception of the drawings and therefore show what difficulties people are likely to find when required to use technical drawings. These difficulties range from inability to perceive elementary units correctly (a weakness characteristic of the least educated/sophisticated subjects) to inability to group the relations among such units. Examples of errors made are discussed and their significance for training in the usage of technical drawings stressed.

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy for the Treatment of Emotion Dysregulation and Trauma Symptoms in Self-Injurious and Suicidal Adolescent Females: A Pilot Programme within a Community-Based Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service.

Background. The literature suggests a link between childhood trauma and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, including nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) and suicidality. We assessed the impact of a pilot dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) programme on reducing trauma-related symptoms and improving emotional regulation, suicidality, and NSSI in adolescents. Methods. Six adolescents attending a community mental health service received 26 weeks of DBT, together with a parent. Independent assessors collected measures on each participant at baseline, posttreatment, and three-month followup. We implemented further improvements over past research with the use of adolescent-specific outcome measures as well as independent assessment of treatment integrity, noted as problematic in previous studies, using videotapes. Results. Firstly, adolescents reported a decrease in trauma-based symptoms, suicidality, and NSSI following participation in the DBT programme that was maintained at the three-month followup. Secondly, adolescents also reported improved emotion regulation immediately following treatment, and this was maintained, albeit more moderately, three months later. Given the burgeoning demand on mental health services, it is notable that five of the six adolescents were discharged from the service following the DBT intervention. Conclusions. The results of this pilot programme suggest that DBT has the potential to improve the symptoms of this at-risk population.

Adolescent experiences of 'family meals' in Australia

Popular discourse laments the decline of the ‘family meal’, leading to family fragmentation and nutritional compromise. This article reports findings of a study investigating beliefs and practices surrounding the ‘family meal’, using data drawn from an on-line survey completed by 625 adolescents in Perth, Western Australia. The results challenge current concerns about the loss of the ‘family meal’, demonstrating that, for a majority, meals are eaten together rather than in isolation; are home-made rather than store bought or fast food; and are sites of conversation regardless of the presence of a television. Adolescents are divided, however, on the value of the ‘family meal’, with half seeing it as a positive experience of family togetherness and half regarding it negatively or as unimportant. The findings go some way to dispelling the notion that the ‘family meal’ no longer exists in Australia.

'Sperm Milkshakes with Poo Sprinkles': The Challenges of Identifying Family Meals Practices through an Online Survey with Adolescents

This article contributes to a long‐overdue discussion about research with adolescents. While young people are now recognised as competent and reliable participants, there are particular difficulties associated with using adolescents as respondents. Furthermore, it is rare for young people’s reactions to the research process to be heard. This article reports on some of the methodological challenges faced in designing and administering a Web‐based survey to 15‐year‐old school students in Perth, Western Australia, in an attempt to gain insight into meals practices and beliefs among adolescents and their families. Using empirical data, we discuss issues concerning the competence of adolescents to participate in social research. We conclude that using a Web‐based survey actively facilitates high levels of adolescent engagement in the research process, allowing them to be both subject and object of the research.

The Eyes Have it: A Perceptual Investigation of Eyespots

Previous work with non-human species has shown that eyespots function as sign stimuli for defensive behaviour. But it is unknown to what extent eyespots are a dominant feature of objects for human perceptual responses. We examined whether young children perceive eyespots as a dominant object feature. One hundred and nineteen children from the first, second, and third grades were presented with small manikins, called “Joopes” that varied in the number, type, and arrangement of facial features. Four kinds of Joope heads were used: single element (eyes, mouth, or beak only), monovalent (spatially concordant eyes and mouth, or eyes and beak), ambivalent (asymmetrical eyes and beak, or eyes and mouth), and cyclopean (single eye with orthogonal beak). Two task groups (Peepers and Gobs) ‘helped’ the Joopes to either ‘see’ their food or ‘eat’ it, by placing food in one of 24 feeding dishes. Results indicated that responses made to the ambivalent Joopes differed, with greater ‘drift’ shown by the ‘eating’ group towards the ‘seeing’ responses than by the ‘seeing’ group towards the ‘eating’ responses. The dominant role of eyespots was thus confirmed for children in the second and third grades, but response inconsistencies in the youngest group suggested difficulties in handling incongruent stimuli. The implications of these results for understanding basic perceptual processes are discussed.

The Meaning of Coping for Psychiatric Patients

Contemporary psychiatric theory holds that a precipitant of major mental illness is the inability of some vulnerable individuals to cope with the difficulties of everyday life. Such mentally ill people are characterized as having deficient, dysfunctional, or absent coping skills. Recently, researchers have exerted considerable effort to distinguish between productive and nonproductive coping. In this article, we argue that not only are such conceptualizations reliant on reductive, circular logic, but they also miss the essentially rational, local, and individual nature of coping in psychiatric patients’ lives. We used semistructured interviews and thematic analyses of psychiatric patients’ descriptions of their coping. Patients reported that professional intervention reduced their ability to cope, that they distrusted the mental health system and its professionals, that coping mechanisms were misinterpreted, that situational crises modulated coping, and that sometimes coping was just “not coping.” We argue for a more respectful, nuanced understanding of coping among mental health professionals.

Emotional Intimacy Power Predicts Different Sexual Experiences for Men and Women

Those who are more emotionally invested in relationships have less power than their partners. Furthermore, less powerful individuals may attempt to equalize power imbalances by offering rewards to their partner and using sex and condom use as exchange resources. Australian young adults reported their condom use and pressured sex experiences in both romantic (n = 708) and casual (n = 118) relationships. Results showed that greater power (lower relative emotional investment) predicted more condom use among those wanting to use condoms. In casual relationships, an interaction with gender showed that women in particular used condoms more when they had more power. Power also interacted with gender for pressured sex and, unexpectedly, men who had more power experienced more pressured sex. The possibility that condom use and pressured sex have different meanings for men and women is explored.