Revised Academic Hardiness Scale Factor Structure in College Students

The construct of academic hardiness has gained attention in recent literature as an antecedent of successful academic performance and enrollment in higher education. Although academic hardiness scales have been validated for use with elementary and high school students, none have been examined in college students. The current study investigated the factor structure of the Revised Academic Hardiness Scale using two college student samples. Exploratory analyses found a five-factor structure in a sample of 454 students at a large university. Confirmatory analyses indicated adequate to good model fit for this solution in a sample of 160 students at a small college

Major depressive disorder and schizophrenia are associated with a disturbed experience of temporal memory

Background Disturbances in ‘psychological time’ are frequently reported in major depressive disorder (MDD) and schizophrenia. If one accepts the suggestion that the experience of the dimensions of time, past-present-future, are not inseparable then a disturbance in episodic memory is implicated. Episodic memory allows us to make sense of the world and our place within it by constructing a temporal context and temporal flow between events. These temporal representations are disordered in schizophrenia, but whether this is reflected in MDD is not known. Temporal-order memory deficits can be explained by two hypotheses. The prefrontal-organisational hypothesis suggests that deficits result from a breakdown in processes involved in encoding, retrieval, monitoring and decision-making. Whereas the hippocampal-mnemonic theory suggests that item-encoding, and inter-item associative encoding contribute to temporal-order memory. Methods New learning, recency judgments and executive function were investigated in 14 MDD patients, 15 schizophrenia patients and 10 healthy volunteers (HVs). Results Relative to HVs, both MDD and schizophrenia made more temporal errors despite achieving 100% learning. Deficits in executive function and item-recognition were present in both psychiatric groups, but executive function correlated to temporal errors in MDD only, and item-recognition to new learning in schizophrenia only. Limitations MDD and schizophrenia patients were taking medication Conclusions Temporal-ordering deficits are evident in both MDD and schizophrenia, and whilst the disruption of organisational and mnemonic processes appears to be ubiquitous, preliminary evidence from the correlational analysis suggests prefrontal problems are implicated in MDD temporal-order deficits, whereas hippocampal are more associated to temporal-order memory deficits in schizophrenia

Absent fathers’, and children’s social and emotional learning: an exploration of the perceptions of ‘positive male role models’ in the primary school sector

This paper focuses on the testimonies of three male primary school staff members who utilised social and emotional learning (SEL) in their everyday practice within their respective schools. The data, collected through individual interviews, illustrate how these three men interpreted SEL, and their role in the development of children’s social, emotional and behavioural (SEB) skills, in response to their perceptions of pupils’ home-life. In particular, the sample identified the children’s fathers’ perceived ability/inability as a main cause of pupils’ SEB deficiencies. Consequently, the three male staff members maintained that in order to advocate and encourage alternative, appropriate behaviours, they should act as ‘replacement fathers’ and become ‘role models’. The findings contribute to existing debates relating to the notion of ‘positive male role models’ in primary schools and the propensity for staff to engage in parental blame. The implications of these findings are discussed, and suggestions that call for a more democratic and cooperative exchange of knowledge between parents and teachers are made

The Relationship Between Parenting and Delinquency: A Meta-analysis

This meta-analysis of 161 published and unpublished manuscripts was conducted to determine whether the association between parenting and delinquency exists and what the magnitude of this linkage is. The strongest links were found for parental monitoring, psychological control, and negative aspects of support such as rejection and hostility, accounting for up to 11% of the variance in delinquency. Several effect sizes were moderated by parent and child gender, child age, informant on parenting, and delinquency type, indicating that some parenting behaviors are more important for particular contexts or subsamples. Although both dimensions of warmth and support seem to be important, surprisingly very few studies focused on parenting styles. Furthermore, fewer than 20% of the studies focused on parenting behavior of fathers, despite the fact that the effect of poor support by fathers was larger than poor maternal support, particularly for sons. Implications for theory and parenting are discussed

Culture(s) of control: Political dynamics in cannabis policy in England & Wales and the Netherlands

© 2016, © The Author(s) 2016. This paper draws upon an empirical comparative study of policy-making in England & Wales and the Netherlands. Recent changes in cannabis policy prima facie indicate some convergence towards a toughening of approaches, thereby suggesting commonalities in control cultures. However, analysis of findings illuminate significant differences in the policy process between these jurisdictions which contribute towards continued divergence towards small-scale supply and consumption of cannabis. It is argued that this can be understood and explained through an understanding of differences in both political institutions and cultures, and in organizational responsibilities and relations of power. Consequentially, this further supports the notion that comparative research and theorizing needs to take account of mechanisms and features which lead to variegated control cultures

Visual Hallucinations in Parkinson’s Disease: a Hierarchy of Impairments Involving Perception, Source Monitoring and Reasoning

Up to 45% of patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) will develop visual hallucinations (VH) at some point in their illness. Although medication, depression, illness duration and ophthalmic abnormalities are identified as risk factors for VH-PD, specific perceptual and cognitive impairments may also play a role. The aim of this study was therefore to explore a hierarchy of low level perceptual processes, imagery and high level executive functions linked to reasoning in groups of VH and non VH PD. This study investigated 18 patients with non dementing idiopathic PD. Nine patients had a history of VH. The VH and non VH PD groups were matched for demographic (age, gender), neuropsychological (premorbid and current levels of functioning) and clinical characteristics (disease duration, motor symptom severity, daily levodopa medication) apart from presence of VH in the index group. The VH-PD and non VH PD groups completed tests of bottom-up object processing and recognition, visual imagery, and top-down executive functions such as response inhibition, response suppression, source monitoring and spatial and probabilistic reasoning. Compared to the non VH-PD group, VH-PD patients showed impairments in object perception and recognition impairments in cases when key identifying details were obscured. They also made more source misattribution errors, where self-generated images were misattributed to an external source. Finally, abnormalities in reasoning were evident. On the other hand, there were no differences between the VH-PD and non VH-PD groups on measures of visual perception using canonical views of objects, spatial perception, visual imagery, and other measures of executive function (initiation and suppression of responses, decision-making and self-monitoring). The findings are discussed in relation to models of delusion and hallucination formation