Directing and requesting: two interactive uses of the mental state terms want and need

This article is focused on the uses of the terms want and need to build directives and requests in family interaction. The study is located within the theoretical framework of discursive psychology, using the methods of conversation analysis. Within social cognitive research, mental state terms are analyzed as references to inner mental experiences. In contrast, this article analyzes the selection of want and need as sequential phenomena. The use of I want to deliver directives increases the likelihood of compliance when one cannot monitor or control whether a projected action will be carried out. Requests built using I need are recurrently delivered following a request from an interlocutor and delay the granting of the request while maintaining alignment. Thus rather than simply expressing an internal mental experience, the verbs want and need have specific practical uses in their normative sequential environments

Exploring the Life Course Perspective in Maternal and Child Health through Community-Based Participatory Focus Groups: Social Risks Assessment

Little is known about the patterns of risk factors experienced by communities of color and how diverse community contexts shape the health trajectory of women from the early childhood period to the time of their pregnancies. Thus, we conducted a focus group study to identify social risks over the life course that contribute to maternal and child health from the perspective of community members residing in low income urban areas. Ten community-based participatory focus groups were conducted with residents from selected communities in Tampa, Florida, from September to November 2013. We used the life course perspective to illuminate and explain the experiences reported by the interviewees. A total of 78 residents participated in the focus groups. Children and adolescents’ health risks were childhood obesity, lack of physical activity, and low self-esteem. Women’s health risks were low self-esteem, low educational level, low health literacy, inadequate parenting skills, and financial problems. Risks during pregnancy included stress, low self-esteem, inadequate eating patterns, lack of physical activity, healthcare issues, lack of social support, and lack of father involvement during pregnancy. Multiple risk factors contribute to maternal and child health in low income communities in Tampa Bay. The intersection of risk factors in different life periods suggest possible pathways, cumulative, and latent effects, which must be considered in future longitudinal studies and when developing effective maternal and child health programs and policies

Discursive psychology and emotion

Discursive psychology (DP) offers a window onto the way emotion and cognition play out in everyday interaction. As one of the pioneers of DP, Edwards has been instrumental in shaping this approach, and his work on emotion and interaction has been particularly inspiring. In this chapter we consider this impact by providing an understanding of the concerns that motivated Edwards, the contributions of the paper and the lasting impact that his research has had on how emotion is conceptualized. Edwards developed a discursive psychology of emotion that examined two things: the ways in which emotion categories can be threaded through everyday talk, and how people use ascriptions and avowals of emotion to perform actions in talk. This focus on how wonderfully useful emotion categories and descriptions can be for speakers had never been done, and still sits in stark contrast to classic individualist studies that characterize the discipline of psychology

Laryngeal involvement in the Dowling-Meara variant of epidermolysis bullosa simplex with keratin mutations of severely disruptive potential

The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.com.Ye

SPARK: A US Cohort of 50,000 Families to Accelerate Autism Research

The Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI) has launched SPARKForAutism. org, a dynamic platform that is engaging thousands of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and connecting them to researchers. By making all data accessible, SPARK seeks to increase our understanding of ASD and accelerate new supports and treatments for ASD