Associations between authoritative parenting and the sun exposure and sun protective behaviours of adolescents and their friends

Associations between the sun exposure and sun protective behaviours of adolescents and their friends were examined along with the role played by authoritative parenting and other family and peer socialisation factors. Four hundred and two adolescents (198 males, 204 females) participated in the research. It was found that these adolescents and their friends shared similar sun exposure and sun protective behaviours and had similar parenting backgrounds. Parental authoritativeness was positively associated with the use of sun protection, even after the effects of other familial and peer variables were controlled, but not with the time spent sunbathing which was associated with friends’ behaviours. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed

Intentionality, mind and folk psychology.

The comment addresses central issues of a "theory theory" approach as exemplified in Gopnik' and Goldman's BBS-articles. Gopnik, on the one hand, tries to demonstrate that empirical evidence from developmental psychology supports the view of a "theory theory" in which common sense beliefs are constructed to explain ourselves and others. Focusing the informational processing routes possibly involved we would like to argue that his main thesis (e.g. idea of intentionality as a cognitive construct) lacks support at least for two reasons: one methodological and one structural. On the other hand, Goldman raises an important question when he is asking how people ascribe mental states to themselves. Reasons why Goldman's attempt to understand common sense mental representations by using an analogy from visual perception is problematic are discussed. The role which is attributed to a phenomenology is evaluated

Different kinds of work, different kinds of pay: an examination of the overjustification effect

The Overjustification effect demonstrates that payment for an activity can have negative after-effects on performance. The implications of this effect for work motivation theory are discussed and it is argued that the overjustification effect is best regarded as being driven by a single source of work motivation (motivation to control). This is contrasted with theories that either advocate two sources of work motivation (intrinsic and extrinsic motivation) or that disregard work motivation in their analysis of the overjustification effect. An economic analysis of the many different instances of people's paid and unpaid activities shows how a motivation to control one's environment induces people to dislike activities that are paid. A distinction is made between payment in general, which is thought to make people regard their activity as one of work and monetary payment, which is thought to make people feel relatively deprived of the outcomes of their work

Where do concepts come from?

Book synopsis: Human adults appear different from other animals in their ability to form abstract mental representations that go beyond perceptual similarity. In short, they can conceptualize the world. This apparent uniqueness leads to an immediate puzzle: WHEN and HOW does this abstract system come into being? To answer this question we need to explore the origins of adult concepts, both developmentally and phylogenetically; When does the developing child acquire the ability to use abstract concepts? Does the transition occur around 2 years, with the onset of symbolic representation and language? Or, is it independent of the emergence of language? When in evolutionary history did an abstract representational system emerge? Is there something unique about the human brain? How would a computational system operating on the basis of perceptual associations develop into a system operating on the basis of abstract relations? Is this ability present in other species, but masked by their inability to verbalise abstractions? Perhaps the very notion of concepts is empty and should be done away with altogether. This book tackles the age-old puzzle of what might be unique about human concepts. Intuitively, we have a sense that our thoughts are somehow different from those of animals and young children such as infants. Yet, if true, this raises the question of where and how this uniqueness arises. What are the factors that have played out during the life course of the individual and over the evolution of humans that have contributed to the emergence of this apparently unique ability? This volume brings together a collection of world specialists who have grappled with these questions from different perspectives to try to resolve the issue. It includes contributions from leading psychologists, neuroscientists, child and infant specialists, and animal cognition specialists. Taken together, this story leads to the idea that there is no unique ingredient in the emergence of human concepts, but rather a powerful and potentially unique mix of biological abilities and personal and social history that has led to where the human mind now stands. A 'must-read' for students and researchers in the cognitive sciences

The making of human concepts: a final look

This chapter argues for three points: First, it denies that nonhuman animals or human infants lack the capacity to represent abstract concepts. In particular, it argues that the initial state includes several systems of core cognition with long evolutionary histories. Core cognition includes abstract concepts with conceptual content. Second, nonetheless, there are discontinuities in conceptual development at two different levels of generality. At a general level, most human concepts differ from those embedded in core cognition in many ways, and, at a specific level, core cognition does not have the resources to represent most specific abstract concepts. Third, it characterizes one class of learning mechanism that underlies the discontinuities of interest: Quinian bootstrapping. With this analysis in hand, the chapter speculates on some aspects of conceptual representations unique to humans. These points are illustrated with a single case study of the making of the human capacity to represent natural number

The polymorphous concept of money

Three experiments were carried out to investigate people's concept of money. In the first experiment, subjects were asked to rate items for their typicality as money, and subsequently to say, as quickly as possible, whether or not those items were 'a kind of money'. Subjects were quicker to categorize the more typical instances. In the second experiment, subjects were asked to rate the similarities between pairs of instances of the money concept. The mean ratings were well described by a single-link cluster analysis whose structure was dominated by the factor of typicality. These two experiments were both carried out in England. The third experiment was conducted in both England and the Netherlands, and was preceded by a postal questionnaire aiming to identify items which were widely agreed to be instances of money. It combined the manipulations of the first two experiments, and the same patterns of categorization times and similarity ratings were found. In addition, multidimensional scaling showed that typical value is an important dimension in determining the similarities between kinds of money. There were interpretable differences in the similarity ratings between the English and Dutch samples. The three experiments show that money is a typical 'polymorphous concept', that is, a concept whose definition and boundaries cannot be specified precisely, but which nonetheless can be used consistently and efficiently. © 1992

Influences on communication about reproduction: the cultural evolution of low fertility

The cultural norms of traditional societies encourage behavior that is consistent with maximizing reproductive success but those of modern post-demographic transition societies do not. Newson et al (2005) proposed that this might be because interaction between kin is relatively less frequent in modern social networks. Assuming that people's evaluations of reproductive decisions are influenced by a desire to increase their inclusive fitness, they will be inclined to prefer their kin to make fitness-enhancing choices. Such a preference will encourage the emergence of pronatal cultural norms if social networks are dense with kin. Less pronatal norms will emerge if contact between kin makes up a small proportion of social interactions. This article reports evidence based on role-play studies that supports the assumption of the kin influence hypothesis that evaluations of reproductive decisions are influenced by a desire to increase inclusive fitness. It also presents a cultural evolutionary model demonstrating the long-term effect of declining kin interaction if people are more likely to encourage fitness-enhancing choices when interacting with their kin than with nonrelatives

The financial crisis and its effects: Perspectives from economics and psychology

The recent financial crisis has affected most countries. With cutbacks in business, trade and government spending, millions world-wide have lost their jobs, with young people disproportinately affected. This paper synthesizes the thoughts expressed during an interdisciplinary discussion held in July 2013 among economists and psychologists from a variety of countries about the causes and effects of the financial crisis. Strategies for dealing with the effects of the financial crisis are discussed at both the individual and national levels