Do television and electronic games predict children's psychosocial adjustment? Longitudinal research using the UK Millennium Cohort Study

Background: Screen entertainment for young children has been associated with several aspects of psychosocial adjustment. Most research is from North America and focuses on television. Few longitudinal studies have compared the effects of TV and electronic games, or have investigated gender differences. Purpose: To explore how time watching TV and playing electronic games at age 5 years each predicts change in psychosocial adjustment in a representative sample of 7 year-olds from the UK. Methods: Typical daily hours viewing television and playing electronic games at age 5 years were reported by mothers of 11 014 children from the UK Millennium Cohort Study. Conduct problems, emotional symptoms, peer relationship problems, hyperactivity/inattention and prosocial behaviour were reported by mothers using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Change in adjustment from age 5 years to 7 years was regressed on screen exposures; adjusting for family characteristics and functioning, and child characteristics. Results: Watching TV for 3 h or more at 5 years predicted a 0.13 point increase (95% CI 0.03 to 0.24) in conduct problems by 7 years, compared with watching for under an hour, but playing electronic games was not associated with conduct problems. No associations were found between either type of screen time and emotional symptoms, hyperactivity/inattention, peer relationship problems or prosocial behaviour. There was no evidence of gender differences in the effect of screen time. Conclusions: TV but not electronic games predicted a small increase in conduct problems. Screen time did not predict other aspects of psychosocial adjustment. Further work is required to establish causal mechanisms

Remarks to the Ceremony of Achievement

Address presented at Dardanelle High School, Dardanelle, A

Remarks During New Beginnings

Address presented at Ouachita Baptist University, Arkadelphia, A

The Pavlov-Yerkes Connection: What Was Its Origin?

Historians of psychology traditionally acknowledge Robert Mearns Yerkes as responsible for introducing the work of Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov to American psychologists. The introduction occurred in a 1909 Psychological Bulletin paper coauthored with Harvard graduate student, Sergius Morgulls. Yet how Yerkes, who did not read Russian and who never personally used Pavlov\u27s conditioning paradigm, came to know and appreciate Pavlov\u27s endeavors is unclear. This paper examines how Yerkes became acquainted with salivary conditioning studies and suggests a reason why the 1909 paper was actually written

Portraits of a Discipline: An Examination of Introductory Psychology Textbooks in America

The time has gone by when any one person could hope to write an adequate textbook of psychology. The science has now so many branches, so many methods, so many fields of application, and such an immense mass of data of observation is now on record, that no one person can hope to have the necessary familiarity with the whole. - An author of an introductory psychology text If we compare general psychology textbooks of today with those of from ten to twenty years ago we note an undeniable trend toward amelioration of terminology, simplification of style, and popularization of subject matter. - A reviewer of an introductory text When were these remarks made? in the 1980s? The 1960s? Perhaps the 1940s? No, the first quote came from the preface to McDougall\u27s Outline of Psychology, published in 1923 (p.vii). The second quote came from a 1937 review of Vaughn\u27s (1936) General Pscyhology (Ewert, 1937, p.173). These comments, which easily could have come from a contemporary author or reviewer, demonstrate that some aspects of the introductory textbook enterprise have not changed much over the years. Of course, many other facets of introductory textbooks show that they have changed dramatically. Our portrait of 100 years of introductory psychology texts shows that they have been characterized by both stability and change

Impact of a theoretically based sex education programme (SHARE) delivered by teachers on NHS registered conceptions and terminations: final results of cluster randomised trial

<b>Objective</b>: To assess the impact of a theoretically based sex education programme (SHARE) delivered by teachers compared with conventional education in terms of conceptions and terminations registered by the NHS. Design Follow-up of cluster randomised trial 4.5 years after intervention. <b>Setting</b>: NHS records of women who had attended 25 secondary schools in east Scotland. <b>Participants</b>: 4196 women (99.5% of those eligible). <b>Intervention</b>: SHARE programme (intervention group) v existing sex education (control group). <b>Main outcome measure</b>: NHS recorded conceptions and terminations for the achieved sample linked at age 20. <b>Results</b>: In an "intention to treat" analysis there were no significant differences between the groups in registered conceptions per 1000 pupils (300 SHARE v 274 control; difference 26, 95% confidence interval –33 to 86) and terminations per 1000 pupils (127 v 112; difference 15, –13 to 42) between ages 16 and 20. <b>Conclusions</b>: This specially designed sex education programme did not reduce conceptions or terminations by age 20 compared with conventional provision. The lack of effect was not due to quality of delivery. Enhancing teacher led school sex education beyond conventional provision in eastern Scotland is unlikely to reduce terminations in teenagers

History and Psychology: Shall the Twain Ever Meet?

As all detectives (fictional or real) know, every story contains at least an element of truth, and the most likely is usually the most truthful. Those trying to cover their tracks know or discover to their dismay that interrogators use that principle to their own advantage. Early in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the disguised Huck realizes this simple reality when he first returns to town after his faked death and “pumps” Mrs. Judith Loftus for information: “Somehow it didn’t seem to me that I said it [his name] was Mary before,” Huck relates; “seemed to me I said it was Sarah; so I felt sort of cornered, and was afeared maybe I was looking it, too.” ([Garden City, NY: Nelson Doubleday, nd], p. 56). Huck’s outlandish fabrications always land him in trouble. As Jack Higgins has the redoubtable Liam Devlin note of his “cover” in The Eagle Has Flown, “the best kind of lie is the one that sticks closest to the truth.”(p.165, 1991). Various disciplines have various methods, or tools, for assessing truth and thus telling likely stories to explain the facts at hand. Again as all good detectives know, the more tools at one’s disposal, the greater the probability of ascertaining and constructing a credible account of the world. This article urges adding the tool of historical methodology to students’ research repertories. Our urging is based on our conceptions of the scholar as detective, of man as human, of student as scholar, of history and psychology as disciplines, of cognition, and of research. Some of this may sound heretical; we ask your indulgence and your assent that heresies contain some element of truth

A Preliminary Study of Heteromeles Arbutifolia Fruit Morphology at Ballona Wetlands and Temescal Canyon, Los Angeles, California

Heteromeles arbutifolia, the California holly, is an evergreen shrub native to chaparral habitats of Southern California that fruits from November to January. Fruit species morphology has been shown to be a good indicator of habitat quality among other plants. The variation in fruit morphology was examined for the native plant at two diverse Southern California sites, a wetland and a canyon. California Holly fruits had a significantly greater volume in Ballona Wetlands than at Temescal Canyon (Z= 4.367,