Leadership theory can provide a route for investigating teaching via the concept of instructor leadership. Instructor leadership is defined as a process whereby instructors exert intentional influence over students to guide, structure and facilitate classroom activities and relationships in a class. Instructor leadership in higher education…

Parenting practices are a field in psychology in which numerous studies have been carried out. In western countries, attempts to define the concept operationally have led to the emergence of many scales claiming to test the concept. This study aims at developing a scale to evaluate the parenting practices of parents with schoolchildren and at…

The paper reports on a study which tested whether infants high in negative affectivity are differentially susceptible to observed coparenting behavior in relation to their subsequent social-emotional development. Data came from a longitudinal study of 182 US dual-earner, primiparous couples and their infant children. At nine-months postpartum,…

Insects are the most abundant and diverse group of animals on Earth. Though as a group they do far more ecological good than harm, previous studies have shown that human attitudes toward insects are mainly negative. Attitudes have affective (emotions) and cognitive (beliefs, mental representations) components that interact to influence behavior.…

This article argues, from a critical realist perspective, that it would be beneficial to extend thinking on how personal and social education could become more central to students' learning. We explore how constructive-informed arrangements which emphasize cognitive skills and affective qualities could be realized through experiential…

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and International Classification of Diseases classify mental health disorders on the basis of their putatively distinct symptom profiles. Although these nosologies are highly influential, they also have been derided as mere "field guides" because they focus solely on the…

Studies are needed that examine neurobiological characteristics in high-risk individuals prior to substance use disorder (SUD) development. In this pilot study, 4 adolescent subjects at high risk for SUD (having at least 1 parent with an SUD) were compared with 4 adolescent reference subjects on a cortico-limbic reactivity paradigm, where they…

Impaired affective expression, including social smiling, is common in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and may represent an early marker for ASD in their infant siblings (Sibs-ASD). Social smiling and its component behaviors (eye contact and non-social smiling) were examined at 15 months in Sibs-ASD who demonstrated later ASD…

This study examines the relation between maternal warmth and the internalizing and externalizing problems of early adolescents, and the potential mediation of this relation by emotional insecurity. The hypotheses for the study derive from Cummings and Davies' theory of emotional security. The current study extends the theory to security processes…

Research Findings: Young children's relationships with their sisters and brothers offer unique and important opportunities for learning about emotions and developing emotional understanding. Through a critical analysis, this article examines sibling interaction in 3 different but normative contexts (conflict/conflict management, play, and…

The formation of associations between items and their context has been proposed to rely on mechanisms distinct from those supporting memory for a single item. Although emotional experiences can profoundly affect memory, our understanding of how it interacts with different aspects of memory remains unclear. We performed three experiments to examine…

This study examined the developmental significance of mothers' adult attachment representations assessed prenatally with the Adult Attachment Interview in relation to observed maternal sensitivity at 6 months postpartum in an ethnically diverse sample (N = 131 African American; N = 128 European American). Multiple-group confirmatory factor…

This article addresses the issue of teacher educators' emotion display when teaching and interacting with students. Little is known about this phenomenon in higher education generally, and teacher education specifically. An empirical study was conducted to address this gap by investigating teacher educators' views on appropriate and inappropriate…

Standardized Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) scores provide a measure of autism severity that is less influenced by child characteristics than raw totals (Gotham et al. in "Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders," 39(5), 693-705 2009). However, these scores combine symptoms from the Social Affect (SA) and Restricted…

Too often educators pay too little attention to the psychological and emotional impact subject matter has on students. Teaching effectiveness would be greatly enhanced if educators would consider students' affective reactions to material delivered in courses, workshops, and other collegiate learning experiences.