Going Through the Rites of Passage: Timing and Transition of Menarche,Childhood Sexual Abuse,and Anxiety Symptoms in Girls

Menarche is a discrete, transitional event that holds considerable personal, social, biological, and developmental significance. The present longitudinal study examined both the transition and timing of menarche on the trajectory of anxiety in girls with histories of childhood maltreatment (N = 93; 63% European American, 14% multiracial, 10% Latino, 9% African American, and 4% Native American). We hypothesized that because menarche is a novel, unfamiliar experience, girls would show greater anxiety around the time of menarche. The anxiety-provoking nature of menarche may be accentuated among earlier-maturing girls and girls with histories of childhood sexual abuse. Results indicated that earlier-maturing girls were more anxious in the pre- and peri-menarche periods than their later-maturing peers; however, their anxiety declined after menarche. Childhood sexual abuse was associated with heightened anxiety throughout this transition. The developmental significance of the timing and transition of menarche in relation to childhood sexual abuse and anxiety is discussed.     

Association of the MMPI-2 Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF) Validity Scales with Structured Malingering Criteria

The current study examined the validity scales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF; Ben-Porath and Tellegen 2008) in relation to the structured malingering criteria developed to assess malingered neurocognitive dysfunction and pain-related disability. These criteria examined a sample of 251 individuals undergoing compensation-seeking evaluations, who completed a battery of response bias measures. The MMPI-2-RF over-reporting scales yielded large effect sizes in contrasting those in the probable/definite malingering groups from the incentive only groups. The largest effects were found for the Infrequent Responses and Gervais et al. (Assessment, 14, 196–208, 2007) Response Bias Scale, an experimental scale that can be scored on the MMPI-2-RF. Classification analyses were also utilized to examine various cut scores for the individual validity scales, as well as their use in combination. These results suggest that the MMPI-2-RF validity scales can be used to screen for malingering, as they exhibited good sensitivity at lower cutoffs. The implications of these results and their use in forensic evaluations are discussed.     

Lies and Free Speech Values

In the short time since Seana Shiffrin published Speech Matters, ‘fake news’ and ‘alternative facts’ have become full-blown phenomena, and various forces have destabilized the line between truth and falsity. Now more than ever, Shiffrin’s project is one of urgent importance. This essay examines Chapter Four of Speech Matters, which asks the crucial question: when and how may the law regulate lies? Shiffrin concludes that the law could regulate lies much more often than it does, though sometimes it ought not to for pragmatic reasons. For all of Shiffrin’s masterful explication, there is perhaps more to say in the space between Chapter Three’s moral account of free speech and Chapter Four’s legal one. Setting existing doctrine aside, how would a society translate the moral principles of Chapter Three into a system of law? Which worries are intrinsic to free speech, and which are purely pragmatic? In other words, what does a thinker-based account of law look like?

     

Quasi-experiments and environmental policy

This paper suggests applying experimental and quasi-experimental approaches to the study of environmental problems. Some important issues in quasi-experimentation are outlined and strategies appropriate for research on collective goods highlighted. Studies both of the demand for various underpriced goods and of programs for changing usage of a collective good are suggested. Questions of causality are treated in some detail. The logic of a new quasi-experimental design, the event-causing design, is presented and compared with that of the interrupted time-series design. Problems of site selection are discussed in terms of the types of projects for which random assignment of sites might be possible. New combinations of experimental and analytical techniques are suggested for improving the quality of research on environmental problems.     

Achievement motivation,socialization, and hypnotic susceptibility among youths from four Israeli subcultures

Based on London's theoretical model, results of a developmental study of Israeli children from four subcultures are reported. The impact of child-rearing practices on achievement motivation, hypnotic susceptibility, and brain wave patterns of subjects from Eastern European, Kurdish, Yemenite, and Moroccan backgrounds was tested and compared according to age level. Subjects were 15 children from each subcultural group. Five in each subcultural group were between 7 and 9 years old, five between 9 and 11, and five between 11 and 13. Instruments included a combined EEG-hypnotic scale, six measures of achievement and nAch, and the Winterbottom questionnaire. Subjects of European background, presumably with the highest nAch, had the lowest mean score in hypnotic susceptibility, while children of Moroccan descent, presumably the lowest achievement group, had the highest mean susceptibility score among the four subgroups as expected. It was also found, consistent with previous developmental studies of American children, that hypnotic susceptibility increases significantly with age regardless of subcultural grouping. While the four subgroups differed significantly in their school performance as expected, they did not differ in their need achievement scores. Findings in regard to EEG data are presently not reported because of technical difficulties encountered during recording. Implications for future research pertaining to methodological and theoretical issues involved in testing the model cross-culturally are discussed.This research was supported by the research committee of the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, and by National Institute of Mental Health Grant No. 53-4873-6748.Received B.A. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, M.S.W. from New York University, and doctorate and subsequent postdoctoral training from the University of California, Berkeley. From a theoretical-historical perspective, is interested in the impact of the Protestant ethic on Western conceptions of deviance. His research focuses on various psychophysiological aspects associated with deviant conduct.Received B.A. from Yeshiva University, M.A. and Ph.D. from Columbia University Teachers College. His wide research interests can be summed up under the heading of voluntary behavior, ranging over behavior modification, psychophysiological correlates of behavior, and the ethical implications of psychological treatment.Received B.S. and M.S. from the Brigham Young University, and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois. Among his research interests are hypnosis and suggestibility, learning theory, statistics and psychometrics, and hypnotherapy.