Children's hypothetical reasoning about complex and dynamic systems

Children's hypothetical reasoning about a complex and dynamic causal system was investigated. Predominantly White, middle-class 5- to 7-year-old children from the Greater Toronto Area learned about novel food chains and were asked to consider the effects of removing one species on the others. In Study 1 (N = 72; 36 females, 36 males; 2018), 7-year-olds answered questions about both direct and indirect effects with a high degree of accuracy, whereas 5-year-olds performed at chance. Six-year-olds showed intermediate performance. Using food chains with clearer constraints, Study 2 (N = 72; 35 females, 37 males; 2020–2021) replicated these findings. These results indicate that the ability to think about hypothetical changes to dynamic causal systems develops between 5 and 7 years. Implications for science education are discussed.     

What Kind of a Girl Does Science? The Construction of School Science Identities

A view of science as a culturally‐mediated way of thinking and knowing suggests that learning can be defined as engagement with scientific practices. How students engage in school science is influenced by whether and how students view themselves and whether or not they are the kind of person who engages in science. It is therefore crucial to understand students' identities and how they do or do not overlap with school science identities. In this paper, we describe four middle school African American girls' engagement with science. They were selected in the 7th grade because they expressed a fondness for science in school or because they had science‐related hobbies outside of school. The data were collected from the following sources: interviews of students, their parents and their teachers; observations in science classes; journal writing; and focus groups. These girls' stories provide us with a better understanding of the variety of ways girls choose to engage in science and how this engagement is shaped by their views of what kind of girl they are. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 441–458, 2000.     

Cultivating communities of care: A qualitative investigation of the communication of support among incarcerated women

In 2014, a female-only detention and re-entry facility was restructured to implement new rehabilitative philosophies rooted in strategies to prepare incarcerated women for successful transition into society. A specialized housing unit called incentive-based housing (IBH) was created within this facility to promote an environment of accountability and responsibility. Here, women are expected to be proactive in seeking and achieving successes through programming, all while offering support to one another. In this study, participant observations and interviews were used to understand how 12 incarcerated women living in IBH communicate support. This qualitative study revealed three forms of support being communicated: (a) accountability, (b) validation, and (c) compassion. This study also revealed forms of communication that complicate support, including (a) drama and (b) rivalry. Communication of support is important to consider as we devise new approaches to rehabilitation within America’s criminal justice system.     

The effect of deservingness in invidious situations on the intensity of schadenfreude: a developmental study / El efecto del merecimiento sobre la intensidad de schadenfreude en situaciones de envidia: un estudio evolutivo

Objectives: envy is a negative social emotion that stems from a social comparison. This study explores the effect of deservingness on the intensity of schadenfreude (pleasure in another’s misfortune) in situations of invidious comparison. Method: the participants, 181 children between the ages of three and 10, were asked to describe what an envious character felt when the character (s/he) envied had lost an (deserved or undeserved) advantage. They were also asked to explain their answers. Results: the findings showed that schadenfreude was more intense when the lost advantage was undeserved than deserved only in young children. The difference between conditions decreased with age. The children’s explanations of schadenfreude were based on the damage to the envied person, whereas the responses of pity were justified by the misfortune and equitable ending (no one wins) of the story. Conclusions: the discussion addresses some of the possible factors, such as the acquisition of display rules, deservingness and perception of equality, that contribute to children’s understanding of emotions such as envy and schadenfreude.     

Childhood Experience, Interpersonal Development, and Reproductive Strategy: An Evolutionary Theory of Socialization

The concept of "reproductive strategy" drawn from the field of behavioral ecology is applied to the study of childhood experience and interpersonal development in order to develop an evolutionary theory of socialization. The theory is presented in terms of 2 divergent development pathways considered to promote reproductive success in the contexts in which they have arisen. One is characterized, in childhood, by a stressful rearing environment and the development of insecure attachments to parents and subsequent behavior problems; in adolescence by early pubertal development and precocious sexuality; and, in adulthood, by unstable pair bonds and limited investment in child rearing, whereas the other is characterized by the opposite. The relation between this theory and prevailing theories of socialization, specifically, attachment, social-learning, and discrete-emotions theory, is considered and research consistent with our evolutionary theory is reviewed. Finally, directions for future research are discussed.     

Color characterization of roofing slates from the Iberian Peninsula for restoration purposes

Substitution of slate roofing tiles is a conventional operation during building restoration, since tiles are very difficult to restore or clean because of the high degree of alteration they suffer. Criteria for replacement of historical building stones must be based on geological, geotechnical and esthetic parameters, among which color is of great importance. In this sense, this paper constitutes a comprehensive and useful colorimetric study of roofing slates from the Iberian Peninsula, for the purposes of restoration. The color of 50 commercial varieties of roofing slate mined in quarries from the 12 mining districts in the Iberian Peninsula was analyzed with a spectrophotometer device, by considering the CIELAB color space. The results of the study were used to develop a protocol for characterizing the color of roofing slate and to define the color range of roofing slate from the Iberian Peninsula. In addition, the similarities and differences in the color and microstructure of the different commercial varieties of Iberian roofing slate were established and the limit of acceptability of replacement of one type of slate by another was determined. Parameter h_ab was found to be the most important CIELAB color coordinate as regards the formation of homogeneous color groups, and the specular component excluded (SCE) mode was most sensitive as regards detecting color differences between two samples.