The importance of continuous sight of the target in 7.5 month old infants' reaching was explored in a task that addressed the issues of infants' ability to anticipate and to retain information about the properties of a hidden object. Barriers and darkness were used to investigate infants' ability to compensate for the physical and visual obstruction of a target object in a reaching task. Infants' ability to intercept a moving object with a partially obscured trajectory was tested. Thirty 7.5 month old infants were presented with a graspable object that moved in a straight-line path through their reaching space. In some conditions the object was obscured by a barrier or by darkness for one second just prior to moving within reach, and infants' frequency of reaching and success at contacting the object were used to evaluate their performance. Further analyses of the infants' looking behavior and of the path of their reaching hand helped to clarify the reasons underlying their successes and failures. Infants showed some ability to adapt to a loss of visual information about the moving target object's position by sometimes successfully contacting the object in the barrier conditions. However, infants reached less often and with less success when access to, or sight of, the target object was obstructed. The infants' visual tracking, obstacle-avoidance skills, and ability to retain information about a hidden object were examined in conjunction with kinematic data to explain infants' limitations in adapting to obstacles in reaching tasks. These limitations involved difficulty visually tracking the object past a barrier, particularly in the dark conditions, as well as difficulty successfully aiming a reach around a barrier. Infants appeared to ignore the path of their hand on its way toward the target object, resulting in the hand frequently contacting a barrier rather than the target. Infants' successful contacts in the barrier conditions suggest that they do not require constant visual information about target position in order to enact a proficient reach. Further, infants appear to predict the reappearance of the target object and remember the path and speed of the object during its occlusion.

Considerable evidence indicates that touch is vital to the healthy psychological development of children. However, teacher-child physical contact has rarely been investigated. This study was therefore designed to obtain descriptive data on teacher-child touch in preschool classrooms, the teacher, child and center variables which affect such contact and the messages teachers give to children regarding human closeness. The central question addressed was: do all children receive physical affection from caregivers? The frequency and duration of seven categories of touch were measured in eight preschool classrooms in four day care centers: Affectionate, Caretaking-Helpful, Comfort, Play, Attentional-Control Neutral, Attentional-Control Negative-Punishing and Attentional-Control Affectionate. Data was collected through observation of teachers and 148 children, and interviews with twenty teachers and four directors. The results indicated that while teachers do provide physical affection for children, they are more likely to use touch for caretaking-helpful purposes or to control-punish children than to comfort, express affection or touch in the context of play. However, great variance was found among individual teachers and centers in both the frequency and nature of touch. Education and positive attitudes toward physical contact were found to be related to higher rates of positive teacher touch. Center variables influencing higher rates of positive touch and lower rates of controlling touch were director attitudes and leadership styles, implicit center policies and director expression of physical affection to teachers. A small percentage of children received the majority of all types of physical contact; some children received little or no affection. The most important child variable influencing the frequency of positive teacher touch was whether the child expressed affection to caregivers. Children named as challenging by teachers received far more negative-punishing touch than those named as easy. Children identified as having a painful touch history (physical or sexual abuse; deprivation of affection) similarly received a greater frequency of negative-punishing touch than children in general. The findings were discussed in terms of the need for teacher-parent education on the developmental significance of touch and for an increase in positive touch in early childhood programs.

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the role internalized shame and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) play in the treatment outcomes of people in methadone programs. Clients at two methadone treatment sites were surveyed with Cook's Shame Scale and the MEMPI PK and PS sub-scales for PTSD. Over 63%—ten times that found in the general population and two and a half times the frequency found in other chemically dependent populations—tested for PTSD, which is often passed over as a generalized anxiety disorder. The study showed that the symptoms of PTSD, internalized shame and low self-esteem are highly intercorrelated in this population. The study also showed that there is a strong relationship between internalized shame and PTSD test scores, methadone dose levels, are predictors and the frequency of drug use, frequency which are treatment outcome variables. Secondary findings show that there is a correlation between sexual abuse, age of first drug use, shame and PTSD scores. Internalized shame, PTSD PS Scale scores and race also showed some trends. These findings, along with research on the biochemical effects of not only chemical dependency, but also of trauma and internalized shame support the understanding that PTSD and internalized shame do play a role in affecting treatment outcomes. Research in related fields describe biochemical feedback loops created by responses to trauma and the biochemistry of chemical dependency. These feedback loops are perpetuated and exacerbated by continued drug use and untreated trauma symptomology. The resultant biochemical deficiencies can be stabilized and replenished through time when direct interventions are made on the physical, behavioral and emotional levels of treatment. Methadone, while helping to decrease the use of heroin, may actually contribute to furthering the progression of chemical dependency and block treatment of PTSD by covering symptoms which when addressed could lessen or resolve and improve treatment outcomes. Further studies, which find ways to examine and measure these different aspects of trauma, internalized shame and PTSD need to be designed to understand more clearly how these conditions affect various outcome variables. A variety of therapeutic modalities which focus on overall wellness and recovery can be used and tested to design comprehensive treatment. Hopefully, this study will begin to build a bridge between conventional methadone treatment—which uses behavioral modification and drug replacement therapies—with the exciting new findings in neurobiochemistry.

Although mathematical skills are important to economic success in this society, U.S. students routinely perform below international standards of math achievement. Given such findings, there is a pressing need to understand factors that contribute to individual and group weakness in mathematics before such difficulties become entrenched. By studying preschool children with a longitudinal approach, the current study aimed to improve understanding of math development by investigating the unfolding relationship between math interest and achievement. Based on research with older children, it was expected that math interest and skill would be both concurrently related and predictive of one another over time. Additionally, research from the self-efficacy literature suggests that a child's conception of his or her math ability would be related to both the child's math interest and actual skill. Using the TEMA-2 as an assessment of skill and a multimodal approach to measuring interest, this study explored the measurement of math interest in young children. Gender and ethnic differences were found in select teacher measurements of interest, though none were found on observed or child-reported interest. Concurrent relationships were found between the different measures of interest and math ability. Even when controlling for initial skill or interest, skill was predictive of later observational ratings of math interest, and both observational and teacher measurements of interest were predictive of later skill. Because the assessment of self-efficacy demonstrated poor psychometric properties, further analyses were not conducted.

This dissertation investigates high school students' drug use and the variables identified as risk factors for such use. Specifically, the purpose of this research was to analyze drug use data with regards to levels of Subjective Distress, Parental Bonding, Parental Supervision, and Sensation Seeking, to understand how experimental marijuana users experience these risk factors when compared to other types of drug users. This research posits that experimental marijuana use may be more reflective of adolescent development than of pathology. The theoretical construct underlying this research is the perspective that certain behaviors are deemed harmful based more on moral judgments and the social construction of risk as opposed to the actual danger the behavior poses for the individual. This research used data from a cross-sectional survey given to high school students from a New England college town. Statistical analyses was conducted on the responses of a quantitative, Likert style survey which included 452 questions all derived from existing national surveys. The survey was voluntary and administered to 993 students in grades nine through twelve in January of 2000. The results indicated that a simple, stepwise progression between the level of drug use and the risk factors Parental Bonding, Parental Supervision, and Subjective Distress did not exist. In most cases, experimental marijuana users were more like abstainers than other drug users. The relationship between Parental Supervision and drug use was more related to an adolescent's age than to the actual supervision. Consideration of gender differences revealed that the genders experience the risk factors, specifically parental bonding, differently. Females, when compared to males, did not experience as strong a relationship between parental bonding and drug use. The application of a quadratic regression equation revealed that males' relationship between drug use and parental bonding was more complex; moderate levels of parental bonding predicted drug use more strongly than low levels of parental bonding. The results suggest that future research must be more sophisticated in its analyses of drug use and adolescents, considering the developmental stage of the adolescent, the type of drug used, and questioning the assumption that experimental marijuana use is unequivocally harmful.

The main objective of this dissertation was to characterize the tool-using ability of rhesus monkeys and children by examining the acquisition and comprehension of tool-using behavior, and by identifying factors that might be related to individual differences in the ability to use tools. The first study examined whether twenty rhesus monkeys could use a rake to extend reach, whether they understood the required properties of the tool, and whether tool-using ability was correlated with behavioral characteristics. Fifteen monkeys used the rake to retrieve treats placed out-of-reach; however, none of the monkeys tested selected an effective rake from an ineffective rake. The level of tactile oral exploration in non-tool-using contexts was positively correlated with the number of rewards retrieved. The second study examined whether rhesus monkeys could use a rod to insert and probe and whether they understood the effects of using the tool. Only two monkeys used a rod to push a reward out of a clear tube. Subsequent manipulations involving multi-tube combinations, in which only one tube was baited, indicated that the monkeys were unable to select the correct path or tube. However, these monkeys correctly selected the baited tube over empty tubes when the tubes were presented on separate walls. The third study examined whether rhesus monkeys and 36-month-old children were able to use two different tools in series to retrieve a desired object. Both of the two monkeys tested used a rake to retrieve a rod and then used the rod to push a reward out of a clear tube, and all but one of the children tested used the tools in series either on their own or following hints or demonstrations. The fourth study revealed that certain types of object manipulation and behavior were related to tool-using ability in monkeys. In summary, this dissertation characterized tool-using in rhesus monkeys and children, validated new procedures for assessing comprehension in tool-using tasks, and identified certain factors related to individual differences in tool-using ability. The implications of these results are discussed.

Handedness is a widely studied behavioral asymmetry that is commonly measured as a preference for using one hand over the other. Right hand preference in humans occurs at a ratio of 9:1, whereas left hand preference in rhesus monkeys has been estimated at 2:1. Despite differences in the direction and degree of hand preference, this dissertation investigated whether primates share common underlying factors for the development of handedness. Previous work in human infants has identified a predictive relationship between rightward supine head orientation and later right hand preference. Experiment 1 examined the relationship between neonatal head orientation and later hand use in rhesus monkey infants (N=16). A leftward supine head orientation bias was found that corresponded to greater left hand activity for hand-to-face movements while supine; however, neonatal head positioning did not predict later hand use preference for reaching or manipulation on a coordinated bimanual task. A supine posture is common for human infants, but not for rhesus monkey infants, indicating that differences in early posture experience may differentially shape the development of hand use preference. Movement quality is an additional factor that may affect how the hands are used in addition to neonatal experience. 2-D and 3-D kinematic analyses were used to examine the quality of reaching movements in rhesus monkey infants (N=16), human infants (N=73) and human adults (N=12). In rhesus monkey infants, left hand reaches were characterized as ballistic as compared to right hand reaches independent of hand use preference (Experiment 2). Left hand ballistic reaching in rhesus monkeys may be a carryover from earlier primates that relied on very fast reaches to capture insect prey. Unlike monkey infants, reach quality was a function of hand preference in human infants (Experiment 3). By contrast, a right hand advantage for reaching was observed in human adults regardless of left or right hand preference (Experiment 4). Differential hand experience due to hand preference in early infancy may in part be responsible for the hand preference effects on movement quality observed in human infants but not monkey infants. Motor control may become increasingly lateralized to the left hemisphere over human development leading to the right hand advantage for reaching observed in human adults, as well as over primate evolution leading to right hand use preferences in higher primates like chimpanzees. An underlying mechanism such as a right shift factor in humans and a left shift factor in rhesus monkeys may be a common basis for primate handedness. Environmental and experiential factors then differentially shape this mechanism, including species-typical development. Further work examining the ontogeny of hand preference and hemispheric specialization in various primate infants will lead to a greater understanding of how different factors interact in the development of hand use across primate species.

Perspective-taking skills are central to the successful navigation of social situations. Children need perspective-taking skills to help them correctly interpret different cues and accurately assess social situations so they can determine how to best respond. Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) exhibit marked impairments in this area. In order to develop successful social skills interventions for this population, it is critical that we have a strong understanding of the nature of their deficits. While there is robust evidence that children with ASD experience difficulty making inferences about the beliefs of others, research on their ability to infer emotions has had more mixed results (Baldwin, 1991; Baron-Cohen, 1991; Happe, 1994; Hillier and Allinson, 2002; Kaland et al., 2005; Joliffe & Baron-Cohen, 1999; Serra et al., 2002; Williams & Happe, 2010). This study examined how well children with autism spectrum disorders are able to make emotional inferences using three different measures of emotion attribution. The measures were administered to a clinical sample of participants with high functioning-autism spectrum disorders (HF-ASD) and a comparison sample of typically developing participants to determine whether individuals with HF-ASD experienced more difficulty making emotional inferences from different cues than their typically developing peers. The hypotheses that children with HF-ASD make fewer spontaneous emotional inferences and have lower levels of emotional awareness than their typically developing peers were also tested. Finally, performance on these emotional inferencing measures was examined to determine whether they were able to reliably discriminate between participants with different levels of autism-related symptomatology. Participants with autism performed as well as their peers on all measures of emotion attribution in this study. These findings and their implications are explored.

The purpose of the study is to describe the development of infant melatonin levels form birth to six months, and to examine the effects of seasonal luminosity, and nutrition on the development of melatonin levels and changes in circadian sleep:wake cycles. Additionally the study will investigate the role of infant, maternal and care giving variables on the development of infant sleep. This longitudinal study will be conducted in Tromso, Norway, which, because of its far northern location (70° North), provides extremes in seasonal variations and light/dark cycles. For two months in the Winter the sun never rises above the horizon and for two months in the Summer it never sets below the horizon. A total of 146 infants (ranging in age from birth to 6 months) and 146 mothers participated in the study. Four sampling periods occurred within a two week interval surrounding the Summer and Winter solstices and the Spring and All equinoxes. Results show that age is the primary developmental influence and seasonal light influences actual levels of development at three and six months of age.

An individual's social identity development in pluralistic societies going through an integration process has been little understood. A study was conducted on the Lebanese individual's social identity development. Based on a study of the theories of the psychology of social identity development, four Lebanese Identity development stages were proposed where an individual's social identity progresses from an unintegrated Lebanese, sectarian group identity, towards a more integrated Lebanese Identity. To test the validity of these stages, two research studies, a qualitative and a quantitative study, were conducted to explore the Lebanese social identity. In the qualitative study, open ended interviews of a number of Lebanese community leaders were conducted and analyzed. While the four proposed identity stages were reflected in the subjects' views, the majority of their views reflected a higher stage of identity development where the emphasis was on a civic society and the satisfaction of the individual's rights and needs as a basis of the integrated Lebanese social identity. These results were in agreement with the proposed Lebanese Identity development stages. Moreover, a quantitative research study examined the relationship between an individual's various socio-economic factors and their level of identity development. The results revealed that there is a strong relationship between an individual's level of identity development and the following socio-economic variables: Sectarian identity, profession, level of education, source of data collection, and nature of dual Lebanese nationality. In general, it was concluded that individuals had higher levels of Lebanese Identity development when they enjoyed a more secure life, had higher levels of communication and exposure to others in society as well as higher levels of education.