Lactating females express rapid extremes in behavior, ranging from gentle nurturance toward offspring to fiercely protective aggression against intruders. Although males often behave aggressively against intruders, female rodents usually express aggression only when rearing and protecting pups. Nitric oxide (NO) inhibits male aggression; however, its role in maternal aggression is unknown. In t...

Infant facial cues play a critical role in eliciting care and nurturance from an adult caregiver. Using an attentional capture paradigm we investigated attentional processing of adult and infant emotional facial expressions in a sample of mothers (n = 29) and non-mothers (n = 37) to determine whether infant faces were associated with greater task interference. Responses to infant target stimuli...

This investigation explored the psychological characteristics of self-injury, as well as the frequency of self-injury in a college sample. Two hundred and twenty individuals who self-injure were recruited from a self-help website. These were compared to college students who were not specifically seeking help for self-injury. It was found that 20% of the college students reported having self-inj...

OBJECTIVE This study had two primary objectives: First, to examine the association between childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and later parenting characteristics, particularly physical abuse potential, and second, to explore maternal anger as a mediator of the relationship between CSA and adult physical abuse potential. METHOD Utilized a community sample of low SES participants that included 138 mo...

Five questionnaires measuring altruistic and aggressive tendencies were completed by 573 adult twin pairs of both sexes from the University of London Institute of Psychiatry Volunteer Twin Register. The questionnaires measured altruism, empathy, nurturance, aggressiveness, and assertiveness. The intraclass correlations for the five scales, respectively, were .53, .54, .49, .40, and .52 for 296 ...

Young children who enter foster care experience disruptions in care and maltreatment at a point when maintaining attachment relationships is a key, biologically based task. In previous research, we have found that young children experience challenges as they form attachments with new caregivers. They tend to push their new caregivers away, even though such children are especially in need of nur...

BACKGROUND This study sought to determine how esthetic appearance of babies may affect their motivational processing by the adults. METHODOLOGY AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Healthy men and women were administered two laboratory-based tasks: a) key pressing to change the viewing time of normal-looking babies and of those with abnormal facial features (e.g., cleft palate, strabismus, skin disorders, ...

The contention that femininity makes women unsuited for political participation has roots in feminist theory and political science. This study investigated whether the desirable and undesirable dimensions of femininity, corresponding to Feminine Interpersonal Relations (FIR: warmth, nurturance, and interpersonal appeal) and Feminine Self-Doubt (FSD: submissiveness, self-doubt, anxiety, and pass...

The purpose of this review is to present the basic concepts of attachment theory and temperament traits and to discuss the integration of these concepts into parenting practices. Attachment is a basic human need for a close and intimate relationship between infants and their caregivers. Responsive and contingent parenting produces securely attached children who show more curiosity, self-relianc...

Each year more than 2 million children die from diarrhoeal diseases; the same number again die from acute respiratory infections. The simple hygiene behaviour of washing hands with soap represents an effective way of preventing the transmission of many of these infections. However, rates of handwashing across the globe are low, presenting a challenge for health promotion programmes. Behaviour c...