Research paper

#1: Marital Hostility and Child Sleep Problems: Direct and Indirect Associations via Hostile Parenting
1- What is the main purpose of this research?
The main purpose of this research was to find out what where the factors contributing to infants and young kids having sleeping problems including difficulties initiating and maintaining sleep and why it was so common. An additional purpose of this research was to find out whether this was due to subsequent adjustments problems, or if they were generic or cause by environmental influences.
2- What is the key question/concept the authors are addressing?
Base on this research the author wanted to find out whether family environmental was the influence of sleep problems in children. Also if marital hostility or hostile parenting, adoption were factors that could influence child sleep problems.
3- How did the authors address this questions (what methods did they use)?
The main method that the authors used on this research was observation, study aims, hypotheses, assessments and sampling as sell as quantitative psychological research. They took 361 participants adoption-linked sets of adopted children, their adoptive mothers and father, and their birth mothers and a subset of birth fathers this group participated in part one of the early growth and development study. The children they use were approximately from 9 months old to 27 months old. All families were diverse meaning they were from different nationalities and races. They did an in home assessment, where parents participated in a 20-min videotaped marital interaction task. They were instructed to discuss topics about their relationship. These topics were things like how they met, what they enjoy doing with each other etc. Trained observational coders who were blind to all study hypotheses coded this task by using the Iowa Family Interaction Rating Scales. They included those variables in their “marital hostility” construct such as antisocial behavior, hostility and negative mood. This measure was only for one of their hypotheses the used different measures for their other hypotheses such as hostiles parenting and child sleep problems.
4- What results did the authors find?
The results that were found were that mothers’ and fathers’ marital hostility were positively associated with fathers’ hostile parenting. Mothers’ observed negative mood and hostility and fathers’ negative mood toward their partner were associated with child sleep at 4 and half years old. Fathers’ hostile parenting at 27 months old was also associated with child sleep problems at 4 and half years old. Also they found that there were significant associations between child gender and father hostile parenting, with fathers of girls reporting less hostile parenting than fathers of boys and between income and sleep problems. These findings demonstrate that the predictive association between marital hostility and child sleep problems is direct for mother and indirect for fathers via fathers’ hostile parenting. Their findings suggest that family processes indicative of low stability or security in the family system are associated with child sleep problems especially with emotional security theory which said that children’s reactions to marital relations are a function of their perceived implications on the well-being of the family.
5- What are some limitations of this research?
They were 4 limitations of this study. First, the measures of hostile parenting and child sleep were parent report. Objective and subjective measures of child sleep both contribute important information about overall sleep quantity and quality, objective methods such as convey information about sleep and waking during the night that parent might not detect/notice, whereas subjective measures can assess daytime sleepiness and specific behaviors immediately prior to bed and through the night that cannot be accessed via objective measures. Another limitation that they mentioned in the research was that although the full range of scores was observed for each construct, the sample was not recruited for and is not characterized by high levels of either marital hostility or hostile parenting. They also said they did not have a reliable and valid measure of birth parent sleep problems, and their genetic control measure (birth parent internalizing disorders) was obtained in adulthood while their measures of child sleep problems were obtained during childhood. Those two factors may have attenuated any potential genetic effects on child sleep problems.
6- What are some future research suggestions or applications?
The authors expressed in this research that some suggestions might be how to find targets for sleep problem prevention and intervention programs that can potentially modifiable, such as hostile parenting practices and marital hostility. Also inform theory by demonstrating that relations among marital hostility, hostile parenting, and child problems are important after accounting for genetic influences.
Article #2 Neurotoxicity of MDA; ecstasy) in humans: how strong is the evidence for persistent brain damage?
1- What is the main purpose of this research?
The authors of this research express that in recent years the question of ecstasy-induced in humans following MDMA-induced neurotoxicity brain damage. The question of ecstasy-induced neurotoxicity and possible functional sequel has been addressed in several studies with drug users. This research purpose was to review this literature and weight the strength of the evidence for persistent brain damage in ecstasy users.
2- What is the key question/concept the authors are addressing?
The main question that the authors are addressing is as to whether or not the evidence that exist for persistent brain damage due to the use of MDMA; ecstasy is strong and if it is how strong it is.
3- How did the authors address this questions (what methods did they use)?
The methods that were use for this research was Medline to view all available publication on “ecstasy” or “MDMA”. All available studies dealing with ecstasy users entered the analysis.
4- What results did the authors find?
The results of this research were that despite large methodological problems the bulk of evidence suggests residual alterations of serotonergic transmission in MDMA user, although at least partial restitution may occur after long-term abstinence but functional continuation may persist even after longer periods of abstinence. To date, the most consistent findings associate subtle cognitive, particularly memory, impairments with heave ecstasy use. On the other hand, the evidence they found cannot be considered definite and the issues of possible pre-existing behavior or the effects of polydrug use are not resolved.
5- What are some limitations of this research?
The data covering neurotoxin effects of ecstasy in humans are still patchy and partly contradictory. CSF, PET AND SPECT studies have brought evidence of alterations in the central serotonergic system of MDMA users. However, SERT availability was shown to be normal in former users with abstinence periods of 5 months or more, suggesting at least a partial recovery. A large number of cross-sectionals studies on psychological functioning, neurocognition, nueorendocrine regulations and vegetative functions reported subtle abnormalities in MDMA users that may reflect functional consequences of long lasting alterations in serotonergic system. The authors expressed that reviewing the literature the use as their methods for this research those studies had significant methodological limitations. Some of the earlier investigations have either not captured vital data on the parallel use of other drugs or length of abstinence periods, or the abstinence periods were so short that the recorded effects might of result from the pharmacological effect of short-term depletion of intracellular 5-HT deposits and do not necessarily point to permanent neurotoxic damage. Also many studies used for this research have utilized poorly matched control groups.
6- What are some future research suggestions or applications? The authors suggest that more longitudinal and prospective studies are clearly needed in order to obtain a better understanding of the possible long-term consequences of ecstasy use in humans.

Article # 3 Hypnosis in the Unhypnotizable: A study in rote learning.
1- What is the main purpose of this research?
This study was distressed with the effects of hypnosis on the memorization of nonsense syllables.
2- What is the key question/concept the authors are addressing?
The key concept is the study of the effects of hypnosis on rote learning, replicating young’s experiment thereby. Whether there are some initial differences in the learning ability of the very susceptible and the relatively unsusceptible.
3- How did the authors address this questions (what methods did they use)?
The method they used were subjects, apparatus and procedure which included screening session and experimental session. They basically used 32 undergraduate, 16 relatively susceptible and 16 relatively unsusceptible, were individually presented 10 nonsense syllables on a memory drum under counterbalance hypnotized and unhypnotized conditions.
4- What results did the authors find?
The S was assigned a memorization score for each experimental condition which consisted of the total number of trigrams which he spelled correctly after 3 presentation of the entire list. Mean scores of the two groups for the different groups were 7.38 on hypnotized and 5.62 of the group of unhypnotized. The results of this study suggest that there are some initial differences in the learning ability of the very susceptible and the relatively unsusceptible. They also demonstrate that hypnosis facilitates the performance of the relatively unsusceptible Ss, and impairs the performance of the very susceptible ones.
5- What are some limitations of this research?
The authors express how the estimate of susceptibility which emerges from a scale of hypnosis is one of limited parameter; it does not necessarily predict S’s performance on non-scale tasks. Also another limitation is that the conclusion of London and Fuhrer (1961) that “the effect of hypnosis cannot be very effectively studied as a quantum independent of the relative susceptibility of Ss’’ now appears too limited.
6- What are some future research suggestions or applications?
The authors suggest that it is improper to define hypnosis for experimental purposes or to generalize about its effects without consideration of the susceptibility of the Ss and the limited scope of the experimental tasks. Hypnosis was thus seen as having potentially variable effects which interact with susceptibility and with the specific experimental measure which is used.

PS 101S-L1
Annotated Bibliography Submission
Article #1: Marital Hostility and Child Sleep Problems: Direct and Indirect Associations via Hostile Parenting
1- What is the main purpose of this research?
The main purpose of this research was to find out what where the factors contributing to infants and young kids having sleeping problems including difficulties initiating and maintaining sleep and why it was so common. An additional purpose of this research was to find out whether this was due to subsequent adjustments problems, or if they were generic or cause by environmental influences.
2- What is the key question/concept the authors are addressing?
Base on this research the author wanted to find out whether family environmental was the influence of sleep problems in children. Also if marital hostility or hostile parenting, adoption were factors that could influence child sleep problems.
3- How did the authors address this questions (what methods did they use)?
The main method that the authors used on this research was observation, study aims, hypotheses, assessments and sampling as sell as quantitative psychological research. They took 361 participants adoption-linked sets of adopted children, their adoptive mothers and father, and their birth mothers and a subset of birth fathers this group participated in part one of the early growth and development study. The children they use were approximately from 9 months old to 27 months old. All families were diverse meaning they were from different nationalities and races. They did an in home assessment, where parents participated in a 20-min videotaped marital interaction task. They were instructed to discuss topics about their relationship. These topics were things like how they met, what they enjoy doing with each other etc. Trained observational coders who were blind to all study hypotheses coded this task by using the Iowa Family Interaction Rating Scales. They included those variables in their “marital hostility” construct such as antisocial behavior, hostility and negative mood. This measure was only for one of their hypotheses the used different measures for their other hypotheses such as hostiles parenting and child sleep problems.
4- What results did the authors find?
The results that were found were that mothers’ and fathers’ marital hostility were positively associated with fathers’ hostile parenting. Mothers’ observed negative mood and hostility and fathers’ negative mood toward their partner were associated with child sleep at 4 and half years old. Fathers’ hostile parenting at 27 months old was also associated with child sleep problems at 4 and half years old. Also they found that there were significant associations between child gender and father hostile parenting, with fathers of girls reporting less hostile parenting than fathers of boys and between income and sleep problems. These findings demonstrate that the predictive association between marital hostility and child sleep problems is direct for mother and indirect for fathers via fathers’ hostile parenting. Their findings suggest that family processes indicative of low stability or security in the family system are associated with child sleep problems especially with emotional security theory which said that children’s reactions to marital relations are a function of their perceived implications on the well-being of the family.
5- What are some limitations of this research?
They were 4 limitations of this study. First, the measures of hostile parenting and child sleep were parent report. Objective and subjective measures of child sleep both contribute important information about overall sleep quantity and quality, objective methods such as convey information about sleep and waking during the night that parent might not detect/notice, whereas subjective measures can assess daytime sleepiness and specific behaviors immediately prior to bed and through the night that cannot be accessed via objective measures. Another limitation that they mentioned in the research was that although the full range of scores was observed for each construct, the sample was not recruited for and is not characterized by high levels of either marital hostility or hostile parenting. They also said they did not have a reliable and valid measure of birth parent sleep problems, and their genetic control measure (birth parent internalizing disorders) was obtained in adulthood while their measures of child sleep problems were obtained during childhood. Those two factors may have attenuated any potential genetic effects on child sleep problems.
6- What are some future research suggestions or applications?
The authors expressed in this research that some suggestions might be how to find targets for sleep problem prevention and intervention programs that can potentially modifiable, such as hostile parenting practices and marital hostility. Also inform theory by demonstrating that relations among marital hostility, hostile parenting, and child problems are important after accounting for genetic influences.
Article #2 Neurotoxicity of MDA; ecstasy) in humans: how strong is the evidence for persistent brain damage?
1- What is the main purpose of this research?
The authors of this research express that in recent years the question of ecstasy-induced in humans following MDMA-induced neurotoxicity brain damage. The question of ecstasy-induced neurotoxicity and possible functional sequel has been addressed in several studies with drug users. This research purpose was to review this literature and weight the strength of the evidence for persistent brain damage in ecstasy users.
2- What is the key question/concept the authors are addressing?
The main question that the authors are addressing is as to whether or not the evidence that exist for persistent brain damage due to the use of MDMA; ecstasy is strong and if it is how strong it is.
3- How did the authors address this questions (what methods did they use)?
The methods that were use for this research was Medline to view all available publication on “ecstasy” or “MDMA”. All available studies dealing with ecstasy users entered the analysis.
4- What results did the authors find?
The results of this research were that despite large methodological problems the bulk of evidence suggests residual alterations of serotonergic transmission in MDMA user, although at least partial restitution may occur after long-term abstinence but functional continuation may persist even after longer periods of abstinence. To date, the most consistent findings associate subtle cognitive, particularly memory, impairments with heave ecstasy use. On the other hand, the evidence they found cannot be considered definite and the issues of possible pre-existing behavior or the effects of polydrug use are not resolved.
5- What are some limitations of this research?
The data covering neurotoxin effects of ecstasy in humans are still patchy and partly contradictory. CSF, PET AND SPECT studies have brought evidence of alterations in the central serotonergic system of MDMA users. However, SERT availability was shown to be normal in former users with abstinence periods of 5 months or more, suggesting at least a partial recovery. A large number of cross-sectionals studies on psychological functioning, neurocognition, nueorendocrine regulations and vegetative functions reported subtle abnormalities in MDMA users that may reflect functional consequences of long lasting alterations in serotonergic system. The authors expressed that reviewing the literature the use as their methods for this research those studies had significant methodological limitations. Some of the earlier investigations have either not captured vital data on the parallel use of other drugs or length of abstinence periods, or the abstinence periods were so short that the recorded effects might of result from the pharmacological effect of short-term depletion of intracellular 5-HT deposits and do not necessarily point to permanent neurotoxic damage. Also many studies used for this research have utilized poorly matched control groups.
6- What are some future research suggestions or applications? The authors suggest that more longitudinal and prospective studies are clearly needed in order to obtain a better understanding of the possible long-term consequences of ecstasy use in humans.

Article # 3 Hypnosis in the Unhypnotizable: A study in rote learning.
1- What is the main purpose of this research?
This study was distressed with the effects of hypnosis on the memorization of nonsense syllables.
2- What is the key question/concept the authors are addressing?
The key concept is the study of the effects of hypnosis on rote learning, replicating young’s experiment thereby. Whether there are some initial differences in the learning ability of the very susceptible and the relatively unsusceptible.
3- How did the authors address this questions (what methods did they use)?
The method they used were subjects, apparatus and procedure which included screening session and experimental session. They basically used 32 undergraduate, 16 relatively susceptible and 16 relatively unsusceptible, were individually presented 10 nonsense syllables on a memory drum under counterbalance hypnotized and unhypnotized conditions.
4- What results did the authors find?
The S was assigned a memorization score for each experimental condition which consisted of the total number of trigrams which he spelled correctly after 3 presentation of the entire list. Mean scores of the two groups for the different groups were 7.38 on hypnotized and 5.62 of the group of unhypnotized. The results of this study suggest that there are some initial differences in the learning ability of the very susceptible and the relatively unsusceptible. They also demonstrate that hypnosis facilitates the performance of the relatively unsusceptible Ss, and impairs the performance of the very susceptible ones.
5- What are some limitations of this research?
The authors express how the estimate of susceptibility which emerges from a scale of hypnosis is one of limited parameter; it does not necessarily predict S’s performance on non-scale tasks. Also another limitation is that the conclusion of London and Fuhrer (1961) that “the effect of hypnosis cannot be very effectively studied as a quantum independent of the relative susceptibility of Ss’’ now appears too limited.
6- What are some future research suggestions or applications?
The authors suggest that it is improper to define hypnosis for experimental purposes or to generalize about its effects without consideration of the susceptibility of the Ss and the limited scope of the experimental tasks. Hypnosis was thus seen as having potentially variable effects which interact with susceptibility and with the specific experimental measure which is used.