Understanding Middle School Students’ Physical Activity and Health-Related Quality of Life: An Expectancy-Value Perspective

Assessing and promoting physical activity and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) have become major public health issues, but little is known regarding HRQOL and its relation with physical activity in adolescents. This study attempted to examine relationships among middle school students’ motivation, physical activity, and HRQOL by using the expectancy-value model as a theoretical framework. Participants were 282 middle school students who responded to a previously validated inventory assessing their motivation, physical activity, and HRQOL. Correlation analyses revealed that expectancy-related beliefs and task values were positively related to physical activity and HRQOL. Physical activity was positively associated with physical, emotional, and social functioning of HRQOL. Regression analyses showed a significant relationship between increasing expectancy-related beliefs and increasing degrees of HRQOL. This research line is promising in that it can provide useful information regarding the translation of theory to practice in influencing adolescents’ physical activity and HRQOL.     

Synergy between Positive Psychology and Indian Psychology? Reflections on Barriers and Pathways

There are points of convergences between Positive Psychology and Indian Psychology. But we do have to cross many barriers and travel some distance on converging pathways for the potential synergies between these fields to manifest. There are indicators in the global literature that Positive Psychology is maturing as an approach but this is yet to become very evident in the Indian research on Positive Psychology. Systematic efforts at discovering convergences between Indian Psychology and Positive Psychology can go a long way in enriching our understanding of well being.     

Emotional Impulsivity in Children with ADHD Associated with Comorbid—Not ADHD—Symptomatology

Children with ADHD often demonstrate sudden and intense shifts in both positive and negative affect. This study examined the role of diagnostic status on emotional impulsivity in children utilizing ecological momentary assessment (EMA). Parents of 64 8–12 year old children (15 ADHD-only; 27 ADHD-comorbid; 22 control) completed a diagnostic structured interview and then an EMA protocol, rating the child’s affect thrice daily for 28 days. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) suggested that children with ADHD and a comorbid disorder demonstrated significantly more EMA-derived emotional impulsivity than children with ADHD only and control children. No difference was found between children with ADHD only and control children. This study suggested that children with ADHD demonstrate significantly higher levels of emotional impulsivity than control children only in the presence of a comorbid disorder.     

An evaluation of Unix in the psychology computer laboratory

Psychology users of the Unix operating system responded to questionnaire items concerning the use of Unix, the ease of learning and using Unix, and the value and quality of the system for their research needs. The data suggest that Unix is poor according to human-factors criteria, but good according to programming and systems criteria.     

Psychometric Properties of the Revised Chen Internet Addiction Scale (CIAS-R) in Chinese Adolescents

The Revised Chen Internet Addiction Scale (CIAS-R) was developed to assess Internet addiction in Chinese populations, but its psychometric properties in adolescents have not been examined. This study aimed to evaluate the factor structure and psychometric properties of CIAS-R in Hong Kong Chinese adolescents. 860 Grade 7 to 13 students (38 % boys) completed the CIAS-R, the Young’s Internet Addiction Test (IAT), and the Health of the Nation Outcome Scales for Children and Adolescents (HoNOSCA) in a survey. The prevalence of Internet addiction as assessed by CIAS-R was 18 %. High internal consistency and inter-item correlations were reported for the CIAS-R. Results from the confirmatory factor analysis suggested a four-factor structure of Compulsive Use and Withdrawal, Tolerance, Interpersonal and Health-related Problems, and Time Management Problems. Moreover, results of hierarchical multiple regression supported the incremental validity of the CIAS-R to predict mental health outcomes beyond the effects of demographic differences and self-reported time spent online. The CIAS is a reliable and valid measure of internet addiction problems in Hong Kong adolescents. Future study is warranted to validate the cutoffs of the CIAS-R for identification of adolescents with Internet use problems who may have mental health needs.     

A Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Investigation of the External Correlates of Sluggish Cognitive Tempo and ADHD-Inattention Symptoms Dimensions

The objective was to determine if the external correlates of sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) and ADHD-inattention (IN) dimensions were the same in cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. Teachers and aides rated SCT, ADHD-IN, ADHD-hyperactivity/impulsivity (HI), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), and depression along with academic impairment in 758 Spanish children (55 % boys) on three occasions (twice at the end of the first grade year [6-week separation] and then again 12-months later at the end of the second grade year). Three of eight SCT symptoms showed substantial loadings on the SCT factor and substantially higher loadings on the SCT factor than the ADHD-IN factor for teachers and aides at each assessment (seems drowsy, thinking is slow, and slow moving). Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses yielded similar results with SCT and ADHD-IN factors having different and unique external correlates (higher scores on SCT predicted lower scores on ADHD-HI and ODD while higher scores on ADHD-IN predicted higher scores on ADHD-HI and ODD with SCT and ADHD-IN both uniquely predicting academic impairment and depression). Developmental and methodological reasons are discussed for the failure to find an inconsistent alertness SCT factor (daydreams, alertness fluctuates, absent-minded, loses train of though, and confused).     

Against Hypothetical Syllogism

The debate over Hypothetical Syllogism is locked in stalemate. Although putative natural language counterexamples to Hypothetical Syllogism abound, many philosophers defend Hypothetical Syllogism, arguing that the alleged counterexamples involve an illicit shift in context. The proper lesson to draw from the putative counterexamples, they argue, is that natural language conditionals are context-sensitive conditionals which obey Hypothetical Syllogism. In order to make progress on the issue, I consider and improve upon Morreau’s proof of the invalidity of Hypothetical Syllogism. The improved proof relies upon the semantic claim that conditionals with antecedents irrelevant to the obtaining of an already true consequent are themselves true. Moreover, this semantic insight allows us to provide compelling counterexamples to Hypothetical Syllogism that are resistant to the usual contextualist response.     

Examining the Internal Consistency Reliability and Construct Validity of the Authentic Happiness Inventory (AHI) among Iranian EFL Learners

Unlike other measures of happiness that have tended to capture current levels of happiness, the Authentic Happiness Inventory (AHI) (Peterson, 2005; Seligman et al. in The American Psychologist 60:410–421, 2005) assesses changes in happiness based on the creation of positive emotions (the pleasant life), engagement in activities that facilitate the utilization of one’s strengths (the engaged life), and serving a more worthwhile purpose than merely the self’s pleasures (the meaningful life). Nonetheless, there is little published data regarding the construct validation of the AHI. The present study, which is part of a larger research project in assessing the effectiveness of integrating happiness intervention programs in the foreign language teaching curriculum at private English institutes and universities in Iran, attempts an examination of the psychometric quality and the construct validation of the Persian version of AHI (hereafter AHI-PV) using data collected from 234 Iranian learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL), mainly through employing the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). The AHI was translated into Persian to ensure item comprehension by the Iranian participants. The results show that the AHI-PV enjoys a high internal consistency (alpha?=?.93). Further, having determined a ‘marvelous’ factorability of the present sample through the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) test of Sampling Adequacy (.94) and Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity (p?Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and the Scree test indicated that, in contrast to earlier findings, a four-factor solution provides a more parsimonious grouping of the items in the inventory. Having analyzed the items on the scale, we labeled the four factors as ‘Meaningful and Purposeful Life’, ‘Pleasures and Positive Emotions’, ‘Engagement in Life Activities’, and ‘Interpersonal Connectedness’, hence the alignment of these new factors to Seligman’s (2002) conceptualization of authentic happiness.     

Improving Outcomes for Youth with ADHD: A Conceptual Framework for Combined Neurocognitive and Skill-Based Treatment Approaches

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a prevalent and chronic mental health condition that often results in substantial impairments throughout life. Although evidence-based pharmacological and psychosocial treatments exist for ADHD, effects of these treatments are acute, do not typically generalize into non-treated settings, rarely sustain over time, and insufficiently affect key areas of functional impairment (i.e., family, social, and academic functioning) and executive functioning. The limitations of current evidence-based treatments may be due to the inability of these treatments to address underlying neurocognitive deficits that are related to the symptoms of ADHD and associated areas of functional impairment. Although efforts have been made to directly target the underlying neurocognitive deficits of ADHD, extant neurocognitive interventions have shown limited efficacy, possibly due to misspecification of training targets and inadequate potency. We argue herein that despite these limitations, next-generation neurocognitive training programs that more precisely and potently target neurocognitive deficits may lead to optimal outcomes when used in combination with specific skill-based psychosocial treatments for ADHD. We discuss the rationale for such a combined treatment approach, prominent examples of this combined treatment approach for other mental health disorders, and potential combined treatment approaches for pediatric ADHD. Finally, we conclude with directions for future research necessary to develop a combined neurocognitive + skill-based treatment for youth with ADHD.     

Attachment Quality And Depression In Iranian Adolescents

This study investigated the relationship of quality of adolescent’s attachment to mother, father, and peers with depression. 785 high school students (49.7 % male and 50.3 % female) aged between 15 and 17 years completed the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA) as well as the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II). In case of boys the results showed that their attachment to mother, father, and peers were meaningful predictors of depression during adolescence. Similar trend was noted for girls. Attachment to mother across both genders accounted for greater variance in depression in comparison to attachment to father and/or attachment to peers. Cultural implications are addressed.     

Hegel,the Trinity,and the ‘I’

The main goal of this paper is to argue the relevance of Hegel’s notion of the Trinity with respect to two aspects of Hegel’s idealism: the overcoming of subjectivism and his conception of the ‘I’. I contend that these two aspects are interconnected and that the Trinity is important to Hegel’s strategy for addressing these questions. I first address the problem of subjectivism by considering Hegel’s thought against the background of modern philosophy. I argue that the recognitive structure of Hegel’s idealism led him to give the Trinity a decisive role in his philosophical account. Next, I discuss the Trinity by analysing the three divine persons. This analysis paves the way for the conclusion, where I argue that the Trinity represents a model for re-thinking the ‘I’ in a way that overcomes a ‘naïve realist’ and a ‘subjective’ account of the self. I suggest that Hegel’s absolute idealism can be conceived as an approach to the ‘I’ that considers the role of acts of mutual recognition for the genesis of self-conscious thought, and that the Trinity is the Darstellung of the relational and recognitive structure of the ‘I’.     

The relationship between state anxiety and depressed mood: A validity study

The validity of the A-State Scale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale was assessed using data from a general health survey. Depression and anxiety states were found to coexist, however, evidence from a factor analysis, showing items from the two tests loaded on separate factors, demonstrated that these states can be measured independently. Both the A-State and the Zung Scales were found to comprise two factors, and for each scale, one factor consisted of positively phrased items, and the other of negative items. The implications of these findings for the construct validity of the two scales are discussed.     

Trauma exposure is associated with increased context-dependent adjustments of cognitive control in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder and healthy controls

Recent evidence has suggested that posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with alterations in prefrontal-cortex-dependent cognitive processes (e.g., working memory, cognitive control). However, it remains unclear whether these cognitive dysfunctions are related to PTSD symptomatology or trauma exposure. Furthermore, regarding cognitive control, research has only focused on the integrity of selected control functions, but not their dynamic regulation in response to changing environmental demands. Therefore, the present study investigated dynamic variations in interference control, in addition to overall interference susceptibility and working memory (WM) performance in matched groups of 24 PTSD patients and 26 traumatized and 30 nontraumatized healthy controls. The Simon task was used to measure overall interference susceptibility and the flexible adjustment of cognitive control, on the basis of the occurrence of response conflicts (conflict adaptation effect). WM performance was assessed with the forward and backward digit span tasks. Since we have previously shown that trauma exposure per se is associated with reduced hair cortisol concentrations (HCC), we further explored whether PTSD/trauma-related cognitive alterations are related to HCC in proximal 3-cm hair segments. The results revealed that PTSD patients and traumatized controls showed significantly more pronounced conflict adaptation effects than nontraumatized controls. Moreover, the conflict adaptation effect was positively related to the number of lifetime traumatic events and the frequency of traumatization. The groups did not differ in overall interference susceptibility or WM performance. Exploratory analyses revealed no association between HCC and the observed cognitive differences. These results suggest that context-driven control adjustments constitute a sensitive correlate of trauma exposure, irrespective of PTSD.     

Causal Decision Theory and EPR correlations

The paper argues that on three out of eight possible hypotheses about the EPR experiment we can construct novel and realistic decision problems on which (a) Causal Decision Theory and Evidential Decision Theory conflict (b) Causal Decision Theory and the EPR statistics conflict. We infer that anyone who fully accepts any of these three hypotheses has strong reasons to reject Causal Decision Theory. Finally, we extend the original construction to show that anyone who gives any of the three hypotheses any non-zero credence has strong reasons to reject Causal Decision Theory. However, we concede that no version of the Many Worlds Interpretation (Vaidman, in Zalta, E.N. (ed.), Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy 2014) gives rise to the conflicts that we point out.     

LQTS Parents’ Reflections About Genetic Risk Knowledge and their Need to Know or Not to Know their Children’s Carrier Status

Long QT syndrome (LQTS) is a contributor to unexplained deaths in infants (SIDS), children, teenagers and young adults. A gene test result may allow for individual tailored treatment, but also pose a burden of knowing one’s carrier status, with no treatment recommendation. Genetic risk knowledge in the case of LQTS can promote adjustment and coping, but also fear anxiety, ambivalence and moral dilemmas. This makes it challenging to respect both the right to know and the right not to know. The purpose of this study was to explore LQTS parents’ perception of genetic knowledge, and their need to know or not to know about their children’s carrier status. Qualitative, semi structured interviews were conducted with thirteen parents of LQTS-children. Results show that parents found it important to know the result of a gene test for LQTS including their children’s carrier status. The risk was framed and incorporated into their everyday life and their life perspectives. Pertinent moral dilemmas concerned information disclosure to children and relatives. Parents thought that early and gradual disclosure to children would promote coping. Parents’ moral dilemmas were rarely addressed during encounters with healthcare providers. The participants had several suggestions for improvement in that regard.     

HyperCard administration of a block-design task

HyperCard (Atkinson, 1987) is a new development environment for the Macintosh that shows promise for use in psychological research and testing. In this paper, we discuss the development of HyperCard stackware with which a block-design task similar to that of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) can be administered. The reliability and validity of the computerized block-design task was evaluated by administering both the computerized task and the WAIS-R subtest to college undergraduates. Results indicated that the computerized task’s reliability compared favorably with that of the WAIS-R subtest. Validity coefficients were equivocal; although an elapsed-time measure showed moderate correlation between the tasks, the numbers of designs correctly completed in each condition were not significantly correlated.     

Rethinking Medical Humanities

This paper questions different conceptions of Medical Humanities in order to provide a clearer understanding of what they are and why they matter. Building upon former attempts, we defend a conception of Medical Humanities as a humanistic problem-based approach to medicine aiming at influencing its nature and practice. In particular, we discuss three main conceptual issues regarding the overall nature of this discipline: (i) a problem-driven approach to Medical Humanities; (ii) the need for an integration of Medical Humanities into medicine; (iii) the methodological requirements that could render Medical Humanities an effective framework for medical decision-making.     

Congestive Heart Failure and Quality of Life

Our study aimed to assess the quality of life (QoL) of patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) and to correlate the different aspects of QoL with relevant socio-demographic variables, CHF severity, somatic comorbidities, other clinical variables and depressive symptomatology. In a cross-sectional study design, a community sample of 103 adult patients with CHF (mean age 68 years, 73 % male) was recruited from an outpatient cardiology practice. CHF severity was assessed with physician ratings of the New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class and measurement of brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels. The psychometric evaluation of quality of life was made using the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36 (SF-36) and the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ). The Beck Depression Inventory Second Edition (BDI-II) assessed depressive symptoms. Using multiple linear regression, predictors of poorer QoL included being a female, being older, living alone, NYHA functional class ≥ II, higher levels of BNP comorbidity (such as renal insufficiency and cerebrovascular disease), fluid retention, depressive symptomatology (assessed by BDI-II) and treatment with anti-dyslipidemics, diuretics and β-blockers. Among these correlates, psychological distress was the most strongly related to QoL. Also, functional status measured by NYHA demonstrated a high impact on QoL. Our findings suggest the need to address such factors in developing effective care to improve psychological and functional status in order to enhance QoL in these patients.