Development of motor imagery ability in children with developmental coordination disorder – A goal-directed pointing task

Children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) have difficulties with the predictive control of movements. This was shown in studies that target motor imagery and motor planning, and appears to become particularly evident with increases in task complexity. In this study, we used a complex mental chronometry paradigm to examine the development of motor imagery ability in children with DCD, using a longitudinal design. Thirty children were included in the DCD group (aged 6–11 years) and age- and gender-matched to 30 controls. The DCD group had a Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2 score ≤16th percentile and the control group ≥25th percentile. Results of this study showed that children with DCD indeed had a significantly lower correlation between executed and imagined movements. Importantly, the increase in the correlation and linear fit during subsequent measurements was comparable for the DCD and control group. Together, these findings suggest a delayed developmental onset of motor imagery ability in DCD, but a similar rate of development over time compared to the control group. Based on these results, it seems likely that explicit motor imagery instructions can be used to improve predictive control in children with DCD.     

The Adolescent Behavior Checklist: Validation Using Structured Diagnostic Interviews

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the discriminant validity of scores from the Adolescent Behavior Checklist (ABC), a self-report measure of ADHD symptomatology for adolescents ages 11–17 years. Validity was assessed through correlational, univariate, and discriminant function analyses using three groups: (1) adolescents diagnosed with ADHD, (2) adolescents currently experiencing a mood and/or anxiety disorder, and (3) adolescents with no major psychological disorder. Convergent and divergent validity of the ABC factor scores was demonstrated through correlational results with (1) parent and adolescent report of ADHD symptoms during structured psychiatric interviews and (2) scores on questionnaires measuring related and nonrelated constructs. Univariate analyses indicated that the ADHD group obtained significantly higher scores than did the nonclinical adolescents across all ABC factors. Additionally, the ADHD group scored significantly higher than did the psychiatric controls on the following ABC factors: Conduct Problems, Impulsivity/Hyperactivity, and Social Problems. Results from discriminant analyses supported the reliability of ABC scores in correctly classifying participants into groups. Compared to the Youth Self-Report, the ABC was found to be somewhat better at classifying when used in a multiinformant discriminant analysis. Therefore, overall results from the current study suggest that the ABC is a valid and useful self-report screening measure for ADHD symptoms and related difficulties.     

The relationship between 16 fear factors and psychiatric status

Although originally designed as a guide to therapy, the Wolpe-Lang Fear Survey Schedule (FSS) has been the subject of increasing study of its psychometric characteristics. A recent factor analysis of the records of psychiatric patients yielded 16 fear factors. The present study attempted to evaluate the clinical relevance of these factors by comparing the factor scores of adult psychiatric outpatients (AOP) with those of parents of child psychiatry patients (CPC). On 13 of the 16 factors the AOP group scored higher (with 3 of these 13 differences modulated by sex), indicating a strikingly consistent relationship between clinical status and the fear factors. These results suggest that future research of the patterns of fear factor scores as they relate to clinically relevant variables might well be fruitful. In the present study, females scored higher than males on all 16 fear factors (with 3 of these 16 differences appearing only in the AOP group). These results suggest the importance of treating sex as a moderator variable in future research on the FSS and its factors.     

The Functional Forecast Model of Emotion Expression Processing

Fleeting nonverbal emotion expressions trigger a variety of spontaneous responses in human observers. To account for these effects, we introduce a functional forecast model (FFM) of emotion expression processing. The FFM assumes that emotion expressions provide timely forecasts of impending events. Responses to these forecasts are adaptive and may be learned or innately prepared, but in either case, observers need not infer mental states to exhibit immediate responses to emotion expressions. We postulate a diffuse route that operates pre‐attentively and activates appetitive and defensive motivational systems in response to gross affective meaning relevant to imminent environmental threats and available or scarce survival resources. We postulate a focal route that requires attention to efficiently and spontaneously activate specific, though tacit behavioral expectations. We explain how the FFM accounts for a variety of responses to emotion expressions, including physiological responses, affective responses, behavioral responses, trait attributions, and emotion recognition. Lastly, we describe how the FFM relates to other models of emotion, and describe future directions based on the model.     

Self-compassion and reactions to unpleasant self-relevant events: the implications of treating oneself kindly

Five studies investigated the cognitive and emotional processes by which self-compassionate people deal with unpleasant life events. In the various studies, participants reported on negative events in their daily lives, responded to hypothetical scenarios, reacted to interpersonal feedback, rated their or others' videotaped performances in an awkward situation, and reflected on negative personal experiences. Results from Study 1 showed that self-compassion predicted emotional and cognitive reactions to negative events in everyday life, and Study 2 found that self-compassion buffered people against negative self-feelings when imagining distressing social events. In Study 3, self-compassion moderated negative emotions after receiving ambivalent feedback, particularly for participants who were low in self-esteem. Study 4 found that low-self-compassionate people undervalued their videotaped performances relative to observers. Study 5 experimentally induced a self-compassionate perspective and found that self-compassion leads people to acknowledge their role in negative events without feeling overwhelmed with negative emotions. In general, these studies suggest that self-compassion attenuates people's reactions to negative events in ways that are distinct from and, in some cases, more beneficial than self-esteem.     

Consensus, clinical decision making, and unsettled cases

The model of clinical ethics consultation (CEC) defended in the ASBH Core Competencies report has gained significant traction among scholars and healthcare providers. On this model, the aim of CEC is to facilitate deliberative reflection and thereby resolve conflicts and clarify value uncertainty by invoking and pursuing a process of consensus building. It is central to the model that the facilitated consensus falls within a range of allowable options, defined by societal values: prevailing legal requirements, widely endorsed organizational policies, and professional standards of practice and codes of conduct. Moreover, the model stipulates that ethics consultants must refrain from giving substantive recommendations regarding how parties to a moral disagreement in the clinic should evaluate their options. We argue that this model of CEC is incomplete, because it wrongly assumes that what counts as the proper set of allowable options among which the parties are to deliberate will itself always be clearly discernible. We illustrate this problem with a recent case on which one of us consulted-a neonate born with trisomy 18 (T18). We try to show that law, policy, and standards of practice reveal no clear answer to the question posed by the case: namely, whether forgoing gastrostomy tube feedings for a baby with T18 is allowable. We suggest there may be other kinds of cases in which it may simply be unsettled whether a given choice falls within the set of allowable options within which consensus is to be facilitated. What should an ethicist do when confronting such unsettled cases? We agree with the facilitation model that an ethicist should remain neutral among the allowable options, when it is clear what the allowable options are. But, in unsettled cases, the role of a consultant should be expanded to include a process of moral inquiry into what the allowable options should be. We end by raising the issue of whether this means an ethicist should share his or her own conclusions or views about the allowability of a given clinical option.     

Ethics of aggression research: Papers from a symposium of International Society for Research on Aggression

Three papers are presented from the first symposium on ethical issues in aggression research of the International Society for Research on Aggression held at the biennial meetings 1980 in Haren, The Netherlands. The symposium reflected a growing awareness of the Society that their research is a matter for public concern and scrutiny, both for its potentially good uses, and for its potential misuse and misinterpretation. A paper by Santiago Genovés, a Mexican anthropologist, outlined some of the issues concerning the dissemination of information and misinformation of aggression to the public, along with an extensive bibliography on the subject. A paper by Paul Brain, a British zoologist, addressed the issues surrounding the use of animals in aggression research and the arguments being used in public attacks upon it. Daniel Wikler, a practitioner of normative ethics from the United States, discussed ethics as theory and as practice and suggested some of the types of actions that the Society could consider undertaking.     

Classical physical abstraction

An informal theory is set forth of relations between abstract entities, includingcolors, physical quantities, times, andplaces in space, and the concrete things thathave them, or areat orin them, based on the assumption that there are close analogies between these relations and relations between abstractsets and the concrete things that aremembers of them. It is suggested that even standard scientific usage of these abstractions presupposes principles that are analogous to postulates of abstraction, identity, and other fundamental principles of set theory. Also discussed is the significance of important disanalogies between sets and physical abstractions, including especiallymodal andtemporal aspects of physical abstractions, which is related to the problem of the characterizingconstancy, of colors, physical attributes, and locations in space.     

Dehumanizing but competent: The impact of gender,illness type,and emotional expressiveness on patient perceptions of doctors

This study is the first attempt to investigate men's and women's anticipated reactions to a consultation with a doctor holding either a dehumanizing or humanistic approach to patient treatment. Participants (N = 375) read a vignette depicting a doctor's treatment philosophy—emphasizing either the metaphor of the body as a machine (dehumanizing condition) or emphasizing individual humanness (humanizing condition). They then imagined consulting the doctor about a psychological or physical illness. Although, medical dehumanization had undesirable consequences, some men rated the dehumanizing doctor as more competent than the humanizing doctor. These were men who were (a) emotionally expressive and seeking help for a psychological illness, and (b) men low in emotional expressiveness seeking help for a physical illness.     

The Gap Between Clinical Trial and Application in Health Behavior Counseling: Can Behavioral Medicine Build a Bridge?

Patients desire to have information about health-related behaviors (e.g., exercise) provided to them by their health care provider. Outcomes of clinical trials in physical activity counseling are modest at best and therefore, the degree of effectiveness of physical activity counseling in the primary care setting remains unclear. We describe what may be considered a real-world example of behavior change counseling aimed at primary or secondary risk factor identification and modification for CHD in women. We examined rates of baseline and follow-up physical activity in our sample of midlife Caucasian and African American women (N = 227) participating in a hospital-based CHD-risk screening. Baseline physical activity levels and rates of return for follow-up appointments were quite low with only negligible achievement of behavior change recommendations. In light of these findings, the potential role of behavioral medicine in training and collaboration with health care providers in primary care behavior counseling is discussed.