Hands Support and Postural Oscillation During Sit-to-Stand Movement in Children With Cerebral Palsy and Typical Children

The authors aimed to compare the weight bearing on hands during sit-to-stand (STS) movement in children with cerebral palsy (CP) and typical children (TC), verify its effect on postural oscillation, and analyze the relationship between weight bearing on hands and postural oscillation. Twenty children with CP (Gross Motor Function Classification System levels I and II) and 35 TC performed STS with and without anterior hands support. Mann-Whitney test compared weight bearing between groups. Wilcoxon test investigated differences in postural oscillation between the conditions with and without anterior hand support for both groups. The Spearman correlation tested the relationship between weight-bearing and postural oscillation during the hand support condition. Children with CP bore more weight on hands than TC to perform STS. The hand support reduced postural oscillation during the second phase of STS in both groups. In the CP group, greater weight bearing was related with lower postural oscillation in the beginning of STS. Although children with CP were able to perform STS without support, they bore more weight on their hands to perform the task than TC. Moreover, children with CP and TC use mechanical and somatosensory information to modulate their postural control during STS in different ways.     

Rorschach Comprehensive System data for a sample of 249 adult nonpatients from Italy

This project provides information on how Italian adult nonpatients perform on the Rorschach test administered and scored following Rorschach Comprehensive System (CS) guidelines (Exner, 1995). Lis, Zennaro, Calvo, and Salcuni (2001) reported previously initial data for 101 of the nonpatients who were administered this instrument between July 1998 and February 2001 by graduate and postgraduate students in a 2-year research course at the Psychotherapy School of the University of Padua. The current study extends that previous work and includes information on an additional 148 participants gathered between April 2001 and March 2004, for a total of 249 individuals. Exclusion criteria are described and interrater reliability statistics at the response level for scoring segments are reported using both percent of agreement and iota. Comprehensive System findings are presented.     

The impact of administration and inquiry on Rorschach Comprehensive System protocols in a national reference sample

We investigated the impact of administration and inquiry skills on Rorschach Comprehensive System (CS; Exner, 1974, 1991, 1993) protocols collected for the Italian adult nonpatient reference sample. The same research team collected CS protocols on two occasions. The initial reference sample (N = 212; Lis, Rossi, & Priha, 1998) was collected under the supervision of experienced psychologists who carefully studied CS administration and scoring procedures (Exner, 1986, 1990, 1993). The second sample (N = 101; Lis, Zennaro, Calvo, & Salcuni, 2001) was collected after the team obtained additional and sustained CS training from Rorschach workshops certified instructors. Both samples were scored, reliably but they showed large differences on many codes, with protocols from the second sample being richer and more complex than the first. The results indicate that administration skills can have a dramatic impact on CS protocols and may contribute to variations in samples collected by different investigators. Training standards should be devised to insure uniform administration procedures are followed when collecting CS protocols.     

Being in Berlin: A large group experience in the Berlin Congress

In July 2007, the International Psychoanalytic Congress convened for the first time since the war in the former Nazi capital, Berlin. An open large group forum was held at this meeting, where attendees (Jewish, German and others) had the opportunity to explore the emotional aspects stirred up by being in Berlin. Hundreds of people participated in the event and described it as the 'heart of the Congress'. We examine several aspects of the event, including the passions stirred, the containment of the setting, and the voices present and absent.     

Transitioning from rich to lean reinforcement as a form of error correction

Discrete trial instruction (DTI) is a ubiquitous tool used by practitioners in early intervention programs. A common approach to correcting errors during DTI involves providing a single prompt of the target response when a mistake is made (i.e., single-response repetition). Modifications to the single-response repetition approach have been developed to improve acquisition; however, these modifications are often aversive techniques (e.g., increased effort, response cost) and may not be preferred by the children or considered socially acceptable by caregivers. We conducted this study to evaluate the use of a transition from rich to lean reinforcement as a form of error correction. We compared the rich–lean condition to the single-response repetition approach during DTI for 4 boys diagnosed with autism. The rich–lean condition was (a) more efficient in improving accuracy in 6 out of 9 tasks, (b) more preferred by all participants, and (c) socially validated by caregivers.     

A developmental-contextual model of depressive symptoms in Mexican-origin female adolescents

The current study tested a developmental-contextual model of depressive symptomatology among Mexican-origin, female early and middle adolescents and their mothers. The final sample comprised 271 dyads. We examined the interrelations among cultural (i.e., acculturation dissonance), developmental (i.e., pubertal development and autonomy expectation discrepancies), and interpersonal (i.e., mother-daughter conflict and maternal supportive parenting) factors in predicting adolescents' depressive symptoms. For both early and middle adolescents, maternal support was negatively associated with mother-daughter conflict and depressive symptoms. Mother-daughter autonomy expectation discrepancies were positively associated with mother-daughter conflict, but this association was found only among early adolescents. Further, mother-daughter acculturation dissonance was positively associated with mother-daughter conflict but only among middle adolescents. Findings call for concurrently examining the interface of developmental, relational, and cultural factors in predicting female adolescents' depressive symptomatology and the potential differences by developmental stage (e.g., early vs. middle adolescence).