Emotion and cognition: feeling and character identification in dreaming

This study investigated the relationship between dream emotion and dream character identification. Thirty-five subjects provided 320 dream reports and answers to questions on characters that appeared in their dreams. We found that emotions are almost always evoked by our dream characters and that they are often used as a basis for identifying them. We found that affection and joy were commonly associated with known characters and were used to identify them even when these emotional attributes were inconsistent with those of the waking state. These findings are consistent with the finding that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, associated with short-term memory, is less active in the dreaming compared to the wake brain, while the paleocortical and subcortical limbic areas are more active. The findings are also consistent with the suggestion that these limbic areas have minimal input from the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in the dreaming brain.     

Measuring self-efficacy among drug-involved probationers

Self-efficacy has been shown to be related to outcomes from interventions for alcohol and tobacco abuse but relatively little attention has been focused on it in evaluations of treatment for illicit drug abuse. Almost no research has examined offenders involved with drugs. The current study, therefore, adapted the Alcohol Abstinence Self-efficacy Scale of DiClemente, Carbonari, Montgomery, and Hughes and administered it to 250 probationers mandated to 6 months of residential treatment. With some modifications, confirmatory factory models replicated four previously reported dimensions, e.g., Negative Affect, Social/Positive, Physical and Other Concerns, Cravings and Urges. Findings also indicated high construct validity for the Alcohol Abstinence Self-efficacy Scale as adapted here. Studies are needed to examine the use of self-efficacy as a prospective measure of treatment progress and to explore its association with outcomes from corrections-based treatment.     

Dual processes in recognition: Does a focus on measurement operations provide a sufficient foundation?

Current theoretical thinking about dual processes in recognition relies heavily on the measurement operations embodied within the process dissociation procedure. We critically evaluate the ability of this procedure to support this theoretical enterprise. We show that there are alternative processes that would produce a rough invariance in familiarity (a key prediction of the dual-processing approach) and that the process dissociation procedure does not have the power to differentiate between these alternative possibilities. We also show that attempts to relate parameters estimated by the process dissociation procedure to subjective reports (remember-know judgments) cannot differentiate between alternative dual-processing models and that there are problems with some of the historical evidence and with obtaining converging evidence. Our conclusion is that more specific theories incorporating ideas about representation and process are required.     

Age and emotional response to the Northridge earthquake: a longitudinal analysis

Cross-sectional studies have found older adults to have lower levels of emotional distress after natural disasters. The maturation hypothesis suggests that older adults are less reactive to stress events, whereas the inoculation hypothesis argues that prior experience with disaster is protective. One hundred and sixty-six adults aged 30 to 102 were interviewed regarding the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Longitudinal data were available on depressed mood before and after the earthquake. The maturation hypothesis was generally not supported. The young-old were least depressed; however, this age difference was present prior to the earthquake. The old-old showed lowest levels of earthquake-specific rumination, but age did not buffer the relationship between damage exposure and rumination. The inoculation hypothesis was supported for depressed mood. Prior earthquake experience was related to lower postearthquake depression scores.     

Elegiac Poetry: A Pastoral Resource with Complicated Grief

This essay argues that elegiac poetry, the poetry of mourning, may be a resource for pastoral care with complicated grief. It builds on Freuds distinction between mourning (normal grief) and melancholia (complicated grief), particularly as appropriated by French literary critic and psychoanalyst Julia Kristeva. It makes the case for elegy as a locus for externalizing a lost object which, in complicated grief, has been internalized as part of the bereaved persons self and which is not only grieved but also treated ambivalently if it is not hated. Drawing on the suffering God motif in Christian theologies of the cross, theological reflections supplement psychological arguments.     

Mild hypoxia disrupts recollection,not familiarity

Yonelinas et al. (2002) found that hypoxic patients exhibited deficits in recollection that left familiarity relatively unaffected. In contrast, Manns, Hopkins, Reed, Kitchener, and Squire (2003) studied a group of hypoxic patients who suffered severe and equivalent deficits in recollection and familiarity. We reexamine those studies and argue that the discrepancy in results is likely due to differences in the hypoxic groups that were tested (i.e., differences in amnestic severity, subject sampling methods, and patient etiology). Yonelinas et al. examined memory in 56 cardiac arrest patients who suffered a brief hypoxic event, whereas Manns et al. examined a group of severely amnesic patients that consisted of 2 cardiac arrest patients, 2 heroin overdose patients, 1 carbon monoxide poisoning patient, and 2 patients with unknown etiologies. We also consider an alternative explanation proposed by Wixted and Squire (2004), who argued that the two patient groups suffered similar deficits, but that statistical or methodological artifacts distorted the results of each of Yonelinas et al.'s experiments. A consideration of those results, however, indicates that such an explanation does not account for the existing data. All of the existing evidence indicates that recollection, but not familiarity, is disrupted in mild hypoxic patients. In more severe cases of hypoxia, or those with more complex etiologies such as heroin overdose, more profound deficits may be observed.     

Cognitive-behavioural interventions in a patient with an anxiety disorder related to diabetes

This study extends the data on the efficacy of cognitive interventions for patients with chronic medical problems and describes the case of a 37-year-old woman with an anxiety disorder related to diabetes. The effects on panic frequency, use of safety behaviour and related beliefs were investigated after the introduction of two main cognitive-behavioral interventions. The results are consistent with predictions from the cognitive model of panic. This case demonstrates the usefulness of directly challenging the 'meaning' of the feared situation in order to produce clinically significant improvements in the management of physical disease.     

Australian lawyers' views on competency issues in older adults

Lawyers are often called upon by their older clients to draft contracts, make up wills or powers of attorney, or provide other forms of legal advice or service. With the increasing numbers of older people in the population, the numbers of older clients for legal practitioners is likely to increase. Older people are also at increased risk for impaired cognitive processes that can affect their ability to make reasoned judgements in civil contracts and other legal arrangements. Here we report on the results of a survey of 302 Australian solicitors as to their experience and practices in determining the capacity of older clients to make legal decisions. The responses, reflecting a 20.7% return rate, showed a wide range of experience in conducting capacity assessments, with a mean of 15.7 years (SD = 10.59). There was a very wide range of practices in determining capacity with no consensus. The most frequent form of questions older clients were asked related to personal and family history. Less than one-quarter asked for the rationale of the decision: the most appropriate form of question in the literature. The results suggest a need for further training of solicitors in the assessment of the capacity of older clients to make legal decisions.