A meta‐analysis of serotonin metabolite 5‐HIAA and antisocial behavior

During the past 25 years, researchers have examined the relationship between neurochemical variables and antisocial behavior in human adults, but none has been studied more intensely than the serotonin metabolite 5‐hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5‐HIAA). The goal of the current study was to employ meta‐analytic procedures to quantitatively evaluate selected evidence on the relationship between 5‐HIAA and antisocial behavior. It was expected that antisocial groups would show reduced cerebrospinal fluid 5‐HIAA compared with non–antisocial groups. This study also aimed to assess moderators that could influence the relationship between 5‐HIAA and antisociality. An electronic search and strict inclusion criteria identified 20 reports used in this meta‐analysis. Results showed a significant overall mean effect size (ES = –.45, P < .05) in the direction of lowered 5‐HIAA in antisocial vs. non–antisocial groups. A significant moderating effect for age indicated that groups comprised of antisocial individuals younger than 30 years exhibited larger negative effect sizes (ES = –1.37, P < .05) than groups with older subjects (ES = –.31, P < .05). There were no moderating effects for gender, target of violence, history of suicide, and alcoholism. Age effects may help explain age‐related declines in crime. The fact that effects did not differ based on other moderating variables supports models of reduced serotonin in antisocial individuals, regardless of type of crime or psychiatric problems. Aggr. Behav. 28:299–316, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Toward a Psychology of Religion, Spirituality, Meaning-Search, and Aging: Past Research and a Practical Application

The current work is a combined review of several major theoretical issues in religious gerontology and of related research findings. It is intended to briefly inform, rather than to serve as a comprehensive review of the literature. The current author's primary goals are to put-forth points of information about contemporary terminology, to conceptualize motives for meaning-search at any age, to synthesize a few major findings and associated flaws in the research, and to describe a practical approach to the psychology of religion and spirituality (i.e., coping outcomes research). Within the current work, the reader is directed to sources of extensive reviews of data and of broader theoretical debates.     

Assessing the Readability of Mental Health Internet Brochures for Children and Adolescents

We investigated the readability of seven mental health brochures on mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders in children that were selected from a website developed by the Center for Mental Health Services at http://www.mentalhealth.org. The reading grade levels of the brochures ranged from 11.1 to 14.8 (mean 13.23), considerably higher than the 8th grade level recommended for educational material by the U. S. Department of Education (1986). On other readability variables, assessed using the Readability Assessment Instrument (RAIN; Singh, 1994), all brochures met criterion on most variables but failed on those for new words (audience appropriateness) and print size. This is a favorable result in comparison with other studies that have assessed readability of mental health information on the Internet using the RAIN, although less so with reading grade levels.     

Personality Disorders and Spinal Cord Injury: A Pilot Study

A substantial body of research has found that spinal cord injury (SCI) patients have relatively high degrees of energy, impulsivity, and risk-taking (W. Fordyce, 1964; G. P. Taylor, 1970; B. Woodbury, 1978). The present study endeavors to extend our knowledge to the personality disorder (PD) domain. Forty SCI participants and 40 matched controls were given a semistructured diagnostic interview and a self-report personality disorder instrument. Findings indicated that 27.5% of SCI patients, and a similar number of controls, have PDs. Unexpectedly, impulsive/externalizing disorders (histrionic, narcissistic, antisocial, and borderline) were not unusually high in SCI patients, and were not higher than controls. Avoidant and depressive disorders were unexpectedly high.     

Mothers,Fathers, Gender Role,and Time Parents Spend with Their Children

To examine the relationships among the sex of the parent, gender role, and the time parents spend with their children, 272 parents completed the Bem Sex-Role Inventory, a questionnaire about the time spent with their children, and a demographics questionnaire. Analyses indicated that neither the sex of the parent nor gender role was predictive of the amount of time parents were spending in direct interaction with or being accessible to their children. The sex of the parent, qualified by earning status, was predictive of the level of responsibility parents had for child-related activities. Further, the sex of the parent, qualified by femininity, was predictive of parental satisfaction with level of child-related responsibilities. These results emphasize the importance of examining parental characteristics in relation to the time parents spend with their children and their levels of responsibility for child-related activities.     

Changes in the Social Responsibility Attitudes of Engineering Students Over Time

This research explored how engineering student views of their responsibility toward helping individuals and society through their profession, so-called social responsibility, change over time. A survey instrument was administered to students initially primarily in their first year, senior year, or graduate studies majoring in mechanical, civil, or environmental engineering at five institutions in September 2012, April 2013, and March 2014. The majority of the students (57 %) did not change significantly in their social responsibility attitudes, but 23 % decreased and 20 % increased. The students who increased, decreased, or remained the same in their social responsibility attitudes over time did not differ significantly in terms of gender, academic rank, or major. Some differences were found between institutions. Students who decreased in social responsibility initially possessed more positive social responsibility attitudes, were less likely to indicate that college courses impacted their views of social responsibility, and were more likely to have decreased in the frequency that they participated in volunteer activities, compared to students who did not change or increased their social responsibility. Although the large percentage of engineering students who decreased their social responsibility during college was disappointing, it is encouraging that courses and participation in volunteer activities may combat this trend.     

Dynamic interpersonal therapy in an NHS tertiary level specialist psychotherapy service

We describe the introduction of dynamic interpersonal psychotherapy (DIT) into an National Health Service (NHS) tertiary psychoanalytic specialist psychotherapy service. Training in DIT began as our contribution to Improving Access to Psychological Therapies and primary care services, supporting the training and supervision of their DIT practitioners. We then discovered DIT could be a valuable treatment within our own tertiary NHS service for patients with complex presentations. Currently fighting for survival, like many NHS psychoanalytic psychotherapy services nationally, we have adopted a manual-guided, psychoanalytically based therapy to broaden our tertiary clinical psychoanalytic service and accommodate trends in mental health service provision, whilst protecting the quality and integrity of our psychotherapy. DIT helped us continue providing relevant and beneficial psychoanalytic and psychodynamic services to individual patients despite limitations of the financially challenged NHS, NICE guidelines and Payment by Results. We outline the progress and outcomes for patients with complex mental health presentations, include individual case discussion and our experience of using the DIT approach within a traditionally longer term psychoanalytic psychotherapy service.     

Mind the Gaps: Are Conclusions About Mindfulness Entirely Conclusive?

Mindfulness has emerged as an important construct in the mental health field. Although evidence suggests benefits, it also appears that excitement over the clinical applications of mindfulness has largely suspended concentrated efforts to clarify fundamental elements of the construct. This article explores conceptual confusion and contrasts primary mindfulness‐based techniques before investigating attrition factors, adverse effects of mindfulness practices, and populations contraindicated for mindfulness‐based techniques. Implications for practice are provided.     

A pilot study of women’s affective responses to common and uncommon forms of aerobic exercise

Objective: To test the extent to which participants exposed to an uncommon versus common exercise stimulus would result in more favourable affect at post-task.

Design: Experimental design. Participants (N = 120), American women aged 18–45 years, were randomly assigned to complete 30-min of either the uncommon (HOOP; n = 58) or common (WALK; n = 62) exercise stimulus.

Main outcome measures: Self-reported affect and intentions for future exercise were measured before and after the 30-min exercise bout.

Results: Analyses of covariance were run to compare post-task affect across the HOOP and WALK conditions. At post-task, participants assigned to HOOP reported more positively valenced affect, higher ratings of positive activated affect, lower ratings of negative deactivated affect, and stronger intentions for future aerobic exercise compared to participants assigned to WALK.

Conclusions: Participants who completed an uncommon bout of aerobic exercise (HOOP) reported more favourable affect post-exercise, as well as stronger intentions for future exercise, compared to participants who completed a common bout of aerobic exercise (WALK). Future work using a longitudinal design is needed to understand the relationships between familiarity with an exercise stimulus, affective responses to exercise, motivation for future exercise behaviour and exercise maintenance over time.     

Sexual Nature? (Re)presenting Sexuality and Science in the Museum

The past 15 years have seen dramatic changes in social norms around sex and sexuality in the UK and worldwide. In 2011, the London Natural History Museum (NHM) contributed to these debates by opening the temporary exhibition Sexual Nature, which aimed to provide ‘a candid exploration of sex in the natural world’ whilst also drawing in an under-represented audience of young adults. Sexual Nature provides an opportunity to explore Macdonald's ‘politics of display’ in the mutual construction of (public) scientific knowledge, society and sexuality, at a time of intense contestation over sexual norms. Whilst Sexual Nature both reflected and contributed to major reframings of sexuality and what science can say about it, the assumption that it would be possible to present this topic as morally neutral, reliable and uncontested, in line with traditions of public science, proved to be problematic. The language of the exhibition moved back and forth between human/animal similarity and difference, and between scientific and cultural tropes as the NHM tried to maintain epistemic authority whilst also negotiating the moral boundaries of acceptable sexual behaviour. The topic of sex pushed the museum far beyond its usual expertise in the natural sciences towards the unfamiliar territory of the social and human, resulting in an ad hoc search for, and negotiation with, alternative sources of expertise. Boon et al.’s co-curation approach to exhibition building has the potential to extend the NHM's audience-driven strategy, whilst also producing a more coherent and nuanced exhibition about the science of sex.