Coping with a Paraphrenic World in Late Life

This study deals with late paraphrenia from a psychological coping perspective. Analyses of coping behavior in relation to paraphrenic delusions and hallucinations revealed rational choices of coping efforts and generally consistent emotional reactions to the subjectively perceived problem. The majority of the patients did not display evidence of premorbid abnormal personalities or life courses. The creation and sustainment of psychotic thoughts are discussed in relation to lack of correcting social feedback due to social isolation and weakened cognitive source monitoring. The implications of a psychological coping perspective for intervention are indicated.     

Words may not be enough! No increased emotional Stroop effect in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Conflicting evidence has been obtained whether or not patients diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) share an attentional bias towards disorder-related stimuli. Some of these inconsistencies can be accounted for by suboptimal stimuli selection. In consideration of the heterogeneity of OCD, we investigated Stroop interference effects for two classes of OCD items (i.e., washing and checking) in 23 OCD patients and 23 healthy controls. In order to cover prevalent OCD concerns, item compilation was based on experts' appraisals. Patients neither displayed greater immediate as well as delayed Stroop interference nor any bias for OCD and subtype-congruent stimuli. On the contrary, for washing-related items, OCD patients, and here especially washers, displayed facilitation relative to healthy controls. Although the present study at first sight refutes the notion of an attentional bias in OCD in contrast to other anxiety disorders, several potential moderators need to be considered before this account is ultimately dismissed. In particular, an attentional bias may only be elicited using visual material that is more attention-grabbing than verbal stimuli. Finally, blockwise instead of random item administration and greater consideration of individual relevance may be crucial prerequisites for the effect to emerge.     

Cognitive functioning, behavior, and quality of life after stroke in childhood.

Rationale: To provide a better understanding of cognitive functioning, motor outcome, behavior and quality of life after childhood stroke and to study the relationship between variables expected to influence rehabilitation and outcome (age at stroke, time elapsed since stroke, lateralization, location and size of lesion). Methods: Children who suffered from stroke between birth and their eighteenth year of life underwent an assessment consisting of cognitive tests (WISC-III, WAIS-R, K-ABC, TAP, Rey-Figure, German Version of the CVLT) and questionnaires (Conner's Scales, KIDSCREEN). Results: Twenty-one patients after stroke in childhood (15 males, mean 11;11 years, SD 4;3, range 6;10-21;2) participated in the study. Mean Intelligence Quotients (IQ) were situated within the normal range (mean Full Scale IQ 96.5, range IQ 79-129). However, significantly more patients showed deficits in various cognitive domains than expected from a healthy population (Performance IQ p = .000; Digit Span p = .000, Arithmetic's p = .007, Divided Attention p = .028, Alertness p = .002). Verbal IQ was significantly better than Performance IQ in 13 of 17 patients, independent of the hemispheric side of lesion. Symptoms of ADHD occurred more often in the patients' sample than in a healthy population (learning difficulties/inattention p = .000; impulsivity/hyperactivity p = .006; psychosomatics p = .006). Certain aspects of quality of life were reduced (autonomy p = .003; parents' relation p = .003; social acceptance p = .037). Three patients had a right-sided hemiparesis, mean values of motor functions of the other patients were slightly impaired (sequential finger movements p = .000, hand alternation p = .001, foot tapping p = .043). In patients without hemiparesis, there was no relation between the lateralization of lesion and motor outcome. Lesion that occurred in the midst of childhood (5-10 years) led to better cognitive outcome than lesion in the very early (0-5 years) or late childhood (10-18 years). Other variables such as presence of seizure, elapsed time since stroke and size of lesion had a small to no impact on prognosis. Conclusion: Moderate cognitive and motor deficits, behavioral problems, and impairment in some aspects of quality of life frequently remain after stroke in childhood. Visuospatial functions are more often reduced than verbal functions, independent of the hemispheric side of lesion. This indicates a functional superiority of verbal skills compared to visuospatial skills in the process of recovery after brain injury. Compared to the cognitive outcome following stroke in adults, cognitive sequelae after childhood stroke do indicate neither the lateralization nor the location of the lesion focus. Age at stroke seems to be the only determining factor influencing cognitive outcome.     

Language specific prosodic preferences during the first half year of life: Evidence from German and French infants

There is converging evidence that infants are sensitive to prosodic cues from birth onwards and use this kind of information in their earliest steps into the acquisition of words and syntactic regularities of their target language. Regarding word segmentation, it has been found that English-learning infants segment trochaic words by 7.5 months of age, and iambic words only by 10.5 months of age [Jusczyk, P. W., Houston, D. M., & Newsome, M. (1999). The beginnings of word segmentation in English-learning infants. Cognitive Psychology, 39, 159–207]. The question remains how to interpret this finding in relation to results showing that English-learning infants develop a preference for trochaic over iambic words between 6 and 9 months of age [Jusczyk, P. W., Cutler, A., & Redanz, N. (1993). Preference for the predominant stress patterns of English words. Child Development, 64, 675–687]. In the following, we report the results of four experiments using the headturn preference procedure (HPP) to explore the trochaic bias issue in German- and French-learning infants. For German, a trochaic preference was found at 6 but not at 4 months, suggesting an emergence of this preference between both ages (Experiments 1 and 2). For French, 6-month-old infants did not show a preference for either stress pattern (Experiment 3) while they were found to discriminate between the two stress patterns (Experiment 4). Our findings are the first to demonstrate that the trochaic bias is acquired by 6 months of age, is language specific and can be predicted by the rhythmic properties of the language in acquisition. We discuss the implications of this very early acquisition for our understanding of the emergence of segmentation abilities.     

No evidence for object alternation impairment in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

Recent neuroimaging studies have consistently ascribed the orbito-frontal cortex (OFC) a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Cognitive tests presumed sensitive to this region, such as the Object Alternation Task (OAT), are considered important tools to verify this assumption and to investigate the impact of cortical dysfunction on behavior. The aim of the present study was to assess if patients with OCD show enhanced perseveration errors on the OAT relative to healthy controls taking into account several potential moderators, especially comorbid depression and OCD subtype. Thirty-five OCD patients and 18 healthy controls underwent the OAT as well as the Trail-Making Tests (TMT) A and B. In line with prior studies, OCD patients were slowed on both TMT tasks. In contrast, samples performed similarly on the OAT. While the latter finding does not invalidate the assumption that the OFC is affected in OCD, dysfunctions involving this region may be more subtle than often claimed and likely encompass only a small subset of functional domains hosted in the OFC.     

In the Eyes of the Beholder: Personality and the Perception of Leadership1

This series of studies focuses on the extent to which the personality of followers is related to their perception of transformational leadership. Followers from 3 different companies and students from a Dutch university were questioned on their personality characteristics and their perception of a described leader (students) or the perception of their actual leader (employees). Although the results differ for the different samples, we found a relationship between followers' personality and the perception of transformational leadership for all of the different samples. The different relationship that we found may hint to the impact of context on the relationship between personality and the perception of leadership. In the discussion, we explain our results in light of these different contexts.     

Variability in the collective behaviour of England fans at Euro2004: ‘Hooliganism’, public order policing and social change

This paper presents an analysis of collective behaviour among England football fans attending the European football championships in Portugal (Euro2004). Given this category's violent reputation, a key goal was to explore the processes underlying their apparent shift away from conflict in match cities. Drawing from the elaborated social identity model of crowd behaviour (ESIM) data were obtained using semi‐structured observations and interviews before, during and after the tournament. Qualitative analysis centres first on three key incidents in match cities where the potential for violence was undermined either by ‘self‐policing’ among England fans, or by appropriately targeted police intervention. These are contrasted with two ‘riots’ involving England fans that occurred in Algarve during the tournament. A phenomenological analysis of England fans' accounts suggests that the contexts created by different forms of policing helped bring to the fore different understandings of what constituted proper and possible behaviour among England fans, and that these changes in identity content underpinned shifts toward and away from collective conflict. The implications of this analysis for the ESIM, understanding public order policing, social change and social conflict are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Temporal characteristics of slot machine play in recreational gamblers.

The present study examined the temporal characteristics of play exhibited by recreational slot machine players. 12 women (M = 24 yr., range 22-28) played a computerized version of a slot machine with probability of payoff, i.e., a winning spin, ranging from .2 to .6. Intertrial intervals or the time between the termination of one trial to the initiation of the next trial varied within subjects as a function of wins and losses. Winning trials were associated with larger intertrial intervals and losing trials with smaller intertrial intervals for 10 of the 12 women. No differences were found across probability levels between subjects. Results are discussed in terms of the post-reinforcement pause that occurs on specific schedules of reinforcement.     

The words we work with that work on us: clinical paradigm and cumulative relational trauma

This paper addresses a gap between analytic clinical theory and practice which emerges when examining the words we work with via textual and narrative research of case histories. Both subject matter and methodology fit with the remit of conceptual research in psychoanalysis, currently ranging from inductive to nomothetical approaches. Research of clinical language reveals an implicit account of human nature and the world which undergirds clinical practice. Based in the critical philosophy of the previous century, this is termed clinical paradigm. Such implicit views are induced rather than explicitly taught during analytic training, and need to be spelled out in order to become available to discourse and difference of opinion. Textual research shows these implicit pre‐clinical attitudes to be inherently pessimistic and thus too similar to the views of self and others found in cumulative relational trauma. Moreover, clinical accounts tend to normalize subtly antagonistic forms of relating, recently recognised as micro‐trauma. Importantly, this contravenes the agapic orientation of our theories and ethics. Paradigmatic reflection as a form of professional individuation addresses this gap. This includes a more optimistic outlook which can be traced through the philosophical implications of quantum theory.