Pricing Favors: Some Evidence on the Efficiency of Backscratching

Backscratching is the trading of favors and the economic basis of much of the informal cooperation that goes on inside organizations and in society. The experiment we present investigates the efficiency of backscratching. We find that people are, for the most part, good at coordinating the exchange of favors, even when restricted to tacit bargaining, and even when there is an asymmetry to the payoffs of the favors exchanged. Transactions nevertheless tend to have low social efficiency because of the way the favors are priced.     

Stigma modifies the association between social support and mental health among sexual violence survivors in the Democratic Republic of Congo: implications for practice

Background and Objectives: The aim of this study was to further understanding of the relationship between social support, internalized and perceived stigma, and mental health among women who experienced sexual violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Methods: Drawing from baseline survey data collected in eastern DRC, researchers conducted a secondary cross-sectional analysis using data from 744 participants. Regression and moderation analyses were conducted to examine associations between social support variables, felt stigma, and depression, anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Results: Emotional support seeking and felt stigma were positively associated with increased symptom severity across all three mental health variables. Stigma modified associations between emotional support seeking and depression (t?=??2.49, p?=?.013), anxiety (t?=??3.08, p?=?.002), and PTSD (t?=??2.94, p?=?.003). Increased frequency of emotional support seeking was associated with higher mental health symptoms of anxiety and PTSD among women experiencing all levels of stigma.

Conclusions: Enhancing understanding of social support and stigma may inform research and intervention among Congolese forced migrant populations across circumstances and geographic locations. Implications for practice and research are discussed.     

Neurological and neuropsychological signs in obsessive compulsive disorder: interaction with behavioural treatment

The main aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that neurological soft signs and neuropsychological abnormalities associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) predict poor response to behavioural treatment. The design permitted investigation of secondary hypotheses, regarding correlations among these neurological markers and levels of symptomatology, and their stability in relation to changes in levels of symptomatology. Thirty-five participants satisfying DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for OCD were assessed pre- and postbehavioural treatment using a scaled measure of symptom severity, and a battery of tests sensitive to neuropsychological deficits associated with OCD. Eighteen of the participants were also assessed on an inventory of neurological soft signs. Neither neuropsychological test deficits nor neurological soft signs pretreatment predicted response to behavioural treatment. Lower performance on neuropsychological tasks and symptom severity were both significantly correlated with levels of soft signs. Some neurological markers were less severe posttreatment, but these changes were not related to treatment response.     

Primary obsessional slowness: a nursing treatment programme with a 13-year-old male adolescent

A 13-year-old male adolescent inpatient with a 5-year history of primary obsessional slowness was treated using a nursing intervention programme involving prompting, pacing and shaping, or participant modelling of four types of self-care behaviour. The treatments produced an immediate increase in response rate of three of the four behaviour targets. Treatment gains were not maintained during the gradual fading of the intervention programme. Possible reasons for failure to achieve treatment maintenance are discussed in light of the literature on primary obsessional slowness.     

Personality characteristics associated with aerobic exercise in adult males

Using an index of aerobic conditioning 23 adult male exercisers and 23 nonexercisers were identified. During individual interviews with each subject basic demographic data were obtained and blood pressure, resting pulse rate, and body fat were measured. All subjects completed Form A of the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF). Statistically significant differences occurred on six primary factors and four Secondary dimensions of the 16PF. In comparison to the inactive subjects the exercisers, all of whom were joggers or runners, were more reserved, expedient, suspicious, forthright, liberal, and self-sufficient on the primary traits, and were more alert and independent, less discreet, and evidenced lower super-ego strength on the broader secondary patterns. The statistically significant training effects were lower pulse rate and less body fat, but did not include blood pressure.     

Developmental path between language and autistic‐like impairments: a twin study

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are diagnosed when individuals show impairments in three behavioural domains: communication, social interactions, and repetitive, restrictive behaviours and interests (RRBIs). Recent data suggest that these three sets of behaviours are genetically heterogeneous. Early language delay is strongly associated with ASD, but the basis for this association and the relationship with individual sub‐domains of ASD has not been systematically investigated. In the present study, data came from a population‐based twin sample with language development data at 2–4 years, measured by the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory (MCDI), and data at 8 years using the Childhood Asperger Syndrome Test (CAST). For the total CAST and the three subscales at 8 years, approximately 300 same‐sex twin pairs were selected as showing extreme autistic‐like traits (ALTs), defined here as pairs in which at least one member of the twin pair scored in the highest 5% of the distribution. Phenotypic analyses indicated that children showing extreme social and communication ALTs (but not the RRBI subscale) at 8 years were below average in language development at 2–4 years. A regression model for selected twin data suggested that genetic influences account for this overlap, but that these effects are only in part mediated by genes that are shared between language and extreme autistic traits. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Face and gaze processing in Prader‐Willi syndrome

A number of developmental disorders of genetic origin show atypical aspects of face processing. However, little is known about face processing in Prader‐Willi syndrome (PWS). PWS is of specific interest because it has two modes of inheritance (paternally derived deletion, DEL; maternal uniparental disomy, UPD) only one of which (UPD) is associated with an increased risk of autistic symptomology. We conducted electrophysiological (ERP) and behavioural measurements of face and eye‐gaze processing in individuals with PWS derived from both modes of inheritance. Our hypothesis that UPD PWS would show a pattern of deficits resembling those seen in autism was only partially confirmed. Although some individuals from both groups showed deficits, as a whole the UPD group (N=8) and the DEL group (N=8) did not differ on behavioural measures of face processing or autistic symptoms. In contrast, the effect of face orientation and gaze direction on the amplitude of the N170 ERP component differed between the two PWS sub‐types. Thus, while the behavioural tests did not discriminate between the UPD and deletion forms of the syndrome, electrophysiological measures of face processing did differentiate the groups.