Attention deficit,conduct, oppositional,and anxiety disorders in children: III. Laboratory differences

Children aged 5–13 years with DSM-III diagnoses of Attention Deficit (ADDH), Anxiety, (ANX), or Conduct plus ADDH (HC) Disorder and matched normal controls were compared on a set of laboratory measures of impulsivity, arousal, motor performance, activity level, and cognition, and on behavior ratings during testing. While ANX patients did not differ from their controls, ADDH and HC patients did on Verbal IQ, most of the behavior ratings, and on about one-third of the test variables. ANX patients were about 1 year older, and more likely to be female, than ADDH and HC patients. When age, sex, and verbal IQ effects were partialed out, very few differences among the three diagnostic groups remained. The importance of precise control of such variables is emphasized and the impact of the failure to do so in past studies is discussed. The question is raised whether the deficit in verbal IQ is not so much a defect of matching as the essential feature of ADDH from which most of the other commonly reported cognitive symptoms stem.This research was supported by the Medical Research Council of New Zealand.     

Achievement and adjustment correlates of the matching familiar figures test

To help clarify the relationship between the Matching Familiar Figures (MFF) Test and measures of school achievement and adjustment, 450 children from kindergarten, second, and fifth grades were tested and achievement scores and teacher's ratings of classroom and personal adjustment were obtained. Regardless of grades, MFF latency in most instances did not predict achievement or adjustment. At the kindergarten level the correlations between MFF errors and both achievement and adjustment were significant for most subscales but at second grade correlations were lower and generally nonsignificant except for a few adjustment items. At the fifth grade level the correlations were moderately high but when IQ was partialled out the correlations with achievement and school adjustment dropped to near zero; however, partialling out IQ did not affect the moderate correlations between errors and personal adjustment. The errors score evidencedmore important relationships than the latency scores. The relationship between the MFF and ratings of social and emotional adjustment was consistently higher than the correlations between the MFF and achievement. These results suggest that MFF errors are personalogically relevant and that MFF performance is generally more related to adjustment than achievement.     

The leisure problem and the role of the clergy

Leisure behavior reflects a response to religious questions in that it is a matter of choice and value. The article investigates leisure as a social problem and defines it as a spiritual capacity for freedom. Historically there have been variations in the value accorded leisure in religion fostering tension between the values of work and leisure. An analysis of structural interrelations between leisure and religion suggest ways clergy may help to alter the work-leisure relation by pointing to the value of leisure and creating social oportunities for its use.     

The relative influence of facial neoteny and waist-to-hip ratio on judgements of female attractiveness and fecundity

Numerous studies have demonstrated that waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) affects perceptions of female physical attractiveness and fecundity. This study tested the assumption that facial attractiveness explained more variance in overall ratings and fecundity than WHR, when the latter is manipulated within the normal range (0.67 - 0.85). One hundred and sixty-one participants (mean age = 21.5) rated the attractiveness, youthfulness, fertility, healthiness and likelihood of being pregnant for 27 photographs of three females in which facial attractiveness in terms of neoteny (three levels) and WHR (three levels) had been systematically digitally manipulated. Facial attractiveness exerted a significant influence on judgements of attractiveness, youthfulness, fertility and healthiness, whereas WHR only affected likelihood of being pregnant. Results are interpreted in terms of neotenous facial attractiveness providing potential mates with information concerning phenotypic and genetic quality.     

Nonverbal learning disabilities: The syndrome and a case study

Presents the syndrome of nonverbal learning disabilities (NLD) and the model developed to encompass its complex manifestations. Included are the history of the development of the syndrome, the types of children in whom its principal features are manifest, the hypothesized neurological bases of the syndrome, and a test of its developmental dimensions. A case study with assessment results and treatment implications illustrates the clinical dimensions of the syndrome. General developmental and treatment implications of the NLD syndrome and the NLD model are also included.     

GOLEMS IN THE BIOTECH CENTURY

The legend of the golem, the creation of life through mystical and magical means, is the most famous postbiblical Jewish legend. After noting recent references to the golem legend in fiction, film, art, and scientific literature, I outline three stages of the development of the legend, including its relationship to the story of Frankenstein. I apply teachings about the golem in classical Jewish religious literature to implications of the legend for ethical issues relating to bioengineering, reproductive biotechnology, robotics, artificial intelligence, artificial life, and corporate ethics. The golem legend emerges as a source of prudent guidance through the minefield of ethical and spiritual problems emerging from current and expected developments in biotechnology.