Optimism, Pessimism, and Hope in Durkheim

In Book Two, Chapter (1), of The Division of Labor in Society (1984) entitled "The Progress of the Division of Labor and Happiness", Emile Durkheim (1858–1917) stages a provocative encounter between the attitudes of optimism and pessimism, an encounter that reveals certain problematic assumptions regarding the status of hope in relation to the project of binding oneself to life under conditions of anomie. Durkheim's theoretical assault on the utilitarian-based optimism of his day is accomplished against the backdrop of a critical pessimism that is shown to be equally untenable. However, his critique leaves the question of the status of hope in relation to the question of human happiness unclarified and ambiguously framed, even as Durkheim defends hope against the despair of pessimism. The essay concludes with a critical appraisal of Durkheim's partial critique of pessimism and a few observations regarding the links between memory, expectation, pessimism, suicide, hope, and happiness.     

Engagement and outcome in the treatment of bulimia nervosa: first phase of a sequential design comparing motivation enhancement therapy and cognitive behavioural therapy

Despite the major advances in the development of treatments for bulimia nervosa, drop-outs and a lack of engagement in treatment, continue to be problems. Recent studies suggest that the transtheoretical model of change may be applicable to bulimia nervosa. The aim of this study was to examine the roles of readiness to change and therapeutic alliance in determining engagement and outcome in the first phase of treatment. One hundred and twenty five consecutive female patients meeting DSM-IV criteria for bulimia nervosa took part in a randomised controlled treatment trial. The first phase of the sequential treatment compared four sessions of either cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) or motivational enhancement therapy (MET) in engaging patients in treatment and reducing symptoms. Patients in the action stage showed greater improvement in symptoms of binge eating than did patients in the contemplation stage. Higher pretreatment scores on action were also related to the development of a better therapeutic alliance (as perceived by patients) after four weeks. However, pretreatment stage of change did not predict who dropped out of treatment. There were no differences between MET and CBT in terms of reducing bulimic symptoms or in terms of developing a therapeutic alliance or increasing readiness to change. The results suggest that the transtheoretical model of change may have some validity in the treatment of bulimia nervosa although current measures of readiness to change may require modification. Overall, readiness to change is more strongly related to improvement and the development of a therapeutic alliance than the specific type of treatment.     

The assessment of obsessionality using the Padua inventory: its validity in a British non-clinical sample

The Padua Inventory (PI) is a measure of obsessive–compulsive phenomena, which permits measurement of both number and severity of symptoms. Data is available from Italy, the US, the Netherlands and Australia on non-clinical samples. The present study provides a psychometric evaluation of the PI on a British non-clinical sample (N=1855). Comparisons are made with other data and further suggestions for the use of the PI are made. Results from the present study indicate that the PI has similar, though not identical, factor structure to previous studies, adequate internal reliability and construct validity. Four factors emerged, containing clusters of items broadly relating to ‘impaired control over mental activities/doubting', ‘contamination', ‘checking' and ‘worries about losing control over motor behaviour' and these included most of the items loading on the same factors in earlier studies together with additional items.The relationships of age and gender with the PI scores are investigated. Differences were found from the Sanavio (1988) [Sanavio, E. (1988). Obsessions and compulsions: the Padua Inventory. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 26, 169–177.] Italian sample. These differences are in keeping with other available data from British samples and other data on the epidemiology of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. The five factor structure found in the one study using clinical and non-clinical subjects is discussed in relation to the present analyses.     

Psychiatric chrono‐epidemiology: its relevance for the study of aggression

Chrono‐epidemiology is the study of the distribution of health events according to time. The time intervals taken into account have cyclic patterns and include circadian, weekly, seasonal, and circannual rhythms. In the behavioural field, chrono‐epidemiology can be and has been applied to studies concerning the causes of death (suicide and homicide), clinical events such as admissions to and contacts with mental healthcare services, and the seasonal distribution of crime involving the use of violence. Frequently reported findings include clear circadian and seasonal rhythms present in the phenomenon of suicide (rhythms more evident in the case of violent suicide); seasonal rhythms in the expression of aggression by patients hospitalised for mental illness; and a circannual recurrence of crimes with a violent component. The intrinsic circadian and seasonal rhythms of some neuronal systems, particularly those of serotonin, involved in the control of mood and impulses, are thought to favour the behavioural rhythms observed, although the contribution of socio‐environmental factors, such as the fluctuation of supportive networks according to time, is also acknowledged. By demonstrating non‐casual recurrence of certain behaviour and by exploring the socio‐biological basis of the rhythms beneath these recurrences, chrono‐epidemiology may offer important etiologic and preventive clues to the understanding of the biological and environmental correlates of aggressive behaviour. Aggr. Behav. 28:477–490, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Conversation and Behavior Games in the Pragmatics of Dialogue

In this article we present the bases for a computational theory of the cognitive processes underlying human communication. The core of the article is devoted to the analysis of the phases in which the process of comprehension of a communicative act can be logically divided: (1) literal meaning, where the reconstruction of the mental states literally expressed by the actor takes place: (2) speaker's meaning, where the partner reconstructs the communicative intentions of the actor; (3) communicative effect, where the partner possibly modifies his own beliefs and intentions; (4) reaction, where the intentions for the generation of the response are produced; and (5) response, where an overt response is constructed. The model appears to be compatible with relevant facts about human behavior. Our hypothesis is that, through communication, an actor tries to exploit the motivational structures of a partner so that the desired goal is generated. A second point is that social behavior requires that cooperation be maintained at some level. In the case of communication, cooperation is, in general, pursued even when the partner does not adhere to the actor's goals, and therefore no cooperation occurs at the behavioral level. This important distinction is reflected in the two kinds of game we introduce to account for communication. The main concept implied in communication is that two agents overtly reach a situation of shared mental states. Our model deals with sharedness through two primitives: shared beliefs and communicative intentions.     

The Relation of Lifetime Cognitive Activity and Lifetime Access to Resources to Late-life Cognitive Function in Older African Americans

ABSTRACT

Research in older Caucasians has demonstrated that cognitive activity is related to cognitive function in late adulthood. Knowledge of this association is limited in older minority populations. We examined the relation of cognitive activity and access to cognitive resources, with cognitive function in a group of 108 older African Americans. We constructed two scales to measure the frequency of cognitive activity and the presence of resources that promote cognitive activity during early and late life. Both measures had high internal consistency and the cognitive activity scale had adequate temporal stability over a 4-week interval. In analyses that controlled for age and education, more frequent lifetime cognitive activity was related to current cognitive function, but lifetime cognitive resources only approached significance. The results suggest that both measures are psychometrically sound in a minority population and that lifetime cognitive activity may contribute to current cognitive function in African Americans.     

Stability of recent and remote contextual fear memory

Following initial encoding, memories undergo a prolonged period of reorganization. While such reorganization may occur in many different memory systems, its purpose is not clear. Previously, we have shown that recall of recent contextual fear memories engages the dorsal hippocampus (dHPC). In contrast, recall of remote contextual fear memories engages a number of different cortical regions, including the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). To examine whether this reorganization leads to greater memory stability, we examined reconsolidation of 1 d-old (recent) and 36 d-old (remote) contextual fear memory in mice. We infused the protein synthesis inhibitor, anisomycin (ANI), into either the dHPC or ACC immediately following retrieval of either a recent or remote contextual fear memory. In the dHPC, ANI infusions disrupted subsequent expression of recent, but not remote, contextual fear memory. Similar infusions into the ACC had no effect on either recent or remote contextual fear memories, whereas systemically applied ANI blocked subsequent remote memory expression when long re-exposure durations were used. Together, these data suggest that as memories mature they become increasingly stable. Furthermore, the dissociation between the effects of systemically and centrally administered ANI on remote memory suggests that stability is due, in part, to the distributed nature of remote contextual fear memories.     

Automated verbal credibility assessment of intentions: The model statement technique and predictive modeling

Recently, verbal credibility assessment has been extended to the detection of deceptive intentions, the use of a model statement, and predictive modeling. The current investigation combines these 3 elements to detect deceptive intentions on a large scale. Participants read a model statement and wrote a truthful or deceptive statement about their planned weekend activities (Experiment 1). With the use of linguistic features for machine learning, more than 80% of the participants were classified correctly. Exploratory analyses suggested that liars included more person and location references than truth‐tellers. Experiment 2 examined whether these findings replicated on independent‐sample data. The classification accuracies remained well above chance level but dropped to 63%. Experiment 2 corroborated the finding that liars' statements are richer in location and person references than truth‐tellers' statements. Together, these findings suggest that liars may over‐prepare their statements. Predictive modeling shows promise as an automated veracity assessment approach but needs validation on independent data.