The Development of a Brief Version of the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire

The increasing interest between religiosity and health benefits has created the need for a brief, reliable, valid, and practical instrument to measure strength of religious faith. The purpose of this study is to develop a brief version of the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire (SCSRFQ). The SCSRFQ has been reduced from a ten-item questionnaire to a five-item scale, making it more suitable for administration to severely ill patients and for use in large-scale epidemiological studies. To create the brief version, 1584 participants completed the SCSRFQ. Results were evaluated for high correlation coefficients between individual item responses and the overall total 10 questions from the original scale. Items to be used in the abbreviated version were also selected on the basis of having moderate and centered means and high standard deviations. Thus, the items selected for the brief version generally correlated highly with the total score for the longer questionnaire and provided adequate variability. The reduced version, using questions 2, 4, 5, 8, and 10 of the original scale provides a > 0.95 correlation with results from the longer version.     

Retributive justice, restorative justice, and forgiveness: An experimental psychophysiology analysis

This experiment assessed the emotional self-reports and physiology of justice outcomes and forgiveness responses to a common crime, using a three Justice (retributive, restorative, no justice) × 2 Forgiveness (forgiveness, none) repeated-measures design. Participants (27 males, 29 females) imagined their residence was burglarized, followed by six counterbalanced justice-forgiveness outcomes. Imagery of justice—especially restorative—and forgiveness each reduced unforgiving motivations and negative emotion (anger, fear), and increased prosocial and positive emotion (empathy, gratitude). Imagery of granting forgiveness (versus not) was associated with less heart rate reactivity and better recovery; less negative emotion expression at the brow (corrugator EMG); and less aroused expression at the eye (lower orbicularis oculi EMG when justice was absent). When forgiveness was not imagined, justice-physiology effects emerged: signs of cardiovascular stress (rate pressure products) were lower for retributive versus no justice; and sympathetic nervous system responding (skin conductance) was calmer for restorative versus retributive justice.     

Relationship between nicotinic receptors and cognitive function in early Alzheimer's disease: a 2-[18F]fluoro-A-85380 PET study

Neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are critical for higher order cognitive processes. Post-mortem studies suggest reductions in nAChRs (particularly the alpha(4)beta(2) subtype) with ageing and in Alzheimer's disease (AD). This study aimed to; (1) quantify nAChR distribution in vivo with 2-[18F]fluoro-A-85380 (2-FA) in 15 early AD patients compared to 14 age-matched, healthy controls (HC) and (2) correlate nAChR distribution with cognitive performance in both groups. All participants were non-smokers and underwent cognitive testing along with a dynamic PET scan after injection of 200 MBq of 2-FA. Brain regional 2-FA binding was assessed through a simplified estimation of Distribution Volume (DV(S)). The AD group differed significantly from HC on all cognitive measures employed, with impairments on measures of attention, working memory, language, executive function, visuospatial ability, verbal learning and verbal memory (p<.05). Contrary to post-mortem data this study found no evidence of in vivo nAChR loss in early AD despite significant cognitive impairment. Furthermore, no correlation between nAChR and cognitive performance was found for either group. The findings of the current study suggest preservation of nAChRs early in AD supporting previous studies. It is possible that while the clinical 2-FA PET method described here may be insensitive in detecting changes in early AD, such changes may be detected in more advanced stages of the illness.     

Romantic Relationships and Health: An Examination of Individuals’ Perceptions of their Romantic Partners’ Influences on their Health

This study examines individuals’ perceptions of the impact their significant others have on their health and the extent to which these perceptions are associated with relationship quality and actual health. Two-hundred and ten participants (105 U.S. couples; mean age = 24.93) completed measures of their relationship quality and health along with an open-ended measure asking them to indicate how they felt their partner influenced their health. Results indicated that participants perceived their romantic partners to be primarily positive health influences, women believed their partners were more influential than did men, and eating and physical activity behaviors were believed to be most affected by partners. Participants’ relationship quality and health were associated with their reports of their perceived partners’ health influences. The research described in this report was supported by an award to Charlotte Markey from Rutgers University.     

What is the Social Impact of ADHD in Girls? A Multi-Method Assessment

This study explores the social impact of ADHD, with and without opposition-defiant behaviour (ADHD+ODD (n= 22) and ADHD-only (n= 18)), in 9- to 12- year old girls compared to girls without ADHD (n= 40). Girls played a computer game involving simulated players, and mothers and teachers completed rating scales. In general, mothers and teachers saw girls with ADHD+ODD as more overtly and relationally aggressive and less prosocial than girls with ADHD-only, who were seen as more overtly and relationally aggressive and less prosocial than control girls. On the computer game, girls with ADHD+ODD were more overtly aggressive, more directly relationally aggressive, and showed less skilled behaviour than the other groups. Girls with ADHD-only showed less covert, indirect relational aggression and more socially awkward interactions than girls in the control group on the computer game. In all, the results indicate that girls with ADHD, with and without ODD behaviour, engage in socially detrimental behaviours.     

The role of shyness and self-focused attention for attribution of reactions in social situations to internal and external causes

The hypothesis that shyness would be associated with attribution of emotional reactions to stable internal causes rather than to less stable internal and external causes was tested in Study 1 (N = 60). In Study 2 (N= 112) the hypothesis that the explanatory power of shyness would decrease once the effect of self-focused attention on attribution to stable internal causes had been controlled for was tested. The results confirmed both hypotheses. Shyness correlated positively with attribution to stable internal causes, but non-significant with attribution to less stable internal and external causes. Shyness explained a lesser portion of the variance in attribution to both of the internal causes when controlling for self-focus. Even though the findings indicate that self-focus is central to the social cognitive processes of shy individuals, they also suggest that self-focus cannot fully explain attribution to internal causes in general and shy individuals' attributional pattern in particular.     

Oppression and empowerment: perceptions of violence among urban youth

Youth violence in the United States has emerged as a major concern for communities, policymakers and community researchers. This paper reports on the efforts of a child mental health clinic to build a community consensus around addressing violence that affects youth and all members of the community. We describe and give case examples regarding our approach to acquiring the perspectives of the community, particularly that of youth, discuss key themes and implications that emerged from our work, and offer preliminary recommendations for designing a youth violence prevention initiative in a disenfranchised community. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.