Becoming Sanctuary

During times of illness, caregivers become sanctuary to the one who is without sickness. Reflections from clinical cases are interwoven with theoretical concepts from Process Philosophy, Jewish and Christian Theology, and Ethics. The immanence of God/Buddha/the Divine Being with us in our time of suffering is explored. Sanctuary manifests compassion through a pastoral practice of deep listening that hears the ill person into speech. Sanctuary is protection from the life-saving medical technology used in response to illness, the painful symptoms that impact both patient and caregivers, and the anxiety of loving family members. Sanctuary restores and protects relationships during the last days and hours of our lives.     

Feasibility of a Telephone Intervention for HIV Patients and Their Informal Caregivers

Objectives: To assess the feasibility of a telephone intervention for HIV-positive patients and their caregivers. Methods: HIV-positive participants, some co-enrolled with their informal caregiver, enrolled in this randomized study. Intervention-arm participants (124 patients and 76 caregivers; dyads assigned to same arm) received up to 12 scheduled calls from an interventionist over 6 months. Results: An average of 7.6 (SD = 3.0) calls to each participant was completed; 66.5% received at least 6 calls; 43.0% received more than 75% of the intervention (defined as ‘study adherent’). Having a higher T-cell count was associated with call adherence (p = .014); cocaine use was associated with reduced call adherence for both patients (p = .019) and caregivers (p = .083). Common telephone themes included problems with mood, relationships, finances, housing, and work; interventions (e.g., referral for mental health care) were initiated in response to these. Participant satisfaction was high, and many reported benefits from the intervention. Conclusions: Using a telephone intervention with HIV-positive patients and their caregivers is a feasible and potentially beneficial intervention.     

Development of the reciprocity of self-disclosure.

This study was designed to assess whether children demonstrate covariant and equivalent forms of the reciprocity of self-disclosure, and if so, at what age. Twenty-one kindergarten, 23 second-grade, 24 fourth-grade, and 24 sixth-grade children were shown videotapes of three children (partners) who provided pre-established low-, medium-, and high-intimate disclosures. The subjects were required to send a message to the partners on topics varying in personal content. Fourth-grade children showed evidence of covariant reciprocity of self-disclosure by disclosing higher intimacy to high-intimate partners than to low-intimate partners. Sixth-grade children showed equivalent reciprocity of self-disclosure by providing a greater number of high- and medium-intimate disclosures to high- and medium-intimate partners, respectively, than to low-intimate partners. By contrast, neither form of reciprocity of self-disclosure was shown by kindergarten and second-grade children. Consistent with our expectations, girls provided a greater number of high-intimate disclosures than did boys in three of the four grades. The findings are discussed in terms of interplay between the development of the reciprocity of self-disclosure and the norm of the reciprocity of self-disclosure.     

Substance p reversal of electroconvulsive shock and cycloheximide-induced retrograde amnesia

Subcutaneous post-trial administration of the neuropeptide substance P was found to reverse the amnestic effects of both electroconvulsive shock and cycloheximide. Substance P was observed to reverse the amnestic effects of cycloheximide in both C57B1/6J and heterogeneous strain (HS) mice. Substance P was found to reverse the amnestic effects of electroconvulsive seizures in C57B1/6J animals. Peripheral injections of substance P were also found to facilitate the retention of a single-trial passive avoidance habit in animals of both genotypes, provided a weak footshock was used during training.     

Perception in chess

This paper develops a technique for isolating and studying the perceptual structures that chess players perceive. Three chess players of varying strength — from master to novice — were confronted with two tasks: (1) A perception task, where the player reproduces a chess position in plain view, and (2) de Groot's (1965) short-term recall task, where the player reproduces a chess position after viewing it for 5 sec. The successive glances at the position in the perceptual task and long pauses in the memory task were used to segment the structures in the reconstruction protocol. The size and nature of these structures were then analyzed as a function of chess skill.     

The effects of a variety of instructions on human fixed-interval performance

College students were instructed to press a button for points under a single reinforcement schedule or under a variety of reinforcement schedules. Instructions for a single schedule were either specific or minimal. Instructions on a variety of schedules involved specific instructions on eight different schedules of reinforcement. Subsequent to the varied training, responding under a fixed-interval schedule occurred at a low rate. Both the minimal and specific instruction training led to fixed-interval responding that was similar to the responding exhibited during training. These findings suggest that under certain conditions instructed behavior is sensitive to changes in contingencies.