The prevention of depressive symptoms in rural Australian women

Two interventions aimed at preventing depressive symptoms in women living in Western Australian rural communities were evaluated against a no‐intervention control condition. The standard intervention was based upon traditional cognitive‐behaviour treatments for depression; the experimental intervention was based upon prevention strategies derived from the learned helplessness model of depression (e.g. Peterson, Maier, & Seligman, 1993 ). Seventy‐six women were randomly assigned to either the standard or the experimental group, and a further 20 women formed a no‐intervention control group. The standard group showed a reduction in depressive symptoms at post‐test, but no effects at 6‐week or 6‐month follow‐ups. In contrast, a reduction in depressive symptoms did not appear for the experimental group until the 6‐week follow‐up at which time a less depressive attributional style was also evident; these effects were even more pronounced at the 6‐month follow‐up. The no‐intervention control group showed no changes across time. It is argued that these results support the applicability of prevention strategies based on the learned helplessness model to this population. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Personality, personal model beliefs, and self-care in adolescents and young adults with Type 1 diabetes.

This study compared 3 models of association between personality, personal model beliefs, and self-care in a cross-sectional design. These models were as follows: (a) Emotional stability determines self-care indirectly through personal model beliefs, and conscientiousness is a direct predictor of self-care; (b) emotional stability determines self-care indirectly through personal model beliefs, and conscientiousness moderates the association between beliefs and self-care; (c) both emotional stability and conscientiousness determine self-care indirectly through personal model beliefs. Participants (N = 358, aged 12-30 years) with Type 1 diabetes completed measures of personality, personal model beliefs, and self-care. Structural equation modeling indicated that Model C was the best fit to the data.     

Democratic Moral Education and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit

How far is Thomas Aquinas available for current discussions in political philosophy? While there are certainly things to be learned from him about our political preoccupations, the pedagogy of his moral teaching typically resists our familiar questions. This holds even when the question is put in terms that Thomas should recognize—say, as a question about the virtues appropriate for a democracy. Thomas not only gives different meanings to these terms, he moves political topics away from the center of theological attention and so organizes them very differently. A reader can notice these differences at many points but perhaps especially in the attention that Thomas gives in the Summa to the gifts of the Holy Spirit. His account of these gifts qualifies significantly what he says of virtue and suggests large limits on human agency, whether in ethics or in politics.     

Object-based inhibition of return in static displays

After attention has been oriented to a location, inhibition mechanisms prevent the return of attention shortly afterward. This inhibition can be associated with an object in such a way that after cuing attention to the object, inhibition can move with the object to a new location. Recent research has noted that the object-based inhibition of return effect in moving displays is much smaller than the effect observed in static displays, and hence may be of little functional utility. However, we demonstrate that, on the contrary, the large effects observed in static displays are produced precisely because of the existence of object-based frames, which can be additive with location-based frames of reference.     

A digital system for recording startle,responses in small animals

An easily constructed, isometric startle-recording system is described. The animal enclosure is attached to a plywood board-which, in ten, is mounted in a “springboard” arrangement. Movement is detected by a phonocartridge mounted beneath the chamber, and a digital record of this movement is obtained through the use of a voltage-to-frequency converter. A brief experiment in which the system was used to assess the rat’s reaction to electric footshock is also presented.