Replication of the factor structure of the fear of AIDS schedule (FAIDSS) across samples

Abstract

The stability of the Fear of AIDS Scale (FAIDSS) was studied using three samples (two samples of health workers and one of social work students) on Cattel's s index. Using hyperplane cutoffs between 0.35 and 0.45, on the five factor solution of the FAIDSS, there were significant correlations between factors across samples and with few exceptions each factor correlated significantly with only one factor in its comparison samples. Concurrent validity was demonstrated by comparing scores on the Attitudes toward AIDS scale with the FAIDSS. Data indicated that the FAIDSS structure was stable across samples and is an appropriate instrument for measurement of fear of AIDS in the helping professions.     

Stress,psychiatric co-morbidity and coping in patients with chronic idiopathic urticaria

This study examined life event stress, perceived stress and psychiatric co-morbidity among patients with Chronic Idiopathic Urticaria (CIU). It also investigated the relationship between coping, stress, the severity of CIU and psychiatric co-morbidity. Total of 100 CIU patients and 60 allergy patients participated in the study. They completed the General Health Questionnaire, the Social Readjustment Rating Scale, the Perceived Stress Scale, and the Ways of Coping Checklist. Compared with allergy patients, CIU patients had worse co-morbidity and higher levels of life event stress and perceived stress. Emotion-focussed coping was associated with the severity of CIU; perceived stress was associated with co-morbidity.     

Interpreting the Risks of Diabetic Renal Disease: Perspectives of those Most at Risk

Fifty people with diabetes attending a 'high risk' renal clinic were interviewed about their perceptions of diabetic nephropathy and other diabetes related complications. Despite the high risks involved many patients appeared relatively unconcerned with, or even unaware of, the severity of their condition. It is argued that lack of obvious symptoms associated with nephropathy can lead to ambiguity during consultations and greater opportunity for the use of a variety of risk attenuation strategies by the patient. It is recommended that medical staff become aware of these strategies in order to understand failures in self-management in the face of complications such as nephropathy.     

When the Rule is Ruled Out: Exemplars and Rules in Decisions from Memory

What are the cognitive processes underlying people's decisions from memory? Previous research suggests that these processes can be best described by strategies that are based on abstract knowledge about the decision task (e.g., cue–criterion relations). However, recent results show that different cue presentation formats trigger the use of different decision strategies and that exemplar‐based strategies can account for memory‐based decisions as well. In three experiments, this effect was replicated, and mediation analyses identified the quality of the underlying knowledge representation as the critical variable that determines decision behavior. This supports the view that exemplar‐based reasoning is used as a backup system if cue abstraction is hindered. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Association of Neurofibromatosis Type 1 and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Some research and clinical observations have linked Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF-1) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). In order to investigate whether ADHD is part of the phenotype of NF-1 or is a separate, unrelated disorder within families, we compared the ADHD status of children affected with NF-1 to that of their unaffected-NF-1 siblings and to that of their biological parents. Results of matched-pair analyses were calculated and revealed a significant with-in pair discordance, when comparing children with NF-1 and their siblings and when comparing children with NF-1 and their biological parents (in families with a sporadic, non-familial NF-1 child). These findings suggest that ADHD may occur as a component of the NF-1 phenotype.     

Executive function performance on the children's kitchen task assessment with children with sickle cell disease and matched controls

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare executive function abilities of 8- to 12-year-old children with sickle cell disease (SCD) with a matched control sample. The measures included the parent and teacher Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF); the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS), Free Sorting Test and Color Word Interference Test; and the Children's Kitchen Task Assessment (CKTA), a new performance measure. Methods: Twenty-two children with SCD were recruited from one hematology clinic and 22 community children, matched on characteristics of age, gender, and race, were selected from a larger sample of controls for comparison. Parents and teachers completed rating scales. Results:As hypothesized, children with SCD scored significantly lower than matched controls on Digit Span Forward; on 5 of the 9 D-KFES Color Word Interference and Sorting tasks; on CKTA organization, initiation, and task completion; and on the BRIEF's parent and teacher Metacognitive Index (MI) and Global Executive Composite (GEC) scores. Conclusion:Cognitive and performance evaluations indicate lower executive function among children with SCD. Results substantiate the need for evaluative triangulation for children with SCD: Neurocognitive testing supported by performance testing, and adult reflection of a child's daily performance compared to other children. These elements will provide rich data to create educational support for children with SCD who have frequent hospitalizations, school absences, and the potential presence of cerebral vascular accident symptomology.     

Effects of IQ on Executive Function Measures in Children with ADHD

The present study compared children with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and controls on a selected set of clinical measures of executive function (EF). A total of 92 children (51 ADHD, 41 control), ages 6-16, completed measures chosen from a larger neuropsychological battery to illustrate diverse components of the EF construct (planning, inhibitory control, response preparation, memory search). The selected measures were moderately correlated with one another, and moderately correlated with IQ. After controlling for age, sex, presence of learning disability (LD), ADHD, and IQ test version, Full Scale IQ was significantly related to four of the five selected EF measures. A second analysis showed group differences on the EF measures at different IQ levels. After covarying for age, there was a significant multivariate effect for IQ level (average, high average, superior) and a significant multivariate interaction between group (ADHD vs. control) and IQ level. Three of the five selected EF measures showed significant univariate group effects (controls performing better than ADHD) at the average IQ level; however, there were no significant group differences between children with ADHD and controls at high average or superior IQ levels. These results suggest that clinical measures of EF may differ among children with ADHD and controls at average IQ levels, but there is poorer discriminatory power for these measures among children with above average IQ.     

Family Sessions as Part of Child Psychological Assessment: Goals,Techniques, Clinical Utility,and Therapeutic Value

Including a family session in a child assessment can significantly advance the assessor's and parents' understanding of the child's problems and enhance the likelihood that parents will follow through on recommendations after the assessment. A family session allows the assessor to observe the child in the family context, test systemic hypotheses, better understand the meaning of individual test results, and try out possible interventions. A family session may also help parents see systemic aspects of their child's problems, help the child feel less blamed, foster positive experiences among family members, and offer the family a glimpse of family therapy. We describe methods and techniques for structuring family sessions and offer guidance on preparing for and conducting such sessions depending on one's case conceptualization. Detailed case examples illustrate each technique and demonstrate the immediate and subsequent impact of family sessions as well as their therapeutic value. We also address common clinical and pragmatic issues.     

Bimanual interference with compatible and incompatible tool transformations

The present study investigates bimanual interference in a tool-use task, in which two target locations had to be touched concurrently with two tools, one for each hand. Target locations were either in the same, or in different directions for the two hands. Furthermore, the tools implemented either a compatible or an incompatible relationship between the direction of target locations and the direction of associated bodily movements. Results indicated bimanual interference when the tools had to be moved to targets in different directions. Furthermore, this interference was much more pronounced when the tools required body movements that were spatially incompatible to the cued target locations as compared to when they were compatible. These results show that incompatible relationships between target directions and bodily movement directions can aggravate bimanual interference in tool use.     

Some thoughts on the concept of the internal parental couple

Some patients are incapable of engaging in a relationship with a partner on a long-term basis. To explain these relationship issues, they invoke reasons that have to do with external reality rather than with their own internal reality. The authors present several clinical examples that have given rise to an initial attempt at theorizing the concept of the internal couple: some patients fail to internalize a positive representation in which they can see themselves as part of a couple. Psychoanalysts tend to think of the father and mother (or their internal representatives) as separate entities, differentiated and complementary, and not in terms of a single object that brings them together as an internal couple. In the author’s view, an internal parental couple is also internalized by the infant under the guise of various internal objects. The internal parental couple thus appears as a complex construction that goes beyond the mere addition of father plus mother. Underneath their neurotic veneer, these patients have severely damaged representations of internal parents and of the internal parental couple. Unable to identify with a stable and procreative internal parental couple, they tend also to attack the psychoanalytic couple. Early distortions in the oedipal sphere may be one cause of the stumbling-block they encounter on the way to introjecting a well-attuned couple-as-object and the idea of parenting.