Depression and engagement in a residential home for the elderly

Traditional residential care environments for the elderly have been criticized because of the observed low levels of residents' engagement. Behavioural models of depression suggest an inverse relationship between engagement in pleasant activities and depression. The present study examined the relationship between depression and engagement in the residents of a home for the elderly. Correlational analyses indicated no relationship between level of depression and level of engagement but an association was found between level of depression and engagement in activities subjectively most enjoyed. There was considerable variation in the residents' perception of their behaviour; some residents viewed active engagement negatively whilst clearly enjoying behaviour that is technically disengaged. It is suggested that the results of the study emphasize the importance both of individual differences in behaviour and of covert behaviour. Implications for the engagement concept are discussed. In particular it is suggested that programmes in care environments aimed at increasing engagement in order to enhance the quality of life should focus more on the individual and on his perception of his behaviour.     

Individual differences in sociosexuality: evidence for convergent and discriminant validity

Individual differences in willingness to engage in uncommitted sexual relations were investigated in 6 studies. In Study 1, a 5-item Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI) was developed. Studies 2, 3, and 4 provided convergent validity evidence for the SOI, revealing that persons who have an unrestricted sociosexual orientation tend to (a) engage in sex at an earlier point in their relationships, (b) engage in sex with more than 1 partner at a time, and (c) be involved in relationships characterized by less investment, commitment, love, and dependency. Study 5 provided discriminant validity for the SOI, revealing that it does not covary appreciably with a good marker of sex drive. Study 6 demonstrated that the SOI correlates negligibly with measures of sexual satisfaction, anxiety, and guilt. The possible stability of, origins of, and motivational bases underlying individual differences in sociosexuality are discussed.     

A systemic belief approach to epileptic seizures: A case of being spellbound

A systemic treatment approach, namely systemic belief therapy, has been found to be useful when dealing with families constraining beliefs when experiencing physical health problems. Two interventions which facilitate the altering of constraining beliefs are the externalization of physical symptoms and therapeutic letters. Epileptic seizures are examined in the context of the interaction between families and health care professionals. A case example is presented which highlights the use of this systemic approach to assist a young couple in challenging their beliefs about their ability to control and monitor epileptic seizures.     

Modification of cooperation and aggression through teacher attention to children's speech

Two experiments were performed in the naturalistic setting of a preschool classroom in order to assess the effects on children's social behavior of nonevaluative teacher attention to children's cooperative or aggressive speech. In Experiment 1, teachers attended to the children's spontaneous cooperative speech for two weeks. Observation of the children's free-play behaviors revealed an increase over baseline levels in both verbal and physical cooperative behaviors as well as a decrease in both verbal and physical aggressive behaviors. In Experiment 2, teachers attended first to the children's spontaneous aggressive speech for one week and then switched their attention to the children's cooperative speech for a second week. Teacher attention to aggressive speech in the first week led to an increase over baseline levels in the children's verbal aggressive behavior as well as a decrease in both verbal and physical cooperative behaviors; however, physical aggression remained unchanged. Teacher attention to cooperative speech in the following week served to reverse the effects of the first week's treatment. The findings were discussed in terms of the sequential relationship between verbal and nonverbal components of cooperative and aggressive social behaviors and the teacher's role in modifying children's performance on these behaviors in the classroom.     

Book reviews

Wyer, Robert S., Jr. Cognitive Organization and Change : an Information Processing Approach. Potomac, Maryland: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 1974. Pp. 502. £10.50.

Egan, J. P. Signal Detection Theory and ROC Analysis. New York: Academic Press. 1975. Pp. 277. £9.75. ISBN

Aldis, O. Play-Fighting. New York: Academic Press. 1975. Pp. 319. £8.75.

Warburton, D. M. Brain Behaviour and Drugs. London: John Wiley. 1975. Pp. 280. £6.95. ISBN 0471 91991 8.

Grieve, D. W., Miller, D., Mitchelson, D., Paul, J. and Smith, A. J. Techniques for the Analysis of Human Movement. London: Lepus Books. 1975. Pp. 177. £5.50.     

GPS: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Sexual Health Counseling for Gay and Bisexual Men Living With HIV

Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBM) continue to have high rates of HIV and sexually transmitted infections, including syphilis. GBM have therefore been identified by public health agencies as a high-priority population to reach with prevention initiatives. Despite the importance of mental health in preventing HIV and related infections, there is a shortage of credentialed mental health professionals to deliver behavioral Counseling interventions. The current study evaluated the efficacy of GPS, a community-based and peer-delivered sexual health promotion motivational interviewing–based intervention for HIV-positive GBM who engaged in condomless anal sex (CAS) in the past 2 months. GPS prevention counseling demonstrated a 43% relative reduction at 3-month follow-up in CAS with serodiscordant partners and significant reductions in sexual compulsivity. The study demonstrated that community-based counselors can administer an efficacious motivational interviewing program, and suggests a continued benefit of counseling methods to promote the sexual health of higher risk populations.     

Parental and Child Characteristics Predicting Asian immigrants’ Feeding Practices

To explore parenting style, child effortful control, parenting stress, and their associations with maternal use of pressure to eat among Asian U.S. immigrant families with preschoolers. One hundred and nine Asian immigrant mothers with 3-to-5-year-old children in Maryland, United States rated their authoritative and authoritarian parenting styles, frequency of pressuring their child to eat, perceived parenting stress, and child’s effortful control. Two proposed moderated mediation models were tested using conditional process modeling. Effortful control mediated the association between authoritative parenting style and pressure to eat practices, αβ?=??0.07, p?<?0.05, and the association between authoritarian style and pressure to eat, αβ?=?0.12, p?<?0.05. Moreover, parenting stress moderated the association between child effortful control and maternal pressure to eat in the authoritarian style model, but not in the authoritative style model. Specifically, higher effortful control was associated with less use of pressure to eat at low and mean levels of parenting stress. Our findings revealed potential mechanisms underlying the associations between parenting styles and controlling feeding practices. Importantly, information learned from the present study may guide transdisciplinary efforts to design and implement culturally sensitive and family-based interventions targeting Asian immigrants’ wellbeing and obesity in the United States.

     

Face detection in 2‐ to 6‐month‐old infants is influenced by gaze direction and species

Humans detect faces efficiently from a young age. Face detection is critical for infants to identify and learn from relevant social stimuli in their environments. Faces with eye contact are an especially salient stimulus, and attention to the eyes in infancy is linked to the emergence of later sociality. Despite the importance of both of these early social skills—attending to faces and attending to the eyes—surprisingly little is known about how they interact. We used eye tracking to explore whether eye contact influences infants' face detection. Longitudinally, we examined 2‐, 4‐, and 6‐month‐olds' (N = 65) visual scanning of complex image arrays with human and animal faces varying in eye contact and head orientation. Across all ages, infants displayed superior detection of faces with eye contact; however, this effect varied as a function of species and head orientation. Infants were more attentive to human than animal faces and were more sensitive to eye and head orientation for human faces compared to animal faces. Unexpectedly, human faces with both averted heads and eyes received the most attention. This pattern may reflect the early emergence of gaze following—the ability to look where another individual looks—which begins to develop around this age. Infants may be especially interested in averted gaze faces, providing early scaffolding for joint attention. This study represents the first investigation to document infants' attention patterns to faces systematically varying in their attentional states. Together, these findings suggest that infants develop early, specialized functional conspecific face detection.