Tailoring Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Individuals Diagnosed with Bulimia Nervosa

There is a wealth of data indicating the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy in the treatment of bulimia nervosa. However, the best evidence indicates a treatment success rate of 50%. The purpose of this paper is to briefly describe cognitive behavioral treatment of bulimia nervosa and to offer suggestions on how this therapy approach may be tailored to best serve the needs of individual clients. Such tailoring should ultimately lead to even greater treatment success.     

Evaluation of a High School Peer Group Intervention for At-Risk Youth

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of Reconnecting Youth, a prevention program for at-risk high school youth. Data are from a large, independently evaluated effectiveness trial in two diverse urban school districts. A total of 1,218 students participated; 50% were male; average age was 15. We tested whether positive efficacy trial effects could be replicated, and whether any negative behavioral effects occur when clustering high-risk youth. Although mixed program effects were observed at immediate post-intervention, only negative effects were found at 6-month follow-up. These effects included less optimal scores on measures of GPA, Anger, School Connectedness, Conventional Peer Bonding, and Peer High-Risk Behaviors. Overall, we found little support for the use of this social-influence—model intervention aimed at increasing school connectedness for high-risk youth. Further, this study provides evidence that clustering high-risk youth in preventive interventions has the potential for iatrogenic effects.     

Psychological closure as a memory phenomenon

A theory is proposed that life events are remembered with a satisfying sense of closure when there is decreased emotional detail in the constructed autobiographical memory representation. The first three studies show that, although properties of the experienced event (such as valence and recency) accounted for some variance in participants' sense of closure, the amount of emotional detail in the memory was also a significant predictor. The third study shows that emotion-focused biased retelling of the experience increased emotional detail and decreased the sense of closure participants reported. Related approaches and implications for psychological adjustment are discussed.     

Guiding the creation of knowledge and understanding in a virtual learning environment.

This article reports findings from an in-depth case study investigating processes of teaching and learning within one tutorial group studying an e-learning course presented as part of the Open University's MA in Open and Distance Education. Drawing on contemporary sociocultural theory and research, the instructional techniques used by the tutor-moderator to guide the creation of "common knowledge" and the construction of understanding are explored. The significance of tutor contributions for fostering a supportive culture of enquiry is also discussed.     

ERP study of pre-attentive auditory processing in treatment-refractory schizophrenia

Event-related potential (ERP) studies have demonstrated impaired auditory sensory processing in patients with schizophrenia, as reflected in abnormal mismatch negativity (MMN). We sought to extend this finding by evaluating MMN in 13 treatment-refractory patients with schizophrenia, and 14 age- and gender-matched healthy controls. Subjects responded to infrequent visual stimulation while ignoring binaurally presented auditory tones. The amplitude and topographical pattern of the MMN were analyzed. The control group presented the expected reduction in the amplitude of the MMN from frontal to central and parietal locations. In comparison, the MMN amplitude was not reduced in the treatment-refractory patients, and was largest at the central-posterior electrode location. In addition, patients displayed larger negativities at left frontal, and left- and right-temporal electrode locations than the control subjects. These findings are consistent with pre-attentive abnormalities in treatment-refractory patients with schizophrenia.     

Hemispheric asymmetries for selective attention apparent only with increased task demands in healthy participants

This study examined the possibility that lack of behavioral evidence indicating hemispheric specialization for selective attention in healthy individuals is due to the use of tasks that are not sufficiently demanding to require selective attention. In a group of 43 participants (ages 17-23), we compared selective attention on a cued-response time task when the target was presented alone and when a distractor was simultaneously presented. The costs of invalid cueing were minimal when the right hemisphere (RH) processed the target relative to when the left hemisphere (LH) processed the target, but only for the high load condition. These results are interpreted as RH specialization in light of evidence suggesting that the RH can direct attention to a larger portion of the visual field.     

Schleiermacher and Spirit Christology: Unexplored Horizons of The Christian Faith

One of the more recent efforts at christological construction has focused on Spirit christology, issuing in sometimes opposing constructions. At first sight, considering Schleiermacher's synthetic approach to the doctrine of the Trinity, one would suspect the irrelevance of his christology for these present efforts. However, an analysis of the convergence between christology and pneumatology in the Glaubenslehre could contribute significantly to this debate. By interpreting the God-consciousness of Jesus as the presence of the Spirit in him and correlating this with the communication of this consciousness as the work of Christ in regeneration and sanctification we achieve an identity between Christ as Spirit-bearer and Spirit-sender (viz. the Redeemer understood according to his 'peculiar activity' and 'exclusive dignity'). By lending a stronger pneumatological bearing to Schleiermacher's theological discourse (picking up the suggestion of Karl Barth) Schleiermacher helps illuminate some of the issues that have arisen in debate over Spirit christology.