Reciprocal relationships between resource loss and psychological distress following exposure to political violence: an empirical investigation of COR theory's loss spirals

Abstract We conducted a four-wave prospective study of Palestinian adults living in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem, interviewed between 2007 and 2009 at 6-month interval to explore transactional relationships between resource loss (i.e., intra and interpersonal resource loss) and psychological distress (i.e., posttraumatic stress disorder and depression symptoms). Initially, 1196 Palestinians completed the first wave interview and 752 of these participants completed all four interviews. A cross-lagged panel design was constructed to model the effects of trauma exposure on both resource loss and psychological distress and the subsequent reciprocal effects of resource loss and psychological distress across four time waves. Specifically, resource loss was modeled to predict distress, which in turn was expected to predict further resource loss. Structural equation modeling was used to test this design. We found that psychological distress significantly predicts resource loss across shorter, 6-month time waves, but that resource loss predicts distress across longer, 12-month intervals. These findings support the Conservation of Resources theory's corollary of loss spirals.     

Career Interventions and the Career Thoughts of Pacific Island College Students

Students enrolled in a college success course were assigned to (a) a cognitive intervention using the Career Thoughts Inventory (CTI) workbook ( Sampson, Peterson, Lenz, Reardon, & Saunders, 1996b ), (b) an occupational research project involving an oral report, and (c) a control condition. The workbook condition had a significant effect on the CTI total score, whereas the research condition and the control condition did not. Both workbook and research conditions had a significant positive effect on decision‐making confusion and commitment anxiety.     

Husserl’s Theory of Scientific Explanation: A Bolzanian Inspired Unificationist Account

Husserl Studies - Husserl’s early picture of explanation in the sciences has never been completely provided. This lack represents an oversight, which we here redress. In contrast to currently...     

Repetitive antisaccade execution does not increase the unidirectional prosaccade switch-cost

An antisaccade is the execution of a saccade to the mirror-symmetrical location (i.e., same amplitude but opposite visual field) of a single and exogenously presented visual target. Such a response requires top-down decoupling of the normally direct spatial relations between stimulus and response and results in increased planning times and directional errors compared to their spatially compatible prosaccade counterparts. Moreover, antisaccades are associated with diffuse changes in cortical and subcortical saccade networks: a finding that has, in part, been attributed to pre-setting the oculomotor system to withhold a stimulus-driven prosaccade. Moreover, recent work has shown that a corollary cost of oculomotor pre-setting is that the planning time for a to-be-completed prosaccade is longer when preceded by an antisaccade (i.e., the unidirectional prosaccade switch-cost). Notably, this result has been attributed to antisaccades imparting a residual inhibition of the oculomotor networks that support the planning of stimulus-driven prosaccades. In the current investigation, we sought to determine if the number of antisaccades preceding a prosaccade increases this residual inhibition and thus influences the magnitude of the unidirectional prosaccade switch-cost. To that end, participants alternated between pro- and antisaccades after every second (i.e., AABB schedule) and every fourth (i.e., AAAABBBB schedule) trial. In addition, participants completed pro- and antisaccades in separate blocks of trials. Results demonstrated that task-switch prosaccades produced longer reaction times than their task-repetition and blocked condition counterparts, whereas antisaccade reaction times did not vary across task-repetition, task-switch and blocked condition trials. Most notably, the magnitude of the unidirectional prosaccade switch-cost was not modulated across the different task-switching schedules. Thus, we propose that the top-down requirements of the antisaccade task do not produce additive inhibition of stimulus-driven saccade networks.     

Living with a pituitary tumour: A narrative analysis

This study aimed to synthesise the illness narratives of individuals living with a pituitary tumour. Eight adults with a pituitary tumour were recruited from an endocrinology service in the north-west of England. A narrative methodology was adopted which investigated elements of the individual narratives such as metaphor and structure but which also aimed to produce a joint account of experience in this particular illness context by extracting themes across the stories; these are presented as part of a chronological narrative. However, the resulting group story was also analysed in terms of different types of narrative plots. The group narrative started from the recognition of symptoms and then diagnosis though treatment to post-treatment and future plans. In terms of narrative plots, one notable element of the joint narrative was the flow between the culturally dominant restitution narrative, where participants focused on treatment and recovery and the chaos narrative when recovery did not seem possible. The findings contain many elements consistent with previous research; however, the use of a celebrity figure to communicate about the illness experience and a perception that objects or individuals should not be taken at face value emerged as more novel findings.     

Relationship Between Muscle Fiber Type and Reactive Balance: A Preliminary Study

The authors’ objective was to quantify the relationship between type II muscle fiber composition and recovery latency from controlled perturbations. Thirty healthy adults performed a Thorstensson test to indirectly determine muscle fiber composition of the knee extensors. On a subsequent day, reactive balance was measured by assessing latency time required to accommodate three controlled perturbations via computerized dynamic posturography. The proportion of type II fibers had a negative correlation with latency caused by a large backward perturbation (r = –.62, p = .001). These data may indicate a higher percentage of type II fibers in the knee extensors are associated with better reactive balance. Further investigation is warranted, in particular as it pertains to populations at risk for balance impairment.     

Intelligence,but not emotional intelligence,predicts Iowa Gambling Task performance

The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) is a famous and frequently-used neuropsychological task that is thought to reflect real-world decision-making. There has been some debate, however, about the degree to which the IGT involves cold (cognitive) versus hot (emotional) processing. The present study incorporated 68 healthy individuals and used measures of cognitive intelligence (IQ) and emotional intelligence (EIQ) to predict IGT performance. Higher IQ scores significantly predicted better IGT performance, whereas no EIQ–IGT relationship was observed. The implications of this research on clinical and experimental use of the IGT are outlined.     

Disseminating a Parenting Intervention in the Community: Experiences from a Multi-Site Evaluation

Circle of Security-Parenting (COS-P) is a widely used parenting intervention that is gaining popularity globally as it is currently being delivered across several continents. Despite the global uptake of COS-P, there is limited research on its effectiveness with considerable variability in its delivery. Here we present a multi-site evaluation of the group delivery of COS-P to under-resourced mothers (n?=?131 enrolled) in an urban community as facilitated by community-based providers (n?=?12) from community sites (n?=?6) that provide maternal and child services. The feasibility and acceptability of delivering COS-P in the community are highlighted as well as characteristics of sites and providers as they relate to implementation efforts, and pre and post-intervention data examining COS-P and maternal caregiving functioning (i.e., depressive symptoms, reflective functioning) are also included. Several service delivery barriers were encountered at agency, provider and participant levels that created obstacles for program dissemination, participant retention and evaluation. Nonetheless, COS-P was successfully delivered in the community when sites embedded the program within their existing infrastructure and had the internal capacity for delivery, participant recruitment, supervision, and community presence. Mothers who participated in COS-P also reported fewer depressive symptoms following the intervention (n?=?25). This multi-site implementation and evaluation study has important implications for the delivery of parenting services to under-resourced communities globally. Implications for future research and service delivery are discussed.