Occupational therapy and sensory integration for children with autism: a feasibility, safety, acceptability and fidelity study

Objective: To examine the feasibility, safety, and acceptability of a manualized protocol of occupational therapy using sensory integration principles for children with autism. Methods: Ten children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder ages 4-8 years received intensive occupational therapy intervention using sensory integration principles following a manualized protocol. Measures of feasibility, acceptability and safety were collected from parents and interveners, and fidelity was measured using a valid and reliable fidelity instrument. Results: The intervention is safe and feasible to implement, acceptable to parents and therapist, and therapists were able to implement protocol with adequate fidelity. These data provide support for implementation of a randomized control trial of this intervention and identify specific procedural enhancements to improve study implementation.     

For your Eyes Only: A Q-Methodology on the Ontology of Happiness Among Chronically Ill Filipino Elderly in a Penal Institution

Happiness is a positive phenomenon that is universal in nature and is therefore, pertinent to all human beings. However, the definition of happiness differs from person to person, and varies among cultures, economic status, social connectedness, spiritual upbringing and daily situations. An individual’s contextual perception of happiness can change when subjected to bleak conditions such as incarceration wherein inmates, especially those who are old and are experiencing health impairments are stripped off with their customary source of happiness. Since Filipinos are known to be as “happy people,” this study purports to surface the different facets of what constitute happiness in the context of a penal institution in the Philippine setting. The Q-methodology is the primary design used in the study. It combines the objectivity of quantitative approach with the essence of human experiences as explored in qualitative studies. The participants (P-sample) were twenty elderly inmates suffering from chronic ailments. They were asked to arrange 32 statements (Q-sample), derived from the initial interview, in the Q-sort table based on their degree of agreement, which were then further explicated in the post-sort interviews. The results were then subjected to by-person factor analysis with varimax rotation using the PQ Method version 2.11. Five profiles emerged from the by-person factor analysis, namely: (1) ‘Sense of Affinity’, (2) ‘Sense of Opportunity’, (3) ‘Sense of Indemnity’, (4) ‘Sense of Positivity’ and (5) ‘Sense of Resiliency’. The discussion focused on similarities and differences among profiles regarding the four principal themes (familial, social, internal and spiritual components of happiness) derived from the statements used as the Q-sample. The perception of happiness varies from profile to profile. The differences in views on what constitutes happiness among profiles are more prominent than their said similarities. Most leanings are directed toward the familial and spiritual aspects of happiness however, happiness can also be internally motivated and cognitively construed. While happiness has a direct relationship to an individual’s overall perception of well-being, the nurse, being the primary provider of holistic care, plays a pivotal role in promoting optimum health through awareness, knowledge, and appreciation of vis-a vis an unwavering involvement with the unique and distinct psychological and emotional needs of the elderly inmates characterized by respect, openness, authenticity and inter-subjectivity.     

A Longitudinal Study of the Effectiveness of Business Ethics Education: Establishing the Baseline

This paper is the first phase of a longitudinal study of the class of 2014 on the effectiveness of ethics education at a business university. This phase of the project establishes the baseline attributes of incoming college freshmen with a pretest of the students’ ethical proclivity as measured by Defining Issues Test (DIT-2) scores. The relationship between the students’ ethical reasoning and their behavior in experimental stock trading sessions is then examined. In the trading simulations, randomly selected students were provided with the option of receiving privileged insider information about the final payoff of several stocks. The students could either accept or reject such information, with acceptance considered illegal insider trading. The results of the pretest indicate that moral reasoning as measured by the DIT-2 is related to insider trading behavior, with students with higher DIT-2 scores being less likely to accept insider information. The paper also presents demographic differences across DIT-2 scores and trading behavior as a foundation for the longitudinal examination of changes in students’ moral cognition characteristics and behavior during their undergraduate career.     

Performance During a 3-Hour Simulated Sentry Duty Task Under Varied Work Rates and Secondary Task Demands

The performance of 14 soldiers was evaluated during 3 hr of simulated sentry duty when (a) the primary work rate was varied and (b) participants were required to intermittently perform a simple secondary task. Performance measurements included latency to detect a target, number of correct target detections, correct friend versus foe identification, targets hit, and latency to respond to the presentation of a continuous tone (secondary task). Activity monitors measured motor activity during study participation. During higher work rate sessions, participants responded to the appearance of a target more quickly, discriminated friend from foe more accurately, and hit more foe targets. The addition of a simple auditory task to the primary task did not affect performance on any of the sentry duty measures. These findings demonstrated that moderate increases in task engagement, or work rate, improved most performance metrics on a long duration (3-hr), militarily relevant vigilance task.     

Executive Cognitive Function as a Correlate and Predictor of Child Food Intake and Physical Activity

Investigated were relations among executive cognitive function (ECF), food intake, and physical activity in 184, fourth grade children. It was hypothesized that self-reported ECF proficiency would predict greater self-reported fruit/vegetable intake and physical activity, but less “snack food” intake. Structural models demonstrated that ECF was significantly correlated with less concurrent snack food intake and greater concurrent fruit/vegetable intake, but not physical activity. Baseline ECF also significantly predicted greater fruit/vegetable intake and physical activity four months later, but not snack food intake. One implication is to promote ECF as a correlate and predictor of food intake and physical activity in children by providing opportunities for youth to practice newly developing ECF capacities.     

Persönlichkeitsdiagnostik im DSM-5

The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) was published in May 2013 and features (in Section III) a new model for the diagnosis of personality disorders. The aim of this paper is to introduce this model to a broader German-speaking readership. The article begins by explaining why a new model seems necessary. Secondly, the different components of the new DSM-5 model are presented, the theoretical and empirical background is explained and it is shown how the model works using a clinical case example. Thirdly, several advantages of the new model as compared to the DSM-IV diagnostic categories (which will be retained in DSM-5 Section II) are discussed. Finally, the article highlights some open questions and problems that require further conceptual and empirical research.     

Identifying the Basis for the Word Frequency Effect in Recognition Memory

Abstract

Recent theories of recognition memory have identified two bases on which recognition-memory judgments may be made: recollection, which involves retrieval of contextual information from an earlier episode of stimulus presentation; and familiarity, which is distinguished by a general sense of familiarity in the absence of recollection. Four experiments were conducted to test whether the word frequency effect (WFE) in recognition memory (superior performance with low- in comparison with high-frequency targets) results from recollection-based processes, familiarity-based processes, or both. In two of the experiments, superior memory for aspects of the study context was found for low-frequency in comparison with high-frequency words, suggesting frequency-related differences in recollection. The other two experiments used Jacoby's (1991) inclusion/exclusion paradigm to provide estimates of the contribution of recollection and familiarity to recognition. In both experiments the data suggested that the WFE is primarily a recollection-based phenomenon. These findings suggest that the recognition memory WFE for old items results primarily from the effects of word frequency on recollection. The implications of these findings for theories of recognition memory are discussed.     

Community Counselling in African Contexts

This article explores community counselling as a form of professional practice for psychologists, with a particular focus on practices that are relevant in African contexts. The discussion identifies and discusses various models of practice identified in community psychology, including an ecological perspective, a public health and community mental health framework, interventions that focus on promoting a sense of community, indigenous approaches to community counselling and a critical or social action framework. Examples relating to each of these models of practice are drawn from various African settings, providing practitioners with some insights into how theory can be operationalised into practices that are relevant to African contexts. The article concludes with a discussion on community research, with a particular focus on ethical considerations relevant to a community approach in African contexts. The latter discussion emphasises the importance of working with the community as partners, and suggests the possibility of developing a Code of Ethics aimed specifically at guiding community counselling practice in African contexts.     

The Other Woman: Irreducible Alterity in Feminist Thealogies

Trinh T. Minh-Ha, Woman, Native, Other: Writing Postcoloniality and Feminism. Bloomington, IN, Indiana University Press, 1989, 173 pp., $39.95 (hardback), ISBN 0 253 36603 8, $14.95 (paperback) ISBN 0 253 20503 4.

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Outside in the Teaching Machine. New York and London, Routledge, 1993, x + 335 pp., $62.95 (hardback) ISBN 0 415 90488 9, $15.95 (paperback) ISBN 0 415 90489 7.     

Book Reviews

Abstract

There are many brief, demanding, aborted cases that no one ever writes about. The typical psychoanalyst or psychoanalytic psychotherapist, however, has many outpatient cases that are shortlived, intense encounters with very disturbed patients. Rather than ignore these encounters as non-analytic or non-instructive, I think these cases add to our knowledge about the mind and its functions. In addition, it is unrealistic to think we can always help a very anxious and disturbed person to enter the treatment process with immediate success. It is more instructive to apply the analytic method and offer the patient what we can and have both analyst and patient learn as much as they can in the time they are able to stay together. Using case material, I show the Kleinian approach to working analytically with these difficult patients. Whether focusing on transference or extra-transference material, the analyst interprets the patient's internal phantasies and anxieties regarding the self and the self's important objects. This analytic stance tends to relieve the immediate anxiety and set the stage for potential self-reflection and the start of basic working-through processes.