Dimensionality of the hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS) in cardiac patients: comparison of Mokken scale analysis and factor analysis

The hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS) measures anxiety and depressive symptoms and is widely used in clinical and nonclinical populations. However, there is some debate about the number of dimensions represented by the HADS. In a sample of 534 Dutch cardiac patients, this study examined (a) the dimensionality of the HADS using Mokken scale analysis and factor analysis and (b) the scale properties of the HADS. Mokken scale analysis and factor analysis suggested that three dimensions adequately capture the structure of the HADS. Of the three corresponding scales, two scales of five items each were found to be structurally sound and reliable. These scales covered the two key attributes of anxiety and (anhedonic) depression. The findings suggest that the HADS may be reduced to a 10-item questionnaire comprising two 5-item scales measuring anxiety and depressive symptoms.     

Screening for ADHD in an adult social phobia sample

Objective: Recent studies have suggested a link between a primary anxiety disorder and ADHD. Method: A total of 39 participants with a primary diagnosis of social phobia were compared with 178 patients with ADHD and 88 patients with other psychiatric disorders on measures for childhood and adult ADHD (the Wender Utah Rating Scale and the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale). Results: Childhood symptoms of ADHD were reported by 7.8% of the social phobia participants, and 5.1% scored within the range of adult ADHD. The social phobia group reported significantly fewer ADHD symptoms than both of the comparison groups, who frequently reported social anxiety. Conclusion: Participants with social phobia recruited from the general population are less likely to suffer from ADHD. In contrast, patients with ADHD and patients with other psychiatric disorders appear to be likely to suffer from social anxiety.     

Marking Sexuality from 0–6: The Kinsey Scale in Online Culture

Alfred Kinsey??s 0?C6 (heterosexuality?Chomosexuality) scale, first published in 1948, has become a method for Internet users to mark and to discuss their sexuality with others in forums and through quizzes. This article first analyzes the historical use and development of the scale and shows its built-in flexibility for individuals seeking tools for contemplating their sexual identities beyond the heterosexual-bisexual-homosexual identity triad. There is no place on the scale that is more ??normal?? than another; all placements have equal socio-cultural weight. This article then examines 29 quizzes and online forums in different languages that use a scale or a version of it and their user comments. Many users who do not feel that the present-day sexual identity triad adequately represents their sexual self-perception discover affirmation and solidarity in finding a place on the scale in either a whole-number or decimal form. The elasticity of placement on the scale??one can perceive one??s place on it differently at will over time??is particularly useful and applicable in a postmodern, online environment in which people are open to exploring sexual identities and to finding a precise labeling that fits them.     

A qualitative analysis of sensory phenomena induced by perceptual deprivation

Previous studies have shown that misperceptions and illusory experiences can occur if sensory stimulation is withdrawn or becomes invariant even for short periods of time. Using a perceptual deprivation paradigm, we created a monotonous audiovisual environment and asked participants to verbally report any auditory, visual or body-related phenomena they experienced. The data (analysed using a variant of interpretative phenomenological analysis) revealed two main themes: (1) reported sensory phenomena have different spatial characteristics ranging from simple percepts to the feeling of immersion in a complex multisensory environment and (2) the active contribution of the perceiver where participants report engaging in exploratory processes even when there is nothing to find. Detailed analysis of the qualitative data further showed that participants who reported more perceptual phenomena were more likely to report internal bodily sensations, move more during the experiment and score higher on the Revised Hallucination Scale than those reporting fewer percepts explicitly linking perceptual deprivation to somatic phenomena. The results demonstrate how the variety of sensory experiences induced by perceptual deprivation can give further insight into the factors mediating conscious awareness and may suggest ways in which the brain imposes meaning on the environment under invariant sensory conditions.     

Reducing the Floor Effect in the SF-6D: A Feasibility Study

The SF-6D suffers from a floor effect where for patient groups in severe health a significant number of patients report the lowest level of health possible for some dimensions, meaning the SF-6D cannot capture a deterioration in health for these patients. This paper presents a feasibility study aimed at reducing this floor effect. A modified SF-6D classification system was proposed that incorporated an additional level in each of the physical functioning and role limitations dimensions. The modified classification system was valued by a Portuguese general population sample (n = 140) using the Portuguese SF-6D protocol. A sample of 82 health states were valued and several regression models were estimated to produce preference weights to predict health state values for all states defined by the modified classification system. Estimations at the individual level were performed using 950 health state valuations. Models were analyzed in terms of logical consistency of coefficients, overall fit and predictive ability and were compared to Portuguese SF-6D models. The additional severity levels included in the modified classification system have significant decrements in health state values. These additional severity levels do not significantly impact on the modelled preference weights (the regression coefficients) of other levels across all dimensions. This feasibility study modified the SF-6D to reduce the floor effect. This study presents one option and further research in this area is encouraged.     

THE RETURN OF LÉON BAKST: SLAV MAGIC OR ORIENTAL OTHER?

Seeing “The Return of Léon Bakst” in the Berlin-based Russian illustrated review Zhar ptitsa (Firebird) in 1922, what “return” might its readers have assumed to be intended? Was it about a return to Judaism that Bakst had abandoned 20 years earlier? Or perhaps a return to Russia, a dream of so many Russian Berliners in that year? Or knowing that the article's author, André Levinson, was a dance critic, could it be about the artist's return as a stage designer to Diaghilev's famous Ballets Russes? In a figurative sense, all three assumptions were true. However, there lies a good deal more behind the depicted return of Léon Bakst. This article explores those three possibilities within the context of the ambivalence created around the figure of Léon Bakst that swayed between the magic of Slav folklore and Western perceptions of the Oriental Other.     

情绪对西蒙效应的调节作用

西蒙效应（Simoneffect）是动作反应机制研究中的经典效应。基于微观分析的视角,动作反应机制可以用来解释和衡量操作效率。本文以22名大学生为被试,采用实验研究的方式,应用启动一靶（priming—target）范式探索情绪对水平和垂直西蒙效应的调节机制。结果表明,情绪影响西蒙效应的强度,相比中性和正性情绪启动,负性情绪降低了西蒙效应。同时,情绪对西蒙效应的调节作用仅表现在水平西蒙效应而不是在垂直西蒙效应中。本文为情绪对西蒙效应的调节机制提供了行为学实验研究证据。     

Seizing Perfume,Propped by Paradox

An odyssey from the terror of a bout with cancer to the recognition of some of the fear, as more primordial than the fear of separation and object loss, a constitutive given of our animal bodies, essential to survival and intrinsic to our insufficiency; to the cancer experience of terror becoming spiritual technology, a booster rocket catapulting the dis-eased body into a dreaded void paradoxically full of the mysterium tremendum of life where there is no body.