Perceived trauma: its etiology and treatment

Female adolescents in treatment for emotional disturbances are often diagnosed as suffering from borderline personality disorder. The usual treatment plan for such a diagnosis is based upon limit setting and boundary reinforcement. When this fails to produce results, the diagnosis comes into question. The present paper investigated 85 female adolescents who were being treated for problems associated with differentiation and emancipation in an inpatient setting. A treatment variation was introduced which suggested that these females were more likely to be suffering from a variety of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). When their ritualistic behavioral repetitions were addressed by cognitive behavioral approaches, the behavior decreased. The struggle with boundary issues and references to the historical context of misery and deprivation became less frequent when the focus shifted to current behavior. Two groups emerged through the analysis of data. No difference in behavior or response to treatment could be established, but one group lacked a specific troubling experience which is essential for a diagnosis of PTSD. Maladaptive social behavior (e.g., splitting and projection) were accepted as confounding factors associated with cognitive style rather than "borderline" symptoms. With the new approach, recidivism decreased 14% and the number of outbursts diminished 10% to 12%. The altered treatment approach confirmed the hypothesis that these adolescents were experiencing the effects of trauma (actual or perceived) rather than some disabling personality disorder.     

Medial dorsal thalamic lesions and working memory in the rat

Pigmented rats of the DA strain with either radiofrequency or ibotenic acid lesions of the thalamic nucleus medialis dorsalis were postoperatively given nonspatial and spatial tests of working memory. In the nonspatial task, delayed nonmatching-to-sample, rats with both types of thalamic lesions showed acquisition impairments. The subgroup of rats with nucleus medialis dorsalis lesions that were able to reach the acquisition criterion did, however, perform normally when the retention interval was extended to 60 s. In the spatial task, delayed forced-alternation, rats were tested with differing retention intervals and with both spaced and massed trials. Damage to nucleus medialis dorsalis had no effect on acquisition or on spaced trials, but a slight deficit was found in the animals with radiofrequency lesions under the massed trial condition. Much clearer deficits were, however, present in those animals in which the lesion extended appreciably into the anterior thalamic nuclei. The findings indicate that while cellular damage to nucleus medialis dorsalis may disrupt learning, some impairments in tests of spatial working memory attributed to this nucleus may reflect damage to the adjacent anterior thalamic nuclei.     

'Winning Ways': Globalisation and the Impact of the Health and Wealth Gospel

Few contemporary religious movements lend themselves so readily to an analysis of the dynamics of globalising than that strand of neo-Pentecostalism known as the 'Faith' movement. Originating in the USA, the numerous ministries which comprise the movement have come to sustain a wide global influence in many diverse cultural conditions. The Faith gospel is noteworthy, not only because of the scale of its success, but because of its distinctive teaching related to divinely-blessed 'health and wealth' which has enjoyed considerable acceptance in different parts of the world. This paper explores the global significance of the Faith movement and argues that, while it has roots in North American culture, its dogma and practices are considerably modified within local cultural environments.     

Combining whole-school and targeted programs for the reduction of bullying victimization: A randomized,effectiveness trial

Despite the extensive evaluation of school-based interventions for bullying, victimization remains a significant problem in schools. Bullying victimization is significantly predicted by contextual (school-related) factors. As a consequence whole-school programs have been commonly used to prevent and reduce bullying victimization. Evidence also points to individual risk factors (such as emotional distress) in predicting victimization, yet programs to prevent bullying victimization by changing these individual risks are far less developed. Few studies have approximated “real-world” implementation conditions in their trials. The current effectiveness trial evaluated the combination of a whole-school program designed to prevent bullying perpetration and victimization together with a targeted intervention for at-risk students, teaching them individual and dyadic strategies to reduce their anxiety and manage victimization, allowing schools some latitude to implement programs as they typically would. Students from Grades 3 and 4 (N = 8,732) across 135 schools were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: combined intervention; whole-school intervention only; individual intervention only; and care as usual. Victimization decreased significantly and similarly across all four conditions at 12 and 24 months following baseline. Similar reductions and failure to discriminate conditions were found on other key constructs: anxiety; bullying perpetration; and depression. Possible reasons for the failure to demonstrate victimization prevention differences and lessons learned from this large, effectiveness trial are considered.     

Effects of self-assessment on retention in rule-based learning

The main purpose of most educational and training programs isthat the person will acquire some specified knowledge, retain it until a later time when it will be retrieved and employed to make decisions, select and execute actions, etc. Previous research has indicated that there might be a positive relation between an individual's certainty about the correctness of learned responses and how well the material is retained over shorter time-periods. In the present study, 39 men and 38 women learned the names of eight different hand pliers; they were also assessing their certainty about the names of the pliers. After the learning session, the participants returned after either 1, 6, or 12 wk. for a retention and relearning session. Analysis showed that higher certainty was associated positively with retention. The men were more prone than the women to rate themselves as being "Extremely sure" of being correct, even when they, in fact, were wrong. Also, men and women learned the material equally fast, but the men required significantly fewer trials than the women to relearn material. Inclusion of ratings of certainty offers a convenient way of assessing when training has been sufficient and facilitates detection of misinformation (sure-but-wrong answers).