Symptoms associated with suicidal behavior in childhood and adolescence

In adulthood, depression is often accompanied by suicidal ideation or behavior. As a result, depression in adults is generally viewed as a sign of risk for suicide. However, according to a number of researchers, suicidal behavior in children and adolescents differs markedly from that in adulthood. Differences have been noted in frequency, gender distribution, and associated symptoms. This study examined age and gender differences in symptoms accompanying suicidal gestures and ideation in black children, aged 11–18, referred for psychiatric treatment. Results indicated that a difference exists in the types of symptoms associated with suicidal ideation as opposed to suicidal acts, and that these differences vary, depending on the age and gender of the child. Moreover, the findings indicate that depressed mood and other internalized symptoms are more common among disturbed children who manifest suicidal behavior than among those who do not.     

Cognition and Citizen Participation in Social Action1

Citizen participation in social action may depend, in part, on certain beliefs about the world and one's power to initiate change. Existing tests of internality and belief in a just world were modified, creating independent measures of belief in personal power and belief in possible injustices in society. The paper reports data on the reliability and the convergent and discriminant validity of the new Personal Power and Injustice scales. In Studies 1 and 2 the scales predicted outcomes in theoretically relevant experiments. In Study 3 they discriminated among community groups who did, or did not, engage in social action.     

Negative priming from ignored distractors in visual selection: A review

Ignoring a distractor on a prime trial generally impairs responses to that object on a subsequent probe trial. This negative-priming (NP) effect supports the notion that distracting objects are actively inhibited during target selection (Tipper, 1985). Alternatively, NP may be caused either by amismatch between the features of items across prime and probe trials (Park & Kanwisher, 1994) or by the episodic retrieval of information from the prime trial which conflicts with the current, correct response (Neill & Valdes, 1992). These alternative accounts are called theselective inhibition,feature mismatching, andepisodic retrieval hypotheses, respectively. The present paper reviews the NP literature and considers the evidence for each of the three accounts. Feature mismatching does produce NP in a limited number of cases, but it is not a necessary condition for NP. In other cases, NP must be due to either selective inhibition or episodic retrieval of previously ignored distractors. Though results from critical tests designed to discriminate among these hypotheses have not yet been reported, such results are crucial for both theoretical and practical reasons.     

Training program in psychosocial intervention for high-risk infants and their families

A multidisciplinary training program for psychosocial intervention in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) was developed. The purpose of the program was to train mental health and health care professionals in a psychosocial preventive intervention model for high-risk infants and their families throughout the infants' hospital course in the NICU. The program was divided into modules that include assessment and intervention with the infant, parents, family, and larger caregiving environment. Over a 3-year period 40 trainees from 9 disciplines were trained. A randomized clinical trial was conducted which showed the positive effects of the intervention. A clinical service including inpatient and outpatient follow-up has been established in the NICU based on the psychosocial model developed from the training program.     

Use of public information when foraging: effects of time available to sample foods

It has been proposed that use of socially acquired information by animals should increase as the time available for individual resource sampling decreases. We gave Norway rat “observers” either 2 or 5 h day^–1 to sample four foods. Three of these foods were relatively palatable, but protein-poor; the fourth was relatively unpalatable, but protein-rich. We found that observer rats that for 2 h day^–1 both sampled foods and interacted with demonstrators eating only the protein-rich food ate more of the protein-rich food than did observers that sampled for 2 h day^–1 but had no opportunity to interact with demonstrators. On the other hand, observer rats that could sample foods for 5 h day^–1 ate equal amounts of protein-rich food whether they interacted with a demonstrator fed protein-rich food or not. Subsequent analyses showed that the time available to observers to sample foods, rather than the opportunity to interact with demonstrators determined whether such interaction influenced observers’ food choices. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that animals increase their use of public information in response to temporal constraints on opportunities for resource sampling. Received: 22 December 1998 / Accepted after revision: 27 February 1999     

Quality-of-life (QOL) assessment of older consumers: A retrospective review

This article provides a series of historical reflections (for a period corresponding roughly to the past 20 or 30 years) on the evolving QOL status of older consumers. It uses a two-category QOL framework consisting ofobjective components (e.g., socioeconomic indicators, health and longevity, housing and family living arrangements, and gender differences) andsubjective components (e.g., life satisfaction and cognitive age) to explore the QOL of older consumers. It then examines the strategic reality of diversity and speculates on strategic implications of these QOL observations.     

Does affective education work? A review of seven programs

Affective education programs are proliferating. This paper summarizes seven affective education programs and eleven evaluations of the effectiveness of these programs. The specific objectives of curricula cluster into three major areas—internal-emotional, cognitive, and overt-behavioral. The results indicate that programs produce measurable outcomes in all three areas, although the evidence of program effects is less impressive in the internal-emotional area than in others. Methodological difficulties inherent in evaluations of affective education are discussed.