Early-Onset Bipolar Spectrum Disorders: Diagnostic Issues

Since the mid 1990s, early-onset bipolar spectrum disorders (BPSDs) have received increased attention in both the popular press and scholarly press. Rates of diagnosis of BPSD in children and adolescents have increased in inpatient, outpatient, and primary care settings. BPSDs remain difficult to diagnose, particularly in youth. The current diagnostic system makes few modifications to accommodate children and adolescents. Researchers in this area have developed specific BPSD definitions that affect the generalizability of their findings to all youth with BPSD. Despite knowledge gains from the research, BPSDs are still difficult to diagnose because clinicians must: (1) consider the impact of the child’s developmental level on symptom presentation (e.g., normative behavior prevalence, environmental limitations on youth behavior, pubertal status, irritability, symptom duration); (2) weigh associated impairment and course of illness (e.g., neurocognitive functioning, failing to meet full DSM criteria, future impairment); and (3) make decisions about appropriate assessment (differentiating BPSD from medical illnesses, medications, drug use, or other psychiatric diagnoses that might better account for symptoms; comorbid disorders; informant characteristics and assessment measures to use). Research findings concerning these challenges and relevant recommendations are offered. Areas for further research to guide clinicians’ assessment of children with early-onset BPSD are highlighted. Principal Investigators and Coinvestigators of Longitudinal Assessment of Manic Symptoms (LAMS) Group are listed in Appendix.     

Teaching for Religious Literacy

Stephen Prothero's Religious Literacy makes a strong case that minimal religious literacy is an essential requirement for contemporary U. S. citizens. He argues further that high schools and colleges should offer required courses in the study of religion in order to help students reach that baseline literacy. Beyond the general recommendation that such courses focus on biblical literacy and the history of Christianity, however, Prothero does not sketch out his proposal for teaching religious literacy. This essay argues that in addition to providing factual knowledge, teaching for religious literacy needs to involve sustained attention to how religious people use that factual information to orient themselves in the world, express their individual and group self‐understanding, and give their lives direction and meaning. Such attention to the dynamics of religious life can also help students understand why human beings have persisted in this mode of behavior.     

Motivation for emigration,values, wellbeing,and identification among young Russian Jews

We conceptualize motivations to emigrate as expressions of basic motivations in the context of emigration. We propose three theoretically distinct motivations to emigrate: preservation (physical, social, and psychological security), self‐development (personal growth in abilities, knowledge, and skills), and materialism (financial wellbeing, wealth). We validate this typology in a sample of 158 potential Jewish emigrants from Russia with confirmatory factor analysis of reasons to emigrate. Each motivation correlates, as hypothesized, with the basic values theorized to underlie it. The relative importance of the motivations and their associations with preferred destination of immigration, group identifications, subjective wellbeing and economic situation are also largely consistent with hypotheses. We discuss the generalizability of these motivations for understanding emigration in settings around the world.     

Improving multiple behaviors for colorectal cancer prevention among african american church members.

The WATCH (Wellness for African Americans Through Churches) Project was a randomized trial comparing the effectiveness of 2 strategies to promote colorectal cancer preventive behaviors among 587 African American members of 12 rural North Carolina churches. Using a 2 X 2 factorial research design, the authors compared a tailored print and video (TPV) intervention, consisting of 4 individually tailored newsletters and targeted videotapes, with a lay health advisor (LHA) intervention. Results showed that the TPV intervention significantly improved (p <.05) fruit and vegetable consumption (0.6 servings) and recreational physical activity (2.5 metabolic task equivalents per hour) and, among those 50 and older (n = 287), achieved a 15% increase in fecal occult blood testing screening (p =.08). The LHA intervention did not prove effective, possibly because of suboptimal reach and diffusion.     

Word imagery but not age of acquisition affects episodic memory

Evidence is presented from two experiments and from a reanalysis of data published by Christian, Bickley, Tarka, and Clayton (1978) that the chronological age at which a word is acquired does not affect free recall or recognition memory. Morris’s (1981) report, that late acquired words are better recalled than early acquired words, was not replicated and appears to be attributable to a difference in the emotionality value of his lists. Although the data are consistent with an interpretation in terms of semantic, but not episodic, memory tasks’ being sensitive to word age of acquisition, it is suggested that a more fine-grained analysis is necessary.     

Validation of the Supervisory Analyst Exam (Series 16) by the New York Stock Exchange

The Supervisory Analyst (Series 16) Examination is a criterion-referenced licensure/certification examination used to qualify persons for supervisory positions in financial data analysis for New York Stock Exchange member firms. A job analysis was conducted to update the examination to ensure its content validity. The analysis revealed 4 major tasks performed by the supervisory analyst. KSAs were determined for each of the tasks. The KSAs were distributed between two parts: 1) Securities Analysis, and 2) Regulatory Administration. Multiple-choice items were written for each part, and the distribution of items was designed to reflect the relative weights of the KSAs as determined by the job analysis.     

CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE MACHINE

Abstract. We consider only the relationship of consciousness to physical reality, whether physical reality is interpreted as the brain, artificial intelligence, or the universe as a whole. The difficulties with starting the analysis with physical reality on the one hand and with consciousness on the other are delineated. We consider how one may derive from the other. Concepts of universal or pure consciousness versus local or ego consciousness are explored with the possibility that consciousness may be physically creative. We examine whether artificial intelligence can possess consciousness as an extension of the interrelationship between consciousness and the brain or material reality.     

Counselor Values: A National Survey

A national sample (n = 479) of counselors representative of the 1993 American Counseling Association membership was surveyed regarding their value orientations in four domains: universal values, mental health values, individualistic-collectivistic values, and religious-spiritual values. Results yielded a multifaceted, generally concordant (although by no means unanimous) value profile for professional counselors across these value domains, presenting an overall content pattern that might be globally summarized as a strong core valuing of holistic-humanistic empowerment related to personal development and interpersonal and social concern. Implications for counseling practice, limitations, and suggestions for future research are discussed.