Development and content validity of a screening instrument for gaming addiction in adolescents: The Gaming Addiction Identification Test (GAIT)

This study describes the development of a screening tool for gaming addiction in adolescents – the Gaming Addiction Identification Test (GAIT). Its development was based on the research literature on gaming and addiction. An expert panel comprising professional raters (n = 7), experiential adolescent raters (n = 10), and parent raters (n = 10) estimated the content validity of each item (I‐CVI) as well as of the whole scale (S‐CVI/Ave), and participated in a cognitive interview about the GAIT scale. The mean scores for both I‐CVI and S‐CVI/Ave ranged between 0.97 and 0.99 compared with the lowest recommended I‐CVI value of 0.78 and the S‐CVI/Ave value of 0.90. There were no sex differences and no differences between expert groups regarding ratings in content validity. No differences in the overall evaluation of the scale emerged in the cognitive interviews. Our conclusions were that GAIT showed good content validity in capturing gaming addiction. The GAIT needs further investigation into its psychometric properties of construct validity (convergent and divergent validity) and criterion‐related validity, as well as its reliability in both clinical settings and in community settings with adolescents.     

Psychometric evaluation of the adolescent and parent versions of the Gaming Addiction Identification Test (GAIT)

The objective of the study is to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Gaming Addiction Identification Test (GAIT) and its parent version (GAIT‐P), in a representative community sample of adolescents and parents in Västmanland, Sweden. Self‐rated and parent‐rated gaming addictive symptoms identified by GAIT and GAIT‐P were analyzed for frequency of endorsement, internal consistency, concordance, factor structure, prevalence of Internet gaming disorder (IGD), concurrence with the Gaming Addiction Scale for Adolescents, 7‐item version (GAS) and the parent version of GAS (GAS‐P), and for sex differences. The 12‐month prevalence of IGD was found to be 1.3% with GAIT and 2.4% with GAIT‐P. Results also indicate promising psychometric results within this population, with high internal consistency, and high concurrent validity with GAS and GAS‐P. Concordance between adolescents and parents ratings was high, although moderate in girls. Although exploratory factor analysis indicated poor model fit, it also indicated unidimensionality and high factor loadings in all analyses. GAIT and GAIT‐P are suitable for continued use in measuring gaming addiction in adolescents, and, with the additional two items, they now cover all nine IGD criteria.     

Descartes' Dualism and Contemporary Dualism

After drawing a distinction between two kinds of dualism—numerical dualism (defined in terms of identity) and modal dualism (defined in terms of supervenience)—we argue that Descartes is a numerical dualist, but not a modal dualist. Since most contemporary dualists advocate modal dualism, the relation of Descartes' views to the contemporary philosophy of mind are more complex than is commonly assumed.     

Automatic imitation of intransitive actions

Previous research has indicated a potential discontinuity between monkey and human ventral premotor-parietal mirror systems, namely that monkey mirror systems process only transitive (object-directed) actions, whereas human mirror systems may also process intransitive (non-object-directed) actions. The present study investigated this discontinuity by seeking evidence of automatic imitation of intransitive actions--hand opening and closing--in humans using a simple reaction time (RT), stimulus-response compatibility paradigm. Left-right and up-down spatial compatibility were controlled by ensuring that stimuli were presented and responses executed in orthogonal planes, and automatic imitation was isolated from simple and complex orthogonal spatial compatibility by varying the anatomical identity of the stimulus hand and response hemispace, respectively. In all conditions, action compatible responding was faster than action incompatible responding, and no effects of spatial compatibility were observed. This experiment therefore provides evidence of automatic imitation of intransitive actions, and support for the hypothesis that human and monkey mirror systems differ with respect to the processing of intransitive actions.     

Mortality of geriatric and younger patients with schizophrenia in the community

Little is known about the differences in mortality among non-institutionalized geriatric and younger patients with schizophrenia. In this study long-term mortality and suicidal behavior of all the geriatric (age > or = 65 years), middle-age (age 41-64 years), and young (age 15-40 years) subjects with schizophrenia living in a Chinese rural community were compared. A 10 year follow-up investigation among a 1994 cohort (n = 510) of patients with schizophrenia was conducted in Xinjin County, Chengdu, China. Compared with young subjects, geriatric subjects with schizophrenia were more likely to be female, have more previous physical illness, never accepted treatment, and practice religious (p < or = 0.01). There were no significant differences of suicide attempts among the three groups. Young subjects had a higher rate of suicide (1,033.8 per 100,000 person-years), and geriatric subjects had a higher rate of deaths due to other causes (accident and natural causes) (4,314.2 per 100,000 person-years). Standardized mortality ratios for both suicide and deaths due to other causes were highest in young subjects and the lowest in geriatric subjects. Patients with schizophrenia in all age groups had a marked increase in mortality and suicide. Specific intervention strategies for decreasing mortality and suicide should be developed for patients with schizophrenia in different age groups.     

Social Concern and Delinquency: An Empirical Assessment of a Novel Theory

Using the Pathways to Desistance data, this study provides a test of Agnew’s social concern theory. Social concern is hypothesized to reduce criminality through four components: care about the welfare of others, desire for close ties, moral intuitions, and desire to conform. The analyses provide support for the theory’s core contentions. Care about others and moral intuitions are negatively associated with delinquency. Further, social concern partly mediates the effects of social learning, strain, social bond, self-control, and social support on delinquency. Findings indicate that social concern theory is a promising approach that merits continued theoretical refinement and empirical assessment.     

‘In human shape to become the very beast!’ – Henry More on animals

ABSTRACT

Animals – both tame and wild, as metaphors and as real presences – populate many of More’s works. In this essay, I show that, from the early Psychodia Platonica to the Divine Dialogues, animals are at the core of key metaphysical issues that reverberate on the levels of psychology and ethics. In particular I discuss three main aspects: (1) the role of animals in More’s critique of atheism, both as safeguard for the body–soul interaction and as proofs of divine providence in nature; (2) the problem of evil in the universe, and how to justify the existence of ‘evil’ animals in particular; (3) the differentiation between animals and humans, especially on the basis of their respective possibility of attaining happiness. In all three cases, I argue that More attempts to ‘tame’ the nature of animals, and yet that he is aware that ‘animality’ remains partly untamed.     

Automatic imitation

"Automatic imitation" is a type of stimulus-response compatibility effect in which the topographical features of task-irrelevant action stimuli facilitate similar, and interfere with dissimilar, responses. This article reviews behavioral, neurophysiological, and neuroimaging research on automatic imitation, asking in what sense it is "automatic" and whether it is "imitation." This body of research reveals that automatic imitation is a covert form of imitation, distinct from spatial compatibility. It also indicates that, although automatic imitation is subject to input modulation by attentional processes, and output modulation by inhibitory processes, it is mediated by learned, long-term sensorimotor associations that cannot be altered directly by intentional processes. Automatic imitation provides an important tool for the investigation of the mirror neuron system, motor mimicry, and complex forms of imitation. It is a new behavioral phenomenon, comparable with the Stroop and Simon effects, providing strong evidence that even healthy adult humans are prone, in an unwilled and unreasoned way, to copy the actions of others.