Long-Term Follow-Up of Children with Mental Retardation/Borderline Intellectual Functioning and ADHD

Fifty-two children (ages 7 to 14 years) with moderate mental retardation to borderline intellectual functioning were recontacted 12 to 65 months following participation in a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of methylphenidate (MPH). Sixty-nine percent of subjects continued to be prescribed medication for behavior control at follow-up. While 72% of the sample evidenced improvement, over two-thirds continued to be rated at or above the 98th percentile on the Hyperactivity Index of the Parent Conners. In fact, 22% of subjects had received inpatient psychiatric treatment between the time of the initial MPH trial and follow-up. Finally, subjects with high initial ratings on the Parent Conners Conduct Problems scale were more likely to be suspended from school or receive inpatient psychiatric treatment than subjects with low initial ratings. The results suggested that children with ADHD and mental retardation or borderline intellectual functioning continued to exhibit significant symptoms associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) at follow-up and that early conduct problems were predictive of continuing behavioral difficulties.     

A diasporic Christian theology: towards an eschatological understanding of theological education in post-communist societies

Christian theology amidst post-communist societies finds itself in a precarious situation as it seeks to emerge from the competing social imaginaries of its totalitarian Soviet past and the democratic capitalism of its future. To do so, eschatological hope will need to spring eternal as it seeks understanding by faith in love of the triune God and its diverse neighbours while reckoning with its diasporic status. As such, this programmatic article succinctly circumscribes the meaning (hope), message (faith), and mission (love) of a diasporic Christian theology with an ecumenical vision predominately for university theological education under post-communist conditions. It seeks to give reason for the eschatological hope within (meaning) that is fixated on the resurrected Christ in the Spirit (message) for the wisdom and flourishing of humanity (mission).     

Attributions About Morally Unreliable Characters: Relationship Closeness Affects Moral Judgments

Across 6 studies, relationship closeness strongly influenced moral attribution. First, we found that moral attributions were stronger when one interacted with an intimate compared to less intimate other. Second, we examined attributions about those who treat some people well and others badly. Moral character attributions were worse when an actor harmed an intimate relationship partner compared to a less close relationship partner. Further, the effect of relationship partner on moral attributions was influenced by perceivers’ beliefs about one’s true character. Perceivers were apt to believe that one’s true character is revealed when interacting with close others.     

Patterns, correlates, and barriers to medication adherence among persons prescribed new treatments for HIV disease.

New treatments for HIV can improve immune functioning and decrease mortality. However, lapses in adherence may render these complex regimens ineffective. Sixty-three men and 9 women on highly active antiretroviral therapy completed measures of medication adherence, psychological characteristics, and barriers to adherence. HIV viral load, a health outcome measure of virus amount present in blood, was also obtained. The sample was 36% African American and 56% Caucasian, with 35% reporting disability. Nearly one third of patients had missed medication doses in the past 5 days, and 18% had missed doses weekly over the past 3 months. Frequency of missed doses was strongly related to detectable HIV viral loads. Depression, side-effect severity, self-efficacy, and social support distinguished patients with good and poor adherence. Barriers also varied with adherence level. Implications for interventions promoting HIV treatment adherence are discussed.     

Red as an Apple: Native American Acculturation and Counseling With or Without Reservation

The United States has a long history of advocating policies of both extermination and assimilation of Native peoples. This historical context provides an important backdrop for understanding issues of trust/mistrust and the impact of acculturation on Native Americans who often find they have to reconcile 2 cultures. Therefore, counselors must assess a Native American client's level of acculturation rather than making assumptions based on the limited information offered by appearance or other personal characteristics. The Native American Acculturation Scale is presented as an operationalized means of formally or informally assessing a Native American client's cultural identity.     

Long-term retinotopic priming in object identification

An important result in perception research is that priming in an object naming task is invariant with translation and left-right reflection. A more sensitive object recognition paradigm was used in three experiments in order to investigate the extent to which priming of object identification is affected by changes in left-right orientation and position. In a prime phase, participants viewed consecutively presented object images. In a subsequent probe phase, participants identified familiar objects in rapid visual streams of nonobject distractors. In Experiment 1, images previously viewed in the same left-right orientation were primed more than images previously viewed in the opposite orientation (i.e., a left-right reflection). This reflection-sensitive priming was replicated in Experiment 2 using a brief (300-msec) prime exposure. In Experiment 3, when the retinal locations of prime and probe images matched, reflection-sensitive priming was also obtained, but when the retinal locations of prime and probe images differed, no reflection-sensitive priming was observed. These results suggest that a single prime exposure can produce long-term priming that is sensitive to left-right reflection, but that this priming is specific to a retinal location.