Cognitive change 5 years after coronary artery bypass surgery.

A longitudinal study of cognitive function after coronary artery bypass surgery examined 107 participants using 11 tests, preoperatively and at 6 days, 8 weeks, and 5 years after surgery. The overall neuropsychological (NP) change score declined at 6 days, showed some recovery at 8 weeks, and declined again at 5 years. The number of microemboli recorded during surgery, postoperative short-term cognitive change, and degree of recovery at 8 weeks were identified as predictors of change in NP score to 5 years. This suggests that even over a 5-year period, operative damage is detectable. Patients' vulnerability to short-term deterioration and resilience or ability to recover over a few weeks from operative cerebral insult are important processes of unknown mechanisms.     

Rejection Sensitivity and Executive Control: Joint predictors of Borderline Personality features

Two studies tested the hypothesis that rejection sensitivity (RS) and executive control (EC) jointly predict borderline personality (BP) features. We expected high RS to be related to increased vulnerability for BP features specifically in people who also had difficulties in executive control (EC). Study 1 tested this hypothesis using a sample of college students (N = 379) whereas Study 2 (N = 104) was conducted using a community sample of adults. Both studies operationalized EC by a self-report measure. For a subsample in Study 2 (N = 80), ability to delay gratification at age 4 was also used as an early behavioral precursor of EC in adulthood. In both studies, high RS was associated with increased BP features among people low in self-reported EC. Among those high in self-reported EC, the relationship between RS and BP features was attenuated. Study 2 found parallel findings using preschool delay ability as a behavioral index of EC. These findings suggest that EC may protect high RS people against BP features.     

An evaluation of the effectiveness and acceptability of a new technology system to support psychotherapy helping skills training

Training counselling and psychotherapy skills using new technology is a relatively unresearched area of study. The findings from a pilot evaluation of the effectiveness and acceptability of a new technology, mPath, using a mixed method design are reported. The study found that progressive integration of the new mPath technology into learning helping skills had the best results on developing competency, as assessed by the Person‐Centred Experiential Psychotherapy Scale Training Version. Qualitative interviews showed the technology was acceptable to users. Further research is needed in this emerging field of deliberate practice.     

Rejection sensitivity and disruption of attention by social threat cues

Two studies tested the hypothesis that Rejection Sensitivity (RS) increases vulnerability to disruption of attention by social threat cues, as would be consistent with prior evidence that it motivates individuals to prioritize detecting and managing potential rejection at a cost to other personal and interpersonal goals. In Study 1, RS predicted disruption of ongoing goal-directed attention by social threat but not negative words in an Emotional Stroop task. In Study 2, RS predicted attentional avoidance of threatening but not pleasant faces in a Visual Probe task. Threat-avoidant attention was also associated with features of borderline personality disorder. This research extends understanding of processes by which RS contributes to a self-perpetuating cycle of interpersonal problems and distress.     

The Application of Behavior Change Theory to Family-Based Services: Improving Parent Empowerment in Children’s Mental Health

We describe the development of a parent empowerment program (PEP) using a community-based participatory research approach. In collaboration with a group of dedicated family advocates working with the Mental Health Association of New York City and state policy makers, academic researchers took an iterative approach to crafting and refining PEP to better prepare family advocates to help bridge the gaps in service access among children with emotional and behavioral problems. Despite the growth of family-led, family support programs nationally, research that demonstrates the positive benefits of such programs is scarce in the children’s mental health literature. The PEP model is based on research data about barriers families face in mental health service utilization (e.g., stigma, perceptions of providers, attitudes towards mental illness, service availability, etc.). PEP is premised on (a) the concept of empowerment as a process, (b) the need to engage parents in becoming active agents of change, and (c) the application of an integrated framework to empower parents, called the Parents as Agents of Change model. Our paper focuses on describing the application of a Unified Theory of Behavior Change as a theoretical framework to help activate parents as change agents in meeting their children’s mental health needs. Based on an integrated model of grassroots driven Principles of Parent Support and research-based Unified Theory of Behavior Change, PEP’s Parents as Agents of Change model provides a conceptual framework for testing the effectiveness of family support services in children’s mental health, a much-needed area for future research.     

Residues in the analyst of the patient's symbiotic connection at a somatic level: unrepresented states in the patient and analyst

This paper discusses the residues of a somatic countertransference that revealed its meaning several years after apparently successful analytic work had ended. Psychoanalytic and Jungian analytic ideas on primitive communication, dissociation and enactment are explored in the working through of a shared respiratory symptom between patient and analyst. Growth in the analyst was necessary so that the patient's communication at a somatic level could be understood. Bleger's concept that both the patient's and analyst's body are part of the setting was central in the working through.     

Father-infant interaction program: Preparation for parenthood

The role of the father in child care has been expanding in recent years. Today, the father assumes a more active interest in his wife's pregnancy and participates more in the care and nurturing of his children. Fathers are most comfortable and confident when they have direct exposure and experience with their infants from the time of the infants' birth. To be of greater assistance, preparation for parenthood courses can increase the information that they offer on the father's role with his children. These courses can provide opportunities for expectant fathers to meet separately from their wives to discuss and share concerns and feelings about parenthood. Fathers express very positive feelings about having opportunities to interact with their infants and to discuss concerns and feelings with other fathers.     

Establishing Equivalence Relations Using a Respondent-Type Training Procedure III

The Psychological Record - In this study, 12 5-year-old normal functioning children were exposed to a respondent-type training procedure and tested for emergent conditional discriminations. During...     

COLLEGE STUDENTS AS CONTINGENCY MANAGERS FOR ADOLESCENTS IN A PROGRAM TO DEVELOP READING SKILLS1

Behavior-modification procedures and an individualized tutorial program were used to remediate reading skill deficits in seventh-grade adolescent subjects. Forty-two college students were trained as reading tutors and contingency managers to use reading diagnostic and remedial materials, and to develop contracts and reinforce positive verbal responses toward reading. Significantly greater increases in reading scores of experimental groups, compared to control groups, substantial improvement in target behaviors, and significant changes in verbalizations toward reading were observed after 10 weeks of treatment. Six-month followup studies showed that all groups had consolidated their gains and that grade scores continued to improve. The improvement of the experimental subjects remained significantly ahead of the control subjects.     

Heart-rate Reactivity and the Type A Behaviour Pattern in Three Age Groups of Australian Children

The relationship between the Type A Behaviour Pattern and heart-rate reactivity to the onset of a typical stressor was investigated with a sample of Australian boys and girls from three age-grade levels: preschool, middle-elementary, and upper-elementary. Behaviour Pattern was measured with the Matthews Youth Test for Health (Matthews & Angulo, 1980), and data were collected on children's second-by-second heart rate during rest and the stressor tasks. Reactivity to the onset of the stressor task (a puzzle game or mental arithmetic), was assessed. Results indicated that there were expected age differences in resting and stressor task heart rates, but that there was no significant difference in heart-rate reactivity between children classified as Type A or B Behaviour Pattern, either for the entire sample, for two extreme subsamples, or within each of the three age groups.