Examining the Clinical Efficacy of Core Transformation: A Randomized Clinical Trial

This randomized clinical trial with a sample of adults (N = 129) from India explored the effects of a single core‐transformation session on symptom experience and psychological growth. The results over the total 8‐week study period indicated significant, moderate overall effect sizes (ds = 0.63 and 0.52) for symptom experience, emotional stability, affect balance, global well‐being, and purpose in life. Implications for research and clinical practice are discussed.     

Examining contrast effects in performance appraisals: using appropriate controls and assessing accuracy

In research on contrast effects in performance appraisals, control conditions or measures of accuracy have rarely been used. In the present study, the authors included appropriate controls and used expert ratings to develop "true scores" for assessing accuracy. The study is an examination of the influence of 3 variables on performance ratings: (a) the sequence of viewing and rating performance, (b) the delay between viewing and rating performance, and (c) whether the target of the performance rating was the same person as the anchor. Experimental conditions did not have the expected differential effects on target ratings, but target ratings in all the experimental conditions showed contrast effects when compared with ratings in relevant control conditions. The target ratings in experimental conditions were accurate, however, as assessed by comparisons with true scores, thus raising questions about the relationship between contrast effects and accuracy.     

Spatial learning set acquisition in rats

Development of a learning set reflects the ability to abstract from a given problem the rules and procedures that can be generalized to novel stimuli. This ability has been demonstrated readily in rats only with tasks employing olfactory stimuli, suggesting a modality-specific capability. In the present experiment, rats were tested on a series of three go/no-go spatial discrimination tasks in order to evaluate their ability to develop a learning set in a modality other than olfaction. Each discrimination task was presented in a different room providing unique extra-maze cues. All rats reached the criterion performance of 18 correct responses in 20 consecutive trials on all three discriminations and showed a learning set. Some rats performed the third discrimination perfectly after only a single error. These results indicate that the ability to develop a learning set is not specific to the olfactory modality but reflects a more general cognitive capacity.     

Effects of Fatigue and Laterality on Fractionated Reaction Time

Surface EMG enabled fractionation of a simple hand grip total reaction time into peripheral and central processing components (motor time and premotor time, respectively). Changes in reaction time components were investigated in 12 female intercollegiate swimmers (bilateral athletes) and 12 female intercollegiate tennis players (unilateral athletes) following a 48% strength decrement induced by serial maximal voluntary isometric contractions (5 sec in duration). Despite significantly greater strength in the dominant arm than in the nondominant arm, there was no difference in fatigue effects between arms. Fatigue increased the premotor component of reaction time significantly, and indirectly the total reaction time, but the motor time remained essentially constant regardless of the type of previous athletic training. This indicated that fatigue impaired central nervous system or myoneural-junction operations rather than the intramuscular ability to initiate force.     

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Nightmares and Sleep Disturbance in Iraq War Veterans: A Feasible and Promising Treatment Combination

A substantial proportion of returnees from the Iraq war have significant psychological symptoms related to war zone exposure, including high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), nightmares, and sleep disturbances. This pilot investigation examined the feasibility and efficacy of a promising cognitive-behavioral treatment (CBT) for nightmares, Imagery Rehearsal, combined with CBT for insomnia. Seven veterans completed treatment and showed promising pre-post effects regarding nightmare frequency, sleep quality, and PTSD. This report further examined the content of participants' nightmares, changes made during treatment, and potentially important modifying variables of treatment outcome. Those with redeployment fears, guilt due to perpetration issues, or traumatic brain injuries may receive some but not full benefits of the treatment.     

The Development and Evaluation of a Parent Empowerment Program for Family Peer Advocates

Family-to-family services are emerging as an important adjunctive service to traditional mental health care and a vehicle for improving parent engagement and service use in children’s mental health services. In New York State, a growing workforce of Family Peer Advocates (FPA) is delivering family-to-family services. We describe the development and evaluation of a professional program to enhance Family Peer Advocate professional skills, called the Parent Engagement and Empowerment Program (PEP). We detail the history and content of PEP and provide data from a pre/post and 6-month follow up evaluation of 58 FPA who participated in the first Statewide regional training effort. Self-efficacy, empowerment, and skills development were assessed at 3 time points: baseline, post-training, and 6-month follow-up. The largest changes were in self-efficacy and empowerment. Regional differences suggest differences in Family Peer Advocate workforce across areas of the state. This evaluation also provides the first systematic documentation of Family Peer Advocate activities over a six-month period. Consistent with peer specialists within the adult health care field, FPA in the children’s mental health field primarily focused on providing emotional support and service access issues. Implications for expanding family-to-family services and integrating it more broadly into provider organizations are described.     

Early social attention impairments in autism: social orienting, joint attention, and attention to distress

This study investigated social attention impairments in autism (social orienting, joint attention, and attention to another's distress) and their relations to language ability. Three- to four-year-old children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; n = 72), 3- to 4-year-old developmentally delayed children (n = 34), and 12- to 46-month-old typically developing children (n = 39), matched on mental age, were compared on measures of social orienting, joint attention, and attention to another's distress. Children with autism performed significantly worse than the comparison groups in all of these domains. Combined impairments in joint attention and social orienting were found to best distinguish young children with ASD from those without ASD. Structural equation modeling indicated that joint attention was the best predictor of concurrent language ability. Social orienting and attention to distress were indirectly related to language through their relations with joint attention. These results help to clarify the nature of social attention impairments in autism, offer clues to developmental mechanisms, and suggest targets for early intervention.     

Religiosity/spirituality and health. A critical review of the evidence for biological pathways

The authors review evidence regarding the biological processes that may link religiosity/spirituality to health. A growing body of observational evidence supports the hypothesis that links religiosity/spirituality to physiological processes. Although much of the earliest evidence came from cross-sectional studies with questionable generalizability and potential confounding, more recent research, with more representative samples and multivariate analysis, provides stronger evidence linking Judeo-Christian religious practices to blood pressure and immune function. The strongest evidence comes from randomized interventional trials reporting the beneficial physiological impact of meditation (primarily transcendental meditation). Overall, available evidence is generally consistent with the hypothesis that religiosity/spirituality is linked to health-related physiological processes--including cardiovascular, neuroendocrine, and immune function--althogh more solid evidence is needed.