Psychometric Synthesis of the Five Factor Wellness Inventory

This quantitative synthesis combines results of 59 studies that published psychometrics of the Five Factor Wellness Inventory (5F-Wel; Myers & Sweeney, 2005a, 2005b). Although few studies reported complete statistics, and demographically targeted research studies are needed, this synthesis reflects that the 5F-Wel (also known as the FFWEL; Mind Garden, n.d.) is sound psychometrically for adults: Internal consistency, subsample means, and intrascale correlations are promising, as are correlations with related constructs. Consequently, the 5F-Wel demonstrates utility for clinical use when working with clients on wellness goals.     

Ouch! My phantom leg jumps/hurts when you stab "my" virtual hand

Pain synaesthetes experience pain in a presensitised region when observing or imagining another person in pain. We conducted an upper-limb embodiment study using a modified rubber-hand illusion in which lower-limb amputees originally participated as control subjects for the upper-limb amputees. While we found all subjects experienced topographic illusory sensations, we also serendipitously found that lower-limb amputee pain synaesthetes experienced pain or a motor response in their phantom leg when the embodied hand was threatened (e.g., with a retractable knife, mousetrap, or syringe) or submitted to high-frequency stimulation (e.g., vibration). Embodiment illusions were brought about by touching, manipulating, or threatening a rubber or real hand which was observed through a mirror so that it was superimposed upon the target hand (phantom hand for upper-limb amputees, or real hand in others). Participants included eight pain synaesthetes (six lower-limb amputees, one upper-limb amputee, and one nonamputee), and thirty-one controls (eight lower-limb amputees, twelve upper-limb amputees, and eleven nonamputees). We documented participant's subjective reports, together with quantitative measures including the Questionnaire Measure of Emotional Empathy. We found no association between pain synaesthesia and empathy scores. On the basis of related literature we suggest that pain synaesthetes likely experienced phantom-leg pain because (a) the motor system was already engaged during visual capture; (b) threatening stimuli, to which they are hyper-vigilant, triggered avoidance or 'escape' motor schemata; and (c) there could be no feedback confirming that initiated motor schemata for the phantom limb were successfully performed. Ultimately, we have further defined this new condition, synaesthesia for pain, as not only having a sensory pain component, but also a key motor component, manifesting itself in avoidance, contraction, and withdrawal 'actions'.     

The supermom trap: Do involved dads erode moms' self‐competence?

Increasingly, husbands have been expected to share equally in the task of childrearing, especially when their wives are employed. This study examined reactions to these changes in a sample of 78 dual-earner couples with 8-month-old infants. When wives felt that their husbands were skillful caregivers, greater husbands' contribution to caregiving was associated with lower self-competence among wives. In contrast, wives' caregiving behavior was unrelated to their husbands' self-competence. None of these effects emerged for the self-liking component of self-esteem. Thus, despite increasingly egalitarian sex roles, employed mothers (but not their husbands) seem to be trapped between their desire for help with childrearing and the threat to their personal competence posed by failure to meet socially constructed ideals of motherhood.     

Between paranoia and creativity: candidates' experience of psychoanalytic training

There is widespread concern regarding various aspects of psychoanalytic education. A recent paper by Patrick Casement, drawn widely from his long experience as a supervisor both in the U.K. and abroad, implied that the British Psychoanalytical Society is not exempt from these concerns. To investigate this, a semistructured, anonymous questionnaire was devised and sent to all candidates and all recently qualified analysts at the society. Overall there was a 58% response rate, with 77% of candidates and 39% of recently qualified analysts responding. Concerns were expressed about aspects of the training, but on the whole these were balanced by appreciation. Although strong criticism was expressed by a minority, it seems that when something goes wrong for a candidate, this experience is felt keenly by the peer group as well. The results are discussed in the context of the current training and ethos of the British Society, as well as in relation to a more widespread move toward "competency-based" education. The maturational tasks facing both candidates and trainers are also addressed.     

User rights and the frail aged

ABSTRACT There is a growing acceptance of user rights models with regard to dependent populations such as nursing home residents, but classic theories of rights presuppose levels of human rationality and human agency often lacking in the case of highly dependent populations. While user rights models have strong advantages at a rhetorical level, the reduced capacity for dependent groups to assert their rights constitutes a significant structural limitation. Policies, practices and regulatory strategies developed on the assumption that very dependent groups can indeed assert such rights thus proceed on a premise which is fatally flawed.     

On the Strength of the Local Attachment Preference

This paper investigates the strength of the local attachment preference in syntactic ambiguity resolution, based on a study of a novel ambiguity for which the predictions of local attachment contrast with the predictions of a wide range of other ambiguity resolution principles. In sentences of the form Because Rose praised the recipe I made ... we show that the ambiguous clause I made is preferentially attached as a relative clause under some circumstances, as predicted by local attachment, and preferentially attached as a matrix clause under other circumstances. The implications for accounts of locality in parsing are discussed.     

Combined cognitive and parent training interventions for adolescents with ADHD and their mothers: A randomized controlled trial

This study examined the individual and combined effects of two nonpharmacological treatments for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): Cogmed working memory training (CWMT) for adolescents and behavioral parent training (BPT) for mothers. Ninety-one adolescents (ages 11–15) and their mothers were randomized to one of four CWMT and BPT treatment and active control (placebo) group combinations of 5-week interventions. At pre- and posttest, mothers and teachers completed rating forms, and adolescents completed neuropsychological measures of working memory (WM). Individual intervention effects showed that treatment CWMT significantly improved WM spans, whereas there were no significant differences for treatment or control BPT on reports of parent-related outcomes. Combined treatment effects indicated an overall pattern of greatest improvements for the control CWMT/treatment BPT group, as compared to the other three groups, on adolescent WM deficit, behavioral regulation problems, and global executive deficit. Most significant effects for outcomes were main effects of improvements over time. A combination of CWMT and BPT did not result in increased treatment gains. However, potential effects of combined treatment may have been masked by greater perceived benefits arising from lack of struggle in the nonadaptive, CWMT active control condition. Future combined intervention research should focus on specific, theoretically driven WM deficits among individuals with ADHD, should include possible adaptations to the standard CWMT program, should examine effectiveness of cognitive treatments combined with contextual interventions and should utilize appropriate control groups to fully understand the unique and combined effects of interventions.     

Childhood Overweight and Obesity: Maternal and Family Factors

Treatment programs for childhood overweight and obesity have highlighted the importance of the family in treatment. Considering this, it is surprising that few studies have examined the role of family factors in the development of childhood overweight and obesity. The objective of this study was to examine which family and maternal factors predict increases in weight in boys and girls during middle to late childhood. This study used longitudinal data from the childhood growth and development (GAD) Study. The GAD Study involved 286 healthy weight, overweight and obese children, aged 6–13 years at baseline, who completed baseline, 1-year follow-up and 2-year follow-up assessments. Overweight/obese children were recruited from clinical and community settings. A broad range of maternal and family factors were assessed. Linear mixed models were used to identify which factors predicted child Body Mass Index (BMI) z-scores over time. For community-based children, maternal BMI and single-parent family structure were significant longitudinal predictors of child BMI z-scores. For the clinical participants, low family income was the only significant multivariate predictor of child BMI z-scores. The strong association between child BMI, maternal BMI and family structure confirms the need to target prevention and intervention efforts for childhood overweight and obesity towards families with overweight parents, particularly single-parent families.