Patterns of Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms Among United States Air Force Combat Search and Rescue Personnel

U.S. Air Force (USAF) combat search and rescue (CSAR) aircrew and special duty rescue personnel are specially trained airmen with high levels of direct exposure to combat-related medical trauma. The purpose of this study was to explore the prevalence rate of CSAR military personnel meeting the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (fifth edition; DSM–5) posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom criteria. USAF CSAR aircrew (n = 128) and rescue personnel (n = 300) across multiple units participated in the study by completing a demographics survey and the PTSD checklist based on DSM–5. Fourteen participants endorsed a pattern of symptoms of moderate to extreme level of severity meeting PTSD diagnostic criteria. Recommendations are provided for line and medical leadership to optimize health and performance among CSAR personnel.     

Schools of Psychoanalytic Thought by Ruth L. Munroe

This paper assesses the impact of large-group processes and dynamics upon the patient-staff community meeting in hospital treatment. It focuses upon the therapeutic values and limitations of the large-group format by examining, from an integrated general systems and object relations perspective, how size, structure, patient population, staff training, and leadership variables reciprocally affect the process and content of the community meeting. The special problems associated with selecting an appropriate format for the meeting and the intense pull of regressive group forces upon the large-group leader are discussed.     

Educational Hegemony,Traumatic Stress,and African American and Latino American Students

The authors use traumatic stress theory to develop an ecosystemic understanding of hegemony and systemic barriers to educational success for culturally diverse students. Scholarship on trauma and systemic oppression are applied to students' academic experiences, and recommendations for improving educational outcomes include assessing for and ameliorating trauma in educational settings. Los autores emplean teorías del estrés traumático para desarrollar un entendimiento ecosistemático de la hegemonía y las barreras sistémicas para el éxito académico de estudiantes culturalmente diversos. Se aplica el conjunto de las investigaciones sobre trauma y opresión sistémica a las experiencias académicas de los estudiantes, y las recomendaciones para mejorar el rendimiento educativo incluyen la evaluación y alivio de los niveles de trauma en entornos educativos.     

Facilitating children's accurate responses: conversational rules and interview style

This study examined the effectiveness of teaching young children a set of social conversational rules as a method of reducing errors in children's memory reports. Forty children (aged 3 to 6 years) interacted with a confederate ‘teaching assistant.’ Three conversational rules were examined as possible means of decreasing inaccuracies. For comparison purposes, three placebo rules were also developed. To test the limitations of teaching young children a set of conversational rules, three interview styles (neutral, repetitive, accusatory) were used. Results indicated that children who received all three target rules provided a smaller proportion of incorrect responses than did children who received fewer target rules or than children in a placebo control group, regardless of interview style. Theoretical and applied issues are discussed. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Special random numbers: Beyond the illusion of control

Previous research has shown that gamblers prefer numbers they choose themselves because this choice allows them to feel more in control of the (random) outcome. We identify other conditions under which people find numbers “special” (i.e., worthy of betting more on than other numbers). By manipulating gambling task type and assigning participants a number by an endogenous system outside their own control (as is done in numerology, astrology, and other paranormal systems), we find that indeed people prefer to bet on numbers derived from particular special systems. The mechanism underlying this preference is enjoyment with the task—not control. Further, the enjoyment associated with this “specialness” is related to the prevalence of certain types of numbers (i.e., numbers based on dates and names) in the fortune-telling world and not to other factors such as individuality or even belief in the associated system. We replicate these findings using actual money and show that this prevalence-to-enjoyment link already exists in memory for dates and names and is activated and strengthened by priming the fortune-telling systems relevant to those special random numbers. Finally, we present a model of special random numbers that integrates our findings with other determinants of valuation such as regret and subjective probability. Our results expand the realm of special random numbers beyond control. Our enjoyment model has implications not only for understanding gambling, but also for understanding how reasoning under uncertainty is influenced by little-understood phenomena (such as fortune-telling systems) without affecting subjective probability or actual beliefs.     

Integrating psychological strengths under the umbrella of personality science: Rethinking the definition,measurement, and modification of strengths

ABSTRACT

Following the advent of modern positive psychology, there has been a surge of empirical research on strengths and a call for incorporating strengths into clinical models of psychopathology. In this review, we conceptualize strengths as a subset of personality traits and dissect the criteria used to define strengths. In hopes of improving theoretical models of strengths, we reconsider the personal choice to deploy strengths, the implications of strength use for well-being, and the costs of over-relying on particular strengths. As an illustration, we critically examine a new model of strengths with suggestions for defining, measuring, and developing interventions for strengths. These insights are offered to encourage critical examination of the conditions under which strengths best facilitate well-being.