The Duty to Support Nationalistic Policies

We demonstrate that citizens perceive a duty to support policies that benefit their nation, even when they themselves judge that the consequences of the policies will be worse on the whole, taking outsiders into account. In terms of actions, subjects think they would do their perceived duty rather than violate it for the sake of better consequences. The discrepancy between duty and judged consequences does not seem to result from self‐interest alone. When asked for reasons, many subjects felt an obligation to help their fellow citizens before others, and they also thought that they owed something to their nation, in return for what it did for them. The obligation to help fellow citizens was the strongest predictor of perceived duty. In an experiment with Israeli and Palestinian students, group membership affected both perceived overall consequences and duty, but the effect of group on perceived consequences did not account for the effect on perceived duty. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Skin cancer: Assessing perceived risk and behavioural attitudes

Abstract

Measures of attitude concerning exposure to the sun, and judgements of risk and other beliefs concerning skin cancer and four other problems (stomach cancer, deafness, AIDS and sunstroke) were obtained from a questionnaire completed by 176 university students. Subjects also estimated the incidence of each problem using one of three response formats. The highest incidence estimates were obtained when subjects were asked to guess at an absolute number, and the lowest when they used a scale which differentiated between lower frequencies, while grouping higher frequencies into a single response category. The effect of the response scale format, however, did not generalize to other ratings of personal risk. Subjects' ratings of their personal risk, compared with their peers, showed an optimistic bias over the five problems as a whole, particularly for AIDS, but not reliably so in the case of skin cancer. Optimism was inversely related to the amount of thought given to each problem. Men and women did not differ overall in their optimism regarding their own risk of skin cancer. However, differences as a function of gender and optimism were found on various behavioural attitudes. The results are discussed in relation to a tendency of disregard base-rates in subjective risk judgements, unrealistic optimism, and implications for health education.     

Specificity of MMPI cluster types to chronic illness

Abstract

Cluster analysis derived MMPI profile types were compared for three distinct illness populations: chronic low back pain (CLBP), mixed headache (HA), and cardiac disease (CD). Results replicated previous findings in the chronic pain and cardiac literatures. Differences between diagnostic groups and genders were found for the prevalence of the derived MMPI profile types. Results indicated that, in males, the two chronic pain groups had similar profile types and similar relative frequencies of these types, but both differed from the CD sample. The chronic pain groups tended to have a greater number of patients with pathological and distressed MMPI profile types and a lesser representation in the subclinical profile type compared to the CD sample. Similar findings were obtained for females, though the CLBP group tended to have a higher frequency of highly distressed, pathological profiles than either the HA or CD groups. Results suggested that the MMPI may be a measure of response to illness rather than reflecting predisposing personality types for any given illness and that the higher frequency of highly distressed profiles in the chronic pain samples reflects the increased suffering of those populations compared to other illnesses.     

Neuropsychological Functioning in Children with Medium Chain Acyl Coenzyme A Dehydrogenase Deficiency (MCADD): The Impact of Early Diagnosis and Screening on Outcome

Children with medium chain acyl coenzyme A dehydrogenase deficiency (MCADD) have been reported to be at high risk for neurocognitive deficits. However this has not been systematically studied and little is known about the exact nature of neuropsychological sequelae or of the impact of early diagnosis and screening on outcome. We examined cognitive and adaptive outcome in children with MCADD (N?=?38, age range: 2 years, 2 months – 10 years, 3 months) diagnosed either through a newborn screening program (tandem mass spectrometry/MSMS) or upon clinical presentation. There was no evidence of overall intellectual impairment in either groups but there was some suggestion of poorer verbal and specific executive functioning (i.e., planning) abilities in the unscreened cohorts. Adaptive functioning was relatively intact with the exception of reduced Daily Living Skills in both our screened and unscreened groups. Early diagnosis and greater number of hospitalizations were related to higher verbal, communication, and socialization skills. Overall, our results highlight the importance of early diagnosis and management for children with MCADD.     

Personal Construction of Family Relationships: The Relation of Commonality and Sociality to Family Satisfaction for Parents and Adolescents

This study tested the hypothesis that family members showing greater commonality (similarity) and sociality (predictive accuracy) in their construing of family relationships would display greater satisfaction with those relationships than would individuals in families whose relational construing was more discrepant and unpredictable. Forty-seven family triads participated in the study, including a mother, father, and adolescent from each family. Measures of commonality and sociality in the construction of family relationships derived from a family relationships grid were compared to measures of family structure, including the Family Cohesion and Adaptability Evaluation Scale (FACES-II) (Olson, Portner, & Bell, 1982) and the Parent-Adolescent Communication Scale (PACS) (Barnes & Olson, 1982). The findings suggest that members' perceptions of the family as emotionally close, flexible, and communicative may not represent independent aspects of the family structure, at least within the present nonclinical sample. Comparison of the family relationship grids with the FACES-H and PACS demonstrated that commonality and sociality among family members was highly related to mothers' and adolescents' family satisfaction, but was much less predictive of that of the father.     

Counselling asylum seekers and refugees: a study of Kurds in early and later stages of exile

This study explores the experience of asylum seekers and refugees in early and later phases of exile. Twenty-five Kurds (mainly asylum seekers) were interviewed in Greece in early phases of exile and twenty Kurds (mainly refugees) in later phases of exile in the UK. Refugee camps in Greece and community centres in London were the main locations for these interviews. Representatives from eight support organizations were also interviewed in each country. The multidimensional aspects of being a refugee are discussed, including models of formulating the experience, PTSD and the cross-cultural context. Key findings of the study include the desperate need among the asylum seekers and refugees, in the early phases, to have the story of their traumatic journey to Greece witnessed and validated by an outsider; the differing experiences of men and women; a change in identity over time; and considerable fear, which was evident in early and later phases. Moreover, all the support organizations expressed pronounced frustration but responded to it in different ways. Those organizations with supervision and support groups in place demonstrated more insight into their interactions with asylum seekers and refugees. Counselling approaches are evaluated with reference to the asylum seekers' and refugees' needs, and the desirability of adequate support for those with a counselling role is highlighted.     

Pushing the limits of task difficulty for the right and left hands in manual aiming

The effects of task difficulty on the performance of the two hands in right-handers were examined in a manual-aiming paradigm. In order to examine both simple and complex tasks, movement amplitude, cursor size, and target size were manipulated, resulting in eight different indices of difficulty (as defined by Fitts' Law). Kinematic parameters examined included reaction time, movement time, time to and time after peak velocity, peak velocity, and resultant accuracy. Analysis revealed no differential effects of task difficulty on the overall movement times of the two hands. These results are discussed in light of current theories of manual asymmetries.     

Visual agnosia and prosopagnosia in childhood: a prospective case study.

Selective impairments in visual processing are well documented in adults but rarely reported in children. The few childhood cases reported are mostly retrospective accounts with little attention paid to developmental, assessment or management issues. We report a prospective case study of a boy with prosopagnosia and visual processing deficits of presumed developmental origin. At the age of 4 years, AL presented with a range of cognitive and visual recognition deficits. Subsequent assessments revealed an evolving pattern in visual recognition and dissociations between developing skills. At the age of 7 AL has impairments in early perceptual analysis, visual organisation and in complex visual processing. Although he can identify facial features and match faces he is unable to recognise familiar faces. His reading and spelling are developing normally. The nature of his deficits and his progress are discussed within a cognitive neuropsychological framework.     

Paradoxical effects of presentation modality on false memory.

Two experiments are reported in which the effects of presentation modality on false memory in recall and recognition are studied. False recall and recognition of critical targets are lower for non-presented items related to a study list when that study list is presented visually than when presented auditorily. This pattern of low levels of false memory for critical targets holds even when participants read the visually presented study items aloud. These results suggest that recollection of visual detail plays a role in the prevention of false memory. However, both the hit rates (true memory) and the false-alarm rates to weakly related distractors (non-critical targets) were higher for visual presentation than for auditory presentation, suggesting that more than one mechanism may underlie false recognition.