Validity of the parenting scale for parents of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

The present study examined the validity of the parenting scale for parents of elementary school-aged children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Parents from 109 families with children who had been diagnosed with ADHD (106 mothers and 93 fathers) and from 70 families with non-problem children (69 mothers and 59 fathers) completed the parenting scale and reported on their children's behavior problems. Factor analyses revealed two interpretable factors for both mothers and fathers, corresponding to the overreactivity and laxness factors identified in previous studies of the parenting scale. Overreactivity and laxness scores were significantly higher for mothers and fathers of ADHD children than of non-ADHD children; this effect appeared to be accounted for by comorbid aggression and conduct problems among ADHD children. Results support the validity of the parenting scale for use with parents of ADHD children.     

Attitudes toward the metric system 15 years later

This follow-up study investigated whether attitudes toward the metric system have changed over the last 15 years. 132 subjects ranging in age from 18 to 45 years participated by filling out a 7-item survey designed to measure attitudes toward the metric system. Each survey item was scored using a 5-point rating, e.g., "the change to the metric system will create more problems than it solves," 1: strongly agree and 5: strongly disagree. Scores were compared to those obtained for a similar sample in 1983. Comparisons using t tests indicated no significant differences between attitude scores from 1983 to 1998 for either men (t64 = .95) or women (t133 = .06).     

Is grasping impaired in hemispatial neglect?

Patients with right unilateral cerebral stroke, four of which showed acute hemispatial neglect, and healthy aged-matched controls were tested for their ability to grasp objects located in either right or left space at near or far distances. Reaches were performed either in free vision or without visual feedback from the hand or target object. It was found that the patient group showed normal grasp kinematics with respect to maximum grip aperture, grip orientation, and the time taken to reach the maximum grip aperture. Analysis of hand path curvature showed that control subjects produced straighter right hand reaches when vision was available compared to when it was not. The right hemisphere lesioned patients, however, showed similar levels of curvature in each of these conditions. No behavioural differences, though, could be found between right hemisphere lesioned patients with or without hemispatial neglect on either grasp parameters, path deviation or temporal kinematics.     

Visual search has memory

By monitoring subjects' eye movements during a visual search task, we examined the possibility that the mechanism responsible for guiding attention during visual search has no memory for which locations have already been examined. Subjects did reexamine some items during their search, but the pattern of revisitations did not fit the predictions of the memoryless search model. In addition, a large proportion of the refixations were directed at the target, suggesting that the revisitations were due to subjects' remembering which items had not been adequately identified. We also examined the patterns of fixations and compared them with the predictions of a memoryless search model. Subjects' fixation patterns showed an increasing hazard function, whereas the memoryless model predicts a flat function. Lastly, we found no evidence suggesting that fixations were guided by amnesic covert scans that scouted the environment for new items during fixations. Results do not support the claims of the memoryless search model, and instead suggest that visual search does have memory.     

Positive emotional attention bias in young children with symptoms of ADHD

Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often experience emotional dysregulation. Dysregulation can arise from heightened attention to emotional stimuli. Emotional attention biases are associated with a number of adverse socioemotional outcomes including reward sensitivity and externalizing behaviors. As reward sensitivity and externalizing behaviors are common in children with ADHD, the aim of the current study was to determine whether emotional attention biases are evident in young children with clinically significant ADHD symptoms. To test this, children with (n = 18) and without (n = 15) symptoms of ADHD were tested on a Dot Probe task. Provided recent evidence that emotional attention biases are attenuated by sleep, the task was performed before and after overnight sleep. Children with ADHD symptoms displayed positive, but not negative, attention biases at both time points, whereas typically developing children did not preferentially attend toward or away from positive or negative stimuli. Sleep did not alter attention biases in either group. Collectively, these results indicate that children with ADHD symptoms have stable, positive attention biases.     

The Risks of Therapist Passivity and the Potentials of Constructivist Influence

Francesca Colzani’s rich report of her sensitive work with Elisa highlights the therapist’s struggle with the issue of the exercise of power and authority bearing on the patient’s choices. It is suggested that sometimes the analyst poses her dilemma in dichotomous terms, choosing, in effect, between coercion and passivity. Also, it is argued that moral choices can be obscured by a turn to medicalization, diagnosis and treatment, of the patient’s “condition.” An alternative is proposed in which the analyst may offer constructive suggestions imbued with her subjectivity—her experience of conflict and uncertainty—leaving Elisa room for the exercise of her own responsible agency. In finding her own voice, the analyst may awaken selves or aspects of self of the patient that might otherwise remain dormant, potentially to her detriment. An example of an interpretation of projective identification, with self-disclosure on the analyst’s part, is proposed that might encourage collaborative reflection on a seemingly dissociative dimension of Elisa’s way of being and relating.     

Ethnic Differences in the Relation Between Parental Emotion Socialization and Mental Health in Emerging Adults

The present study examined the relation between retrospectively reported parental emotion socialization practices and emerging adults’ mental health across four ethnic groups. Participants were 112 European American, 89 Latino/a American, 82 African American/Black, and 83 Asian American emerging adults. Participants completed questionnaires assessing current mental health symptoms and retrospective reports of parents’ responses to their expression of negative affect as adolescents. Fathers’ socialization practices were associated with emerging adults’ functioning across ethnic groups, but the relation between mothers’ socialization and emerging adults’ functioning varied across ethnic groups. Supportive practices were significantly associated with fewer symptoms in emerging adults only for Latino/a American families, and unsupportive practices were associated with more symptoms in emerging adults only for European American and African American/Black families. Results point to the importance of parental emotion socialization practices during adolescence for emerging adults’ well-being, but suggest that some practices may be more important than others depending on cultural background.     

How the Market Became Divine

We have moved beyond a “market economy” to what some have called a “market society,” one in which everything seems to be for sale. We also now see the advent of a “market religion,” in which the values and life meanings of consumer culture have become dominant. This new religion has its own doctrines, rituals, priesthood, and mission to “go into all the world.” It has its own narratives of creation, fall, and redemption, and its own saints and heroes. But because its underlying thrust is endless growth, and we live on a finite planet, it is carrying us toward destruction. Some parts of Christianity are opposing what Pope Francis has called “idolatry,” but unfortunately most parts are being swept into its new dispensation.