Spiritual care in psychiatry: Professionals’ views

In this study we explored the views of Mental Health professionals and general practitioners (GPs) regarding spiritual care and the effect of personal and cultural background on their views. Data were collected through anonymous questionnaires posted to hospital nursing and medical staff at Hollins Park Hospital, Warrington, UK, and to all GPs within the hospital catchments area. Forty-five percent of GPs, 33% of psychiatrists, and 76% of nursing staff (p < 0.05) felt strongly that human beings are made up of spirit as well as body. More nurses felt that spiritual care is equally as important as other forms of care (52%) compared with psychiatrists (33%) and GPs (29%). A higher percentage of nursing than medical staff had previous training in this area and were more likely than medical staff to consider themselves appropriate to give spiritual advice. A total of 20% of GPs and 33% of psychiatric staff stated the need for training in this area and GPs especially felt they lacked time. Professionals’ views are influenced by cultural and religious backgrounds, with significantly more non-UK born respondents feeling strongly that human beings all have a spiritual component. Many doctors do not consider spiritual care has a role for them to be involved in and many feel too pressured in daily life to take this on. Nurses are more inclined to take a holistic approach to care in this respect. Some people with mental health problems have spiritual care needs and we should be aware of this as an important facet to therapy.     

A review of: “Real events revisited: Fantasy,memory and psychoanalysis”

Ann Scott (1996) Real Events Revisited: Fantasy, Memory and Psychoanalysis, London: Virago, $12.99

Caroline Malone, Linda Farthing and Lorraine Marce (eds) (1996) The Memory Bird: Survivors of Sexual Abuse, London: Virago, $8.99     

A review of: “Challenges to counselling and psychotherapy”

Alex Howard (1996) Challenges to Counselling and Psychotherapy, London: Macmillan, $11.99     

The Portuguese version of Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination–Revised (ACE-R) in the diagnosis of subcortical vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease

The aim of this study was to investigate the accuracy of the Portuguese version of Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination–Revised (ACE-R) in detecting and differentiating early stage subcortical vascular dementia (SVD) from early stage Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Ninety-two subjects (18 SVD patients, 36 AD patients, and 38 healthy controls) were assessed using the ACE-R. Between-group’s differences were evaluated using the Quade’s rank analysis of covariance. The diagnostic accuracy and discriminatory ability of the ACE-R were examined via receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. The ACE-R was able to successfully discriminate between patients and healthy subjects. The mean ACE-R total scores differed between SVD and AD patients; there were also significant differences in attention and orientation and in memory measures between the groups. An optimal cut-off of 72/73 was found for the detection of AD (sensitivity: 97%; specificity: 92%) and SVD (sensitivity: 100%; specificity: 92%).     

The role of prior knowledge in error correction for younger and older adults

Previous work has demonstrated that, when given feedback, younger adults are more likely to correct high-confidence errors compared with low-confidence errors, a finding termed the hypercorrection effect. Research examining the hypercorrection effect in both older and younger adults has demonstrated that the relationship between confidence and error correction was stronger for younger adults compared with older adults. However, recent work suggests that error correction is largely related to prior knowledge, while confidence may primarily serve as a proxy for prior knowledge. Prior knowledge generally remains stable or increases with age; thus, the current experiment explored how both confidence and prior knowledge contributed to error correction in younger and older adults. Participants answered general knowledge questions, rated how confident they were that their response was correct, received correct answer feedback, and rated their prior knowledge of the correct response. Overall, confidence was related to error correction for younger adults, but this relationship was much smaller for older adults. However, prior knowledge was strongly related to error correction for both younger and older adults. Confidence alone played little unique role in error correction after controlling for the role of prior knowledge. These data demonstrate that prior knowledge largely predicts error correction and suggests that both older and younger adults can use their prior knowledge to effectively correct errors in memory.     

Space Fortress game training and executive control in older adults: A pilot intervention

ABSTRACT

We investigated the feasibility of using the Space Fortress (SF) game, a complex video game originally developed to study complex skill acquisition in young adults, to improve executive control processes in cognitively healthy older adults. The study protocol consisted of 36 one-hour game play sessions over 3 months with cognitive evaluations before and after, and a follow-up evaluation at 6 months. Sixty participants were randomized to one of three conditions: Emphasis Change (EC) – elders were instructed to concentrate on playing the entire game but place particular emphasis on a specific aspect of game play in each particular game; Active Control (AC) – game play with standard instructions; Passive Control (PC) – evaluation sessions without game play. Primary outcome measures were obtained from five tasks, presumably tapping executive control processes. A total of 54 older adults completed the study protocol. One measure of executive control, WAIS-III letter–number sequencing, showed improvement in performance from pre- to post-evaluations in the EC condition, but not in the other two conditions. These initial findings are modest but encouraging. Future SF interventions need to carefully consider increasing the duration and or the intensity of the intervention by providing at-home game training, reducing the motor demands of the game, and selecting appropriate outcome measures.     

Realism in confidence judgements of performance based on implicit learning

In two experiments we employed calibration methods to investigate the realism of participants' confidence ratings of their own classification performance based on knowledge acquired after training on an artificial grammar. In Experiment 1 participants showed good realism (but overconfidence) for grammatical strings but very poor realism for non-grammatical strings. Method of training (string repetition in writing or mere exposure) did not affect the realism. Furthermore, the participants underestimated their overall performance. In Experiment 2, using a more complex grammar and controlling for two types of associative chunk-strength, participants showed good realism (but still overconfidence) for both letter and symbol strings, irrespective of grammaticality. Together, these experiments show that implicit learning can give rise to knowledge products that are associated with fairly realistic meta-knowledge. It is argued that both the zero-correlation criterion and the guessing criterion are misplaced when used to define implicit knowledge; two reasons being that confidence judgements may be affected both by implicit knowledge and by inferences.     

The applied value of collaborative memory research in aging: Behavioral and neural considerations

Our aim in this paper is to bring attention to the applied value of collaborative memory research in aging. At this time, much collaborative memory research focuses on the negative effects of collaboration in younger adults, and is primarily basic in nature. Here, we highlight the positive effects of collaboration that have received less attention, with a particular emphasis on the applied value of these effects in older adults. We first review studies to show that recalling in a group improves later individual recall and reduces memory errors in older adults. We then outline a four-step approach towards bridging laboratory and applied collaborative memory research, which involves: (1) complementing traditional paradigms with more ecologically valid paradigms, (2) evaluating these paradigms in applied settings, (3) adapting these paradigms for use with cognitively intact and cognitively impaired populations, and (4) modifying these paradigms to examine the neural systems that operate during collaborative recall.     

Adolescent mental health in Japan and Russia: The role of body image,bullying victimisation and school environment

This study examined associations between self-reported mental health problems, body image, bullying victimisation and school safety in large adolescent samples in Japan and Russia, considering the effects of gender, culture and their interactions. In both Japan and Russia, girls reported a greater number of mental health problems, less bullying victimisation and much higher body dissatisfaction than boys did. Japanese adolescents rated themselves higher on total difficulties, reported less body dissatisfaction and bullying victimisation, and rated their school safety lower than that of Russian youths. Cross-cultural differences in total difficulties and body image were qualified by gender. Body dissatisfaction, bullying victimisation and school safety all independently contributed to adolescent mental health problems. The protective effect of school safety on total difficulties was larger for girls than for boys; the strength of the association between bullying victimisation and adolescent mental health problems differed across genders and cultures. The findings indicate a need for a cross-cultural approach and provide a strong basis for targeted interventions that seek to improve adolescent mental health.     

Investigation of Body Comparison Among Adolescent Girls1

Grade differences in appearance and nonappearance social comparisons, and targets for body comparison were examined in adolescent girls. A model describing potential contributors to, and consequences of, body comparison tendency was examined. Girls (n= 545) completed measuring social comparisons, targets for comparisons, dieting in response to comparisons, body attitudes, eating patterns, psychological variables, height, and weight. Appearance and nonappearance social comparisons increased with age. Girls reported comparing their bodies most frequently with peers and fashion models. Body comparison tendency was significantly predicted by: importance of thinness, internalization of socio‐cultural ideal, friend concern with weight, body image instability, competitiveness, grade, public self‐consciousness, perfectionism, and family concern with weight. Predictors of dieting in response to body comparison were also explored.