The principle of recombination and the principle of distinctness: A puzzle for Armstrong's theory of modality

Book Information Agency and Responsibility: A Common-Sense Moral Psychology. Agency and Responsibility: A Common-Sense Moral Psychology Jeanette Kennett New York Oxford University Press 2001 viii + 229 Hardback US$45 By Jeanette Kennett. Oxford University Press. New York. Pp. viii + 229. Hardback:US$45,     

The spatial thinking of origami: evidence from think-aloud protocols

Origami, the ancient Japanese art of paper folding, involves spatial thinking to both interpret and carry out its instructions. As such, it has the potential to provide spatial training (Taylor and Hutton under review). The present work uses cognitive discourse analysis to reveal the spatial thinking involved in origami and to suggest how it may be beneficial for spatial training. Analysis of think-aloud data while participants folded origami and its relation to gender, spatial ability measures, and thinking style suggest that one way that people profit from spatial training is through the possibility to verbalize concepts needed to solve-related spatial tasks.     

Insight into the Parenthood Paradox: Mental Health Outcomes of Intensive Mothering

Though people often report wanting to have children because they think it will make them happier, much research suggests that parenting is associated with decreased well-being. Other studies have found that parenting is related to increased life satisfaction. The goal of this study was to provide insight into this paradox by investigating the relationship between a specific way of parenting, intensive parenting, and maternal mental health. An online survey was completed by 181 mothers with children ages 5 and under. Intensive mothering beliefs correlated with several negative mental health outcomes. Controlling for perceived family social support, the belief that women are the essential parent was related to lower life satisfaction and believing that parenting is challenging was related to greater depression and stress. The results of this study suggest that aspects of intensive mothering beliefs are detrimental to women’s mental health. It may not be parenting per se, but specific and particularly intensive ways of parenting, that relate to negative mental health outcomes.     

Efficacy of a Brief Relaxation Training Intervention for Pediatric Recurrent Abdominal Pain

This study is a preliminary investigation of the efficacy of a brief intervention for recurrent abdominal pain (RAP) via a multiple baseline across subjects design. The intervention consisted of a single 1-hour session including psychoeducation and coaching of breathing retraining; the length, duration, and content of the intervention were designed with a goal of maximum portability to primary-care settings. Five children with recurrent abdominal pain participated in this study, 1 of whom served as a pilot participant. Children received the intervention at 1-week intervals. Parent and child reports of each child's abdominal pain, general somatic complaints, functional disability, and anxiety were collected throughout the study. All children participated in a 3-month follow-up session. Results indicated that this brief intervention was successful in lessening abdominal pain, as demonstrated by decreased Abdominal Pain Index (API) scores in two children and decreased abdominal pain following breathing retraining practice in all children. The intervention was also successful in decreasing some children's general somatic symptoms. Functional disability and anxiety symptoms remained consistent for all children throughout the study, which may be due to low levels of these symptoms pretreatment. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.     

Extending Autonomy for Health Care Preferences in Late Life

Mechanisms for extending autonomy in financial and health care decisions (e.g., advanced directives) are being utilized more frequently. This study examined the hierarchy of documents completed, the characteristics of people completing these documents, the choice of surrogate decision-maker for health care decisions, and with whom health care decisions were being discussed in a sample of 661 persons 65 years of age and older. Comparison between people with and without documents in place suggested that cognitive impairment, level of education, and age were related to preparation of documents. Women were typically chosen as surrogate decision-makers, except in a sample of unmarried men. Surprisingly, participants reported discussing preferences for health care decisions with someone other than their preferred surrogate. There appears to be a need to promote discussion of health care preferences between care-receivers and preferred surrogates.     

Tragedy and catharsis in the wake of the 911 attacks

We argue that the events of 11 september 2001 (911) should be understood as a tragedy in the Greek sense of the term. Contemporary US views of tragedy typically communicate a sense that little can be done to predict or explain catastrophic events. This leads to feelings of hopelessness and helplessness. Accordingly, traditional US psychological interventions focus upon ameliorative efforts only. In Greek notions of tragedy, however, the hero(ine) has a character flaw that contributes to his/her demise. Lessons are learned, and catharsis results. From the standpoint of the US as a tragic hero, psychological interventions should be both ameliorative and preventative. We contend that this overemphasis on ameliorative work and the limited views of terrorism's root causes are counterproductive. Indeed, we recommend that individual US psychologists and the American Psychological Association leadership engage in both ameliorative efforts and broadly conceived preventative work. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.