Understanding the Lived Experience of Formerly Homeless Adults as They Transition to Supportive Housing

The researchers conducted in-depth interviews with formerly homeless adults who had moved to supportive housing to understand their perceived occupational needs and the factors that affected their transition. A qualitative research design with four participants who had a history of substance abuse and mental illness was used. Participant interviews that addressed categories of daily living and personal satisfaction produced data that were coded for analysis using conventional content analysis. Mega themes emerged that related to factors shaping the housing transition and maintenance experience. Occupational therapists can use these findings to create informed interventions to enhance this population's occupational performance.     

Wie stehen Psychoanalyse und Neurowissenschaften zueinander?

In order to achieve a definition of the subject of both sciences, the author differentiates the practical from the natural side of our existence: our natural, neurophysiological configuration permits our way of life, in which we use those in the form of an instrument, in a similar way to that which a singer would use a voice. The differentiation between conditional and causal relations then leads to a basic criticism of neuroscientific positions. The interest of psychoanalysis in neuroscience is ultimately characterized as a pragmatic interest.     

Rushton: The great theoretician and his contribution to personality

J. Philippe Rushton has been described as one of the greatest theorists in the field of personality and individual differences and social psychology. His life history theory (Differential K Theory) was said to bring unification to the scientific study of racial differences as Einstein’s theory of relativity unified the field of physics. It was maintained that Rushton’s General Factor of Personality (GFP) meshes with both general intelligence and his Differential K Theory. The present author presented a two-pillar theory of adaptive functioning that has a heavy concentration on Rushton conceptualization.     

Executive functioning moderates the relationship between motivation and adolescent depressive symptoms

We investigated the association between adolescent depressive symptoms and components of executive functioning (EF), including planning (Tower of London), set-shifting (Wisconsin Card Sorting Task), and inhibition (Stop Signal Task) in a community sample of 12–14 year olds. Further, EF was tested as a moderator of motivation (as operationalized by revised Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory) effects on depressive symptoms. Results suggested that planning ability was associated with depressive symptoms. Furthermore, planning ability moderated the relationship between motivation (fight-flight–freeze system; FFFS) and depressive symptoms, such that among adolescents with poor planning ability the FFFS positively predicted depressive symptoms, but among adolescents with strong planning ability the FFFS negatively predicted depressive symptoms. Neither set-shifting nor inhibition were associated with depressive symptoms. Findings highlight the need to consider multiple components of EF and to integrate motivational and executive dysfunction models to the study of depression.     

Sistemas neurales de relevancia en el contexto de la psicobiología de la ansiedad: una revisión

Resumen

La ansiedad es un estado emocional central de características muy complejas que, al menos en términos de respuesta, se asemeja en gran medida al miedo. En las ültimas décadas, estudios neurobiológicos y psicobiológicos han identificado numerosas estructuras y circuitos cerebrales estrechamente relacionados con este tipo de respuestas, así como con el estado central característico. Destacan, por su especial relevancia, el sistema límbico (incluyendo el sistema septohipocampal, la amígdala y el hipotálamo posterior) y los sistemas monoaminérgicos ascendentes (principalmente de serotonina y norepinefrina), lugares donde, además, las sustancias ansiolíticas podrían ejercer su efecto terapéutico. El principal objetivo del presente trabajo es revisar la precisa implicación de estos sistemas neurales en la modulación de ese estado emocional definido como ansiedad.     

Music as a way of knowing: tentative steps towards extending the boundaries of traditional music philosophy

Based on Howard Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligences and Ray Jackendoff s theory of a Universal Musical Grammar this article proposes that music be regarded as a way of knowing by which man endeavours to make sense of, interpret and articulate—by means of a system of sound symbols—an aspect of reality which cannot be expressed in any other way. The four main points of this hypothesis are: (1) Music refers to a reality that is neither solely a product of my imagination, my feelings or the constitution of my body, nor to a reality that can be explained solely in empirical terms. Rather, it includes both these dimensions, but at the same time is more than both of them put together. (2) The language of music is unique in that it is structured like no other language; it is structured in accordance with the reality it refers to. (3) Unlike mathematics (or even spoken language), the language of music, in its manifestation as culturally diverse musics, is semantically and ethically not a neutral language. (4) The emergence of art music can be explained particularly well by means of the model of music as a way of knowing.     

Examining the contextual and temporal stability of perceptions of emotional utility

The present research examined the degree to which perceptions of emotional utility are stable across contexts and over time. Self-reported perceptions of emotional utility and actual experience of emotion were measured in two samples of college students. In Study 1, participants were presented with two different types of goals (independent vs. interdependent) and were asked to rate the degree to which they found different types of emotions (e.g., appreciation, pride) useful in each context. In Study 2, participants completed daily online questionnaires in which they responded to questions assessing perceptions of emotional utility and actual affect in relation to personal goals. As predicted, across both samples, perceived utility of specific types of emotions was found to be associated with specific types of goals. Importantly, perceived utility of emotion was also found to be a relatively stable individual difference variable, even after taking into account the actual experience of emotion.     

Effects of long-term meditation practice on attentional biases towards emotional faces: An eye-tracking study

Attentional biases towards affective stimuli reflect an individual balance of appetitive and aversive motivational systems. Vigilance in relation to threatening information reflects emotional imbalance, associated with affective and somatic problems. It is known that meditation practice significantly improves control of attention, which is considered to be a tool for adaptive emotional regulation. In this regard, the main aim of the present study was to evaluate the influence of meditation on attentional bias towards neutral and emotional facial expressions. Eyes were tracked while 21 healthy controls and 23 experienced meditators (all males) viewed displays consisting of four facial expressions (neutral, angry, fearful and happy) for 10 s. Measures of biases in initial orienting and maintenance of attention were assessed. No effects were found for initial orienting biases. Meditators spent significantly less time viewing angry and fearful faces than control subjects. Furthermore, meditators selectively attended to happy faces whereas control subjects showed attentional biases towards both angry and happy faces. In sum we can conclude that long-term meditation practice adaptively affects attentional biases towards motivationally significant stimuli and that these biases reflect positive mood and predominance of appetitive motivation.     

Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders: Individual Differences,Affect, Interaction,and Outcomes

In this article, we have drawn upon the attachment motivational system (Bowlby, 1988; Lichtenberg, 1989; Shane, Shane, and Gales, 1997) as a guide to providing “positive new experience” as the cornerstone of therapeutic progress. We see positive new experience as paramount, over and above insight and/or interpretation because insight and interpretation are so varied among different theories. The common denominator that is effective in therapy, then, must be something beyond insight and interpretation. We call that therapeutic factor the positive new experience and will draw from attachment theory to understand its components. In addition, using the attachment motivation system and trauma research, we elaborate on why certain types of negative experiences in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis should be avoided. We address, in particular, harmful repetitions of traumatic relational patterns or traumatic events in the transference, overemphasis on “the empathic stance,” and the search for motivation in patients' behaviors where such a search may be based on the false assumption that all behavior is motivated. This latter category addresses aspects of behaving that may not be motivated; that is, they just “are,” and as such, the search for and attribution of meaning in such instances may lead to failed understanding and insight and to faulty correctives. We have illustrated with clinical examples both positive new experience and three types of negative experiences to be avoided in treatment.