“Satan Has Afflicted Me!” Jinn-Possession and Mental Illness in the Qur’an

Mental health stigma in Muslim communities may be partly due to a commonly held belief among some Muslims about the supernatural causes of mental illness (i.e. jinn-possession brought on by one’s sinful life). A thematic analysis was carried out on four English translations and the Arabic text of the Qur’an to explore whether the connection between jinn-possession and insanity exists within the Muslim holy book. No connection between spirit-possession and madness or mental illness was found. Pagans taunted and labelled people as jinn-possessed only to ostracize and scapegoat. Linking the labelling of people as jinn-possession to a pagan practice may be used to educate Muslims, so they can reassess their community’s stigma towards the mentally ill.     

The composition of reasons

How do reasons combine? How is it that several reasons taken together can have a combined weight which exceeds the weight of any one alone? I propose an answer in mereological terms: reasons combine by composing a further, complex reason of which they are parts. Their combined weight is the weight of their combination. I develop a mereological framework, and use this to investigate some structural views about reasons. Two of these views I call “Atomism” and “Wholism”. Atomism is the view that atomic reasons are fundamental: all reasons reduce to atomic reasons. Wholism is the view that whole reasons are fundamental. I argue for Wholism, and against Atomism. I also consider whether reasons might be “context-sensitive”.     

Longitudinal evaluation of anhedonia as a mediator of fear of positive evaluation and other depressive symptoms

ABSTRACT

Fear of positive evaluation (FPE) is experiencing dread during real or potential praise. FPE is associated with social anxiety, but its relation to depressive symptoms is unclear. Anhedonia is a core symptom of depression related to symptoms of anxiety in cross-sectional research. The current study investigated the indirect effect of FPE on depressive symptoms via anhedonia over time. One-hundred ninety-six participants completed three waves of questionnaires over a total timespan of approximately four months via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, including measures of FPE, depressive symptoms, and anticipatory and consummatory anhedonia. Findings indicated that anticipatory anhedonia at Time 2 mediated the relationship between FPE at Time 1 and depressive symptoms at Time 3. Consummatory anhedonia, however, did not. Each model was contextualised by accounting for prospective covarying relationships, such as depressive symptoms predicting the same symptoms at later waves. The constellation of findings is considered within a reward devaluation framework.     

Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Among Male Adjudicated Adolescents: Psychosocial Concerns,Coping Responses,Diagnoses, and Functions

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) refers to self-inflicted physical injury without suicidal intent. NSSI is particularly common in forensic settings and associated with several psychosocial concerns, coping responses, diagnoses, and functions, but little information is available regarding NSSI in adjudicated male adolescents. The present study examined the frequency and types of NSSI among adjudicated male adolescents (n?=?103) and assessed the relationships between NSSI history, psychosocial concerns, coping responses, diagnoses, and functions within this population. Approximately two-thirds (66%) reported NSSI history. Participants with NSSI history reported poorer social adaptation and greater alienation and boredom, aggression, and emotional lability than controls. Youth with high-frequency NSSI were also more likely to utilize emotional discharge as an unhealthy coping response than controls. In addition, participants with high-frequency NSSI were more likely than controls to meet criteria for a mood or anxiety disorder. Function of NSSI primarily surrounded anxiety reduction/affect regulation, punishment, dissociation reduction, and social/sensation-seeking. NSSI appears to be prevalent among male adjudicated youths, and the findings suggest that the relationship between NSSI history, psychosocial concerns, coping responses, and functions is nuanced and could inform more calibrated assessment and treatment strategies.     

Switch costs and the operand-recognition paradigm

Experimental research in cognitive arithmetic frequently relies on participants’ self-reports to discriminate solutions based on direct memory retrieval from use of procedural strategies. Given concerns about the validity and reliability of strategy reports, Thevenot et al. in Mem Cogn 35:1344–1352, (2007) developed the operand-recognition paradigm as an objective measure of arithmetic strategies. Participants performed addition or number comparison on two sequentially presented operands followed by a speeded operand-recognition task. Recognition times increased with problem size following addition but not comparison. Thevenot et al. argued that the complexity of addition strategies increases with problem size. A corresponding increase in operand-recognition time occurs because, as problem size increases, working memory contains more numerical distracters. However, because addition is substantially more difficult than comparison, and difficulty increases with problem size for addition but not comparison, their findings could be due to difficulty-related task-switching costs. We repeated Thevenot et al. (Experiment 1) but added a control condition wherein participants performed a parity (odd or even) task instead of operand recognition. We replicated their findings for operand recognition but found robust, albeit smaller, effects of addition problem size on parity judgements. The results indicate that effects of strategy complexity in the operand-recognition paradigm are confounded with task-switching effects, which complicates its application as a precise measure of strategy complexity in arithmetic.     

Determining Relationships Between Physical Health and Spiritual Experience,Religious Practices,and Congregational Support in a Heterogeneous Medical Sample

Previous research indicates that increased religiosity/spirituality is related to better health, but the specific nature of these relationships is unclear. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationships between physical health and spiritual belief, religious practices, and congregational support using the Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness/Spirituality and the Medical Outcomes Scale Shortform-36. A total of 168 participants were surveyed with the following medical disorders: Cancer, Spinal Cord Injury, Traumatic Brain Injury, and Stroke, plus a healthy sample from a primary care setting. The results show that individuals with chronic medical conditions do not automatically turn to religious and spiritual resources following onset of their disorder. Physical health is positively related to frequency of attendance at religious services, which may be related to better health leading to increased ability to attend services. In addition, spiritual belief in a loving, higher power, and a positive worldview are associated with better health, consistent with psychoneuroimmunological models of health. Practical implications for health care providers are discussed.     

Increasing physical activity in children 8 to 12 years old: experiences with VERB Summer Scorecard

Interventions which facilitate physical activity of youth are vital for promoting community health and reducing obesity. This study assessed the results of a community-driven program, VERB Summer Scorecard, as knowledge of exposure to and awareness of community-based interventions for physical activity among youth could inform design and implementation of such interventions. A total of 2,215 youth ages 8 to 12 years responded to a survey about physical activity. Ordinal logistic regression suggested that youth who participated in this program were 1.73 times (95% CI = 1.41, 2.11) more likely to report high physical activity than nonparticipating youth 9 mo. after the intervention's first full-scale application. The program appeared to appeal more to girls than boys. Such results are encouraging for use in communities.     

Lactate threshold prediction by blood glucose and rating of perceived exertion in people with type 2 diabetes

The validity of rating of perceived exertion (RPE) in predicting lactate threshold during an incremental test was analyzed in 15 men with type 2 diabetes (M age = 53.4 yr., SD = 12.9). Blood glucose, lactate, and minute ventilation (VE)/VO2 responses identified the lactate, ventilatory, and glucose thresholds. Workloads (W) corresponding to RPEs 12, 13, 14, and 15 were determined. Second-order polynomials fit to VE/W and [lac]/W ratios corresponding to RPEs of 9-10, 12-13, and 16-17 also identified workloads above which there was an overproportional increase in VE and [lac]. These workload breakpoints did not differ, although at RPE 12 underestimated and at RPE 15 overestimated lactate threshold. RPE 13 and 14 and the responses of VE/W and [lac]/W to submaximal exercise accurately predicted lactate threshold.