Comprehension of direct and indirect sarcastic remarks in children and adolescents with Tourette’s syndrome

Previous research has reported that aspects of social cognition such as nonliteral language comprehension are impaired in adults with Tourette’s syndrome (TS), but little is known about social cognition in children and adolescents with TS. The present study aims to evaluate a measure of sarcasm comprehension suitable for use with children and adolescents (Experiment 1), and to examine sarcasm comprehension in children and adolescents with TS-alone or TS and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, the measure of sarcasm comprehension was found to be sensitive to differences in nonliteral language comprehension for typically-developing children aged 10 to 11 years old compared to children aged 8 to 9 years old; the older group performed significantly better on the comprehension of scenarios ending with either direct or indirect sarcastic remarks, whereas the two age groups did not differ on the comprehension of scenarios ending with sincere remarks. In Experiment 2, both the TS-alone and TS+ADHD groups performed below the level of the control participants on the comprehension of indirect sarcasm items but not on the comprehension of direct sarcasm items and sincere items. Those with TS+ADHD also performed below the level of the control participants on measures of interference control and fluency. The findings are discussed with reference to the possible contribution of executive functioning and mentalizing to the patterns of performance.     

Theological Complicity in the Disappearing of the Working Class

Contrary to popular perception, the majority of the United States population belongs to the working class, not the middle class (even under different definitions of class). But in the discourses of policy‐making, popular culture, and Christian theological scholarship alike, the working class has almost completely disappeared—which contributes to deifying economic and political inequalities. To counteract this disappearance, class must be established as a constructive theological locus, and justice for the working class (qua working class) established as both ethical norm and practical objective.     

Fantasy Objects: The Perception of Safety of Emergency Shelter in Place Kits

Using interview data (n = 30) of residents in Calhoun County, Alabama, we examine the meaning respondents give to the objects (shelter-in-place kits) disseminated to residents in order to manage risk of accidents from Anniston Army Depot’s Chemical Weapons storage and incinerator activities. Our research builds on previous research examining how organizations engage in ‘fantasy planning,’ where they create plans that objectively do not increase safety but do create the perception of safety within the organization and especially the public.     

Sources of Care for Alcohol and Other Drug Problems: The Role of the African American Church

African Americans experience significant disparities in treatment access, retention, and quality of care for alcohol and drug use (AOD) problems. Religious congregations, often the first point of contact for help with AOD problems, can play an integral role in improving access to treatment. However, little is known about the role of African American churches in addressing AOD problems. We administered a survey to a faith-based collaborative of 169 African American churches in Los Angeles to examine how AOD problems are identified in congregations, the types of support provided, barriers to providing treatment referrals, and factors associated with the provision of treatment referrals. Seventy-one percent of churches reported caring often for individuals with AOD problems. AOD problems came to the attention of congregations most commonly via a concerned family member (55%) and less frequently through individuals with AOD problems directly approaching clergy (30%). In addition to providing spiritual support, a substantial proportion of churches reported linking individuals to AOD services through referrals (62%) and consultation with providers (48%). Barriers to providing treatment referrals included lack of affordable programs (50%), stigma (50%), lack of effective treatments (45%), and insufficient resources or staff (45%). The likelihood of providing treatment referrals was greater among mid-sized versus smaller-size congregations (OR 3.43; p < .05) and among congregations with clergy that had attended seminary (OR 3.93; p < .05). Knowing how to effectively coordinate informal sources of care provided by African American churches with the formal service sector could make a significant impact on AOD treatment disparities.     

Hybrid search in the temporal domain: Evidence for rapid,serial logarithmic search through memory

In hybrid search, observers memorize a number of possible targets and then search for any of these in visual arrays of items. Wolfe (2012) has previously shown that the response times in hybrid search increase with the log of the memory set size. What enables this logarithmic search of memory? One possibility is a series of steps in which subsets of the memory set are compared to all items in the visual set simultaneously. In the present experiments, we presented single visual items sequentially in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) display, eliminating the possibility of simultaneous testing of all items. We used a staircasing procedure to estimate the time necessary to effectively detect the target in the RSVP stream. Processing time increased in a log–linear fashion with the number of potential targets. This finding eliminates the class of models that require simultaneous comparison of some memory items to all (or many) items in the visual display. Experiment 3 showed that, similar to visual search, memory search efficiency in this paradigm is influenced by the similarity between the target set and the distractors. These results indicate that observers perform separate memory searches on each eligible item in the visual display. Moreover, it appears that memory search for one item can proceed while other items are being categorized as “eligible” or “not eligible.”     

Psychoanalysis and family therapy: Freud's Dora case reconsidered

Freud's Dora case is considered from the perspective of family therapy. Her illness is homeostatic; it holds two disturbed fractured families together. Freud considered his analysis a failure; from a systems point of view it was a partial success. His challenging technique is similar to that of modern family therapists. The theories of change underlying family therapy and psychoanalysis are compared. There are many similarities. They are mutually compatible disciplines, working at different levels.