Relationships between early behavioural characteristics and temperament at 6 years

The aim of this study was to analyze the extent to which the relations and the stability of the neonatal behaviour and the infant behaviour at both 4 and 12 months could be used to predict the infant temperament at 6 years. Seventy-two full-term, normal-weight, healthy children were followed from 3 days postpartum to 6 years. Neonatal behaviour at 3 and 30 days was assessed using the Neonatal Behaviour Assessment Scale (NBAS), behaviour at 4 and 12 months was assessed using the Infant Behaviour Record (IBR) from the Bayley Scales for Infant Development (BSID) and temperament at 6 years was assessed using the Dimensions of Temperament Survey-Revised (DOTS-R). Negative and positive affectivity and attention were the factors extracted from the behaviours of the IBR. Our results showed a low/moderate correlation between neonatal behaviour on the one hand and behaviour at 4 and 12 months and temperament at 6 years on the other hand. The motor performance, orientation and ANS stability of the neonate at 3 and 30 days were predictors of positive and negative affectivity at 4 months. State regulation and ANS stability at 3 days were predictors of negative affectivity and attention respectively at 12 months. Negative affectivity at 12 months and endurance at 30 days were predictors of general activity and persistence/attention at 6 years. Also, an inverse relation was found between state regulation at 30 days and general activity at 6 years, and a positive relation was found between attention at 4 months and persistence/attention at 6 years. We conclude that neonatal behaviour and behaviour in the first year of life are good predictors of temperament at 6 years and that early negative affectivity has an important role on infant temperament development.     

Ambulatory group treatment for cocaine dependent patients combining cognitive behavioral therapy and motivational interviewing

Psychological interventions in cocaine dependent patients have demonstrated efficacy. Remarkable approaches are Contingency Management (CM) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Lack of treatment adherence is the most important limitation. Motivational Interview (MI) has been shown to be an adherence enhancer. The objective of this study is to evaluate retention and abstinence in a combined CM and CBT group treatment in patients who have reached maintenance stage according to Prochaska and DiClemente's transtheoretical model (1982). Therefore, a longitudinal study was carried out with cocaine dependent patients with or without concomitant mental health disease. A 12-session open group was conducted weekly. Nineteen patients were included (78.9% men, mean age 36.6 years), 95% consumed intranasally and 47% had another psychiatric comorbidity. Treatment retention was 84%. During treatment and the first month of follow-up, all patients remained abstinent whereas at three months, 3 patients relapsed. These data confirm that using combined CM and CBT group therapy in cocaine dependents undergoing maintenance treatment enhances adherence and is effective to achieve abstinence.     

“Does degree of asymmetry relate to performance?” A critical review

In a recent paper, Chiarello, Welcome, Halderman, and Leonard (2009) reported positive correlations between word-related visual field asymmetries and reading performance. They argued that strong word processing lateralization represents a more optimal brain organization for reading acquisition. Their empirical results contrasted sharply with those of another such large-scale study, by Boles, Barth, and Merrill (2008). We reported negative correlations between asymmetry and performance when both were measured using the same visual lexical tasks. Most recently, within-task negative correlations were also reported by Hirnstein, Leask, Rose, and Hausmann (2010). Here two major differences between studies are explored. Task purity refers to the influence of the same mental processes on both the asymmetry and performance measures, and is arguably maximal in studies measuring both within the same task. The other difference concerns the measurement of asymmetry. Linear corrections for ceiling and floor effects were used by Chiarello et al. and Hirnstein et al., while we used a more appropriate nonlinear one. Their results are difficult to interpret for those reasons. The operation of a third variable to which both asymmetry and performance are positively correlated could also be a factor in the Chiarello et al. findings. The Boles et al. findings reflect a negative correlation between an asymmetric visual lexical process and performance measured within the same task.     

Working with unrealistic or unshared hope in the counselling session

Hope has long been identified as an important therapeutic factor in counselling. Further, research evidence for the importance of hope to counselling practice and outcome is abundant. However, the field is only beginning to explicitly consider how hope can be effectively and intentionally practised. One of the most challenging dilemmas encountered by counsellors committed to working with this important therapeutic factor is that of so-called unrealistic hope. In this paper, we outline two real-life counselling vignettes illustrating unrealistic hope, and consider these scenarios alongside relevant scholarship and practice experience. Guiding principles and practices for conceptualising and working with unrealistic hope are offered as a means of beginning the conversation about this complex aspect of working with client hope.     

A Clinical Intervention in Chronic Pain and Insomnia with a Combined Model of Treatment: A Test of Concept

Co-occurring chronic pain and insomnia are common in a clinical setting. Cognitive–behavioral theoretical (CBT) frameworks exist for both conditions independently. The purpose of this study was to address the problem of co-occurring chronic pain and insomnia with an integrated CBT model based on empirical support. One-hundred eleven individuals (age range 21–65 years) meeting the general criteria for chronic pain and insomnia were included in this study. Participants completed a demographic form, the Dysfunctional Beliefs and Attitudes about Sleep—16-item version, Insomnia Severity Index, Sleep Hygiene Index, Sleep Associated Monitoring Index, Pain Catastrophizing Scale, Pain Disability Questionnaire, Modified Somatic Perceptions Questionnaire, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. Significant positive bivariate relationships were observed for pain catastrophizing (PC) and dysfunctional beliefs and attitudes about sleep (DBAS), as well as somatic awareness and sleep-associated monitoring. Two backward stepwise regression models were utilized to determine a model for predicting insomnia severity and pain disability respectively using a combination of sleep and pain-associated measures. Insomnia severity was predicted by DBAS, PC, and somatic awareness. Pain disability was predicted by PC, DBAS, depression, and social support. Maladaptive thought patterns related to pain and insomnia and associated features appear to have a synergistic effect on both insomnia severity and pain disability and support a combined cognitive–behavioral model.     

Emotional context at learning systematically biases memory for facial information

Emotion influences memory in many ways. For example, when a mood-dependent processing shift is operative, happy moods promote global processing and sad moods direct attention to local features of complex visual stimuli. We hypothesized that an emotional context associated with to-be-learned facial stimuli could preferentially promote global or local processing. At learning, faces with neutral expressions were paired with a narrative providing either a happy or a sad context. At test, faces were presented in an upright or inverted orientation, emphasizing configural or analytical processing, respectively. A recognition advantage was found for upright faces learned in happy contexts relative to those in sad contexts, whereas recognition was better for inverted faces learned in sad contexts than for those in happy contexts. We thus infer that a positive emotional context prompted more effective storage of holistic, configural, or global facial information, whereas a negative emotional context prompted relatively more effective storage of local or feature-based facial information     

Top Ten Questions Male Sexual Abuse Survivors Want to Know from Health Care Research

Sexual abuse is an often overlooked public health issue for boys and men. Given its prevalence and well-documented connection to mental and physical health disorders, the relevance of male survivor input and engagement in health care research is profound. Using a community-based participatory research design, an in-person focus group with male survivors of sexual abuse and researchers was conducted. This paper describes the top ten research questions male sexual abuse survivors would like to have answered. Survivors were most interested in knowing how sexual abuse and assault impact men’s emotional and sexual functioning, what factors are involved in preventing and treating sexual assault-related emotional distress, and what can be done to prevent sexual abuse of boys and men. The fact that some of the questions survivors expressed an interest in knowing about have actually previously been investigated by researchers suggests a disconnect in translating evidence-based findings. Clinical and research implications include designing outreach interventions and gender-specific psychoeducation to increase engagement and access to care for men.     

The use of religion in coping with grief among bereaved Malay Muslim parents

The purpose of this study is to explore the influence of religion on bereaved parents after the death of a child. Literature had attempted to understand how religiosity may influence parental grief both in positive and negative ways. However, this area is scarcely explored in the Malaysian context. This qualitative study involved 11 bereaved parents who lost their children due to accidents (n?=?9) and homicide (n?=?2). Open-ended questions that focused on the importance, activities, and role of religion in the grieving process among Malay parents were asked. According to the thematic analysis, some of the main themes found were that the bereaved parents described religion as a beneficial mechanism in helping them to adapt with their losses through various responses that indicated the perception that religion as a guidance. However, other than the positive impact, religiosity can also lead the bereaved parents to experience negative effects of using religion as a coping strategy. The influence of culture is prevalent in the current study as the theme of mystical belief and paranormal experiences were also reported. This study provides some professional implication from the possible use of religion in intervention.     

Tool-use training temporarily enhances cognitive performance in long-tailed macaques (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Macaca fascicularis</Emphasis>)

Tool use relies on numerous cognitive functions, including sustained attention and understanding of causality. In this study, we investigated the effects of tool-use training on cognitive performance in primates. Specifically, we applied the Primate Cognition Test Battery to three long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) at different stages of a training procedure that consisted of using a rake to retrieve out-of-reach food items. In addition, we evaluated a control group (n?=?3) performing a grasping task, in order to account for possible effects related to a simple motor act. Our results showed that tool-use training enhances mean performance in the physical cognition domain, i.e. the understanding of spatial relations, numerosity and causality. In particular, causal cognition (evaluating noise- and shape-related causality and understanding of tool properties) showed significant improvement after training, whereas spatial cognition (evaluating spatial memory, object permanence, rotation and transposition) showed a trend to improvement. Despite these findings, none of our trained monkeys succeeded in the tool-use task of the Primate Cognition Test Battery, which involved an unfamiliar tool. Some training-related effects did not persist after a 35-day resting period, suggesting that continuous practice may be necessary, or that a longer training period before resting may be needed to better maintain cognitive performance. In contrast with the training group, the control group did not display any change in cognitive performance. This finding paves the way to further investigation into the link between tool-use behaviour and the evolution of primate cognition.     

Weak Consistency for Ensuring Priority Vectors Reliability

Consistency and transitivity are important and leading research topics in the study of decision‐making in terms of pairwise comparison matrices. In this paper, we search for conditions that, in case of inconsistency, guarantee ordinal compatibility between ordinal ranking (actual ranking) derived from a transitive matrix and cardinal rankings provided by the most usual priority vectors proposed in the scientific literature. We provide the notion of weak consistency; it is a condition weaker than consistency and stronger than transitivity and ensures that vectors associated with a matrix, by means of a strictly increasing synthesis functional, provide a preference order, on the related set of decision elements, equal to the actual ranking. This notion extends, to the case in which the decision‐maker can be indifferent between two or more alternatives/criteria, weak consistency introduced in previous papers under constraint of no indifference. Finally, we introduce an order relation on the rows of the matrix, that is, a simple order if and only if weak consistency is satisfied; this simple order allows us to easily determine the actual ranking on the set of decision elements. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.