What do targeting positive views on ageing add to a physical activity intervention in older adults? Results from a randomised controlled trial

Objective: Physical activity is a key factor for healthy ageing, yet many older people lead a sedentary lifestyle. Traditional physical activity interventions do not consider the specific needs and views of older adults. As views on ageing are known to be related to health behaviours, the current study evaluates the effectiveness of prompting positive views on ageing within a physical activity intervention.

Design: Randomised controlled trial with three groups aged 65+: Intervention for physical activity with ‘views-on-ageing’-component (n?=?101; IGVoA), and without ‘views-on-ageing’-component (n?=?30; IG), and active control intervention for volunteering (n?=?103; CG).

Main outcome measures: Attitudes towards older adults and physical activity were assessed five weeks before intervention, two weeks, six weeks and 8.5?months after the intervention.

Results: Compared to the IG and CG, positive attitudes towards older adults increased in the IGVoA after the intervention. For IGVoA, the indirect intervention effect on change in activity via change in attitudes towards older adults was reliable.

Conclusion: A ‘views-on-ageing’-component within a physical activity intervention affects change in physical activity via change in views on ageing. Views on ageing are a promising intervention technique to be incorporated into future physical activity interventions for older adults.     

Multiple illness perceptions in older adults: Effects on physical functioning and medication adherence

Objective: Previous research on illness perceptions has focused on single illnesses, but most adults over 65 suffer from multiple illnesses (multimorbidity). This study tests three competing operationalisations of multiple illness perceptions in predicting physical functioning and adherence: (1) main effects and interactions model; (2) peak model with effects of the most prominent illness perception; and (3) combined model with averaged illness perceptions over multiple illnesses.

Design: Longitudinal study in N?=?215 individuals (65–86?years) with multimorbidity at two measurement points over six months. Participants filled in two Brief Illness Perception Questionnaires (B-IPQ) on their two most severe illnesses.

Main outcome measures: Physical functioning, medication adherence.

Results: Factor analyses suggest that the B-IPQ contains three dimensions; consequences, control and timeline. Multiple regression models fit the data best for (1) and (3). Timeline (β?=??.18) and control (β?=?.21) predict adherence in (1); consequences (β?=?.16) and control (β?=?.20) in (3). Physical functioning was significantly predicted by interacting control beliefs in (1; β?=?.13), by peak consequences in (2; β?=??.14) and by consequences (β?=??.15) in (3).

Conclusions: Individuals with multimorbidity hold both distinct and combined perceptions about their illnesses. To understand individual responses to multimorbidity, perceptions about all illnesses and multimorbidity as entity should be examined.     

Long-term adherence to a physical activity intervention: The role of telephone-assisted vs. self-administered coping plans and strategy use

Objective: This study investigated the role of coping plans and the use of selection, optimisation and compensation (SOC) strategies within an experimental evaluation of a 26-week physical exercise intervention.

Methods: Older women (N?=?86, M _age?=?73.7 years) were randomly assigned to a telephone-assisted or a self-administered coping planning intervention after 6 weeks’ participation in an exercise programme. The number of different coping plans formulated, exercise-specific SOC strategy use and their interaction were used to predict objectively measured long-term adherence to the intervention.

Results: The number of coping plans formulated (β?=?0.28) and goal-pursuit strategies reported (sum score of optimisation and compensation strategies, β?=?0.39) predicted adherence to the exercise programme over 20 weeks. The predictive strength of coping plans increased with decreasing numbers of goal-pursuit strategies (β?=??0.21). Women supported via telephone reported significantly more coping plans than did women in the self-administered coping planning group, F(1,80)?=?9.47, p?=?0.003.

Conclusion: Coping plans have a buffering effect on adherence levels when use of SOC strategies is low. Older women's adherence to physical activities may be improved if they are given direct support in generating coping plans involving strategies of selection, optimisation and compensation.     

Two spatial maps for perceived visual space: Evidence from relative mislocalizations

When observers are asked to localize the peripheral position of a target with respect to the midposition of a spatially extended comparison stimulus, they tend to mislocalize the target as being more outer than the midposition of the comparison stimulus (cf. Müsseler, Van der Heijden, Mahmud, Deubel, & Ertsey, 1999). For explaining this finding, we examined a model that postulates that in the calculation of perceived positions two sources are involved, a sensory map and a motor map. The sensory map provides vision and the motor map contains information for saccadic eye movements. The model predicts that errors in location judgements will be observed when the motor map has to provide the information for the judgements. In four experiments we examined, and found evidence for, this prediction. Localization errors were found in all conditions in which the motor map had to be used but not in conditions in which the sensory map could be used.     

The Effects of Aging and Dual Task Demands on Language Production

ABSTRACT

A digital pursuit rotor task was used to measure dual task costs of language production by young and older adults. After training on the pursuit rotor, participants were asked to track the moving target while providing a language sample. When simultaneously engaged, young adults experienced greater dual task costs to tracking, fluency, and grammatical complexity than older adults. Older adults were able to preserve their tracking performance by speaking more slowly. Individual differences in working memory, processing speed, and Stroop interference affected vulnerability to dual task costs. These results demonstrate the utility of using a digital pursuit rotor to study the effects of aging and dual task demands on language production and confirm prior findings that young and older adults use different strategies to accommodate to dual task demands.     

Predictive Pointing Movements and Saccades Toward a Moving Target

The authors investigated whether and, if so, how velocity information is used to control predictive manual pointing movements and saccades. Participants (N = 6) intercepted an occluded moving target as if it were still visible. They kept their eyes fixated while the target moved. The target traveled over a fixed distance and changed its velocity on the way. The presentation time of the final velocity was varied. Both the eye and the hand overshot the slow target and undershot the fast target, particularly when the duration of the final velocity was short. Thus, responses were biased in the direction of the target's initial velocity. The error seemed to arise because participants did not take their latency into account when aiming at the target. Instead, they strategically aimed farther ahead when the target was fast. Amplitude was also more related to the position of velocity change than to final velocity duration. Both findings suggest that target velocity is not extrapolated but that individuals add an increment to the position of velocity change.     

The Efficacy of Systemic Therapy for Childhood and Adolescent Externalizing Disorders: A Systematic Review of 47 RCT

Systemic (family) therapy is a widely used psychotherapy approach. However, most systematic efficacy reviews have focused solely on “family‐based treatment” rather than on the theoretic orientation “systemic therapy.” We systematically review trials on the efficacy of systemic therapy for the treatment of childhood and adolescent externalizing disorders. All randomized (or matched) controlled trials (RCT) evaluating systemic/systems‐oriented therapy in various forms (family, individual, group, multi‐family group therapy) with child or adolescent index patients (0–17 years) suffering from mental disorders were identified by data base searches and cross‐references. Inclusion criteria were as follows: index patient diagnosed with a DSM‐ or ICD‐listed mental disorder, and trial published in any language up to the end of 2011. The RCTs were analyzed for their research methodology, interventions applied, and results (postintervention; follow‐up). A total of 47 trials from the United States, Europe, and China, published in English, German, and Mandarin, were identified. A total of 42 of them showed systemic therapy to be efficacious for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorders, conduct disorders, and substance use disorders. Results were stable across follow‐up periods of up to 14 years. There is a sound evidence base for the efficacy of systemic therapy for children and adolescents (and their families) diagnosed with externalizing disorders.     

A Note on the Hierarchical Model for Responses and Response Times in Tests of van der Linden (2007)

Findings suggest that in psychological tests not only the responses but also the times needed to give the responses are related to characteristics of the test taker. This observation has stimulated the development of latent trait models for the joint distribution of the responses and the response times. Such models are motivated by the hope to improve the estimation of the latent traits by additionally considering response time. In this article, the potential relevance of the response times for psychological assessment is explored for the model of van der Linden (Psychometrika 72:287–308, 2007) that seems to have become the standard approach to response time modeling in educational testing. It can be shown that the consideration of response times increases the information of the test. However, one also can prove that the contribution of the response times to the test information is bounded and has a simple limit.     

Reliabilism, bootstrapping, and epistemic circularity

Pretheoretically we hold that we cannot gain justification or knowledge through an epistemically circular reasoning process. Epistemically circular reasoning occurs when a subject forms the belief that p on the basis of an argument A, where at least one of the premises of A already presupposes the truth of p. It has often been argued that process reliabilism does not rule out that this kind of reasoning leads to justification or knowledge (cf. the so-called bootstrapping-problem or the easy-knowledge-problem). For some philosophers, this is a reason to reject reliabilism. Those who try to defend reliabilism have two basic options: (I) accept that reliabilism does not rule out circular reasoning (or bootstrapping), but argue that this kind of reasoning is not as epistemically “bad” as it seems, or (II) hold on to the view that circular reasoning (or bootstrapping) is epistemically “bad”, but deny that reliabilism really allows this kind of reasoning. Option (I) has been spelled out in several ways, all of which have found to be problematic. Option (II) has not been discussed very widely. Vogel (J Philos 97:602–623, 2000) considers and quickly dismisses it on the basis of three reasons. Weisberg (Philos Phenomenol Res 81:525–548, 2010) has shown in detail that one of these reasons is unconvincing. In this paper I argue that the other two reasons are unconvincing as well and that therefore option (II) might in fact be a more promising starting point to defend reliabilism than option (I).     

“Secularization of Consciousness” or Alternative Opportunities? The Impact of Economic Growth on Religious Belief and Practice in 13 European Countries

This research note contributes to an evaluation of the validity of secularization theory by studying the relationship between economic modernization and patterns of religious change. Both the disenchantment narrative of Berger and Weber and the existential security perspective of Inglehart hypothesize that economic development should be accompanied by a weakening of religious values. Using macro‐level panel regressions, my analysis reveals that while economic growth is directly associated with diminishing church attendance rates, it is not directly associated with a decline in belief. The relation between economic growth and religious decline is therefore not primarily mediated by a “secularization of consciousness.” Findings instead indicate that economic prosperity leads to a change in consumption patterns on the part of individuals due to increased income and availability of alternative, secular opportunities to meet needs previously fulfilled by traditional religion. A decline in religious belief may occur as a secondary consequence of this behavioral change, since diminishing worship attendance rates reduce the influence of religion on value socialization.