Coronary Intervention Improves Disease Specific Health-Related Quality of Life but Not Individualised Quality of Life: A Potential Response Shift Effect?

To explore potential response shift effects with different quality of life (QoL) instruments in cardiac patients undergoing coronary intervention. Study Design and Setting: Recalibration was assessed with the disease specific health-related quality of life (HRQL) instrument MacNew in combination with a then-test approach. Reconceptualisation and reprioritisation were assessed with the individualised QoL instrument SEIQoL-DW. Significant treatment effects were seen on the MacNew (global Δ: 0.6 ± 1.1, p = 0.004) but not on the SEIQoL-DW (Δ: 3.3 ± 16, p = 0.37) 6 months after coronary intervention. No recalibration effect was found on the MacNew then-test, while with the SEIQOL-DW potential response shift effects of reconceptualisation and reprioritisation were seen. For the first time response shift effects were explored in cardiac patients undergoing coronary intervention. This study confirmed that there is a clinically significant improvement in disease specific HRQL over time following successful coronary interventions. However, no treatment effect was seen for individualised QoL with the SEIQoL-DW. This might be due to reconceptualisation and reprioritisation response effects. Future studies need to focus on exploring response shift effects, and the interrelationship between its different components, captured by different patient reported outcome instruments in larger patient groups undergoing coronary interventions.     

Internet self-efficacy, the need for cognition, and sensation seeking as predictors of problematic use of the internet

We conducted a study of the relationships between Internet self-efficacy, sensation seeking, the need for cognition, and problematic use of the Internet. The study was based on a randomly selected sample of 979 adult Internet users. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis of these subjects' responses on a questionnaire consisting of relevant items indicated that Internet self-efficacy and sensation seeking positively predicted problematic Internet use. Contrastingly, the need for cognition was significantly negatively associated with problematic Internet use.     

Bilingual Therapeutics: Integrating the Complementary Perspectives and Practices of Motivational Interviewing and Dialectical Behavior Therapy

Informed by the practice of code-switching or style-switching in linguistics, “bilingual therapeutics” is proposed as the complementary integration of two evidence-based practices in psychotherapy: motivational interviewing (MI) and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). Unique features of MI and DBT are presented, current research of each practice is reviewed, and their similarities and distinctions are discussed. It is proposed that fluency in both “languages” of MI and DBT may usher in a new therapeutic perspective to enhance client case conceptualization, illuminate subtleties of the therapeutic process, and foster more intentional and deliberate practitioners. Specifically, MI and DBT code-switching may help recruit and retain clients in formal treatment (e.g.,”speaking” MI more prominently to prepare clients for 12-month standard DBT) and promote consultation among therapists. The complementary integration of MI and DBT also suggests the emergence of a linguistic “third space,” including “spirit as synthesis” and “improvisational dance.”     

Internal Consistencies and Structural Analysis of the MMPI-2 PSY-5 Facet Subscales in Chinese Population

Using the normative data set of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 of the People’s Republic of China, this study examined the psychometric properties of the Personality Psychopathology Five facet subscales recently developed by Arnau et al. (2005). The internal consistency reliability, convergent and discriminant validity of the Psy-5 were found to be unsatisfactory. Results of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicated that both item-to-facet factor structure (except the PSYC domain facets subscales) and facet-to-domain factor structure fit the data poorly. These findings suggested that the PSY-5 facet subscales may not be reliable and valid in population independent of those used to derive them. Thus, the utility of these facet subscales in clinical and research settings is premature at least for Chinese people at the present time.     

责任意识及其培养:从心理健康的视角来看

文章从心理健康的视角出发,认为责任意识是个体心理健康的内在要求,是构成心理健康标准的重要维度;强调责任意识的培养是心理健康教育的一个基本主题,它具体包括责任行为、责任认知和责任情感的培养三个方面。     

有关我国宗教工作方针理论问题的座谈会发言——从“鸦片论”触发的话题谈起

根据中国无神论学会几位从事宗教理论政策研究的理事建议,2010年1月22日本刊编辑部邀请部分长期从事宗教事务管理工作和统战工作的老领导、老同志举行了一次小型座谈会。座谈是由《中国宗教》杂志2008年第11期的文章《从"精神鸦片"到"社会资本"》直接引发的这篇文章涉及到中国共产党对宗教的方针政策究竟是什么,它的理论依据和在中国实践的根据是什么,中华人民共和国建国60年来,前30年与后30年是否有原则性的变化等问题,这些老同志作了正本清源的发言,并介绍了他们在实际工作中的经历与总结。有实践依据,有理论高度,对我们是一种震撼和启迪。会议由学会秘书长、中国社会科学院科学与无神论研究中心主任习五一主持。座谈会上的发言,根据录音略加整理,按发言次序发表如后,供感兴趣的同好者参考。其实,评论执政党的宗教方针政策及其理论和实践,在公开的媒体和学术报刊上早就有了存在各种不同认识和观点,以致引起辩论,应该是正常的,有益的。但自《马克思主义宗教观必须与时俱进》在2001年12月16日首发以来,相关舆论出现了一边倒的迹象,至这篇《从"精神鸦片"到"社会资本"》将这种倾向推到了一个新的坡度,引起人们的特别关注是当然的。不仅如此,《中国宗教》的主管单位是国家宗教事务局。《从"精神鸦片"到"社会资本"》一文的发表,使人容易把作者的言论误作官方的意向,具有了舆论的甚至政策的导向性假象。因此,辨清其中的是非不仅有学术意义,也有现实意义。我们将以此次座谈为契机,就有关问题持续地进行讨论,欢迎大家参与。     

香港道教界隆重举办第十届香港道教节

<正>3月29日下午,由香港道教联合会主办的第十届香港道教节在香港伊利沙伯体育馆隆重开幕。香港特区行政长官曾荫权、中央政府驻港联络办主任彭清华、国家宗教局局长王作安、中国道教协会会长任法融应邀担任主礼嘉宾。香港民政事务局局长曾德成,香港道教联合会主席汤伟奇,香港道教联合会会长黎显华、周铭,香港其他宗教的代表,以及来自海内外的道教界人士和各届嘉宾共2000余人参加了开幕式。曾荫权特首、王作安局长、任法融会长、汤伟奇主席分别在开幕式上致辞。     

Mental Illness and Mental Health: The Two Continua Model Across the Lifespan

Mental health has long been defined as the absence of psychopathologies, such as depression and anxiety. The absence of mental illness, however, is a minimal outcome from a psychological perspective on lifespan development. This article therefore focuses on mental illness as well as on three core components of positive mental health: feelings of happiness and satisfaction with life (emotional well-being), positive individual functioning in terms of self-realization (psychological well-being), and positive societal functioning in terms of being of social value (social well-being). The two continua model holds that mental illness and mental health are related but distinct dimensions. This model was studied on the basis of a cross-sectional representative internet survey of Dutch adults (N = 1,340; 18–87 years). Mental illness was measured with the Brief Symptom Inventory and mental health with the Mental Health Continuum Short Form. It was found that older adults, except for the oldest-old, scored lower on psychopathological symptoms and were less likely to be mentally ill than younger adults. Although there were fewer age differences for mental health, older adults experienced more emotional, similar social and slightly lower psychological well-being. In sum, today’s older adults have fewer mental illness problems, but they are not in a better positive mental health than today’s younger adults. These findings support the validity of the two continua model in adult development.     

Exemplar models as a mechanism for performing Bayesian inference

Probabilistic models have recently received much attention as accounts of human cognition. However, most research in which probabilistic models have been used has been focused on formulating the abstract problems behind cognitive tasks and their optimal solutions, rather than on mechanisms that could implement these solutions. Exemplar models are a successful class of psychological process models in which an inventory of stored examples is used to solve problems such as identification, categorization, and function learning. We show that exemplar models can be used to perform a sophisticated form of Monte Carlo approximation known as importance sampling and thus provide a way to perform approximate Bayesian inference. Simulations of Bayesian inference in speech perception, generalization along a single dimension, making predictions about everyday events, concept learning, and reconstruction from memory show that exemplar models can often account for human performance with only a few exemplars, for both simple and relatively complex prior distributions. These results suggest that exemplar models provide a possible mechanism for implementing at least some forms of Bayesian inference.     

Nonlinear epigenetic variance: review and simulations

We present a review of empirical evidence that suggests that a substantial portion of phenotypic variance is due to nonlinear (epigenetic) processes during ontogenesis. The role of such processes as a source of phenotypic variance in human behaviour genetic studies is not fully appreciated. In addition to our review, we present simulation studies of nonlinear epigenetic variance using a computational model of neuronal network development. In each simulation study, time series for monozygotic and dizygotic twins were generated and analysed using conventional behaviour genetic modelling. In the results of these analyses, the nonlinear epigenetic variance was subsumed under the non-shared environmental component. As is commonly found in behaviour genetic studies, observed heritabilities and unique environmentabilities increased with time, whereas common environmentabilities decreased. The fact that the phenotypic effects of nonlinear epigenetic processes appear as unsystematic variance in conventional twin analyses complicates the identification and quantification of the ultimate genetic and environmental causes of individual differences. We believe that nonlinear dynamical system theories provide a challenging perspective on the development of individual differences, which may enrich behaviour genetic studies.