Place of Birth, Place of Residence, and Concentration in Social Occupations

To explore the hypothesis that people who migrate across international, provincial, and state borders tend to veer away from occupations that require intense social interaction, demographic data were obtained on 2,638 North Americans who have attained eminence within their chosen fields. Occupations were blind-coded either as "social" or "nonsocial." While there were similar concentrations in social occupations among Native Americans (75.00%) and Native Canadians (73.02%), there were successively fewer social occupations among Canadian emigres (59.53%), world (predominantly European) emigres (51.46%), and Asian emigres (40.99%) to the U.S. Findings suggest that Asian Americans' well-documented tendencies to veer away from lines of work that involve forceful self-expression reflects a continuous variable rather than a dichotomous variable that sharply separates Asian and North American cultures.     

Cortical evoked responses to synonyms and antonyms

The brain’s processing of synonymity and antonymy was explored by examining the cortical evoked responses to correct judgments that a test word was a synonym or an antonym of a standard word presented 1 sec previously. Each of five subjects judged 256 pairs of words in each of two sessions. The evoked response to the second word was averaged separately for synonym and antonym pairs. Presentation of each test word as a synonym or an antonym, the order of presentation of each pair, and the side of the “synonym” response key were counter-balanced within subjects. The difference between the averaged response to antonym test words and that to synonym test words differed biphasically over the interval 250-650 msec after the stimulus. The demonstration of an evoked response difference between synonyms and antnyms extends the applicability of evoked potentials from attributes of individual word meaning to the semantic relationships between words.     

The choice reaction times of single and dual jointed actions

The choice reaction times of dual (elbow and wrist) and single (elbow) jointed movements were measured using ‘mixed’ (dual and single) and ‘matched’ (both dual or both single) response pairings. Although subjects found it more difficult to execute dual jointed actions (as shown by error rate), there was no concomitant prolongation of latencies for acceptable responses. In the light of these findings, the utility of CRT as an index of motor programming complexity, and the claim that pre-programming of responses is precluded with CRT testing, were discussed.     

Telephone counsellors' conceptualising abilities and counselling skills

Telephone counsellors must make accurate assessments of callers' needs so as to provide appropriate counselling help or referral. But few researchers have examined counsellors' conceptualising abilities in relation to their counselling skill. Two studies involving telephone counsellors were carried out. The first relied on counsellors' post-interview conceptualisations of callers' problems and needs and found no link between the accuracy of these conceptualisations and counselling skill. The second used Kagan's Interpersonal Process Recall (IPR) to retrieve counsellors' conceptualisations made during the course of their interviews. The accuracy of these conceptualisations-in-action was related to level of counselling skill. Implications for training and research are discussed     

Evaluation of subclinical depression in children using self-, peer-, and teacher-report measures

This study reports on several classification issues utilizing the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), the Child Behavior Checklist-Teacher Form (CBCL-T), and the Peer Nomination Inventory of Depression (PNID). The first sample contained 752 public school children in grades 5, 6, and 9. A second sample of 142 fifth-graders was included to have an additional PNID comparison group. Results revealed moderate correlations between the CDI and the CBCL-T and PNID. Use of multiple criteria for selecting children as depressed was discussed, and selection rates using multiple measures with either strict or lenient cutoff scores were given. Normative data on the PNID were evaluated, and it was suggested that norms for the PNID may not be generalizable to other samples. Finally, race and gender analyses showed that CDI scores for females were significantly higher than for males, whereas CDI scores for Hispanics were significantly higher than for non-Hispanic whites. However, Omega-squared analyses for these two variables showed this to be of little practical significance.     

Near-death utopias: Now or later?

By viewing near-death experiences (NDEs) in the context of the quest for an ideal society, Kellehear offered hope for positive social change and insight into the social, rather than purely personal, meanings of the NDE. However, his approach raised issues of the interpretive research process generally. As with any research, near-death studies are influenced by investigators' questions, interests, and assumptions. Despite the reasoning behind Kellehear's position, he grounded his analysis not in the data, but rather in his typology of ideal societies. I suggest we look first for indications of ideal social order in near-death narratives and only later compare them with types of utopias.     

Acute neuropsychological changes in hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis patients.

This study examined the impact of different dialysis treatments on the neuropsychological (NP) functioning of 145 end-stage renal disease patients. Hemodialysis (HD) and peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients were administered an NP test battery and measures of mood on 2 consecutive days (pre- and 24 hr postdialysis). Biochemistry was assessed at each session. Results indicated significant improvements in NP functioning (attention, concentration, verbal and visual memory, and psychomotor speed) in HD patients 24 hr postdialysis. No such fluctuations were found in PD patients. Although biochemical changes were found in the HD patients at the same time points, these were not consistently related to the NP changes.     

Pedagogy for diversity: mediating between tradition and equality in schools

The aim of this paper is to provide evidence‐based guidance for educational practitioners and, in particular, for those in leadership positions in schools, on good practice in developing and implementing school level strategies and actions to promote an appreciation of diversity in schools and society.