Moral Injury,Chaplaincy and Mental Health Provider Approaches to Treatment: A Scoping Review

Journal of Religion and Health - The aim of this research was to describe the evidence examining the approaches taken by mental health providers (MHPs) and chaplains to address symptoms related to...     

Resources for health: a primary-care-based diet and physical activity intervention targeting urban Latinos with multiple chronic conditions.

OBJECTIVE: The Resources for Health trial evaluates a social-ecologically based lifestyle (physical activity and diet) intervention targeting low-income, largely Spanish-speaking patients with multiple chronic conditions. DESIGN: A randomized controlled trial was conducted with 200 patients recruited from an urban community health center and assigned to intervention and usual care conditions. Intervention involved 2 face-to-face, self-management support and community linkage sessions with a health educator, 3 follow-up phone calls, and 3 tailored newsletters. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Primary outcomes measured at 6-months were changes in dietary behavior and physical activity. Changes in multilevel support for healthy living were evaluated as a secondary outcome. RESULTS: After adjustment for age, sex, language, and number of chronic conditions, significant intervention effects were observed for dietary behavior and multilevel support for healthy lifestyles but not for physical activity. CONCLUSION: The Resources for Health intervention provides an effective and practical model for improving health behavior among low-income, Spanish-speaking patients with multiple chronic conditions.     

Psychopathic traits in nursing and criminal justice majors: a pilot study

Prior findings suggest presence of psychopathic personality traits may be prevalent outside of the criminal sphere, such as in the business world. It is possible that particular work environments are attractive to individuals with higher psychopathic personality traits. To test this hypothesis, the current study investigated whether psychopathic personality scores could predict students' choices between two university majors, criminal justice or nursing (N= 174; 53 men, 121 women). Nursing education espouses nurturance and care, while criminal justice education teaches students informal and formal social control. Given these two educational mandates, it was predicted that students who scored higher on a scale of psychopathy would tend to enter criminal justice rather than nursing. Using logistic regression, results showed students with higher overall scores on the Psychopathic Personality Inventory, specifically higher scores on the subscale Machiavellian Egocentricity, were more likely to have chosen to major in criminal justice than nursing. Effects were generally weak but significant, accounting for between 5% to 25% of the variance in choice of major. Furthermore, this finding was not due to sex differences.     

Actually,a picture is worth less than 45 words: Narratives produce more false memories than photographs do

Most memory “implantation” studies have elicited false memories by using fake narratives. Recently, Wade, Garry, Read, and Lindsay (2002) showed that doctored photographs can be used to create false childhood memories in adults. Fifty percent of Wade et al.’s sample reported details of taking a childhood hot air balloon ride, although they had never been in a balloon. In this experiment, we investigated whether photos or narratives influence memory more than the other. We exposed subjects to either a fake photograph or a fake narrative of a childhood hot air balloon ride. Subjects tried to remember the false event and three real events over 1 week. Narratives were more likely to produce false memory reports than were photos. We offer a fluency-based account of our results and suggest that narratives promote more familiarity in subjects than do photographs.     

Strategies for verifying false autobiographical memories

This study examined the types of strategies people use to verify putative childhood memories and the degree to which their preferred strategies are restricted in typical memory implantation studies. We asked subjects to describe a situation in which they recalled a false childhood experience and a hypothetical situation in which they pretended to have developed a false memory after taking part in a memory implantation study. We also asked them how they did (or would) determine the source of the event. We found that subjects relied primarily on other people and cognitive strategies to verify their experiences. These results suggest that laboratory situations cultivate false memories in part because they prevent people from talking to others about the false event, which causes them to rely on less optimal strategies.     

An ESID Case Study at the Federal Level

The D (dissemination) phase of the ESID model has been often overlooked in our efforts to create innovative and widespread social change. The process of replicating successful social innovations is both a prerequisite for dissemination (in order to assess the consistency of effects) and an obvious outcome of a successful dissemination effort. Fidelity, the extent to which a replicated program is implemented in a manner consistent with the original program model, is an important dimension of replication. This study was designed to provide empirical data related to three questions. Can complex social programs be implemented with fidelity? How much fidelity is appropriate or desired? What are the organizational dynamics of adoption with fidelity? Data were collected from grantees of a national replication initiative funded by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention. Data suggest that high fidelity can be achieved, at least in the context in which programs are mandated to do so as part of the funding agreement and are given technical assistance in achieving fidelity. Secondly, programs perceived high fidelity as having positive effects on the program and its participants, a finding consistent with a limited assessment of the relationship of program outcomes and fidelity. Finally, much was learned about the human and organizational dynamics of replicating with fidelity. Implications for policy and direction regarding replication are discussed.     

Classical Delay Eyeblink Conditioning in in 4- and 5-Month-Old Human Infants

Abstract-Simple delay classical eyeblink conditioning, using a tone conditioned stimulus (CS) and airpuff unconditioned stimulus (US), was studied in cross-sectional samples of 4- and 5-month-old healthy, full-term infants. Infants received two identical training sessions, 1 week apart. At both ages, infants experiencing paired tones and air-puffs demonstrated successful conditioning over two sessions, relative to control subjects who had unpaired training. Conditioning was not evident, however, during the first session. Two additional groups of 5-month-olds received varied experiences during Session 1, either unpaired presentations of the CS and US or no stimulus exposure, fol-lowed by paired conditioning during Session 2. Results from these groups suggest that the higher level of conditioning observed following two sessions of paired conditioning was not the result of familiarity with the testing environment or the stimuli involved but, rather, the result of retention of associative learning not expressed during the first conditioning session.     

Discourse and Mind

In recent years, various attempts have been made to advance a project sometimes characterized as "discursive psychology". Grounded in what its proponents term "social constructionism", the discursive approach to the elucidation of 'mental' phenomena is here contrasted to an ethnomethodological position informed by the later work of Wittgenstein. In particular, it is argued that discursive psychology still contains Cartesian residua, notwithstanding its professed objective of expurgating Cartesian thought from the behavioral sciences. One principal issue has been the confusion of "conceptual analysis" with the empirical study of speech practices. If these distinct enterprises are conflated, the critical achievements of conceptual analysis are obscured or even misconstrued. A different picture of how best to analyze human conduct and mentality emerges if the lessons of Wittgensteinian grammatical analysis are preserved and extended, one more compatible with several themes in ethnomethodology.     

Television Situation Comedies: Female Body Images and Verbal Reinforcements

A content analysis of 28 different prime-timetelevision situation comedies examined the body weightsof 52 central female characters (88% White, 10% Black,2% Asian), the verbal comments they received from other characters as a function of bodyweight, and their self-comments with respect to theirown body weight, shape and dieting behaviors. Comparedwith the general population, below average central female characters were over-represented insituation comedies; above average weight characters wereunder-represented. Below average weight femalecharacters received significantly more positive verbal comments from male characters with regards tobody weight and shape than their heavier counterparts.Dieting female characters gave themselves significantlymore verbal punishment for their body weight and shape than those less involved in dieting.This combination of modeling the thin ideal and theverbal reinforcement associated with this modelinglikely contributes to the internalization of the thin ideal and may put some young female viewers atrisk for developing eating disorders.     

Developmental changes in associations between auditory-visual events

The goal of the present study was twofold: to examine the influence of two amodal properties, co-location and temporal synchrony, on infants' associating a sight with a sound, and to determine if the relative influence of these properties on crossmodal learning changes with age. During familiarization 2-, 4-, 6- and 8-month-olds were presented two toys and a sound, with sights and sounds varying with respect to co-location and temporal synchrony. Following each familiarization phase infants were given a paired preference test to assess their learning of sight-sound associations. Measures of preferential looking revealed age-related changes in the influence of co-location and temporal synchrony on infants' learning sight-sound associations. At all ages, infants could use temporal synchrony and co-location as a basis for associating an auditory with a visual event and, in the absence of temporal synchrony, co-location was sufficient to support crossmodal learning. However, when these cues conflicted there were developmental changes in the influence of these cues on infants' learning auditory-visual associations. At 2 and 4 months infants associated the sounds with the toy that moved in synchrony with the sound's rhythm despite extreme violation of co-location of this sight and sound. In contrast, 6- and 8-month-olds did not associate a specific toy with the sound when co-location and synchrony information conflicted. The findings highlight the unique and interactive effects of distinct amodal properties on infants' learning arbitrary crossmodal relations. Possible explanations for the age shift in performance are discussed.