Shifts in attention biases in response to acute pain induction: examination of a model of "conversion" among repressors

Unlike most people, those who are characterized by a repressive coping style report high levels of physical (sensory) pain but low levels of emotional distress (affective pain), which is a discrepancy that may suggest a "conversion" process. In two studies, we tested an attention allocation model, proposing that repressors direct attention away from threatening negative affective information and toward nonthreatening physical pain information during emotionally arousing (painful) situations. In Study 1, 84 participants underwent a cold pressor and then recovered. Repressors reported greater pain during recovery than low- and high-anxious participants, but they reported lower distress than high-anxious participants. Repressors reported significant and large discrepancies between high pain and low distress, whereas these differences were less pronounced for other groups. In Study 2, 77 participants underwent an ischemic pain task while performing a modified dot-probe task with sensory and negative affective pain words as stimuli. Repressors showed increasing biases away from affective pain words and toward sensory pain words as the pain task continued, whereas low- and high-anxious participants did not show these shifts in attention. The results support the notion that conversion among repressors may involve a process by which attention is directed away from emotional distress during noxious stimulation and is focused instead on sensory information from pain.     

Participating From the Comfort of Your Living Room: Feasibility of a Group Videoconferencing Intervention to Reduce Distress in Parents of Children With a Serious Illness or Injury

ABSTRACT

This study explored the feasibility and potential effectiveness of a videoconferencing group intervention for parents of children with a life-threatening illness. Parent functioning was assessed at pre, post, and 6-month follow-up (N?=?13). Semistructured interviews explored parent experiences of the program and clinicians’ experiences were systematically recorded. Attendance was high (92%) and parents reported comfort with the online delivery. Quantitative data revealed significant reductions on three of the nine measures examined (parent guilt/worry; unresolved sorrow/anger; lack of psychological flexibility). Clinician data are described and highlights the skills and program modifications required to adapt to the videoconferencing modality. A randomized controlled trial is now underway.     

I. The loving parent meets the selfish gene

In a recent Inquiry article Louis Pascal argues that the problem of massive starvation in the modern world is the result of a genetically‐based human propensity to produce as many offspring as possible, regardless of ecological conditions. In this paper biological and anthropological objections to Pascal's thesis are discussed as well as the conclusions he draws from it. It is suggested that natural selection has produced humans who are flexible in their reproductive behavior in order to cope with rapidly changing environments. The implications of both arguments for the population movement and the attempt to eliminate starvation are discussed.     

The Assessment and Diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in Adult Forensic Psychiatric Outpatients

The primary purpose of the present study was to examine the validity of commonly utilized ADHD rating scales within an adult forensic population. Participants were 120 patients assessed for dysfunctional anger and impulsive aggression at a hospital-based clinic. Two psychiatrists made independent diagnoses about the presence or absence of ADHD among individuals presenting with symptoms consistent with this disorder. Following the diagnoses, participants were assessed with multiple ADHD measures, including measures based on self-report, observer-report, or a computerized neuropsychological measure (IVA + Plus). With the exception of the IVA + Plus, the ADHD measures significantly differentiated individuals diagnosed with ADHD from individuals who were not so diagnosed. These measures also demonstrated good diagnostic utility via test specific parameters (sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive power, and negative predictive power). A sub-set of measures demonstrated particularly good classification accuracy, with high sensitivity (91 %) and good specificity (81 %). Implications of these findings for the effective assessment and diagnosis of ADHD in adult outpatient psychiatric settings are discussed.     

Assessment of cognition in an adolescent Indigenous population

The assessment of cognition in Indigenous populations is often complicated by cultural and language differences and unfamiliarity with the assessment process. Cognitive tasks are being developed that reduce the impact of these factors. These processes need to be evaluated in different cultural and ethnic groups to determine whether they are appropriate. Such an assessment was recently used in two studies of cognition of 237 Indigenous Australian adolescents (age: M = 16.06 ± 2.16 years). The tasks were completed appropriately, with response times and error rates increasing for difficult tasks. Duration and error rates decreased for the round‐based tasks, in line with performance in non‐Indigenous samples. There were no gender effects. Age associations occurred in some tasks, but significant correlations were only of a small magnitude. Although the battery appeared to be completed appropriately in this study, more work needs to be conducted examining the influence of demographic factors to ensure that control data can be most appropriately matched in future studies.     

The Moderating Effect of Within‐Group Similarity on Change in a Strengths‐Based Programme for Incarcerated Young Men

Many youth who are incarcerated within juvenile correctional facilities experience mental health disorders, histories of victimization and suicide ideation. Strengths‐based intervention programmes are intended to enhance participants' resilience against such challenges. However, little is known about how the composition of intervention groups contributes to programmes' efficacy. This study addresses the impact of within‐group similarity on the success of a strengths‐based intervention for incarcerated young men (n = 141). Similarity was assessed in terms of self‐reported demographics and behaviours and belief systems. Youths' masculine ideology, caring and cooperative behaviours, ethnic pride and respect for differences, self‐efficacy regarding education and non‐violence, and attitudes about criminal behaviour were measured before and after intervention. Results indicate that participants' caring and cooperative behaviour increased during the intervention. However, their education‐related self‐efficacy was reduced, and the perceived benefits of criminal activity increased. These changes were moderated by group composition: less similarity between participants and their group members was associated with less negative change. In the context of juvenile corrections facilities, where staying the same may be a relatively positive outcome, perhaps the more relevant question is not which processes and characteristics of others better enable youth to change but which experiences help them retain positive aspects of themselves. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

How are qualia coupled to functions?

WHAT DETERMINES THE NATURE OF SUBJECTIVE EXPERIENCE: associated behavioural functions or mediating neural activity? A recent analysis by Hurley and No? of a variety of cases of behavioural and neural plasticity shows that, under different conditions, either can predominate. This adds to other efforts to transfer the doctrine of functionalism from philosophical debate to empirical scrutiny, where it is hoped that it may eventually be resolved.