Social Support and Postpartum Depression Revisited: The Traditional Female Role as Moderator among Mexican Women

Women who lack social support tend to have a higher risk of postpartum depression. The present study examined the traditional female role, understood here as the adoption of passive and submissive traits specific to Mexican women, as another risk factor for postpartum depressive symptomatology that interacts with social support. Using two waves of data from a longitudinal study of 210 adult Mexican women (20–44 years-old, M _age = 29.50 years, SD = 6.34), we found that lacking social support during the third trimester of their pregnancy was associated with greater depressive symptoms at 6 months in the postpartum, although this relationship depended on the level of endorsement of the traditional female role during pregnancy. Lower social support during pregnancy predicted greater postpartum depressive symptoms for women with higher endorsement of the traditional female role, even when accounting for prenatal depressive symptoms. These results suggest that Mexican women’s experience of social support may depend on their individual adherence to gender roles. Understanding the association between women’s traditional roles and social support in the risk for postpartum depression can improve prevention and educational programs for women at risk.     

The Free Harmony of the Faculties and the Primacy of Imagination in Kant's Aesthetic Judgment

This essay argues that, contrary to the prevailing view according to which reflection in Kant's aesthetic judgment is interpreted as ‘the logical actus of the understanding’, we should pay closer attention to Kant's own formulation of aesthetic reflection as ‘an action of the power of imagination’. Put differently, I contend in this essay that the rule that governs and orders the manifold in aesthetic judgment is imagination's own achievement, the achievement of the productive synthesis of the ‘fictive power’ (Dichtungsvermögen), entirely independent of the understanding. While this view does not entail that the faculty of the understanding is not necessary in aesthetic reflection, a stronger emphasis on the role of imagination in aesthetic reflection allows us to realize that its schematizing and interpretive activity, while consistent with, goes well beyond the discursive demands of the understanding insofar as it intimates the supersensible ground of freedom that manifests itself as ‘the feeling of life’. Therefore, I show in this essay that the imagination's unique interpretive power has a special role in completing Kant's critical system by facilitating the connection of the sensible to the supersensible, which further helps us appreciate imagination's practical as opposed to merely cognitive significance.     

Group interventions for patients with cancer and HIV disease: Part I: Effects on psychosocial and functional outcomes at different phases of illness

Group interventions for individuals facing cancer or HIV disease have drawn considerable attention among researchers and clinicians over the past 20 years. There is growing evidence that group services may be helpful, but which interventions are most effective for participants at which phases in the trajectory of disease has been less clear. Moreover, professionals working in different intervention settings (e.g., primary prevention vs. clinical care) and different disease sites (cancer vs. HIV disease) often have little awareness of relevant advances in other fields. Efforts to integrate findings in the literature may accelerate research and advance the standard of clinical care. The current article, the first in a series of four special reports, critically evaluates the efficacy of group interventions led by professional or trained facilitators for individuals confronted by cancer or HIV, across the spectrum of illness from elevated risk through advanced disease. We examine psychosocial and functional outcomes for different interventions directed toward different patient subgroups, trace common themes, highlight limitations, and offer recommendations for further research.     

Group interventions for patients with cancer and HIV disease: Part II. Effects on immune, endocrine, and disease outcomes at different phases of illness

There has been great interest in the potential impact of group interventions on medical outcomes. This article reviews the effects of professionally-led groups on immune activity, neuroendocrine function, and survival among patients with cancer or HIV disease. We examine findings concerning different types of group services at different phases of illness. Results are mixed, but the most prominent changes in immune and endocrine activity were associated with structured group interventions for patients with early-stage disease. These findings offer provocative illustrations of relevant mind-body interactions, but their clinical importance has yet to be demonstrated empirically. Group interventions have not been tied consistently to improved survival rates for patients with advanced cancer; few studies as yet have focused on survival outcomes among patients with early-stage cancer or HIV disease.     

Group interventions for patients with cancer and HIV disease: Part III. Moderating variables and mechanisms of action

Growing evidence supports the value of group interventions for individuals who are at risk for or have developed cancer or HIV disease. However, information is more limited concerning how these services can be delivered in an optimal manner, and what processes contribute to their benefits. Parts I and II of this review examined the efficacy of different interventions for individuals at different phases of illness, ranging from primary prevention to late-stage disease, in both psychosocial and biological domains. The current paper examines some of the factors other than phase of illness that might influence group treatment effects (e.g., intervention parameters, participant characteristics), and explores mechanisms of action.     

Providing explicit information disrupts implicit motor learning after basal ganglia stroke

Despite their purported neuroanatomic and functional isolation, empirical evidence suggests that sometimes conscious explicit processes can influence implicit motor skill learning. Our goal was to determine if the provision of explicit information affected implicit motor-sequence learning after damage to the basal ganglia. Individuals with stroke affecting the basal ganglia (BG) and healthy controls (HC) practiced a continuous implicit motor-sequencing task; half were provided with explicit information (EI) and half were not (No-EI). The focus of brain damage for both BG groups was in the putamen. All of the EI participants were at least explicitly aware of the repeating sequence. Across three days of practice, explicit information had a differential effect on the groups. Explicit information disrupted acquisition performance in participants with basal ganglia stroke but not healthy controls. By retention (day 4), a dissociation was apparent--explicit information hindered implicit learning in participants with basal ganglia lesions but aided healthy controls. It appears that after basal ganglia stroke explicit information is less helpful in the development of the motor plan than is discovering a motor solution using the implicit system alone. This may be due to the increased demand placed on working memory by explicit information. Thus, basal ganglia integrity may be a crucial factor in determining the efficacy of explicit information for implicit motor-sequence learning.     

Testing the indifferentiation hypothesis during childhood, adolescence, and adulthood

The general (g) factor is the most general and relevant cognitive ability. This factor is considered to be one of the most important predictors of academic achievement and of many other socially relevant behavioral outcomes. In the last decades, many researchers have investigated the possible changes in the relevance of the g factor from childhood to adulthood. The indifferentiation hypothesis states that the variance attributed to the g factor and the main cognitive abilities will not change over the life span. In the present study, the authors tested that hypothesis in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood by using 2 different cognitive batteries (Test of Educational Ability [TEA; S. A. TEA, 1999], Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scales [WAIS; D. Wechsler, 1955]), which they administered in 2 different countries--Spain (TEA) and the United States (WAIS). The ages of the participants (N = 2,384) ranged from 8 to 54 years. Results showed that the number of factors extracted and the relevance were the same for every age group in both batteries, as predicted by the indifferentiation hypothesis. The authors discuss implications of intelligence assessment.     

The differentiation hypothesis and the Flynn effect

Many studies have shown that IQs have been increasing over the last half century. These increases have come to be known as "the Flynn effect". The "Flynn effect" represents a difference on ability-level between groups of the same age but different cohort. The ability-level differentiation hypothesis represents a difference on the relevance of cognitive factors between groups of high and low ability. Hence, it should be possible to imitate the ability-level differentiation effect by comparing groups of the same age but different cohort. The indifferentiation hypothesis represents no differences on the relevance of cognitive abilities in all age groups within the same cohort. The aim of the present study is to test the relationships between these phenomena. For this purpose we analyzed the American standardisation samples of the WISC, WISC-R and WISC-III. Results support the link between the Flynn effect and the differentiation hypothesis. Also, reported evidence replicate previous findings supporting the indifferentiation hypothesis. Implications for the assessment of the intelligence are discussed.     

Appraisal process in sheep (Ovis aries): interactive effect of suddenness and unfamiliarity on cardiac and behavioral responses

Appraisal theories state that an emotion results from an individual's evaluation of a stimulating event, which is based on a set of criteria. Each criterion triggers specific expressions that can be modulated by the outcome of other criteria. The authors analyzed the effects of the criteria of suddenness, unfamiliarity, and their combination on behavioral and cardiac responses in lambs (Ovis aries). Lambs were exposed to a visual stimulus that appeared either rapidly or slowly and was either unfamiliar or familiar. Suddenness induced a startle response and an increase in heart rate. Unfamiliarity induced an orientation response. The combination of suddenness and unfamiliarity enhanced both the heart rate increase and the behavioral orientation response. These results support the hypotheses of specificity and modulation of emotional expressions.