The personal inventory as a psychotherapeutic technique in treating a person with AIDS

The use of a personal inventory, an adaptation of the moral inventory used in Twelve Step programs, is discussed as a psychotherapeutic tool in providing treatment to persons with AIDS. Clinical application of this technique can facilitate progress toward achieving a sense of integrity prior to death by addressing a client's feelings of guilt and shame. The authors describe the use of this technique in working with a young adult African-American female diagnosed with AIDS and discuss appropriate and inappropriate applications of this approach.     

Contrasting effects of age of acquisition and word frequency on auditory and visual lexical decision

In four experiments, we examined the effects of frequency and age of acquisition on auditory and visual lexical decision. Word frequency affected visual, but not auditory, lexical decision speed (Experiments 1 and 3). Age of acquisition affected lexical decision speed in both modalities (Experiments 2 and 4). We suggest that previous reports of effects of frequency on auditory lexical decision may be due to a confounding of frequency with age of acquisition, and we discuss the implications of these findings for theories of auditory and visual word recognition.     

Trajectories of Response to Treatments in Children with ADHD and Word Reading Difficulties

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - This study investigated patterns of response to intervention in children with co-occurring attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and...     

Spirituality,Gendered Subjectivities,and Education in Preadolescents: Canadian preadolescents' reflections on gender-roles and their sense of self

'Adolescents' spirituality' has emerged as a lively focus for discussion and research amongst both academics and practitioners. Yet remarkably little reference has been made to conceptions of the child provided by developmental educational psychology. To gain a holistic perspective of how preadolescents construct their sense of self, cultural meanings of sexuality and spirituality must also be examined. How do adolescents make the connections among a sense of body, self, and soul? What is the role of education? To address these issues, this paper draws on recent research that explored the connections between the self-concepts of Canadian preadolescents (9-12 year-olds) and their perceptions of their gender-role orientation. This paper undertakes an 'excavation' of psychocultural approaches to gender and language, and the mixed messages about early adolescent spirituality and gendered selves implicit in the respective understandings of psychological development. The examination of these theories unearths many points of resonance with contemporary debates about our expectations of the nature of spirituality and sexuality in preadolescence, and our interventions for its nurture. The paper examines gendered perceptions of femininity and masculinity in Canadian preadolescents and how these perceptions influence their self-worth or overall well-being. It focuses on the links between spirituality and gendered perceptions and understandings of emotions and self. The final section discusses the socio-educational implications of the research findings within the context of holistic education. In this way, dialogue with a psychocultural and holistic approach to psychology and education offers valuable additional vocabulary and grammar with which to tackle these challenges.     

CCTV on trial: Matching video images with the defendant in the dock

The experiments reported in this paper investigated simultaneous identity matching of unfamiliar people physically present in person with moving video images typical of that captured by closed circuit television (CCTV). This simulates the decision faced by a jury in court when the identity of somebody caught on CCTV is disputed. Namely, ‘is the defendant in the dock the person depicted in video’? In Experiment 1, the videos depicted medium‐range views of a number of actor ‘culprits’. Experiment 2 used similar quality images taken a year previously, some of which showed the culprits in disguise. Experiment 3 utilised high‐quality close‐up video images. It was consistently found that in both culprit‐present and culprit‐absent videos and in optimal conditions, matching the identity of a person in video can be highly susceptible to error. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Life at Home: Same Time,Different Places — An Examination of the HOME Inventory in Different Cultures

In this paper we review literature on the use of the HOME Inventory across cultures. We address issues pertaining to measurement equivalence and validity. Specifically, we focus on: (a) changes in the content of HOME made by researchers, (b) distributional properties of HOME scores, (c) the factor structure of HOME, and (d) correlations between HOME, family characteristics, child characteristics and environmental conditions. In most affluent, western countries, with their individualist orientations, HOME was used essentially as it was originally constructed. Researchers in less industrialized, more collectivist countries tended to express greater scepticism about the appropriateness of some HOME items, and several teams of researchers made modifications in the instrument. The HOME total score showed theoretically meaningful (and similar) correlations with family structure, family status and child outcome measures across many cultures. Evidence attesting to the cultural equivalence (and validity) of HOME subscales was far less plentiful and compelling. In general, there seemed greater cross-cultural equivalence for items assessing cognitively stimulating aspects of the environment than for items assessing socioemotional support. The usefulness of the Inventory in other cultures and for cross-cultural comparisons depends on the purposes one has for using a measure of the home environment. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Parent and Teacher Agreement of Behavior Problems in Youth Diagnosed With and Without Autism Spectrum Disorders

The prevalence and severity of behavioral problems in youth with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) may be context dependent leading to discrepant informants’ reports and complicating case conceptualizations and treatment goals. This study examines the inter-rater agreement of parents and teachers on behavioral problems of 58 youth with ASD and 42 youth without an ASD diagnosis. Parents and teachers of 26 youth with ASD (M?=?4.08, SD?=?1.02) and 21 youth with non-ASD diagnoses (M?=?4.38, SD?=?0.80), ages 2–5 years, and 32 youth with ASD (M?=?7.47, SD?=?1.44), and 21 youth with non-ASD diagnoses (M?=?7.71, SD?=?1.23), ages 6–10, completed the Child Behavior Checklist and Teacher Report Form. Compared to youth with a non-ASD diagnosis (ages 2–5 years), youth with ASD also had poor to moderate agreement across subscales with the exception of comparable substantial agreement on Externalizing Behavior (ICC?=?0.73 and ICC?=?0.63, respectively) and Aggressive Behavior subscales (ICC?=?0.72 and ICC?=?0.69, respectively). Compared to youth with a non-ASD diagnosis (ages 6–10 years), youth with ASD similarly had poor agreement across subscales with the exception of moderate agreement on Anxious/Depressed subscale (ICC?=?0.41 and ICC?=?0.06, respectively). These results suggest that the severity and prevalence of behavior problems in youth may depend on the context and reporter of the symptoms.     

Mortality salience and prejudice towards ethno-religion minorities: Results and implications of a Nigerian study

The present study examined mortality salience (MS) effect on prejudice towards an ethno-religion minority group of Northern Nigeria. Participants were 120 undergraduate students (females = 41.67%) with an age range between 17 and 38 years. The students completed a Distance-(relationship)-Situation (DS) measure under alternative conditions: with MS priming and a control condition. Following a three-way mixed model ANOVA, results showed MS to predict prejudice across relationship situations of secret disclosure, business partnership, and cooperating to get a task done. Consistent with terror management theory, MS effects on ethno-cultural prejudice expression apply across relationship situations.     

Music is awesome: Influences of emotion,personality, and preference on experienced awe

Awe is a complex, cognitive–conceptual emotion associated with transcendence and wonder. Music has the power to create this kind of transcendence. Can music evoke awe? Previous research demonstrates that awe is associated with individual differences in personality such as openness. This study examined whether different kinds of music across a wide variety of genres can evoke awe and whether the experience of awe depends on individual differences. The study further investigated the relationship of awe to patterns of emotional responses to different dimensions of musical genre. Study 1 demonstrated that high need for cognition and low cognitive closure predicted awe for reflective and complex music, that felt happiness predicted awe for all kinds of music, and that perceived happiness and sadness predicted awe only for reflective and complex music. Study 2 replicated the finding that perceived sadness can evoke awe in reflective and complex music and further demonstrated that experienced musical awe correlates with individual differences in the tendency to experience awe more generally. These results are of interest to advertisers interested in evoking awe with music and marketers interested in segmenting to target the appropriate populations for this purpose.