The stability of dimensions of behavior in ADHD and normal children over an 8-year followup

The present study reports on standardized behavioral ratings received by a large sample of hyperactive children meeting research diagnostic criteria (n=108) and a community control sample of normal children (n=61) who were followed prospectively over 8 years into adolescence. On some parentreport measures both groups declined in the severity of their behavior problems across time, while on other measures only the hyperactive group declined, but the hyperactives always remained more deviant than the controls at followup. The hyperactives and controls also differed on most teacher and selfreport ratings at followup. The greatest degree of agreement between raters at adolescence was between parent and youth ratings. These results are consistent with previous research demonstrating more deviant scores for hyperactive children than controls on various rating scales at adolescent followup. They also are consistent with research showing significant longitudinal continuity of both internalizing and externalizing behavioral pathology.This research was supported by NIMH gram 42181. We are grateful to Craig S. Edelbrock, Ph.D., for his assistance with the data entry program, and to Ann Edwards and Gerry Gillespie for their assistance in locating subjects.     

Animal welfare and individual characteristics: a conversation against speciesism

It seems impossible for a human being not to have some point of view concerning nonhuman animal (hereafter animal) welfare. Many people make decisions about how humans are permitted to treat animals using speciesist criteria, basing their decisions on an individual's species membership rather than on that animal's individual characteristics. Although speciesism provides a convenient way for making difficult decisions about who should be used in different types of research, we argue that such decisions should rely on an analysis of individual characteristics and should not be based merely on species membership. We do not argue that the concept of species is never useful or important. To make our points, we present a conversation among a skeptic, an agnostic, and a proponent of the view that our moral obligations to an animal must be based on an analysis of that individual's characteristics. In the course of the discussion, concepts such as personhood, consciousness, cognitive ability, harm, and pain are presented, because one's understanding of these concepts informs his or her ethical decisions about the use of animals by humans.     

Three near-death experiences with premonitions of what could have been

We analyze three near-death experiences involving a unique type of prophetic vision that has not previously been reported in the literature. These visions involve a brief glimpse of what circumstances would have been like for the near-death experiencers' family in the aftermath of the experiencers' deaths, had they actually died.     

A COMPARISON OF THREE STRATEGIES FOR TEACHING OBJECT NAMES

Researchers in applied behavior analysis have been charged to provide large-scale demonstrations of the outcomes of evaluations. In this research, three experiments were conducted to examine the relative efficacy of three methods of presenting stimuli in object naming tasks. Stimuli were introduced successively, simultaneously, or using a combination of the two procedures. College adults, mentally retarded children and adolescents, and preschool children were taught to produce the names of five Hebrew letters, English words, or American coins, respectively. Presentation method was a between-subjects treatment in a factorial design. Results from the series of systematic replications were consistent in showing better posttest performance for subjects in the Simultaneous and Combined conditions. Further, follow-up data in Experiment III showed that retention was also superior for subjects trained by the Simultaneous or Combined methods. Although the acquisition criterion was met in fewer trials by subjects in the Successive condition, only several minutes more training time was required by the Simultaneous and Combined conditions. From a cost-effectiveness point of view, either of the latter two techniques should be favored over the Successive procedure for teaching verbal naming skills.     

Intention and Analogy in Children's Naming of Pictorial Representations

What underlies children's naming of representations, such as when they call a statue of a clothespin "a clothespin"? One possibility is that they focus exclusively on shape, extending the name "clothespin" only to entities that are shaped like typical clothespins. An alternative possibility is that they extend a word that refers to an object to any representation of that object, and that shape is relevant because it is a reliable indicator of representational intent. We explored these possibilities by asking 3- and 4-year-olds to describe pictures that represented objects through intention and analogy. The results suggest that it is children's appreciation of representation that underlies their naming; sameness of shape is neither necessary nor sufficient. We conclude by considering whether this account might apply more generally to artifacts other than pictorial representations.     

Vocational Needs and Satisfaction of Supported Employees: The Applicability of the Theory of Work Adjustment

Modified instruments based on the theory of work adjustment were used (a) to identify the vocational needs and satisfaction of 45 supported employees with mental retardation and 45 nondisabled co-workers and (b) to test the theory's proposition that need–reinforcer correspondence predicts satisfaction. There were more similarities than differences between the two groups in the importance and satisfaction of the 17 needs that were examined; 13 of 17 needs and 9 of 17 facets of job satisfaction did not show significant differences. Limited support for the correspondence–satisfaction relation was found for supported employees, but not for their co-workers. We concluded that the constructs and measures of the theory of work adjustment can be relevant tools in vocational counseling with workers with mental retardation in supported employment programs.     

Dispositional Optimism as a Predictor of Health Changes among Cardiac Patients

We examined in a longitudinal study whether dispositional optimism (as measured by the Life Orientation Test) predicts success in making health changes associated with lower risk of coronary heart disease. Subjects were 22 patients participating in an 18 week cardiac rehabilitation program. As part of the program all patients were assigned goals (e.g., reduce weight by 20 lbs) designed to decrease the risk of a cardiac event. Optimism measured at the outset of the program was associated with greater success in achieving lower levels of saturated fat, body fat, and global coronary risk, and with greater success in increasing aerobic capacity by the end of the program. Moreover, these effects were significant after controlling for the magnitude of the goal, the number of health changes, and negative affect.     

Estimating the frequency of nonevents: The role of recollection failure in false recognition

Participants studied lists of multiply presented converging associates (e.g.,bed, dream, pillow, etc.) and were timed as they estimated how often they saw list items, related foils (e.g.,blanket), and non-presented critical items (SLEEP). Average number of repetitions (few [3] vs. many [6]) and repetition variability (fixed vs. variable) were manipulated between subjects. Participants responded more slowly to critical items (3.18 sec) than to list items (2.45 sec) or foils (2.22 sec). In addition, critical-item judgments of frequency (JOFs) were about as large as list-item JOFs, and false recognition (i.e., nonzero JOFs) of critical items was most likely in the few-fixed condition (96%) and least likely in the many-fixed condition (74%). These findings suggest that people can userecollection failure—the absence of an anticipated recollective experience, coupled with strong familiarity—to distinguish critical items from list items and that recollection failure is weighted most heavily when people expect familiar probes to access episodic information.     

Islamic Trauma Healing: Integrating Faith and Empirically Supported Principles in a Community-Based Program

Access to adequate, much less state-of-the-art, mental health care is a global problem. Natural disasters, civil war, and terrorist conflict have forcibly displaced millions of Muslims and have resulted in a remarkable level of individual and communitywide trauma exposure. As a result, many are at risk for posttraumatic stress and other trauma-related disorders. Many religiously oriented Muslims traditionally rely on Islamic principles and teachings, as well as their community, to cope with and address trauma-related distress. Islamic Trauma Healing is a six-session, lay-led group intervention developed within a Somali Muslim community that integrates evidence-based trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy principles with cultural and religious practices aimed to enhance uptake and create an easily up-scalable intervention for a wide range of trauma. In sessions, narratives of prophets who have undergone trauma (e.g., Prophet Ayyub, faith during hard times) present Islamic principles and facilitate cognitive shifts. Group members spend individual time turning to Allah in dua (i.e., informal prayer), focused on exposure to trauma memories. Program themes arc across suffering to healing to growth following trauma. This paper describes the core theoretical principles and methods in the Islamic Trauma Healing program. We also describe leader perspectives and the program’s train-the-trainer model, in which lay leaders are trained to further disseminate the program and allow Islamic Trauma Healing to be owned and sustained by the Muslim community.