Interrelationships between Reading Disability and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Evidence from a number of investigations suggests a considerable overlap between reading disability (RD) and attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). We investigate the relationship between RD and ADHD in a cohort of 186 children 7.5–9.5 years of age, recruited explicitly to address classification and definitional issues in these disorders. Using multivariate methods, we examine the hypothesis that RD and ADHD represent separate diagnostic entities that frequently co-occur in the same individual. The results suggest that RD is characterized by deficits within the language system, in particular a subcomponent within that system, phonological processing; in contrast, such linguistic deficits are not characteristic of ADHD unless ADHD is associated with RD. When children with both RD and ADHD are examined, both the linguistic deficits associated with RD and the behavioral characteristics associated with ADHD are apparent, but these deficits are not synergistic. We conclude that RD and ADHD represent separate disorders that frequently co-occur.     

Individual and institutional defences against primitive anxieties: Counselling in prison

Abstract

This paper describes a counsellor's attempts to understand the unconscious dynamics affecting the process of counselling women in prison. The social system of the prison serves to defend both prisoners and officers against powerful anxieties about the potential for sadistic attack originating from primitive states of mind, that is persecution, helplessness and destructiveness. The implications of the rigid means of defence are considered, and die role of unconscious guilt motivating the need for external punishment is briefly explored. Emphasis is placed on the role of splitting and projection in the management of potentially overwhelming feelings of guilt, and fear of punishment. The author develops the premise that there is in effect an institutional requirement that prisoners remain in the paranoid-schizoid position because of the feared consequences were they to experience depressive anxieties.     

Tailoring Cognitive Behavioral Treatment for Binge Eating in Adolescent Girls

Whereas effective treatments exist for adults with recurrent binge eating, developmental factors specific to adolescents point to the need for a modified treatment approach for youth. We adapted an existing cognitive behavioral therapy treatment manual for adults with bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder (Fairburn, 2008) for use with adolescents. This paper presents a number of clinical case vignettes, drawn directly from interactions with teen participants, that illustrate some of the developmental factors common to adolescents—as well as the importance of our adaptations to address for these factors.     

Anticipating the Societal Challenges of Nanotechnologies

“In this article we sketch out the landscape for this Special Issue on anticipating and embedding the societal challenge of nanotechnologies. Tools that actors may choose to employ for these processes are articulated, and further explored through the introduction of the seven articles which comprise this Issue. Taken together, these articles create a cogent narrative on the societal challenges posed by nanotechnologies. They are drawn together by three distinct themes, each of which is briefly considered within this context of this Introductory article”.     

Sweetening the Till: The Use of Candy to Increase Restaurant Tipping1

A common practice among servers in restaurants is to give their dining parties an unexpected gift in the form of candy when delivering the check. Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the impact of this gesture on the tip percentages received by servers. Experiment 1 found that customers who received a small piece of chocolate along with the check tipped more than did customers who received no candy. Experiment 2 found that tips varied with the amount of the candy given to the customers as well as with the manner in which it was offered. It is argued that reciprocity is a stronger explanation for these findings than either impression management or the good mood effect.     

Relationships between ability and personality:does intelligence contribute positively to personal and social adjustment?

Intelligence/personality associations were studied in four large datasets. Correlations between general ability (g) and major personality traits were generally consistent with previous findings. For other traits, an interpretation of the correlation patterning is that traits classifiable as adaptive in terms of personal and social adjustment have positive correlations with g, whilst maladaptive traits have negative correlations. Regression modelling confirmed these associations and structural equation modelling of selected traits showed that Neuroticism acts as a mediator of g on the outcome. Non-linear relationships between intelligence and personality were not found. In two of the datasets the correlation between Neuroticism and Psychoticism decreased with ability level, and the correlation between fluid and crystallised ability increased with level of Neuroticism.     

Family, Community, and Motherhood: Caring for Fatherless Children in the Jewish Community of Thirteenth-Century Perpignan

This article investigates the guardianship of fatherless children (orphans) in one of the most important Jewish communities of the thirteenth-century realms of Aragon, the aljama of the town of Perpignan. After reviewing some ideals of Solomon ben Abraham ibn Adret of Barcelona, as expressed in his responsa, the article focuses on documents of practice. This documentary basis includes royal charters, Latin wills of Jewish testators, and 148 unedited transactions generated by eighteen panels of guardians between 1266 and 1286, described in an analytical table at the end of the article. The practical evidence reveals that guardians usually served as a group, panels comprised close relatives of the wards and men who were distinguished in their community through official service. Case studies expose the dynamics within these panels and establish that the orphans' widowed mother usually acted as the group's leader. A comparison with her Christian counterpart places the rights and responsibilities of the Jewish widowed mother guardian into relief. Although not autonomous, Jewish widowed guardians were highly effective caretakers of their fatherless children. The idealized view of the Jewish widow held by her medieval contemporaries as helpless and in need of special care from the men of her community enabled already capable widows to benefit from the financial aid of community leaders who otherwise might not have been so keen to foster these women's legal and financial agency.