Unemployment experiences in context: A phenomenological study in two townships in South Africa

This study aimed to explore the unemployment experience of residents of a historically disadvantaged South African neighbourhood. Informants were twelve black community members (females?=?75%; age ranges: 20 to 29?=?58.3%, and 30 to 39?=?33.3%). Individual interviews were conducted with the participants. Thematic analysis of the data revealed that participants valued employment despite their present unemployment. They indicated that being unemployed is a painful experience, but that they also held an optimistic view of a future in which they would have employment. The findings further suggest that diminished social support by the community and public social welfare agencies aggravate negative experiences of unemployment. Employment support programmes are needed to connect the unemployed to job networks; as well as to empower those who are unemployed to fulfil their positive work participation expectations.     

Perseverative thoughts and subjective health complaints in adolescence: Mediating effects of perceived stress and negative affects

Stable tendency to perseverative thoughts such as trait rumination and worry can influence somatic health. The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between perseverative thoughts and somatic complaints, and the possible mediating effects of perceived stress, negative and positive affectivity in adolescence. Having an acute or a chronic condition was also assessed to be controlled for and to reveal their effects on symptom reporting. Three hundred and six adolescents from 7th to 12th grade with mean age of 16.33 (SD = 1.29) participated in the study. Mediation analysis suggested that impact of trait-like perseverative thoughts on complaints were mediated by perceived stress and negative affectivity. Having an acute condition had also an effect on symptom reporting through increased negative affectivity. Our results highlight that ruminations or worry as stable intrapersonal characteristics are relevant processes in health and can be potential targets in prevention programmes in adolescence.     

Implicit memory for negative and positive social information in individuals with and without social anxiety

Studies of memory bias for threat-relevant information in individuals with social anxiety have produced mixed results. These discrepancies may be because investigators have studied different memory processes or have used different memory tasks. We employed a video clarity judgement task to investigate implicit (capacity-free, automatic, unconscious) memory and a recognition task to investigate explicit (effortful, strategic, conscious) memory for threat in socially anxious individuals and nonanxious controls. Implicit memory for "old" (i.e., seen before) videos was defined as rating "old" videos as more clear than "new" (i.e., never seen before) videos. We created brief video clips that involved an actor or actress approaching the camera and commenting on some aspect of the viewer's actions, physical appearance, or belongings. Twenty-four videos were positive (e.g., "I really like your shoes"), and 24 were negative (e.g., "That is a horrible haircut"). Results revealed that the video clarity test was an effective measure of implicit memory. Furthermore, socially anxious individuals showed a larger implicit memory index for negative videos than did nonanxious and dysphoric controls. No group differences emerged for implicit memory for positive videos. Similarly, groups did not differ in recognition of, or false alarms for, positive and negative videos. These results demonstrate the role of implicit memory in social anxiety implying that information about threat may be automatically primed in these individuals.     

Simultaneous perception of both interpretations of ambiguous figures

When viewing ambiguous figures like the classic duck/rabbit, people alternately perceive one interpretation and then the other, but not both interpretations at once. When two identical ambiguous figures appear together, the majority of observers perceive them as identical, and they typically alternate in unison. Just as most observers cannot see a single figure as both a duck and a rabbit, most cannot see one figure in a pair as a duck and the other as a rabbit even though the two figures and their features are spatially distinct. Is this inability to see both interpretations an inherent limitation of the visual system or is it just due to differences in top-down processing? We show that a simple prompt immediately allows people to see both interpretations, to their own surprise.     

Age Differences and Similarities in Identity Distress Following the Katrina Disaster: Theoretical and Applied Implications of Erikson��s Theory

This study examined predictions from Erikson??s lifespan developmental theory in the context of severe disaster exposure. Relationships among traumatic stress exposure, age, identity distress, and posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms were explored among 401 individuals (age 18?C86, mean = 32.83, SD = 14.1 years) exposed to Hurricane Katrina. Traumatic exposure experiences were related to identity distress ratings, but results suggested that the association was a function of PTS symptoms. Identity distress was negatively correlated with age, but the association between identity distress and age was moderated by the level of PTS symptoms. Identity distress was associated with PTS symptoms even while controlling for general psychological symptoms. The utility of the identity distress construct and theoretical implications for identity research in the wake of disaster are discussed.     

Reelin supplementation enhances cognitive ability, synaptic plasticity, and dendritic spine density

Apolipoprotein receptors belong to an evolutionarily conserved surface receptor family that has intimate roles in the modulation of synaptic plasticity and is necessary for proper hippocampal-dependent memory formation. The known lipoprotein receptor ligand Reelin is important for normal synaptic plasticity, dendritic morphology, and cognitive function; however, the in vivo effect of enhanced Reelin signaling on cognitive function and synaptic plasticity in wild-type mice is unknown. The present studies test the hypothesis that in vivo enhancement of Reelin signaling can alter synaptic plasticity and ultimately influence processes of learning and memory. Purified recombinant Reelin was injected bilaterally into the ventricles of wild-type mice. We demonstrate that a single in vivo injection of Reelin increased activation of adaptor protein Disabled-1 and cAMP-response element binding protein after 15 min. These changes correlated with increased dendritic spine density, increased hippocampal CA1 long-term potentiation (LTP), and enhanced performance in associative and spatial learning and memory. The present study suggests that an acute elevation of in vivo Reelin can have long-term effects on synaptic function and cognitive ability in wild-type mice.     

Systematic Review of the Effects of Religion-Accommodative Psychotherapy for Depression and Anxiety

Integrating religion into psychotherapy may improve treatment for depression and anxiety. This review systematically examines clinical trials of religion-accommodative psychotherapy for depression or anxiety. Results indicate that integrating religion into psychotherapy does not lead to significantly more improvements in depression or anxiety than equivalent therapy without religious components. However, when compared with less stringent control groups, such as supportive psychotherapy, religion-accommodative therapy may be more effective, at least immediately post-treatment. Results from the 11 studies reviewed indicate that psychotherapy integrating religion is at least as effective for treating depression and anxiety as other forms of psychotherapy. Conclusions were limited by lack of power, comparable control groups, focus on anxiety, and treatment manuals.     

Evidence for motor planning in monkeys: rhesus macaques select efficient grips when transporting spoons

McCarty and colleagues (1999) developed the elevated spoon task to measure motor planning in human infants. In this task, a spoon containing food was placed on an elevated apparatus that supported both ends of the spoon. The handle was oriented to the left or right on different trials. We presented naïve adult rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) with the elevated spoon problem, and observed how monkeys learned the affordances of spoons over sessions. Strikingly, monkeys developed two different strategies for efficient spoon transport in just 12 to 36 trials. In subsequent testing with a novel double bowl spoon approximately 1 year later, monkeys demonstrated that they were attending to the baited spoon bowl and continued to select efficient grips for transporting the spoon. Monkey data were contrasted with previous studies in human infants using a perception‐action perspective in an effort to understand the fundamentals of tool use and motor planning that may be common in the development of these abilities across species and their origins in human behavior.     

Assessment of shame and guilt in a psychiatric sample: a comparison of two measures

The relationship between measures of shame, guilt, and psychopathology was examined in a heterogeneous inpatient sample (n=82) using the Test of Self-Conscious Affect (TOSCA) and the Personal Feelings Questionnaire-2 (PFQ-2). It was predicted that both shame scales would correlate positively with measures of psychopathology. This hypothesis was supported in bivariate analyses, however, when partialed for each respective guilt scale, only the TOSCA maintained significant associations with measures of psychopathology. It was predicted that only the PFQ-2 guilt scale would correlate positively with measures of psychopathology, and this hypothesis was supported in both bivariate analyses and partial correlations, controlling for shame scores. These findings support previous work, suggesting that the TOSCA and PFQ-2 guilt scales assess different constructs of guilt. Methodological issues of shame and guilt assessment with psychiatric patients also are discussed.