Posttraumatic play in young children exposed to terrorism: An empirical study

The phenomenon of “posttraumatic play” (PTP) has received much clinical recognition and little empirical support. The objective of this study was to examine various aspects of PTP in young children exposed to terror events and their relation to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Individual play sessions, conducted with 29 young Israeli children directly exposed to terrorism (M age = 5.47, SD = 1.34) and 25 matched unexposed children (M age = 5.62, SD = 0.87), were coded using the Children's Play Therapy Instrument–Adaptation for Terror Research (CPTI‐ATR; S.E. Chazan & E. Cohen, 2003). Analyses using these ratings showed (a) significant differences between the two groups, (b) significant associations with the caregiver's reports on child's exposure, and (c) significant associations with the caregiver's reports on the child's PTSD symptoms. Play activity ratings of predominant negative affects, frequent acting‐out/morbid themes, lowered developmental level, and reduced awareness of the child of him‐ or herself as a player significantly predicted more PTSD symptoms. PTP which included more coping strategies classified as “overwhelmed reexperiencing” and less “reenactment with soothing” was associated with a higher level of PTSD. Play analysis with the CPTI‐ATR may be helpful in identifying PTSD in children and also guide the selection of therapeutic techniques.     

Mind the gap: Misdirection, inattentional blindness and the relationship between overt and covert attention

The present commentary addresses two issues arising from Memmert’s (2010) paper. First, can the ‘misdirection’ and ‘inattentional blindness’ paradigms provide important insights into the relationship between ‘overt’ and ‘covert’ attentional processes? Second, what are the most fruitful directions for research that seeks to combine these attentional paradigms in ecologically valid settings? We argue that although Memmert’s (2010) paper postulates several important differences between the misdirection and inattentional blindness paradigms, it may not emphasise sufficiently strongly the significant insights into attention that have been yielded by the former approach. To illustrate, we discuss the utility of the misdirection paradigm in providing an ecologically valid method to investigate the relationship between overt and covert attentional processes. Such naturalistic methods are required to ensure optimal integration of the misdirection and inattentional blindness paradigms within a general theory of attention.     

Patient personality and mortality: a 4-year prospective examination of chronic renal insufficiency.

The present study examined the role of personality as a predictor of mortality among patients with chronic renal insufficiency. A prospective evaluation of the influence of personality on patient survival was conducted over an average 49-month period. Cox regression was used to evaluate the effects of 5 dimensions of personality in a sample of 174 patients (100 male and 74 female). At follow-up, 49 patients had died. Significant demographic and clinical predictors of survival included age, diabetic status, and hemoglobin level. After these predictors were controlled for, 2 personality traits, conscientiousness and neuroticism, predicted patient mortality. Patients with high neuroticism scores had a 37.5% higher estimated mortality rate. Patients with low conscientiousness scores had a 36.4% increased mortality rate.     

Mothers' Ideal Positive Affect Predicts their Socialization of Children's Positive Affect

Parents generally want their children to be happy, but little is known about particular types of positive affect (PA) that parents want their children to experience. Tsai's (2007) affect valuation theory offers a useful framework to understand how parents' emotional goals may shape the socialization of particular types of PA (e.g., excitement vs. relaxation). Participants were 96 mothers and their 7- to 12-year-old children. Results indicated that mothers endorsed similar levels of ideal PA (IPA) for low-, moderate-, and high-arousal PA for both themselves and for their child, suggesting that mothers desire the same type of PA for their children as they want for themselves. In support of the study's main hypothesis, mothers' IPA for their children predicted specific socialization responses that would encourage that type of PA (e.g., mothers' high-arousal IPA predicted greater encouragement of their child to celebrate, whereas mothers' low-arousal IPA predicted encouragement of affection). The findings extend affect valuation theory and emotion socialization research by indicating that parents' emotional goals (i.e., IPA) for their children may contribute to their socialization of children's PA.     

Accuracy of Reported Community Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder

To compare community diagnoses of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) reported by parents to consensus diagnoses made using standardized tools plus clinical observation. 87 participants (85% male, average age 7.4 years), with reported community diagnosis of ASD were evaluated using the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule) (ADOS-2), Differential Ability Scale (DAS-II), and Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS-II). Detailed developmental and medical history was obtained from all participants. Diagnosis was based on clinical consensus of at least two expert clinicians, using test results, clinical observations, and parent report. 23% of participants with a reported community diagnosis of ASD were classified as non-spectrum based on our consensus diagnosis. ASD and non-spectrum participants did not differ on age at evaluation and age of first community diagnosis. Non-verbal IQ scores and Adaptive Behavior Composite scores were significantly higher in the non-spectrum group compared to the ASD group (104.5?±?21.7 vs. 80.1?±?21.6, p?<?.01; 71.1?±?15 versus 79.5?±?17.6, p?<?.05, respectively). Participants enrolled with community diagnosis of PDD-NOS were significantly more likely to be classified as non-spectrum on the study consensus diagnosis than Participants with Autism or Asperger (36% versus 9.5%, Odds Ratio?=?5.4, p?<?.05). This study shows suboptimal agreement between community diagnoses of ASD and consensus diagnosis using standardized instruments. These findings are based on limited data, and should be further studied, taking into consideration the influence of DSM 5 diagnostic criteria on ASD prevalence.     

Absolutely relative or relatively absolute: violations of value invariance in human decision making

Making decisions based on relative rather than absolute information processing is tied to choice optimality via the accumulation of evidence differences and to canonical neural processing via accumulation of evidence ratios. These theoretical frameworks predict invariance of decision latencies to absolute intensities that maintain differences and ratios, respectively. While information about the absolute values of the choice alternatives is not necessary for choosing the best alternative, it may nevertheless hold valuable information about the context of the decision. To test the sensitivity of human decision making to absolute values, we manipulated the intensities of brightness stimuli pairs while preserving either their differences or their ratios. Although asked to choose the brighter alternative relative to the other, participants responded faster to higher absolute values. Thus, our results provide empirical evidence for human sensitivity to task irrelevant absolute values indicating a hard-wired mechanism that precedes executive control. Computational investigations of several modelling architectures reveal two alternative accounts for this phenomenon, which combine absolute and relative processing. One account involves accumulation of differences with activation dependent processing noise and the other emerges from accumulation of absolute values subject to the temporal dynamics of lateral inhibition. The potential adaptive role of such choice mechanisms is discussed.     

基于管理者安全管理行动的高风险企业安全氛围改善

随着系统可靠性的提高,高风险企业超过三分之二的事故原因涉及人的因素。员工不安全行为是系统失效的触发因素,潜藏的社会情境因素(如安全氛围)是“常驻的病原体”,因此探索并改善影响安全行为的社会情境因素是有效提升组织安全的关键。在众多的情境因素中,安全氛围对安全绩效的积极影响已得到充分的文献支持,但对如何改善安全氛围的探索却有限。本项目围绕管理者对安全的承诺这一安全氛围的核心维度,基于信号理论提出直接安全管理行动是体现管理者安全承诺的重要途径,并在探索主管和经理关键安全管理行动对团队和组织安全氛围影响的基础上开展相应的干预研究。具体而言,在团队层面,探索改善主管关键安全管理行动对团队安全氛围提升的有效性;在组织和团队两个层面,探索改善经理的关键安全管理行动对同时提升组织和团队安全氛围的有效性。研究结果预期可以在安全管理实践中推广应用。