Religious support and psychosocial well-being among a religious Jewish population

The three subscales of the Religious Support Scale assess perceived support from a person’s religious community, religious leaders, and God. This three-factor structure was replicated in the current study with a sample of 277 religious Jewish persons residing in Israel. Hierarchical canonical analysis showed that, even after controlling for general social support, Religious Leader and God Support were related to lower emotional distress, Religious Leader and Religious Community Support contributed to a higher level of life satisfaction, and Religious Community and God Support contributed to the prediction of perceived health. Findings are discussed in terms of religious support’s generalizability as a psychosocial resource for persons of various faiths.     

A Review of “Mind to Mind: Infant Research,Neuroscience, and Psychoanalysis”

Abstract

This article examines current research pertaining to the relationship between a mother and her children, and how this relationship may affect sibling interactions. Issues such as temperament, gender, and the age gap between children are also explored to ascertain their impact on the sibling relationship.

The displacement of the first-born child and the ensuing sense of loss and anger he may experience as a result of this is explored. The mother's second pregnancy is also discussed in regard to the impact of unresolved issues relating to her own sibling relations. The mother's interactions with each child, her role as a model for identification, and marital relations are discussed in light of their impact on sibling relations.

The evolution of a positive attachment between siblings is explored. Rivalrous behavior between siblings is also discussed, particularly in association to the mother's treatment of her own children and the manner in which the mother deals with her own aggression.     

Sexual abuse as a theme in group-analytic therapy

The group-analytic approach, which emphasises the individual in a network of group relationships, is described with reference to the subject of sexual abuse in childhood. Three different National Health Service psychotherapy groups run by the author provide contrasting examples of how the theme, originating in an individual participant, was manifested in the dynamics of the group-as-a-whole. The therapeutic significance to the individual and the group is explored.     

Evaluating the performance of departments of psychotherapy

Conceptual and practical issues which surround attempts at assessing the efficiency of psychotherapy departments are surveyed and the advantages and disadvantages associated with performance indicators reviewed. The issues of assessing efficiency in general and the selection of appropriate indicators at both national and local levels are discussed. It is concluded that it is possible to find indicators which reflect the value of a psychotherapeutic service to the community within which it is based, and that the identification of a generally agreed set of such parameters is a matter of priority.     

Tracking Children’s Print-Processing Skill Across Grades 1–3: Implications for Reading Assessment and Instruction

Grounded in the simple view of reading, this study tracked the development of print-processing skill in high-, average-, and low-achieving readers at six time points across grades 1–3. Results showed large between-group differences in sight vocabulary, oral reading accuracy, and oral reading rate that remained stable from beginning of first grade to end of third grade. While the average group consistently met pre-set instructional-level criteria for oral reading accuracy and rate, the low group did not. Implications for assessment and instruction are provided.     

Can semantic relatedness explain the enhancement of memory for emotional words?

Memory for emotional items is often better than memory for neutral items. In three experiments, we examined whether this typical finding is due to the higher semantic relatedness inherent to emotional items, a confound in previous studies. We also controlled for other possible confounding variables, such as imagery. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants encoded lists of emotional and categorized neutral words equivalent in semantic relatedness, as well as lists of random neutral words with lower semantic relatedness. In Experiment 3, the lists were mixed, containing words from all the conditions. Surprise free recall was tested after a 40- to 55-min retention interval. Free recall of emotional words was better than that of random neutral words, replicating the classic effect. Importantly, categorized words were recalled better than random neutral words, and not worse than emotional words. These results emphasize the important role of semantic relatedness in the classic effect and suggest that organizational processes operate alongside arousal-related ones to enhance memory for emotional material.     

The relationship between perisylvian morphology and verbal short-term memory functioning in children with neurodevelopmental disorders

Although children with neurodevelopmental disorders frequently present with reduced short-term memory functioning, the relationship between perisylvian morphology and verbal short-term memory functioning has received limited attention. Thus, examining this relationship in children with neurodevelopmental disorders was the focus of this exploratory study. Results suggested leftward asymmetry in the temporal bank of the planum temporale is related to better coding and storage of semantic material. In contrast, parietal bank morphology is related to coding and storage of phonological material, and presence of an extra gyrus in the parietal region is associated with reduced phonological working memory. Data also supported a relationship between pars triangularis morphology and verbal short-term memory functioning, but this is not material-specific.     

Opinion formation in evaluating sanity at the time of the offense: an examination of 5175 pre-trial evaluations

Sanity evaluations are high-stake undertakings that explicitly examine the defendant's culpability for a crime and implicitly explore clinical information that might inform a plea agreement. Despite the gravity of such evaluations, relatively little research has investigated the process by which evaluators form their psycholegal opinions. In the current study, we explore this process by examining 5175 sanity evaluations conducted by a cohort of forensic evaluators in Virginia over a ten-year period. Our analyses focus on (i) the clinical, criminal, and demographic attributes of the defendant correlated with opinions indicative of insanity; (ii) the clinical content of the evaluations and the legal criteria referenced as the basis for the psycholegal opinion; (iii) the process and outcome differences in the sanity evaluations conducted by psychologists versus psychiatrists; and (iv) the consistency in these opinions over a ten year period. Analyses predicting an opinion of insanity indicate a positive relationship with psychotic, organic, and affective diagnoses and previous psychiatric treatment. Analyses also indicate a negative relationship with prior criminal history, drug charges, personality disorder diagnosis, and intoxication at the time of the offense. Modest racial disparities were observed with evaluators offering opinions that the defendant was insane more often for white than for minority defendants despite comparable psychiatric and criminal characteristics.