Quantitative Meta-Analyses: Lateralization of Memory Functions Before and After Surgery in Children with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy

Neuropsychology Review - Memory deficits in children with epilepsy have been reported in some but not all studies assessing the effects of side of seizures and resection from the temporal lobe on...     

Alberto G. Urquidez, (Re-)Defining Racism: A Philosophical Analysis,Palgrave Macmillan, 2020, Viii +421 Pp. the Concept of Racism and the Adjective Racist

Ethical Theory and Moral Practice -     

Executive abilities in children with congenital visual impairment in mid-childhood

The role of vision and vision deprivation in the development of executive function (EF) abilities in childhood is little understood; aspects of EF such as initiative, attention orienting, inhibition, planning and performance monitoring are often measured through visual tasks. Studying the development and integrity of EF abilities in children with congenital visual impairment (VI) may provide important insights into the development of EF and also its possible relationship with vision and non-visual senses. The current study investigates non-visual EF abilities in 18 school-age children of average verbal intelligence with VI of differing levels of severity arising from congenital disorders affecting the eye, retina, or anterior optic nerve. Standard auditory neuropsychological assessments of sustained and divided attention, phonemic, semantic and switching verbal fluency, verbal working memory, and ratings of everyday executive abilities by parents were undertaken. Executive skills were compared to age-matched typically-sighted (TS) typically-developing children and across levels of vision (mild to moderate VI [MVI] or severe to profound VI [SPVI]). The results do not indicate significant differences or deficits on direct assessments of verbal and auditory EF between the groups. However, parent ratings suggest difficulties with everyday executive abilities, with the greatest difficulties in those with SPVI. The findings are discussed as possibly reflecting increased demands of behavioral executive skills for children with VI in everyday situations despite auditory and verbal EF abilities in the typical range for their age. These findings have potential implications for clinical and educational practices.     

The positive eating scale: relationship with objective health parameters and validity in Germany,the USA and India

Objective: The prevailing focus regarding eating behaviour is on restriction, concern, worry and pathology. In contrast, the purpose of the present studies was to focus on a positive relationship with eating in non-clinical samples from Germany, the USA and India.

Design: In Study 1, the Positive Eating Scale (PES) was tested and validated in a large longitudinal sample (T1: N = 772; T2: N = 510). In Study 2, the PES was tested in online samples from the USA, India and Germany (total N = 749).

Main Outcome Measures: Health risk status was measured in Study 1 with objective health parameters (fasting serum glucose, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, blood pressure, waist circumference, BMI).

Results: Study 1 revealed acceptable psychometric properties of the PES, internal consistency (α = .87), as well as test–retest reliability after six months (r = .67). Importantly, a positive relationship with eating was associated with decreased health risk factors six months later. In Study 2, the structure of the PES was confirmed for German, Indian and US-American adults, suggesting validity across remarkably different eating environments.

Conclusion: A positive relationship with eating might be a fruitful starting point for prevention and intervention programmes promoting physical and psychological health.     

Shades of support: An empirical assessment of D&I policy support in organizations

In this research, we aim to develop a better understanding of the different ways in which employees can advance or resist the diversity and inclusion (D&I) policies implemented by their organization. To this end, we complement prior work by distinguishing between employees' attitudinal and behavioral opposition versus support for D&I policies. We combine these to distinguish different combinations of attitudinal and behavioral responses that characterize specific groups of employees, which we label opponents, bystanders, reluctants, and champions. In a large-scale survey study conducted among employees from seven organizations located in the Netherlands (n = 2913), we find empirical support for the validity of this taxonomy and its value in understanding the likelihood that employees advance or resist D&I policies. Furthermore, we find more convergence between attitudinal and behavioral support when employees perceive a more positive climate for inclusion. Together, these results advance existing scholarly work by providing both a theoretical account of and empirical evidence for the different ways in which D&I policies may find support or resistance from employees. In addition, our work offer practitioners a practical tool to examine the likelihood that D&I policies meet support or opposition from their employees and therefore enables them to design and implement more effective D&I interventions.     

The attraction of social power: The influence of construing power as opportunity versus responsibility

Social power can be construed as opportunity (focusing on the possibility of one's own goal achievement resulting from the control over others' outcomes) or as responsibility (focusing on the implications of one's own actions resulting from the control over others' outcomes). Four experiments tested the impact of different construals of social power on the attraction of power. Due to the salience of the possibility for goal achievement, power construed as opportunity was expected to be more attractive than power construed as responsibility. This effect was predicted to be particularly pronounced among individuals with a strong promotion orientation, because of their focus on gains and achievements. Results supported these predictions and indicate that future research should take different construals of power into account.     

Social change as an important goal or likely outcome: how regulatory focus affects commitment to collective action

The results of three experiments showed that regulatory focus influences the way in which the importance and likelihood of social change affect individuals' commitment to collective action. In Studies 1 (N= 82) and 2 (N= 153), the strength of participants' chronic regulatory focus was measured. In Study 3 (N= 52), promotion or prevention focus was experimentally induced. The results showed that for individuals under promotion focus, commitment to collective action depended on the perceived likelihood that through this action important social change would be achieved. Individuals under prevention focus were willing to commit to collective action when they attached high importance to its goal, regardless of the extent to which they believed that attainment of this goal was likely. Implications of these results for work on regulatory focus and collective action are discussed.     

Anchoring the Panic Disorder Severity Scale

The Panic Disorder Severity Scale (PDSS) is a clinician-administered measure of panic disorder symptom severity widely used in clinical research. This investigation sought to provide clinically meaningful anchor points for the PDSS both in terms of clinical severity as measured by the Clinical Global Impression-Severity Scale (CGI-S) and to extend its clinical meaningfulness by examining its association with quality of life. A total of 63 individuals with a primary diagnosis of panic disorder were assessed on completion of a 6- or 8-week psychotherapy or pharmacotherapy trial for the treatment of panic disorder. As expected, the PDSS was correlated with both the CGI-S and quality of life. These results provide further support for the validity and clinical utility of the PDSS and provide simple anchors to help guide the potential use of the PDSS scale to measure treatment progress in clinical practice.     

Measuring coping flexibility

Abstract

The present study examined coping flexibility and correlates of this style of approaching stressful situations. Two methods for assessing coping flexibility, the Flex (Schwartz and Daltroy, 1991) and a modification of the Ways of Coping Checklist (Folkman and Lazarus. 1980) were administered to 28 men and 32 women, who were also asked questions about their age, gender, style of impression management (self-monitoring and social desirability), and basic personality variables from the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (Tellegen. 1982). Subjects responded to four common scenarios described by a 2 (social/nonsocial) × 2 (minor/major) matrix. Gender differences were not found for the Flex, but men exhibited more flexibility than did women when determined by the WOC range score. Older subjects exhibited smaller ranges on both the Flex and the WOC, suggesting that they were less flexible in coping than were younger subjects. Correlations with the Self-Monitoring scale approached significance for the Flex and were significant for the WOC. Greater flexibility was associated with greater well-being and achievement and negatively correlated with stress reactions and alienation.     

Intention to Participate in Predictive Genetic Testing for Hereditary Cancer: The Role of Attitude toward Uncertainty

This study aimed to identify factors predictive of intentions to participate in genetic testing for hereditary cancer. Measures of the psychosocial influences on intention were based on the theories of reasoned action (TRA) and planned behaviour (TPB) and a new measure of Attitude toward Uncertainty. The participants (the breast cancer sample, n = 124; the colon cancer sample, n = 168) were recruited via a general practitioner's patient database and asked to complete postal questionnaires. The overall response rate was 57.4% (54.7% in the colon cancer sample, 61.4% in the breast cancer sample). In the colon cancer sample, 72% of respondents stated that they would choose to participate in genetic testing for colon cancer susceptibility. In the breast cancer sample, 77% of respondents stated that they would choose to participate in genetic testing for breast cancer susceptibility. The TRA components (attitudes and subjective norms) and Attitude toward Uncertainty emerged as the strongest predictors of intention. The Attitude toward Uncertainty appears to moderate intention in that participants with more negative attitudes toward uncertainty are more likely to undergo the test than those seeking more certainty.