A randomized controlled trial of a coping group intervention for adults with HIV who are AIDS bereaved: longitudinal effects on grief.

The authors sought to study the longitudinal effects of a cognitive-behavioral group intervention for coping with AIDS bereavement among a diverse sample of adults who were HIV positive. Participants (N = 267) were randomly assigned to receive the 12-week intervention or individual therapy upon request. Measures were administered at baseline, postintervention, and 4-, 8-, and 12-month follow-ups. Longitudinal data were analyzed with linear mixed models to examine change in grief by condition across the study period and the effect of the intervention on grief through its interaction with psychiatric distress. The authors used the Grief Reaction Index to assess grief and the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised to assess global psychiatric distress. Participants in both conditions reported decreases in grief severity. However, among those with higher levels of psychiatric distress, participants in the group intervention had significantly lower grief severity scores compared with participants in the individual therapy condition. The long-term effectiveness of this AIDS-bereavement intervention for psychiatrically distressed people with HIV/AIDS supports the need for tailored interventions among those at risk for complicated grief responses.     

The effects of early foster care intervention on attention biases in previously institutionalized children in Romania

Children raised in institutions experience psychosocial deprivation that can negatively impact attention skills and emotion regulation, which subsequently may influence behavioral regulation and social relationships. The current study examined visual attention biases in 8‐year‐old children who were part of the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP). Relations among attention biases and concurrent social outcomes were also investigated. In early childhood, 136 children abandoned at birth or shortly thereafter into institutional care were randomized to receive a high‐quality foster care intervention or care‐as‐usual within the context of the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP). At 8 years of age, 50 care‐as‐usual, 55 foster care, and 52 community controls performed a behavioral dot‐probe task, and indices of attention biases to threat and positive stimuli were calculated. Concurrent data on social behavior were collected. Children placed into the foster care intervention had a significant attention bias toward positive stimuli, while children who received care‐as‐usual had a significant bias toward threat. Children in the foster care intervention had a significantly larger positive bias when compared to the care‐as‐usual group. A positive bias was related to more social engagement, more prosocial behavior, less externalizing disorders, and less emotionally withdrawn behavior. The magnitude of positive bias was predicted by age of placement into foster care among children with a history of institutionalization. An attention bias towards positive stimuli was associated with reduced risk for behavioral problems amongst children who experienced early psychosocial deprivation. Research assessing attention biases in children experiencing early environmental stress may refine our understanding of the mechanisms underlying risk for later psychiatric and social disorders and inform prevention efforts.     

Comparing the effects of echoic prompts and echoic prompts plus modeled prompts on intraverbal behavior

We compared strategies to teach vocal intraverbal responses to an adolescent diagnosed with autism and Down syndrome. One strategy involved echoic prompts only. The second strategy involved an echoic prompt paired with a modeled prompt in the form of sign language. Presenting the modeled prompt with the echoic prompt resulted in faster acquisition of correct responding. Results are discussed in terms of using functional stimulus classes to facilitate vocal intraverbal acquisition with learners who have a history of sign language training.     

CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN SINGLE VERSUS DAILY PREFERENCE ASSESSMENT OUTCOMES AND REINFORCER EFFICACY UNDER PROGRESSIVE‐RATIO SCHEDULES

Research has suggested that a daily multiple‐stimulus‐without‐replacement (MSWO) preference assessment may be more sensitive to changes in preference than other assessment formats, thereby resulting in greater correspondence with reinforcer efficacy over time ( DeLeon et al., 2001 ). However, most prior studies have measured reinforcer efficacy using rate of responding under single‐operant arrangements and dense schedules or under concurrent‐operants arrangements. An alternative measure of reinforcer efficacy involves the evaluation of responding under progressive‐ratio (PR) schedules. In the present study, 7 participants were given a single paired‐stimulus (PS) preference assessment followed by daily MSWO preference assessments. After each daily MSWO, participants responded for each stimulus on a PR schedule. The correspondence between break points and preferences, as assessed by the 2 assessment formats, was examined. Results demonstrated that both preference assessments did equally well at predicting reinforcer efficacy, although the PS more consistently identified the most effective reinforcer.     

Why property dualists must reject substance physicalism

I argue that property dualists cannot hold that minds are physical substances. The focus of my discussion is a property dualism that takes qualia to be sui generis features of reality.     

The Sayings of Jesus in Family Guy: A Pastoral Reading of “I Dream of Jesus”

This essay offers a pastoral reading of an episode of the cartoon Family Guy. The episode is titled ??I Dream of Jesus.?? In doing so, I explore six sayings of Jesus in this episode, and I identify nine theological themes that are raised by these sayings. On the basis of this pastoral reading of ??I Dream of Jesus,?? I argue that Family Guy can be used as a source for theological reflection, and I suggest, in closing, that the show might be a practical way for combating biblical and theological illiteracy among youth and young adults. This article also contains a table that can be useful for creating Sunday School or youth group lessons based on this episode. It is worth pointing out that this essay was written for the ??Group for New Directions in Pastoral Theology.?? The ??group?? was formed to celebrate the career of Donald Capps on the occasion of his retirement from Princeton Theological Seminary. The theme for the conference this year was the sayings of Jesus. While the choice of focusing on a contemporary cartoon for such an occasion may seem odd or quirky, the author does so to demonstrate the unique freedom that pastoral theologians enjoy with regard to what Robert Dykstra calls ??the acceptable latitude of inquiry?? in pastoral theology. Another way of putting this is to say that both the Apostle Peter and the animated Peter can serve as resources for theological reflection.     

Religious Networking Organizations and Social Justice: An Ethnographic Case Study

The current study provides an innovative examination of how and why religious networking organizations work for social justice in their local community. Similar to a coalition or community coordinating council, religious networking organizations are formal organizations comprised of individuals from multiple religious congregations who consistently meet to organize around a common goal. Based on over a year and a half of ethnographic participation in two separate religious networking organizations focused on community betterment and social justice, this study reports on the purpose and structure of these organizations, how each used networking to create social capital, and how religion was integrated into the organizations' social justice work. Findings contribute to the growing literature on social capital, empowering community settings, and the unique role of religious settings in promoting social justice. Implications for future research and practice also are discussed.     

Children’s Depressive Symptoms in Relation to EEG Frontal Asymmetry and Maternal Depression

This study examined the relations of school-age children’s depressive symptoms, frontal EEG asymmetry, and maternal history of childhood-onset depression (COD). Participants were 73 children, 43 of whom had mothers with COD. Children’s EEG was recorded at baseline and while watching happy and sad film clips. Depressive symptoms were measured using parent-report of Children’s Depression Inventory. The key findings are the interaction effects between baseline and film frontal EEG asymmetry on child depressive symptoms. Specifically, relative right frontal EEG asymmetry while watching happy or sad film clip was associated with elevated depressive symptoms for children who also exhibited right frontal EEG asymmetry at baseline. Results suggest that right frontal EEG asymmetry that is consistent across situations may be an marker of depression-prone children.     

The eyes and ears of status: how status colors perceptual judgment

To those with high status, abundance is granted. Moving beyond the multitude of objective benefits, the authors explore how status, once conferred, colors the perceptual world people inhabit. In four experiments, participants' status state influenced their judgments of status-relevant features in their environment. Participants in a state of high status reported hearing applause (Experiment 1) and seeing facial expressions (Experiment 2), in reaction to their performance, as louder and more favorable. In addition, expectations of how others will respond--expectations stemming from one's current status state--accounted for this effect (Experiment 3). Finally, differences in judgments between participants experiencing high versus low status were observed only when the target of the evaluation was the self (Experiment 4). These results advance scholars' understanding of the psychological experience of status and contribute to the growing literature on the dominant influence psychological states have on people's judgments of their social world.