The striped mouse (Rhabdomys pumilio) from the succulent karoo, South Africa: a territorial group-living solitary forager with communal breeding and helpers at the nest

The authors studied the striped mouse (Rhabdomys pumilio) in the semiarid succulent karoo of South Africa. Mice forage alone, but they live in groups that share a common nest. Groups consist of 1 to 4 breeding females, 1 to 2 breeding males, and their offspring of both sexes, which remain in their natal group even after reaching adulthood, participating in territorial defense and nest building without showing signs of reproductive activity. Interactions are typically amicable and take place inside or in front of the nest. In contrast, encounters with mice from other groups are aggressive. Group living in the succulent karoo is possibly due to ecological constraints imposed by habitat saturation because of a year-round stable food supply as well as associated benefits of philopatry.     

Incremental exercise, plasma concentrations of catecholamines, reaction time, and motor time during performance of a noncompatible choice response time task

The primary purpose was to examine the effect of incremental exercise on a noncompatible response time task. Participants (N=9) undertook a 4-choice noncompatible response time task under 3 conditions, following rest and during exercise at 70% and 100% of their maximum power output. Reaction and movement times were the dependent variables. Maximum power output had been previously established on an incremental test to exhaustion. A repeated-measures multivariate analysis of variance yielded a significant effect of exercise intensity on the task, observation of the separate univariate repeated-measures analyses of variance showed that only movement time was significantly affected. Post hoc Tukey tests indicated movement time during maximal intensity exercise was significantly faster than in the other two conditions. The secondary purpose of the study was to assess whether increases in plasma concentrations of adrenaline and nor-adrenaline during exercise and power output would act as predictor variables of reaction and movement times during exercise. Catecholamine concentrations were based on venous blood samples taken during the maximum power output test. None of the variables were significant predictors of reaction time. Only power output was a significant predictor of movement time (R2 = .24). There was little support for the notion that peripheral concentrations of catecholamines directly induce a central nervous system response.     

Ethnic Minority Psychologists: Whom They Mentor and Benefits They Derive From the Process

Ethnic minority psychologists were found to be prolific mentors of both ethnic minority and European American protégés. Mentoring benefits were not related to ethnic similarity.     

A BEHAVIORAL MODEL OF INFANT SLEEP DISTURBANCE

Chronic sleep disturbance, such as bed refusal, sleep-onset delay, and night waking with crying, affects 15% to 35% of preschool children. Biological factors, particularly arousals associated with recurrent episodes of rapid-eye-movement sleep, render infants vulnerable to repeated awakenings. Parental failure to establish appropriate stimulus control of sleep-related behaviors and parent-mediated contingencies of reinforcement for sleep-incompatible behaviors may shape and maintain infant sleep disturbance. Treatment and prevention strategies are discussed, and research needs are identified.     

Sexually abused children and post-traumatic stress disorder

Sexually abused children often develop post-traumatic stress disorder, a distressing and debilitating condition that is typically unresponsive to non-directive counselling. Empirically supported abuse-confronting, structured interventions are urgently required for use by counselling psychologists responsible for the management of this challenging clinical population. Given the success of cognitive-behavioural interventions with adult trauma victims, it has been suggested that this treatment approach be applied to sexually abused children. This paper presents a cognitive-behavioural treatment framework comprising two levels of intervention: child therapy and parent training. We selectively review emerging empirical support for the efficacy and acceptability of this treatment approach.     

<Emphasis Type="BoldItalic">Special Topic:</Emphasis> Creativity in Christianity and Confucianism

In order respectfully and adequately to compare Confucian and Christian conceptions of creativity, it is necessary to have proper comparative categories. Put roughly, we need to know what creativity is in order to see how Confucianism and Christianity have various versions of it. In respect of what do they agree or differ? So the first order of business is to put forward, however briefly, a theory of creativity in light of which comparisons can be made. Creativity, of course, is a very complicated notion in the West and in East Asia. Two philosophical topics can reveal something of its complication: the problem of the one and the many, and the nature of change.     

A technique for facilitating the creation of mind

There are two forces operating in people. One resists pain and violently opposes integration. The other force is slowly bringing coherence and integration to what is inside. There has been a tendency within psychoanalysis to focus on the former. In this paper the author focuses on the latter. The hypothesis here is that if the analyst focuses upon the signs of integration that this assists the process of growing self-awareness. The negative transference emerges as the undeveloped aspects of the psyche are recognized by the patient.     

Servant Leadership and Spirituality Among Undergraduate and Graduate Nursing Students

Journal of Religion and Health - Nursing students represent the future of nursing. In today’s increasingly complex health care environment nurse leaders must develop a distinct leadership...     

Dual brain,creativity, and health

Abstract

The importance of the specialized functions of the right and left hemispheres is reviewed, with applications to education, treatment, creativity, and research duly noted. Experimental studies serve as indications of how alexithymia and creativity of the so‐called dual brain has been examined. Patients with com‐missurotomies, patients in psychotherapy, priests, creative subjects, and normal controls have been compared through a variety of experimental methods in terms of hemispheric specialization. The results indicate that creative and healthy subjects tend to have freer access to mutual interaction of both hemispheres without marked inhibitory or disinhibitory effects from either cerebral hemisphere.     

The Fears of Youth in the 1990s: Contemporary Normative Data

This article reports the findings of a normative fear investigation involving a sample of 918 Australian children and adolescents, ranging in age from 718 years. The Fear Survey Schedule for Children and Adolescents-II (FSSC-II) was administered to determine self-reported prevalence, intensity, and content of fear. Consistent with past research, girls generally reported significantly higher levels of fearfulness than boys. Age differences also were found; younger children reported a higher intensity and a greater number of fears than older children and adolescents. Qualitative differences in normative fear were found, with younger children reporting more animal fears and older children reporting more fears relating to social evaluation or psychic stress. Significantly, although the specific content of children's and adolescents' normative fears in the 1990s (as compared with the 1960s) has changed (now including fear of AIDS and of nuclear war), the fears found to be most prevalent continue to relate to death and danger. These findings are discussed within the context of the prepotency and preparedness concepts of fear.