Adherence as a determinant of effectiveness of internet cognitive behavioural therapy for anxiety and depressive disorders

Since 2009, the Clinical Research Unit for Anxiety and Depression (CRUfAD) has been providing primary care clinicians with internet cognitive behaviour therapy (iCBT) courses to prescribe to patients. Although these courses have demonstrated efficacy in research trials, adherence in primary care is less than half that of the research trials. The present studies pose three questions: first, do course non-completers drop out because of lack of efficacy? Second, can changes in delivery (e.g. adding choice, reminders and financial cost) improve adherence? Last, does clinician contact improve adherence? The results showed that non-completers derive benefit before dropping out; that adding reminders, choice of course and timing, and financial cost can significantly improve adherence; and that clinician contact during the course is associated with increased adherence. It is concluded that improved adherence is an important determinant of effectiveness.     

Ignorance is no excuse: moral judgments are influenced by a genetic variation on the oxytocin receptor gene

Perspective-taking has become a main focus of studies on moral judgments. Recent fMRI studies have demonstrated that individual differences in brain activation predict moral decision making. In particular, pharmacological studies highlighted the crucial role for the neuropeptide oxytocin in social behavior and emotional perception. In the present study N=154 participants were genotyped for a functional polymorphism (rs2268498) in the promoter region of the OXTR gene. We found a significant difference between carriers and non-carriers of the C-allele in exculpating agents for accidental harms (F((1,152))=11.49, p=.001, η(2)=.07) indicating that carriers of the C-allele rated accidentally committed harm as significantly more blameworthy than non-carriers. This is the first study providing evidence for a genetic contribution to moral judgments.     

How Important Is the Digital Divide? The Relation of Computer and Videogame Usage to Gender Differences in Mental Rotation Ability

Researchers interested in the associations of gender with spatial experience and spatial ability have not yet focused on several activities that have become common in the modern digital age. In this study, using a new questionnaire called the Survey of Spatial Representation and Activities (SSRA), we examined spatial experiences with computers and videogames in a sample of nearly 1,300 undergraduate students. Large gender differences, which favored men, were found in computer experience. Although men and women also differed on SAT scores, gender differences in computer experience were still apparent with SAT factored out. Furthermore, men and women with high and low levels of computer experience, who were selected for more intensive study, were found to differ significantly on the Mental Rotations Test (MRT). Path analyses showed that computer experience substantially mediates the gender difference in spatial ability observed on the MRT. These results collectively suggest that the “Digital Divide” is an important phenomenon and that encouraging women and girls to gain spatial experiences, such as computer usage, might help to bridge the gap in spatial ability between the sexes.     

Exercising the Body,Exercising Citizenship: On the History of Scouting in Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

Scouting was one of the first modern ‘sports’ to reach Saudi Arabia, with the first boy scout troops dating back to 1943. Yet scouting has largely escaped the attention of historians and social scientist who study the Arab Gulf states, since this uniformed youth movement does not conform to the ‘tribal modern’ identity that is today propagated and researched within the region, as found, for example, in the discourse on heritage sports. How did a Saudi scouting movement take root, importing what is still largely perceived to be a Western cultural practice, identified with a white British-North American middle class? The research demonstrates that the scouting movement was able to take hold in the region by negotiating the universal ideals of modernity and internationalism of the scouting movement with more particular understandings of nationalism and social reform. Following the trajectories of the early Saudi scouting movement, the analysis traces how the conception of what constitutes ‘modern’ evolved from an understanding that emphasizes universal traits, toward a negotiated and particularised interpretation of what ‘modern’ means and should mean in the local context of Saudi Arabia.