Is positive thinking in anticipation of a performance situation better than distraction? An experimental study in preadolescents

The current study compares the effects of experimentally induced positive anticipatory thinking and distraction in preadolescents aged 12–13. Eighty‐seven participants were instructed to either engage in positive anticipatory thoughts or perform a distraction task while preparing to perform a sporting activity in front of their peers. Results revealed that trait social anxiety was associated with more negative estimates of sport performance and catastrophic thoughts relating to the impending sport activity. Additionally, compared to children who distracted, children in the positive anticipation condition showed significantly increased anxiety levels, more catastrophic thoughts and more negative predictions of sport performance and appearance, although these effects did not appear to interact with trait social anxiety. Finally, no significant manipulation effect on participants’ observable behavior was found. The findings further highlight the utility of distracting from an impending, anxiety‐provoking situation to keep anxious feelings to a low level.     

Generalisation of the Clark and Wells cognitive model of social anxiety to children's athletic and sporting situations

Research has shown that social anxiety generalises to sporting and athletic situations. The present study explored the applicability of the Clark and Wells model of social anxiety – and its metacognitive extension – to sport anxiety. Participants were 290 students aged 11–13 years, who completed measures of sport anxiety, social anxiety, depression and cognitive variables implicated by the model. Hierarchical regression analysis indicated that performance attitudes, performance cognitions, anticipatory and post-event processing were predictive of sport anxiety, after controlling for social anxiety and depression. In addition, the association between performance attitudes and sport anxiety was stronger at higher levels of anticipatory and post-event processing. These results suggest that the Clark and Wells cognitive model – and its metacognitive extension – is applicable to children with sport anxiety.     

Frontal EEG alpha band asymmetry as a predictor of reasoning deficiency in depressed people

Cognitive deficits in depression are mostly apparent in executive functions, especially when integration of information and reasoning is required. In parallel, there are also numerous studies pointing to the frontal alpha band asymmetry as a psychophysiological marker of depression. In this study, we explored the role of frontal alpha asymmetry as a potential factor explaining the cognitive problems accompanying depression. Twenty-six depressed and 26 control participants completed a reasoning task and underwent 5 minutes of electroencephalography recording. In line with the previous studies, depressed people showed difficulties with reasoning but we did not observe the relationship between frontal asymmetry in the alpha band and depression. However, we found that in the depressed group the frontal alpha asymmetry index was characterised by larger variance than in the control group, and it was also a strong predictor of cognitive functioning exclusively in the depressed group. Our results point to the disruption of a psychophysiological balance, reflected in changed frontal alpha asymmetry (into more left-sided frontal asymmetry in the alpha band, reflecting more right-sided cortical activity) as a possible brain correlate of cognitive disturbances present in depressive disorders.     

Space and Time in the Child's Mind: Evidence for a Cross-Dimensional Asymmetry

What is the relationship between space and time in the human mind? Studies in adults show an asymmetric relationship between mental representations of these basic dimensions of experience: Representations of time depend on space more than representations of space depend on time. Here we investigated the relationship between space and time in the developing mind. Native Greek‐speaking children watched movies of two animals traveling along parallel paths for different distances or durations and judged the spatial and temporal aspects of these events (e.g., Which animal went for a longer distance, or a longer time?). Results showed a reliable cross‐dimensional asymmetry. For the same stimuli, spatial information influenced temporal judgments more than temporal information influenced spatial judgments. This pattern was robust to variations in the age of the participants and the type of linguistic framing used to elicit responses. This finding demonstrates a continuity between space‐time representations in children and adults, and informs theories of analog magnitude representation.     

Soviet patriotism in a comparative perspective: a passion for oxymora

The official patriotic narrative that emerged in the USSR during the Stalin period shows the continuity of imperial models that served to constitute “love of the fatherland”. This article presents several concepts about the formation of imperial patriotism prevalent in the course of history; it identifies tendencies of interaction between cultural tradition and foreign models. It also shows the principal possibility of combining patriotism with other forms of unifying and mobilizing discourses. The official patriotic discourse of the Stalin era is analyzed as an eclectic ideological construct that, to a large extent, relied on the tradition of imperial patriotic education. The constants distinguishing Russian-Soviet patriotism include the representation of Russia’s imperial past, viewing the question of a multi-national state through the paradigm of the empire’s “civilizing mission”, and patriotism as an integral part of public political education. Some of the elements fundamental for Soviet “love of the fatherland” are preserved in modern Russian patriotism as for instance in the form of “Soviet” nostalgia or representations of militant “statehood”.     

Psychopathological Symptom Dimensions in Patients with Gastrointestinal Disorders

The current study aims to investigate the factorial validity of a widely used psychopathological rating scale, the Symptom Check List-90-R (SCL-90-R), in a group of patients suffering from gastrointestinal disorders, and to determine the specific psychopathological profiles that characterize the individual patient subgroups. Patients suffering from either irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis, non-erosive reflux disease or erosive reflux disease completed the SCL-90-R at a tertiary care gastroenterology department. Seven factors were identified, with one major distress factor and six minor factors. Comparison of the gastrointestinal disorder subgroups indicated that irritable bowel syndrome patients exhibited significantly more psychological distress compared to the other groups, and that gastrointestinal patients as a group, compared to healthy controls, were characterized by high levels of irritable depression and somatization. In planning further studies we encourage the use of factors identified in our study. The treatment of substantial irritable depression can be an important factor in improving quality of life in patients suffering from gastrointestinal disorders.     

EXAMINING THE STRUCTURE AND ROLE OF EMOTION: CONTRIBUTIONS OF NEUROBIOLOGY TO THE STUDY OF EMBODIED RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE

Abstract. Certain properties of the body and emotions facilitate the transmission of religious knowledge and the development of religious states through particular qualities of perception and memory. The body, which is the ground of religious experience, can be understood as transformative: the characteristic that recalled emotion is “refelt” in the present enables emotion to be cultivated or developed. Emotions and the stimuli that evoke them are necessarily culturally specific, but the automatic nature of this process is universal. Religious traditions have made use of these processes to educate the feeling toward certain qualities and to develop religious experience, through the use of sacred images, ritual posture and gesture, and repetition of ritual acts. Neuroscience contributes to our understanding of the emotional processes that take place when emotions are evoked, refelt, and developed; the neurobiological processing of emotion parallels experience. Keeping experience central makes it possible to bring religion and neuroscience together in a nonreductive examination of spiritual experience.     

The Normal,Improving, and Productive Self: Unpacking Neoliberal Governmentality in Therapeutic Interactions

Psychotherapy might be seen as a site of reproduction of neoliberal capitalist ideology. Unpacking therapeutic discourse affords the opportunity to explore neoliberalism in operation. We present a theoretical case for exploring neoliberalism in the therapeutic context. Specifically, we identify and illustrate three neoliberal discourses: the normal self, the improving self, and the productive self. We discuss how therapists might orient to these discourses and identify ways to challenge neoliberal ideology. Doing so will not dismantle power systems that yield oppression; however, it may help clients reclaim and negotiate preferred subjectivities within this system while also working toward broader social justice.     

The liberty principle and universal health care

A universal entitlement to health care can be grounded in the liberty principle. A detailed examination of Rawls's discussion of health care in Justice as Fairness shows that Rawls himself recognized that illness is a threat to the basic liberties, yet failed to recognize the implications of this fact for health resource allocation. The problem is that one cannot know how to allocate health care dollars until one knows which basic liberties one seeks to protect, and yet one cannot know which basic liberties to protect until one knows how health care dollars will be allocated. The solution is to design the list of basic liberties and the health care system in tandem so as to fit each other, such that every citizen is guaranteed a set of basic liberties and access to the health services needed to secure them.