RELAXATION EXERCISE WITH CEREBRAL PALSIED ADULTS SHOWING SPASTICITY

A method for improving the muscle incoordination associated with cerebral palsy was empirically tested. Relaxation exercises, involving the successive tensing and relaxing of the major muscle groups of the body, were performed by four adults with spastic quadraplegia. All four subjects were sheltered workshop employees. Their IQs ranged from normal to mentally deficient. Testing consisted of two timed-trials of both the Placing Test and the Turning Test from the Minnesota Rate of Manipulation Tests. These tests measured the amount of time required to complete various manual manipulations involving pegs and pegboard. A multiple baseline across subjects design was employed to provide experimental control. All subjects showed significant improvement over baseline performance on the tests following the relaxation training. Limitations of this preliminary investigation and implications of these results for future research were noted.     

The role of values with personal examples in altering the functions of pain: comparison between acceptance-based and cognitive-control-based protocols

The purpose of the present study was twofold. First, to compare the effect of establishing a motivational context of values on pain tolerance, believability, and reported pain, with three experimental conditions: pain acceptance (ACT condition), pain control (CONT condition), or no values (untrained condition). Second, the study aimed to isolate the impact of adding the corresponding coping strategies to both the ACT and the CONT conditions. Thirty adults were randomly assigned to one of the three experimental conditions. The participants went through the pain task in two occasions (Test I and Test II). In Test I, the effects of the ACT-values protocol (which established pain as part of valued action), the CONT-values protocol (which established high pain as opposed to valued action), and the no-values protocol, were compared. In Test II, the effect of adding the corresponding coping strategy to each condition (defusion for ACT vs. suppression for CONT) was examined. Test I showed a clear superiority of the ACT-values protocol in increasing tolerance and lowering pain believability. In Test II, the superiority of the ACT protocol was replicated, while the CONT protocol proved useful to reduce reported pain, in accordance with previous studies.     

Contextuality and Community: Challenges for Theological Education and Ecumenical Formation

This article looks at some aspects of the history of ecumenical theological formation. It emphasizes the need to strive for quality theological education. This should always be ecumenical and pluralistic, link the global and the local and be founded on community‐based ecclesiastical theory. It points out the need to continue questioning the epistemological fundamentals of theology in order to ensure the continuous strengthening of the relationship between theory and practice. Another essential aspect is the relationship between mission and ecumenical theological formation and our understanding that education and ecumenical training is aimed at transforming people and communities. This means that changes to our educational institutions are indispensable. They should promote ecumenical, pluralist, inter‐disciplinary and holistic policies and practices and a commitment to a radical interpretation of the Bible that leads us to seek justice and well‐being for all people, communities and groups, and oppose any beliefs, practices and interpretation of the Bible that lead to oppression and injustice.     

Are comparative risk judgements consistent across time and events?

Research reveals pervasive optimism in people's comparative risk judgements such that people believe they are less likely than others to experience negative events. Two studies explored the extent to which people are consistent in their comparative risk judgements across time and events. Both studies found strong evidence for consistency across time and some evidence for consistency across events. The consistency across time and events was moderated by experience. Specifically, when viewed together, the studies suggest that experience produces an initial decrease in the consistency of comparative judgements (Study 2), followed by greater consistency in subsequent judgements (Study 1). The discussion focuses on reconciling evidence demonstrating consistency with evidence demonstrating variability.     

Law and the confinement of psychopaths

Civil commitment in the United States historically has followed a medical, targeting individuals with serious mental disorders and providing for their treatment in the least restrictive setting. In the last decade, however, commitment laws have appeared in some states permitting the hospitalization of personality-disordered criminal offenders at the end of a penal sentence. The American Psychiatric Association has fiercely opposed these laws. The U.S. Supreme Court has given its qualified approval, although legal challenges persist. These laws, together with British proposals to permit the civil commitment of dangerous personality-disordered individuals, should be resisted by all professional disciplines.     

Equivalence‐based instruction to establish a textual activity schedule in an adult with Down syndrome

Transfer of control from picture to text‐based activity schedules has been shown to occur following conditional discrimination training in children with autism. This study extended this research by evaluating if conditional discrimination training could promote transfer of control in an adult with Down syndrome. The participant was taught to select photographs and pictures of kitchen tools when provided with dictated names. Then, he completed a text‐based activity schedule, matched printed words to photographs, and orally named printed words without direct training.