The Relationship of Religiosity and Spirituality to Quality of Life Among Cancer Patients

Most quality of life (QOL) assessments measure patients’ emotional well-being, functional well-being, interpersonal/social well-being, and satisfaction with treatment. Little attention has been given to patients’ spirituality or religiosity. Further, studies that have examined the impact of spirituality or religiosity on QOL have not differentiated between the constructs. The purpose of this study was to examine religiosity and spirituality as separate variables, and to define their relationship to QOL for 61 persons with cancer. Regression analyses indicated that, while spirituality and religiosity are moderately intercorrelated, spirituality has a stronger relationship with QOL than religiosity. When attempting to understand a person's spiritual life and its impact on QOL, there is a need for clear distinction between and separate assessment of spirituality and religiosity.     

The effects of token reinforcement on attending in a young child with autism

The benefits of token economies have been widely established, however there are very few empirical studies on the effects of token reinforcement on the behavior of young children with autism. The establishment of conditioned reinforcers such as tokens may be important in interventions for children with autism. Token reinforcement was used to increase the attending behavior of a young child with autism during discrete trials instruction for academic and communication skills. A reversal design showed that token reinforcement sustained attending only when the back‐up reinforcer was available and was accessed immediately. The results extend and corroborate findings on token reinforcement reported in other applied settings and are also consistent with findings from basic research on conditioned reinforcement. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Responses to a virtual reality grocery store in persons with and without vestibular dysfunction.

People with vestibular dysfunction often complain of having difficulty walking in visually complex environments. Virtual reality (VR) may serve as a useful therapeutic tool for providing physical therapy to these people. The purpose of this pilot project was to explore the ability of people with and without vestibular dysfunction to use and tolerate virtual environments that can be used in physical therapy. We have chosen grocery store environments, which often elicit complaints from patients. Two patients and three control subjects were asked to stand and navigate in VR grocery stores while finding products. Perceived discomfort, simulator sickness symptoms, distance traveled, and speed of head movement were recorded. Symptoms and discomfort increased in one subject with vestibular dysfunction. The older subjects traveled a shorter distance and had greater speed of head movements compared with young subjects. Environments with a greater number of products resulted in more head movements and a shorter distance traveled.     

Contingently Existing Propositions?

It is fairly common, among those who think propositions exist, to think they exist necessarily. Here, I consider three arguments in support of that conclusion. What I hope to show is not that that claim is false, but, rather, that the arguments used in its defense tend to presuppose a certain kind of approach to modality: a roughly Plantingian view. What the arguments show, then, is that one cannot accept that approach to modality and accept contingently existing propositions. But there are other approaches to modality – I discuss three such approaches – into which contingently existing propositions fit perfectly well. This suggests that disputes over, for example, singular propositions, must be conducted within a broader agreement over modal matters if they are to be at all productive.     

Ethical Consideration of Counselor Education Teaching Strategies

Counselor educators rely on a variety of teaching strategies to augment clinical instruction and enhance student learning. Such strategies include action methods, audio/video material, and self‐exploration. While using these strategies, educators are responsible for remaining sensitive to fundamental ethical issues, varied student needs, and academic/professional standards. Despite appearing straightforward and routine, this aspect of counselor education requires ongoing appraisal to ensure adherence to ethical guidelines, program integrity, and student well‐being. This article reviews various teaching strategies, discusses ethical implications associated with each strategy, and provides preliminary guidelines to enhance counselor educator ethical practice and student well‐being.     

Subjective Well-Being of Brazilian Children from Different Family Settings

Subjective well-being concerns an evaluation of one’s life, considering cognitive and affective aspects. Contextual factors, such as family, may influence this process. One of the main development contexts of children is family and aspects of these relationships, such as different settings, might contribute to children’s subjective well-being. The aim of this study was to compare the well-being of children from different family settings (intact, single-parent, stepfamilies, multigenerational). Participants were 2,135 boys and girls, from 9 to 13 years old (M = 10.97, SD = 0.99), students of public and private schools from a Brazilian southern State. Children answered a questionnaire with sociodemographic variables and three well-being scales (PWI-SC, BMSLSS, GDSI). Children were divided in four groups according to whom they live with (intact, single-parent, stepfamilies, multigenerational families). To evaluate differences between groups a Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) were performed, considering well-being scales as dependent variables and family setting as independent variable. Results indicated significant differences in the well-being of children in relation to their family setting and age. Children from intact families showed significant positive differences on the well-being from children of other settings (the lowest means were from the children of stepfamilies). It is argued that transitions and instability that children are being subjected to may affect their well-being.

     

Perceived Everyday Discrimination and Depressive Symptoms: Does Cognitive Style Mediate?

In the hopelessness theory of depression, a causal chain from stressors (e.g., perceived everyday discrimination [PED]) to 5 negative cognitive styles (NCSs) and depressive symptoms is delineated. In a sample of 243 diverse community college students, PED was positively associated with 4 NCSs. Furthermore, 2 specific NCSs were associated with depressive symptoms and mediated the effect between PED and depressive symptoms. Implications for research and practice with individuals who experience PED are discussed.     

The Neural Architecture of General Knowledge

Cognitive performance varies widely between individuals and is highly influenced by structural and functional properties of the brain. In the past, neuroscientific research was principally concerned with fluid intelligence, while neglecting its equally important counterpart crystallized intelligence. Crystallized intelligence is defined as the depth and breadth of knowledge and skills that are valued by one's culture. The accumulation of crystallized intelligence is guided by information storage capacities and is likely to be reflected in an individual's level of general knowledge. In spite of the significant role general knowledge plays for everyday life, its neural foundation largely remains unknown. In a large sample of 324 healthy individuals, we used standard magnetic resonance imaging along with functional magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion tensor imaging to examine different estimates of brain volume and brain network connectivity and assessed their predictive power with regard to both general knowledge and fluid intelligence. Our results demonstrate that an individual's level of general knowledge is associated with structural brain network connectivity beyond any confounding effects exerted by age or sex. Moreover, we found fluid intelligence to be best predicted by cortex volume in male subjects and functional network connectivity in female subjects. Combined, these findings potentially indicate different neural architectures for information storage and information processing. © 2019 European Association of Personality Psychology     

The impact of stigma on behavioral health care utilization among active duty service members

This study assessed the relationship between the stigma of seeking psychological help and use of outpatient behavioral health services over a 2-year period among active duty military service members initially referred for neuropsychological evaluation secondary to their histories of mild traumatic brain injury. Although research has examined how stigma predicts proxies for help-seeking (i.e., attitudes towards/intentions to use services), very little research has looked at actual behavior, and studies that do have largely focused on previous use. In this study, we examined the relationship between participants’ stigma and subsequent behavioral health use. Our results indicated that whereas greater self-stigma (i.e., negative self-judgments for seeking psychological help) was associated with attending fewer behavioral health care sessions, public stigma (i.e., perceptions of public attitudes towards people who seek psychological help) was not associated with service use. These findings support the need for addressing the self-stigma associated with seeking behavioral health care.