„Pervasive refusal syndrome“

Pervasive refusal syndrome (PRS), as a new psychiatric disorder among children and adolescents, was first described 1991 by Lask et al. It is characterized by a determined refusal of the child to eat, talk, walk, care for themselves or participate in daily activities. An organic explanation for the symptoms is absent. The observed refusal of functions can be either active or passive. Children also demonstrate a clear resistance to help or treatment. This paper presents a case study that depicts PRS from the therapists’ and the patients’ viewpoint and helpful elements in therapy are evinced from both points of view.     

Eltern und Patienten als Subjekt der Behandlung

Background

There are hardly any alternatives to inpatient treatment for children and adolescents in need of intensive psychiatric treatment. In the randomized study BeZuHG (“behandelt zu Hause gesund werden”, treated at home become healthy), equality of treatments could be shown in the outcome parameters when comparing TAU (inpatient treatment) and the new treatment module BeZuHG (early discharge followed by intensive home treatment enhanced by clinical elements). Patient satisfaction with each treatment module was evaluated at follow-up.

Material and methods

In this study 144 parents and patients of the intervention group (n?=?79) and the control-group (n?=?65) were interviewed after an average of 8 months. Information on expectations, experience with BeZuHG, changes in communication and interaction within the family as well as problem solving strategies (and sustainability of the changes), overall satisfaction and treatment suggestions for modification of the BeZuHG treatment were collected in semistructured telephone interviews.

Results

The following aspects in the BeZuHG treatment were rated as important by parents and patients: support and help with transfer problems, single sessions, a trusting therapeutic relationship as well as treatment setting at home. Enhanced problem solving skills as well as improved family communication were noticed. In the intervention group 70?% would prefer the BeZuHG setting to inpatient care and 46?% in the control group.

Conclusion

The BeZuHG concept is a good and functional alternative to inpatient treatment. Continuity in treatment and therapeutic relationships are essential for successful treatment at home. Positive treatment results within the family as well as the patient remain stable at follow-up after 8 months.     

They’re (not) playing our song: (Ir)religious identity moderates the effects of listening to religious music on memory,self-esteem,and mood

Previous research suggests that listening to music can enhance memory and well-being. However, what is often missing from this analysis is consideration of the social dimensions of music—for example, its capacity to affirm or threaten listeners’ social identities. This study examined whether (ir)religious music that was potentially identity-affirming or identity-threatening (Christian hymns, Buddhist chants, classical, or no music) would affect Christians’ and Atheists’ (N = 267) well-being and memory performance while listening. Analyses revealed significant interactions between (ir)religious group and music type on memory, self-esteem, and mood. Listening to music that potentially threatened one's religious identity appeared to undermine both performance self-esteem and actual memory performance, while increasing feelings of hostility. This pattern was found for Christians (vs. Atheists) who listened to Buddhist chants. Conversely, Atheists’ performance self-esteem (and to some degree their memory performance) was lowest, and their hostility highest, when they listened to Christian hymns. In this way, listening to music that potentially threatened one's religious group identity (or lack thereof) appeared to be detrimental for memory, self-esteem, and mood. These results bridge research on the psychology of religion, music psychology, and social identity theorizing by demonstrating that the effects of music on memory and well-being may reflect important (even sacred) social identities, with potential implications for individual well-being and intergroup relations.     

The Memory of Micro-Organisms: An Essay on the Experience of Environmental Alterations by Bacteria

Using a generalized conception of experience, from which all features characteristic for higher animals (such as consciousness and thought) have been removed, allowed relating experience to adaptive processes in lower organisms. The temporal vector character of every current experience, containing as well memories of past experiences as intentions for future activities, can then be found in the adaptive response of cyanobacteria to alterations in phosphate supply, particularly in energetic manifestations of this phenomenon. A possible analogy between adaptive events as the “atomic units” of physiological adaptation and Whitehead's actual occasion of experience is discussed.     

A Re-evauation of Copied and Recalled Bender-Gestalt Reproductions

This study was designed to compare the copying and recall performances of the Bender-Gestalt of 80 psychiatric patients, falling into five diagnostic groups. To obtain a quantitative measure of the copying performance the Pascal and Suttell scoring system was utilized; however, lack of scoring items for design A and no really satisfactory recall scoring system led to a revised system which resulted in a significantly more discriminating system than Olin and Reznikoff's. Also the study yielded various quantitative and qualitative differences between the five diagnostic groups, the most significant being between the organic and the functional (schizophrenic, depressive, neurotic, and character disorder) sub-groups. Thus performance on the Bender, especially the quantitatively scored recall performance, can be used as a valid diagnostic instrument to differentiate organic from non-organic patients. Yet in each sub-group the various aspects of the Bender performance (copying score, recall score, and number of designs recalled) appeared to be interrelated, while the time element was found to be an independent factor which also did not help to differentiate the diagnostic groups. Performance on the various designs fell into a definite pattern, particularly on the recall phase.     

Designing Mobile Systems in Highly Dynamic Scenarios: The WORKPAD Methodology

The design of interactive systems to be used in mobile and pervasive scenarios, such as emergency management, requires novel methodologies which combine user-centred design approaches and software engineering approaches tailored for distributed architectures. In this paper, the methodology adopted in a successful research project is presented together with a case study.

Group aversion by imaginal, vicarious and shared recipient-observer shocks

Sixty college students completed waiting control or alternative group aversion conditions, matched for severity and chronicity of nail-biting. Treatments spanned four sessions. Imaginai aversion (covert sensitization) clients visualized shocks to themselves. Vicarious aversion clients observed shocks to a trained model. A ‘hotseat’ format randomized a few actual shocks to each client with observing peers shocked on remaining trials. The predominant pattern of outcome and subjective impact results was as follows: Hotseat consistently best; vicarious typically second; imaginal usually third; controls worst. Clinical and conceptual issues are raised.     

Gender and Age Patterns in Emotional Expression,Body Image,and Self-Esteem: A Qualitative Analysis

This qualitative study used written narrativesto examine gender and age patterns in body image,emotional expression, and self-esteem for a total of 209boys and girls in the fifth, eighth, and twelfth grades. Seventy-six percent of the sample wasCaucasian, 18% African-American, 5% Asian-American, and.5% Hispanic. A major finding indicates that boysrestrict emotional expression from early adolescence through late adolescence, while girls increaseemotional expression during the same age period. Anothermajor finding suggests that girls in late childhood andadolescence are both more negatively and more positively influenced than boys by body image.Both boys' and girls' feelings about themselves areprimarily influenced in gender-stereotypedways.     

Situational effects in trait assessment: The FPI,NEOFFI, and EPI questionnaires

While most researchers do agree now that situations may have an effect in the assessment of traits, the consequences have been neglected, so far: if situations affect the assessment of traits we have to take this fact into account in studies on reliability and validity of measurement instruments and their application. In the theoretical part of this article we provide a more formal exposition of this point, introducing the basic concepts of latent state–trait (LST) theory. LST theory and the associated models allow for the estimation of the situational impact on trait measures in non-experimental, correlational studies. In the empirical part, LST theory is applied to three well known trait questionnaires: the Freiburg Personality Inventory, the NEO Five-Factor Inventory and the Eysenck Personality Inventory. It is shown that significant proportions of the variances of the scales of these questionnaires are due to situational effects. The following consequences of this finding are discussed, (i) Instead of the reliability coefficient, the proportion of variance due to the latent trait, the consistency coefficient, should be used for the estimation of confidence intervals for trait scores, (ii) To reduce the situational effects on trait estimates it may be useful to base such an estimate on several occasions, i.e., to aggregate data across occasions. (iii) Reliability and validity studies should not only be based on a sample of persons representative of those to whom the test will be applied; they should also be conducted in situational contexts representative of the intended applications.