Situating maltreatment in the social context: Challenges for research

This article is a reply to Kagan’s (in press) commentary on our earlier article (Luke & Banerjee, 2013), which presented a meta-analysis and systematic review of research on the links between childhood maltreatment and social understanding. We address Kagan’s comments about the depiction of maltreatment as an isolated independent variable, and consider the specific obstacles faced by researchers in this area when seeking to understand the role played by social–contextual factors. We also consider how Kagan’s extension of our argument about heterogeneity in maltreated samples might usefully be applied to future research with this vulnerable group.     

Moving on From the Suburbs

This is an account of my development as a psychoanalyst beginning in a safe but very unquestioning culture of a London suburb. Some unusual features of my childhood, as well as a natural curiosity, made me need to question the apparent certainties of my surroundings. I describe how a number of events—the death of my father, my illness as an adolescent, and an unlikely encounter with psychoanalysis shortly after, set me onto a rather slow road toward becoming a psychoanalyst several years later. I describe the influences that were important to me. I have always been most inspired by those who could explain complex ideas in a simple and straightforward way, and this has become important objective for me.     

Primate cognition: from 'what now?' to 'what if?'

The 'social brain' hypothesis has had a major impact on the study of comparative cognition. However, despite a strong sense, gained from both experimental and observational work, that monkeys and apes differ from each other, we are still no closer to understanding exactly how they differ. We hypothesize that the dispersed social systems characteristic of ape societies explains why monkeys and apes should differ cognitively. The increased cognitive control and analogical reasoning ability needed to cope with life in dispersed societies also suggests a possible route for human cognitive evolution. This hypothesis is supported by behavioural and neurobiological data, but we need more of both if we are to fully understand how our primate cousins see the world.     

Beyond Cultivation: Exploring the Effects of Frequency,Recency, and Vivid Autobiographical Memories for Violent Media

Using Shrum's (1996) heuristic processing model as an explanatory mechanism, we propose that people who hold vivid autobiographical memories for a specific past experience with media violence will overstate the prevalence of real-world crime versus individuals without vivid memories. We also explore the effects of frequency and recency on social reality beliefs. A survey was administered to 207 undergraduate students who were asked to recall one violent television program or movie seen in the past. Participants were asked to write essays describing the violence, which were coded for vividness. Results support not only cultivation theory, but also the effects of memory vividness: participants with more vivid memories of blood and gore gave higher prevalence estimates of real-world crime and violence than participants with less vivid memories. Findings also suggest that females had more vivid memories for prior media violence than males. Implications for cultivation, the heuristic processing model, and vividness research are discussed.     

Impact of a Kentucky Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home-Visitation Program on Parental Risk Factors

As public health organizations continue to implement maternal and child health home-visitation programs, more evaluation of these efforts is needed, particularly as it relates to improving parental behaviors. The purpose of our study was to assess the impact of families’ participation in a home-visitation program offered by a central Kentucky health department on parental risk factors. A family social worker or nurse interviewed parents pre-intervention, completing a Parent Survey which assessed multiple parental risk factors associated with negative health and well-being and to calculate a total risk score. Upon exiting the program, parents are re-interviewed to document improvements, review progress and accomplished goals, plan for transitional services, and calculate a new risk score. As of December 2010, 64 families had completed the home-visitation program and had pre- and post-risk scores available for analysis. Based on paired-sample t tests, there was a statistically significant difference in total mean risk scores among both mothers and fathers from pre to post. The McNemar–Bowker test also revealed statistically different scores for four of the six risk factors for mothers and fathers pre- and post-home-visitation: lifestyle behaviors and mental health, coping skills and support systems, stresses, and anger management skills. Findings suggest that families who were deemed at-risk for adverse pregnancy and child health outcomes benefit from participation in the home-visitation program. Programs designed to promote positive pregnancy outcomes and child development may benefit from providing social support, fostering parental knowledge, skill development and problem solving, insuring proper medical care, and connecting parents with community resources.     

Anesthesia Awareness: Narrative Review of Psychological Sequelae,Treatment, and Incidence

Awareness during general anesthesia occurs when patients recall events or sensations during their surgeries, although the patients should have been unconscious at the time. Anesthesiologists are cognizant of this phenomenon, but few discussions occur outside the discipline. This narrative review summarizes the patient recollections, psychological sequelae, treatment and follow-up of psychological consequences, as well as incidence and etiology of awareness during general anesthesia. Recalled memories include noises, conversations, images, mental processes, feelings of pain and/or paralysis. Psychological consequences include anxiety, flashbacks, and posttraumatic stress disorder diagnosis. Limited discussion for therapeutic treatment after an anesthesia awareness experience exists. The incidence of anesthesia awareness ranges from 0.1 to 0.2% (e.g., 1–2/1000 patients). Increased recognition of awareness during general anesthesia within the psychological/counseling community, with additional research focusing on optimal therapeutic treatment, will improve the care of these patients.     

The contribution of social rank and attachment theory to depression in a non clinical sample of adolescents

This study explores the relative contribution of the overall quality of attachment to the mother, to the father and to peers (Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment scales), the style of attachment towards peers (Attachment Questionnaire for Children scale), the social rank variables (submissive behavior and social comparison), and sex and age variables in predicting the depression score (Center of Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale) on a non-psychiatric sample of 13-18 year old adolescents (n = 225). Results of our integrated model (adjusted R-Square of .50) show that attachment variables (overall quality of attachment to the father and to the mother), social rank variables (social comparison and submissive behavior), age and sex are important in predicting depressive symptoms during adolescence. Moreover, the attachment to peers variables (quality of attachment to peers, secure and ambivalent style of attachment) and sex are mediated by the social rank variables (social comparison and submissive behavior).     

Personal and intergenerational narratives in relation to adolescents' well-being

Narratives of the self are embedded within families in which narrative interaction is a common practice. Especially in adolescence, when issues of identity and emotional regulation become key, narratives provide frameworks for understating self and emotion. The authors' research on family narratives suggests that adolescents' personal narratives are at least partly shaped by intergenerational narratives about their parents' childhoods. Both personal and intergenerational narratives emerge frequently in typical family dinner conversations, and these narratives reflect gendered ways of being in the world. Adolescents who tell intergenerational narratives that are rich in intergenerational connections and perspective-taking show higher levels of well-being. These findings suggest that individual narrative selves are created within families and across generations.