Intrusive images and intrusive thoughts as different phenomena: Two experimental studies

According to the dual representation theory of PTSD, intrusive trauma images and intrusive verbal thoughts are produced by separate memory systems. In a previous article it was shown that after watching an aversive film, participants in non-movement conditions reported more intrusive images than participants in a free-to-move control condition (Hagenaars, Van Minnen, Holmes, Brewin, & Hoogduin, 2008). The present study investigates whether the experimental conditions of the Hagenaars et al. study had a different effect on intrusive thoughts than on intrusive images. Experiment 2 further investigated the image–thoughts distinction by manipulating stimulus valence (trauma film versus neutral film) and assessing the subsequent development of intrusive images and thoughts. In addition, both experiments studied the impact of peri-traumatic emotions on subsequent intrusive images and thoughts frequency across conditions. Results showed that experimental manipulations (non-movement and trauma film) caused higher levels of intrusive images relative to control conditions (free movement and neutral film) but they did not affect intrusive thoughts. Peri-traumatic anxiety and horror were associated with subsequent higher levels of intrusive images, but not intrusive thoughts. Correlations were inconclusive for anger and sadness. The results suggest intrusive images and thoughts can be manipulated independently and as such can be considered different phenomena.     

Factor Structure of the Wide Range Assessment of Memory and Learning (WRAML) in Children With Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus (IDDM)

Maximum likelihood confirmatory factor analysis was performed with the Wide Range Assessment of Memory and Learning (WRAML) for a clinical sample of 246 children with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). Consistent with previous literature examining the factor structure of the WRAML, findings supported the validity of a three-factor model including Verbal Memory, Visual Memory, and Attention/Concentration (AC) factors for this clinical sample. However, in contrast to previous factor analytic research, results also supported the validity of an alternative two-factor model consisting of a combined modality Memory/Learning (ML) factor and an AC factor. While the results suggest that the three-factor solution may provide an adequate characterization of memory and learning in the majority of this sample of children with IDDM, it appears that certain groups of children with IDDM, particularly those children with early disease onset and those who experience hypoglycemic seizures, may exhibit a specific profile of differences that may result in a lack of differentiation between the verbal and visual modalities.     

The effects of anger management and social contact on risk of myocardial infarction in type as and type bs

Abstract

The risk of myocardial infarction (MI) associated with Type A behaviour, anger management and social contact was examined using a retrospective case-control design. Binary multiple regression analyses were used to compare 206 male and 67 female MI cases with 454 male and 316 female controls. To examine the potential moderating role of sex and Type A behaviour, moderated and subgroup regressions were run. Type A behaviour was significantly more prevalent in cases than controls. MI risk was further increased in males who combined Type A behaviour and aggressive expression of anger. In females MI risk was associated with the combination of Type A behaviour and not expressing anger. In addition female cases were significantly less likely than controls to discuss their anger, and reported fewer available social contacts. Discussion of results includes consideration of the problems generated by the retrospective case-control design.     

The Scottish Reformation was not Protestant

This article argues that the generally accepted term for the Protestant revolution of 1559–60 in Scotland, ‘The Scottish Reformation’, hides the remnant of a sectarian denominational historiography and should be abandoned. These events should be called ‘The Scottish Protestant Reformation’ while ‘The Scottish Reformation’ should be used for a ‘long reformation’ including Catholic and Protestant reform movements extending from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries. This terminological change represents a new way of understanding the Scottish Reformation as a long process in the Christian culture of Renaissance Scotland. It brings historical research in line with developments in other disciplines, which have uncovered a flourishing early Scottish Renaissance. Making Christianity the primary category in the religious history of this period, rather than the polemical binary ‘Catholic/Protestant’, enables a more balanced appraisal of the various religious and cultural movements in Scotland.     

Predicting Desistance or Persistence in the Substance‐Abusing,Mentally Ill,Supervised Offender Population Using Laub and Sampson's (2001) Social Controls and Individual Factors Theory

This study investigated the relationship that social controls and individual factors have on the persistence rate in the substance‐abusing, mentally ill, supervised offender population (N = 886). The data predicted 83% of persistence.     

Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and the Ethics of Body and Place: Critical Methodological Reflections

This article is a critical methodological reflection on the use of interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) initiated in the context of a qualitative research project on the experience of seclusion in a psychiatric setting. It addresses an explicit gap in the IPA literature to explore the ways that Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology can extend the remit of IPA for noncognitivist qualitative research projects beyond the field of health psychology. In particular, the article develops Merleau-Ponty’s understanding of the lived-body, language, and embodied speech, with specific attention to the ethical implications of body and place. It concludes with a discussion on phenomenological reflexivity and prompts a reconsideration of phenomenological methods across a wide range of qualitative research projects concerned with subjectivity and ethical practice, including critical health studies, critical bioethics, and cultural studies that employ a qualitative empirical research design.