Insights into sleep's role for insight: Studies with the number reduction task

In recent years, vibrant research has developed on “consolidation” during sleep: To what extent are newly experienced impressions reprocessed or even restructured during sleep? We used the number reduction task (NRT) to study if and how sleep does not only reiterate new experiences but may even lead to new insights. In the NRT, covert regularities may speed responses. This implicit acquisition of regularities may become explicitly conscious at some point, leading to a qualitative change in behavior which reflects this insight. By applying the NRT at two consecutive sessions separated by an interval, we investigated the role of sleep in this interval for attaining insight at the second session. In the first study, a night of sleep was shown to triple the number of participants attaining insight above the base rate of about 20%. In the second study, this hard core of 20% discoverers differed from other participants in their task-related EEG potentials from the very beginning already. In the third study, the additional role of sleep was specified as an effect of the deep-sleep phase of slow-wave sleep on participants who had implicitly acquired the covert regularity before sleep. It was in these participants that a specific increase of EEG during slow-wave sleep in the 10-12 Hz band was obtained. These results support the view that neuronal memory reprocessing during slow-wave sleep restructures task-related representations in the brain, and that such restructuring promotes the gain of explicit knowledge.     

Father‐Involvement in a Refugee Sample: Relations between Posttraumatic Stress and Caregiving

Despite increased attention to the role of fathers within families, there is still a dearth of studies on the impact of trauma on father‐involvement. This study investigates the quantity of father‐involvement and the influence of posttraumatic stress on the quality of involvement in a refugee and asylum seeker population. Eighty refugees and asylum seekers and their young children (aged 18–42 months) were recruited. Measures included assessment of parental trauma (Harvard Trauma Questionnaire), quantity and quality of involvement (quantity of caregiving and Emotional Availability Scales), and perception of the father–child relationship (interview). The results show that fathers were less involved in caregiving tasks and play activities than mothers. No parental gender differences were found on each of the Emotional Availability Scales. Traumatic stress symptoms negatively affected the perception and the actual quality of parent–child interaction (sensitivity, structuring, nonhostility). Nevertheless, almost all fathers described their relationship with their child as good and their child as very important to them. As the quality of father‐involvement is of importance to the development of the child, traumatized fathers are as much in need of clinical intervention as mothers. Despite the impact of posttraumatic stress, refugee fathers clearly are involved in the lives of their children. Mechanisms such as a deliberate withdrawal when stressed and compensation might enable affected fathers to step into the interaction when needed, raise the quality of involvement with their child, and diminish the negative impact of stress resulting from trauma and migration.     

On the action of social groups

This paper deals with the question of whether and when it is appropriate or inappropriate to say that a social group performs an action. After some remarks on the concept of action three kinds of groups are distinguished, i.e. assemblies, institutions, and classes. It is found that in the first two of these cases predication of action is possible: an assembly can act in that all its members act, or some of them do who are interchangeable with any others; and an institution can act because it has a structure and some individuals can act on its behalf. A class, however, cannot be said to act, for its concept may be freely formed, its members cannot be assembled, and it has no organs through which actions could be performed.     

The German Adaptation and Standardization of the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI)

An attempt was made to evaluate the relationship between left-handedness and oppositional tendencies through the use of the White Space (S) response on the Rorschach. Right and left-handed males were administered the Rorschach, and it was found that the left-handed subjects gave significantly more S responses than did the right-handed males. It was felt that the results of this study indicated the existence of a relationship between hand-preference and oppositional tendency. Caution was raised concerning the assumption that oppositional tendencies foster left-handedness. It was pointed out that opposition could also be produced by being left-handed.     

Marginal and Random Intercepts Models for Longitudinal Binary Data With Examples From Criminology

Two models for the analysis of longitudinal binary data are discussed: the marginal model and the random intercepts model. In contrast to the linear mixed model (LMM), the two models for binary data are not subsumed under a single hierarchical model. The marginal model provides group-level information whereas the random intercepts model provides individual-level information including information about heterogeneity of growth. It is shown how a type of numerical averaging can be used with the random intercepts model to obtain group-level information, thus approximating individual and marginal aspects of the LMM. The types of inferences associated with each model are illustrated with longitudinal criminal offending data based on N = 506 males followed over a 22-year period. Violent offending indexed by official records and self-report were analyzed, with the marginal model estimated using generalized estimating equations and the random intercepts model estimated using maximum likelihood. The results show that the numerical averaging based on the random intercepts can produce prediction curves almost identical to those obtained directly from the marginal model parameter estimates. The results provide a basis for contrasting the models and the estimation procedures and key features are discussed to aid in selecting a method for empirical analysis.     

DEN INRE VÄRLDEN OCH DESS SPRÅK

The uncanny presupposes a familiar reality from which standpoint the uncanny is perceived. It is argued that the uncanny plays a substantial rôle in the writings of H. C. Andersen. However this rôle is in the service of the familiar and pleasant. The subject is illustrated by two themes in H. C. Andersen's texts: “Manslaughter” and “The uncanny cave”.     

Patient‐focused research supported practices in an intensive family therapy unit

The aim of this study is to explain how families evaluate and describe the use of two measures, the session rating scale and the outcome rating scale, in order to monitor therapeutic work. This study is methodologically based on modifications of methodical hermeneutics and consensual qualitative research. The results confirm the feasibility of these scales although some difficulties were identified. The analysis of the family interviews identified four conversational processes: communicating, focusing, structuring and exploration. These arise through the application of the scales, indicating their usefulness as conversational tools. In general, it is suggested that all the measurements and tools applied can be seen as therapeutic tools that are especially useful for establishing conversations and strengthening collaboration between service users and therapists. This brings the practice of monitoring therapeutic work into close contact with postmodern‐oriented forms of therapy.     

‘In Earlier Days Everyone Could Discipline Children,Now They Have Rights’: Caregiving Dilemmas of Guidance and Control in Urban Tanzania

Caregiving practices in Tanzania are potentially affected by socio‐demographic change such as urbanization and globalization. The aim of this study is to explore adult caregivers' discourses regarding the responsibility of caregiving, related to guidance and control of children in Tanzania. Data was collected in focus group discussions with parents and grandparents in an urban area of Tanzania. The analysis found two interpretative repertoires: guidance and control as a community matter and guidance and control as a family matter. These repertoires are related to responsibility and to an ideological dilemma regarding parental authority and individual's rights. The findings are discussed in relation to the tendency to polarize between ideologically traditional versus modern societies. This illustrates how lived ideology of caregiving responsibility is historically and socially situated, in the local context and how the spread of Children's Rights ideology needs to be understood in this context. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.