Neuropsychological Functioning in Danish Gulf War Veterans

Research has shown that Danish Gulf War (GW) veterans reported a significantly higher prevalence of neuropsychological symptoms than did military controls 6 years after GW deployment. To explore the possible central nervous system determinants of these complaints, neuropsychological tests were administered to stratified, random samples of the Danish cohort of 916 GW-deployed veterans and 236 non–GW-deployed participants. Multivariate analyses of covariance were used to analyze neuropsychological test outcomes among the 215 male participants (143 GW-deployed and 72 non–GW-deployed soldiers). No significant differences in neuropsychological test performances were found between the GW-deployed and non–GW-deployed groups. Troops deployed to the GW reported significantly more mood complaints (i.e., fatigue and confusion) than their nondeployed counterparts. Because they were assigned to the Gulf region during the postcombat phase, Danish GW soldiers differed from the majority of American GW-deployed troops in military assignments and possible toxicant exposures.     

Limiting logical pluralism

In this paper I argue that pluralism at the level of logical systems requires a certain monism at the meta-logical level, and so, in a sense, there cannot be pluralism all the way down. The adequate alternative logical systems bottom out in a shared basic meta-logic, and as such, logical pluralism is limited. I argue that the content of this basic meta-logic must include the analogue of logical rules Modus Ponens (MP) and Universal Instantiation (UI). I show this through a detailed analysis of the ‘adoption problem’, which manifests something special about MP and UI. It appears that MP and UI underwrite the very nature of a logical rule of inference, due to all rules of inference being conditional and universal in their structure. As such, all logical rules presuppose MP and UI, making MP and UI self-governing, basic, unadoptable, and (most relevantly to logical pluralism) required in the meta-logic for the adequacy of any logical system.

     

Heart Rate Reactivity in HAD and LAD Rats during Pavlovian Fear Conditioning

Recently, we reported that High-Alcohol-Drinking (HAD) rats exhibited selective deficits in active avoidance learning under alcohol-naive conditions, and that administration of moderate doses of alcohol (0.5 and 1.0 g/kg) facilitated learning in these rats (Blankenship et al., 2000; Rorick et al., 2003b). We hypothesized that the deficits resulted from excessive fear in the aversive learning context and that the anxiolytic properties of alcohol may have contributed to the improved learning that was observed after alcohol administration. This hypothesis was supported by a recent study in which prolonged freezing in HAD rats was seen after a classical fear conditioning procedure (Rorick et al., 2003a). To provide additional evidence that HAD rats indeed exhibit behaviors consistent with the expression of increased fear in aversive learning contexts, we employed a Pavlovian fear conditioning task to measure heart rate in HAD and Low-Alcohol-Drinking (LAD) rats. In this study, HAD (HAD-1 and HAD-2) and LAD (LAD-1 and LAD-2) rats were assigned to one of three pre-exposure conditions: Context Only, Context/Tone, or Sequential (Context Only followed by Context/Tone) Pre-Exposure. Following pre-exposure, fear conditioning acquisition and extinction procedures were identical for all groups. Results indicated that although no baseline differences were observed between HAD and LAD rats, HAD rats receiving Context-Only pre-exposure exhibited excessive heart rate reactivity to the tone conditional stimulus during fear conditioning acquisition, compared to LAD rats receiving the same pre-exposure conditions. These findings support the hypothesis that HAD rats exhibit behaviors consistent with increased fear in aversive learning contexts, as measured by autonomic conditioning.     

Family sessions as part of child psychological assessment: goals, techniques, clinical utility, and therapeutic value

Including a family session in a child assessment can significantly advance the assessor's and parents' understanding of the child's problems and enhance the likelihood that parents will follow through on recommendations after the assessment. A family session allows the assessor to observe the child in the family context, test systemic hypotheses, better understand the meaning of individual test results, and try out possible interventions. A family session may also help parents see systemic aspects of their child's problems, help the child feel less blamed, foster positive experiences among family members, and offer the family a glimpse of family therapy. We describe methods and techniques for structuring family sessions and offer guidance on preparing for and conducting such sessions depending on one's case conceptualization. Detailed case examples illustrate each technique and demonstrate the immediate and subsequent impact of family sessions as well as their therapeutic value. We also address common clinical and pragmatic issues.     

Cybercounseling in the United States and South Korea: Implications for Counseling College Students of the Millennial Generation and the Networked Generation

The National Board for Certified Counselors describes cybercounseling as the provision of some aspects of counseling through technology, via such applications as e‐mail, Web‐based information access, course registration, academic advising, and career guidance. The authors explore the characteristics of cybercounseling, describe its current use in the United States and South Korea, explore its advantages and disadvantages, and consider issues and concerns for college counselors.     

Epistemic Intuitions and Epistemic Contextualism

In this paper I examine the way appeals to pretheoretic intuition are used to support epistemological theses in general and the thesis of epistemic contextualism in particular. After outlining the sceptical puzzle and the contextualist's resolution of that puzzle, I explore the question of whether this solution fits better with our intuitive take on the puzzle than its invariantist rivals. I distinguish two kinds of fit a theory might have with pretheoretic intuitions–accommodation and explanation, and consider whether achieving either kind of fit would be a virtue for a theory. I then examine how contextualism could best claim to accommodate and explain our intuitions, building the best case that 1 can for contextualism, but concluding that there is no reason to accept contextualism either in the way it accommodates nor the way it explains our intuitions about the sceptical puzzle.     

Relating different perspectives on how outcomes of behavior influence behavior

Many researchers have tackled the question of how behavior is influenced by its outcomes. Some have adopted a nonmechanistic (functional) perspective that attempts to describe the influence of outcomes on behavior. Others have adopted a mechanistic (cognitive) perspective that attempts to explain the influence of outcomes on behavior. Orthogonal to this distinction, some have focused on the influence of outcomes that a behavior had in the past, whereas others also consider the influence of outcomes that a behavior might have in the future. In this article, we relate these different perspectives with the goal of reducing misunderstandings and fostering collaborations between researchers who adopt different perspectives on the common question of how behavior is influenced by its outcomes.     

Ethnic Diversity and the Use of Humor in Counseling: Appropriate or Inappropriate?

Humor can reflect the healthy release of feelings during the counseling process, the type of emotional release that leads to significant therapeutic gains. It can also be a disturbing distraction, possibly causing early termination, if used inappropriately. Counselors need to exert particular caution before attempting to apply humor in working with a client from a culture different from the counselor's. This article explores the available literature and offers contributions on the subject from 4 “ethnically diverse” perspectives. Finally, a general approach based on existential theory is presented along with 5 general conditions to ascertain the appropriate use of humor.     

The relationship between sex role attitudes and attitudes supporting marital violence

This study explored the relationship between attitudes toward sex roles and attitudes endorsing the legitimacy of physical force by men in the marital relationship. Approximately 40% of this sample of 300 college undergraduates were black, allowing black-white comparisons on these variables as well. The results support a sociocultural analysis of spouse abuse. A moderately strong positive relationship was found between traditional sex role preferences and attitudes supporting the use of physical force. In addition, men were found to hold more traditional sex role attitudes than women and were more likely to endorse the use of physical force in the marital relationship. Whites were found to be more traditional in their sex role attitudes than blacks, but no racial differences were found with regard to attitudes endorsing physical force. Further analysis revealed that traditional sex role attitudes were the most powerful predictor of attitudes supporting marital violence, while race and sex played a relatively unimportant role. Implications for spouse-abuse prevention program are discussed.