Effect of attention control on sustained attention during induced anxiety

Anxiety has wide-reaching and complex effects on cognitive performance. Although it can intrude on cognition and interfere with performance, it can also facilitate information processing and behavioural responses. In a previous study, we showed that anxiety induced by threat of shock facilitates performance on the Sustained Attention to Response Task, a vigilance test, which probes response inhibition to infrequent nogo stimuli. The present study sought to identify factors that may have contributed to such improved performance, including on- and off-task thinking (assessed with thought probes) and individual differences in attention control, as measured with the Attention Control Scale. Replicating our prior finding, we showed that shock threat significantly reduced errors of commission on the nogo trials. However, we extended this finding in demonstrating that this effect was driven by subjects with low attention control. We therefore confirm that anxiety increases inhibitory control of prepotent responses—a mechanism which is adaptive under threat—and show that this effect is greater in those who rely more upon such prepotent responding, i.e., those with low attentional control.     

Validation of a Standardized Multiple‐Choice Multicultural Competence Test: Implications for Training,Assessment, and Practice

The Multicultural Counseling and Psychotherapy Test (MCPT), a measure of multicultural counseling competence (MCC), was validated in 2 phases. In Phase 1, the authors administered 451 test items derived from multicultural guidelines in counseling and psychology to 32 multicultural experts and 30 nonexperts. In Phase 2, the authors administered the top 50 discriminative items to licensed mental health professionals (N = 227) and compared MCPT scores to external indicators of MCC. Evidence was found for the construct validity and internal consistency reliability of the MCPT. El Test de Consejería Multicultural y Psicoterapia (MCPT, por sus siglas en inglés), una medida de la competencia en consejería multicultural (MCC, por sus siglas en inglés) fue validado en dos fases. En la Fase 1, los autores administraron 451 elementos del test derivados de las pautas multiculturales en consejería y psicología a 32 expertos multiculturales y 30 no expertos. En la Fase 2, los autores administraron los 50 elementos más discriminativos a profesionales licenciados de la salud mental (N = 227) y compararon los puntajes del MCPT con indicadores externos de MCC. Se hallaron evidencias de la validez del constructo y la fiabilidad de la consistencia interna del MCPT.     

Highly Skilled Migrants’ Strong Ties with Their Home Country: Evidence from Filipinos in New Zealand and Australia

This paper provides empirical evidence of the “embedded connectedness” of highly skilled migrants with their home country through the Philippine case in New Zealand and Australia. This challenges the findings in other studies that show the weak connection between them and the home country which is generally explored more in terms of economic remittances. While the majority of the participants in the study are already citizens of the host country, they remain emotionally tied and culturally connected to the Philippines as evidenced by their information-seeking behaviour, feeling of nostalgia, sending of remittances, taking of dual citizenship, attendance in Philippine-related events and the country they perceived as home. One interesting finding in the study is that most of them have taken citizenship for pragmatic reasons, that is, for the benefits and security that it could bring them. It concludes by emphasising the relevance of capitalising on these strong diasporic ties to entice the skilled diaspora to return to their home country and/or be involved in development activities back home.     

Identity-Related Dysfunction: Integrating Clinical and Developmental Perspectives

Recent changes to the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders highlight the importance of identity dysfunction within several psychiatric diagnoses. Despite a long-standing tradition of identity research and theory in the developmental literature, there is limited work establishing intersections between clinical and developmental conceptualizations of identity problems. The relative lack of integration between decades of clinical and developmental work is unfortunate, and likely limits progress in both areas. In this commentary, the authors argue for greater interdisciplinary collaboration and highlight contributions from developmental and clinical theories, which, if integrated, could enhance identity scholarship. The developmental psychopathology perspective is introduced as an ideal framework to promote these goals.     

Hermeneutics and the capabilities approach: a thick heuristic tool for a thin normative standard of well-being

This paper argues for the way in which the hermeneutics of human action (in particular the technical dimension of action) and the capabilities approach are to be coordinated in judgements regarding the happy life or well-being. To ensure that this hypothesis is not only philosophically plausible but practically reasonable, I apply it throughout to practical examples, namely practices related to the arrangement of space. I argue that judgement regarding happiness or well-being requires two distinct forms of reflection: (1) a hermeneutics (here derived from Ric?ur) that can do justice to the thickness (in Geertz's sense) of human living and (2) a thin standard (in Walzer's sense) of universal human functional capabilities, by which to point out which insufficient conditions for action undermine human well-being (here presented according to Nussbaum's version of the capabilities approach). These two forms of reflection, it will be argued, are theoretically compatible, yet remain – in practice – in tension. Recognition of this tension has to accompany responsible judgement.     

Correlation between functional mobility and cognitive performance in older adults with cognitive impairment

Association between cognitive impairment and gait performance occurs in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer‘s disease (AD), particularly under “divided attention” conditions, leading to a greater risk of falls. We studied 36 controls, 42 MCI, and 26 mild AD patients, using the Timed Up-and-Go test (TUG) under four conditions: TUG single – TUG1; TUG cognitive – TUG2; TUG manual –TUG3; TUG cognitive and manual – TUG4. Cognition was assessed using the MMSE, SKT, Exit25, and TMT (A and B). We found significant correlations between cognitive scores and TUG2 [r values (MMSE: –0.383, TMT-A: 0.430, TMT-B: 0.386, Exit25: 0.455, SKT: 0.563)] and TUG4 [(MMSE: –0.398, TMT-A: 0.384, TMT-B: 0.352,Exit25: 0.466, SKT: 0.525)] in the AD group, and between all TUG modalities and SKT in MCI and AD. Our results revealed that functional mobility impairment in cognitive dual tasks correlated to cognitive decline in AD patients and to attention and memory impairment in MCI.     

Relationship of Mindfulness to Distress and Cortisol Response in Adolescent Girls At-Risk for Type 2 Diabetes

Altered stress response theoretically contributes to the etiology of cardiometabolic disease. Mindfulness may be a protective buffer against the effects of stress on health outcomes by altering how individuals evaluate and respond to stress. We engaged adolescent girls at risk for developing Type 2 diabetes in a cold-pressor test in order to determine the relationship of dispositional mindfulness to cortisol response and subjective stress, including perceived pain and unpleasantness during the stressor, and negative affect following the stressor. We also evaluated mindfulness as a moderator of psychological distress (depressive/anxiety symptoms) and stress response. Participants were 119 girls age 12–17 years with overweight/obesity, family history of diabetes, and mild-to-moderate depressive symptoms. Greater mindfulness was associated with less perceived pain and negative affect, but was unrelated to cortisol response to the stressor. Regardless of mindfulness, greater depressive/anxiety symptoms related to a more blunted cortisol response. Mindfulness might promote better distress tolerance in adolescents at risk for diabetes by altering how youth perceive and relate to acute stress, rather than through altering the physiological stress response. At all levels of mindfulness, depressive/anxiety symptoms relate to greater blunting of cortisol response. Findings contribute to emerging literature on the role of mindfulness in promoting the mental and physical health and well-being of individuals at risk for Type 2 diabetes.     

Far from “Anything Goes”: Ethics as Communally Constructed

Constructivist and constructionist stances have long been critiqued for inviting “anything goes,” otherwise referred to as “rampant relativism.” As Raskin and Debany (this issue Raskin, J. D., &; Debany, A. E. (this issue). The inescapability of ethics and the impossibility of “anything goes”: A constructivist model of ethical meaning making. Journal of Constructivist Psychology. (Reprinted from Ethics in action: Dialogue between knowledge and practice, pp. 13–32, by S. Cipolletta &; E. Gius (Eds.), 2012, Milan, Italy: LED) [Google Scholar]) argue, there could be nothing further from the case. In my response to their article, I take up three issues: (a) the distinction between constructivism and social construction, (b) the critique of rampant relativism, and (c) the case for an ethic of relational responsibility that emerges within a constructionist philosophical stance.     

Stigma Towards Homosexuality and AIDS Among Students of a Large Hispanic-Serving University

Homosexuality and AIDS-related stigma lead to failures in testing, disclosure of HIV status, and treatment for HIV. This study explored stigma towards AIDS and homosexuality among students of a large Hispanic-serving university in the southeastern United States (US). An online anonymous survey was emailed to 8000 randomly selected students. Two multiple choice questions about attitudes towards a professor with AIDS and a gay classmate were analyzed using Chi-square tests, simple and multivariable logistic regression to examine the association of stigma with other factors. Most (60%) of the 632 respondents were women. Only 7.8% of study participants reported stigmatizing attitudes of wanting to drop a class, sitting further away from, or feeling less comfortable in a class with a professor diagnosed with AIDS. Similarly, 7.8% of respondents would stigmatize a gay classmate by trying to avoid social contact or feeling uncomfortable talking with him. Males (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 3.71, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.95, 7.04) and non-Hispanic students (AOR 2.03, 95% CI 1.08, 3.81) had a higher—and those born in the US had a lower (AOR 0.43, 95% CI 0.23, 0.81)—odds of stigmatizing a gay classmate. No variables were significantly associated with stigmatizing attitudes towards a professor with AIDS. Stigmatizing attitudes towards a faculty member with AIDS or a gay classmate do not appear to be a major problem among students at this Hispanic-serving university. Interventions designed to further reduce gay-related stigma might focus on non-Hispanic young men who are born outside of the United States.