Development and validation of the Inventory of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms (IDAS)

The authors describe a new self-report instrument, the Inventory of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms (IDAS), which was designed to assess specific symptom dimensions of major depression and related anxiety disorders. They created the IDAS by conducting principal factor analyses in 3 large samples (college students, psychiatric patients, community adults); the authors also examined the robustness of its psychometric properties in 5 additional samples (high school students, college students, young adults, postpartum women, psychiatric patients) who were not involved in the scale development process. The IDAS contains 10 specific symptom scales: Suicidality, Lassitude, Insomnia, Appetite Loss, Appetite Gain, Ill Temper, Well-Being, Panic, Social Anxiety, and Traumatic Intrusions. It also includes 2 broader scales: General Depression (which contains items overlapping with several other IDAS scales) and Dysphoria (which does not). The scales (a) are internally consistent, (b) capture the target dimensions well, and (c) define a single underlying factor. They show strong short-term stability and display excellent convergent validity and good discriminant validity in relation to other self-report and interview-based measures of depression and anxiety.     

Language development in Down syndrome: from the prelinguistic period to the acquisition of literacy

Down syndrome (DS) is associated with abnormalities in multiple organ systems and a characteristic phenotype that includes numerous behavioral features. Language, however, is among the most impaired domains of functioning in DS and, perhaps, also the greatest barrier to independent meaningful inclusion in the community. In this article, we review what is known about the extent, nature, and correlates of the language and related problems of individuals with Down syndrome. In doing so, we focus largely on the syndrome-specific features of the language phenotype, although we also consider within-syndrome variation. The review focuses on the prelinguistic foundations of language and the major components of language (i.e., vocabulary, syntax, and pragmatics). We also consider two topics in the treatment and education of individuals with DS: prelinguistic communication intervention and the acquisition of literacy skills.     

Spiritual and religious experiences of adolescent psychiatric inpatients versus healthy peers

One hundred twenty-two adolescent psychiatric inpatients with depressive disorders and 80 healthy peers were administered the INSPIRIT, a measure of core spiritual experiences. Healthy adolescents reported a greater frequency of spiritual experiences and a more positive impact of such experiences on their belief in God than did their inpatient peers. Adolescent inpatients reported higher frequencies of experiencing angels, demons, God or guiding spirits; feeling unity with the earth and other living things; and with near death or life after death as compared to healthy peers. Overall, females reported higher frequency of spiritual experiences and higher impact of the experience on their belief in God than did males. It was concluded that the INSPIRIT is a feasible spiritual assessment tool for adolescent populations and may be used by chaplains as a means for guiding clinical conversations with adolescents.     

Functional brain organization of working memory in adolescents varies in relation to family income and academic achievement

Working memory (WM) capacity reflects executive functions associated with performance on a wide range of cognitive tasks and education outcomes, including mathematics achievement, and is associated with dorsolateral prefrontal and parietal cortices. Here we asked if family income is associated with variation in the functional brain organization of WM capacity among adolescents, and whether that variation is associated with performance on a statewide test of academic achievement in mathematics. Participants were classified into higher‐income and lower‐income groups based on family income, and performed a WM task with a parametric manipulation of WM load (N‐back task) during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Behaviorally, the higher‐income group had greater WM capacity and higher mathematics achievement scores. Neurally, the higher‐income group showed greater activation as a function of WM load in bilateral prefrontal, parietal, and other regions, although the lower‐income group exhibited greater activation at the lowest load. Both groups exhibited positive correlations between parietal activations and mathematics achievement scores, but only the higher‐income group exhibited a positive correlation between prefrontal activations and mathematics scores. Most of these findings were maintained when higher‐ and lower‐income groups were matched on WM task performance or nonverbal IQ. Findings indicate that the functional neural architecture of WM varies with family income and is associated with education measures of mathematics achievement.     

Ethical Behavioral Intention in an Academic Setting: Models and Predictors

This study examines the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and the multidimensional ethics scale (MES). Variables from both are included to determine which ones significantly correlate with student ethical behavioral intention in an academic setting. Using a survey, responses are collected from undergraduate business students from two southwestern universities in the United States using a scenario-based approach, looking at individual situations and group situations. SmartPLS was used to assess the results for four scenarios. From the theory of planned behavior, attitude was a significant predictor of behavioral intention across all four scenarios while subjective norm was significant in one scenario. From the multidimensional ethics scale, moral equity and relativism were significant in one group scenario while moral equity and utilitarianism were each significant in an individual scenario. The findings indicate support for the use of the TPB and the MES when exploring ethics in an academic setting and for the need to study both individual and group situations. A discussion of the findings and implications is given.     

DISCOUNTING OF DELAYED FOOD REWARDS IN PIGEONS AND RATS: IS THERE A MAGNITUDE EFFECT?

Temporal discounting refers to the decrease in the present, subjective value of a reward as the time to its receipt increases. Results from humans have shown that a hyperbola-like function describes the form of the discounting function when choices involve hypothetical monetary rewards. In addition, magnitude effects have been reported in which smaller reward amounts are discounted more steeply than larger amounts. The present research examines the cross-species generality of these findings using real rewards, namely food pellets, with both pigeons and rats. As with humans, an adjusting amount procedure was used to estimate the amount of immediate reward judged equal in value to a delayed reward. Different amounts of delayed food rewards (ranging from 5 to 32 pellets in pigeons and from 5 to 20 pellets in rats) were studied at delays varying from 1 s to 32 s. A simple hyperbola, similar to the hyperbola-like mathematical function that describes the discounting of hypothetical monetary rewards in humans, described the discounting of food rewards in both pigeons and rats. These results extend the generality of the mathematical model of discounting. Rates of discounting delayed food rewards were higher for pigeons than for rats. Unlike humans, however, neither pigeons nor rats showed a reliable magnitude effect: Rate of discounting did not vary systematically as a function of the amount of the delayed reward.     

Haunted by parents--a literary example of change meaning loss: Edna St. Vincent Millay

The author uses the life and personal history of the poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, as revealed through her diaries and letters and in biographies, to illustrate a particular type of psychoanalytic patient. Such patients are resistant to change, particularly when it involves letting go of the internalization of early parental figures. Although some of these patients fail to achieve successful analytic outcomes, Millay is an example of someone with similar circumstances who nevertheless made significant creative contributions.