Early Institutionalization: Neurobiological Consequences and Genetic Modifiers

Children raised in the profound deprivation associated with institutionalization are at elevated risk for negative outcomes across a host of social and cognitive domains. This risk appears to be mitigated by early foster care or adoption into a family setting. Although pervasive developmental problems have been noted in a substantial proportion of previously institutionalized children, marked variation exists in the nature and severity of these deficits. Increasing evidence suggests that institutional deprivation impacts the developing brain, potentially underlying the wide range of outcomes with which it is associated. In the current review we examine the neural consequences of institutionalization and genetic factors associated with differences in outcome in an effort to characterize the consequences of early deprivation at a neurobiological level. Although the effects of institutional deprivation have been studied for more than 50 years much remains unanswered regarding the pathways through which institutionalization impacts child development. Through a more complete and nuanced assessment of the neural correlates of exposure and recovery as well as a better understanding of the individual factors involved we will be better able to delineate the impact of early adversity in the setting of severe social deprivation.     

Evaluation of Techniques to Promote Generalization with Basic Math Fact Skills

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effect of three procedures designed to promote the generalization of fluent responding of 12 addition facts to 12 related subtraction facts. The first procedure was completed to determine whether increases in the number of digits correct per minute computed on addition facts would generalize to related subtraction facts. If students were fluent in the targeted addition problems and no generalization was detected, a second procedure was implemented where students completed a conceptual lesson. If no generalization was observed during this phase, a third procedure was implemented where students completed addition problems presented in a cloze format. Results failed to demonstrate generalized fluency gains across any of the procedures. Discussion focuses on future directions of generalization research to further our understanding of the conditions needed for generalization to occur.     

Religion,Race, and Discrimination: A Field Experiment of How American Churches Welcome Newcomers

This article reports the results of a nationwide audit study testing how Christian churches welcome potential newcomers to their churches as a function of newcomers’ race and ethnicity. We sent email inquiries to 3,120 churches across the United States. The emails were ostensibly from someone moving to the area and looking for a new church to attend. That person's name was randomly varied to convey different racial and ethnic associations. In response to these inquiries, representatives from mainline Protestant churches—who generally embrace liberal, egalitarian attitudes toward race relations—actually demonstrated the most discriminatory behavior. They responded most frequently to emails with white‐sounding names, somewhat less frequently to black‐ or Hispanic‐sounding names, and much less to Asian‐sounding names. They also sent shorter, less welcoming responses to nonwhite names. In contrast, evangelical Protestant and Catholic churches showed little variation across treatment groups in their responses. These findings underscore the role of homophily, organizational homogeneity, and the costs of racial integration in perpetuating the racial segregation of American religious life.     

A Preliminary Investigation into the Use of Humor in Sport Psychology Practice

“Creative efforts,” such as the use of humor, have been found to be beneficial to the nurse–patient, teacher–student, and psychologist–patient alliance. Potentially humor use might benefit the working alliance in applied sport psychology, yet to date there is limited research. Sport psychology consultants (n?=?55) completed an online survey that explored humor use within their practice. Statistical analyses revealed that most participants used humor for adaptive purposes such as to facilitate the working alliance, reinforce knowledge, and create healthy learning environments. Therefore, possible client change is likely to be facilitated by practitioners’ personal qualities and skills such as humor use and humor style. Recommendations are made for sport psychology practitioners in relation to humor use and further research. Increasing recognition has been given to the importance of the professional relationship between the client and practitioner within sport psychology consultancy as a means of facilitating client change. The present study demonstrated that use of humor by practitioners is an important part of enhancing the professional relationship and therefore potentially client change.

Lay Summary: Increasing recognition has been given to the importance of the professional relationship between the client and practitioner within sport psychology consultancy as a means of facilitating client change. The present study demonstrated that use of humor by practitioners is an important part of enhancing the professional relationship, and therefore potentially client change.     

Impulse-control disorders in Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by bradykinesia, rigidity, postural instability, and resting tremor. Increasingly, Parkinson's disease has been associated with a broad spectrum of non-motor symptoms, such as olfactory loss, sleep disorders, autonomic dysfunction, cognitive impairment, psychosis, depression, anxiety, and apathy. In addition, a minority of Parkinson's disease patients develop compulsive behaviors while receiving dopamine-replacement therapy, including medication hoarding, pathological gambling, binge eating, hyperlibidinous behavior, compulsive shopping, and punding. These behaviors may result in psychosocial impairment for patients and therapeutic challenges for clinicians. This article reviews the anatomic substrates, behavioral spectrum, associated factors, and potential treatments for dopamine-replacement therapy-related compulsions in Parkinson's disease.     

Subjective well-being in urban adolescents of color

Relationships among predictors and criteria of subjective well-being were examined in a sample of 151 urban adolescents of color, ages 12-15. The relative strengths of family, peer, and school-related support and esteem in predicting three measures of subjective well-being (life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect) were explored. Results suggested that sense of worth in one's family explained a significant amount of variance in subjective well-being variables, above and beyond the contributions of individual, school, and peer-related variables. Implications for prevention and mental health promotion with urban adolescents of color are discussed based on these findings.     

Determining individual preschoolers' preferences in a group arrangement

This study sought to determine the accuracy of an assessment format in which selection outcomes were delayed and probabilistic; these are unavoidable features of an assessment designed to determine preferences of multiple children simultaneously. During the single arrangement, preference hierarchies were established by having a child repeatedly select from among several foods and by sequentially restricting preferred items from the array. After being taught the associations between colored cards and the same food items, group assessments were conducted with 3 children simultaneously, in which each child chose a card and all children received the food correlated with a randomly selected card from those that had just been selected. The group assessment appeared to be accurate and perhaps more efficient for determining preferences; thus, we posit that this arrangement is suitable for determining context preferences of multiple children simultaneously.