Differentiating Adolescent Suicide Attempters from Ideators: Examining the Interaction between Depression Severity and Alcohol Use

Depressed mood, frequency of alcohol use, and their combination were examined to see if they differentiated nonsuicidal adolescents from those with suicidal ideation and adolescents with suicidal ideation from those who have made a suicide attempt. Hierarchical logistic regressions indicated that frequency of alcohol use did not differentiate nonsuicidal adolescents from those with current suicidal ideation, but severity of depressed mood did so. In contrast, alcohol use was a significant differentiating factor between adolescents who had attempted suicide compared to those with suicidal ideation only, with severity of depressed mood not being significant. However, there was also a significant interaction effect such that for adolescents with suicidal ideation and low levels of depression, increased frequency of alcohol use was associated with increased odds of a suicide attempt. These findings suggest that alcohol use may hasten the transition from suicidal ideation to suicide attempt in adolescents with low levels of depressed mood.     

Healing Principles: A Model for the Use of Ritual in Psychotherapy

The author presents a model, based on 5 healing principles (i.e., centering, assessment, gathering energy, directing energy, and gratitude and closure), for using ritual in psychotherapy. Application of the model is illustrated in a case study of a neopagan ritual designed to assist the client in strengthening her sense of self, differentiating from her mother, and making a career decision. The author also suggests using the Healing Principle Ritual Therapy Model with other belief systems.     

Active hippocampus during nonconscious memories

The hippocampal formation is known for its importance in conscious, declarative memory. Here, we report neuroimaging evidence in humans for an additional role of the hippocampal formation in nonconscious memory. We maskedly presented combinations of faces and written professions such that subjects were not aware of them. Nevertheless, the masked presentations activated many of the brain regions that unmasked presentations of these stimuli did. To induce a nonconscious retrieval of the faces and face-associated occupational information, subjects were instructed to view the previously masked faces and to guess the professional category of each person--academic, artist, and workman. Guessing the professional category of previously masked versus new faces activated the left and right hippocampal formation and right perirhinal cortex as well as bilateral fusiform areas and fronto-temporal areas known to mediate the retrieval of semantic information. These activations within the semantic processing system suggest that conceptual knowledge acquired during masking was nonconsciously retrieved. Our data provide clues to an analogous role of the hippocampus in conscious and nonconscious memory.     

Predicting Suicidal Tendencies Among High Risk Youth With the General Theory of Crime

This study examines whether suicidal tendencies among a group of juveniles who have come to the attention of Child Protective Services can be predicted by self-control theory. Using data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being, we find that self-control predicts suicidal tendencies. In addition, the effect of self-control remains significant even when controlling for the juveniles’ depression and previously reported suicidal thoughts and behaviors. This study lends further support to the claim that self-control serves as a general explanation for a wide range of problematic outcomes. In addition, these findings provide caseworkers with another tool for assessing the risk of suicide among high risk youth.     

LMX,Breach Perceptions,Work-Family Conflict,and Well-Being: A Mediational Model

Despite research advances, work-family scholars still lack an understanding of how leadership constructs relate to an employee's ability to effectively manage the work–family interface. In addition, there remains a need to examine the process through which leadership and work-family conflict influence well-being outcomes. Using a sample of 312 workers, a mediated process model grounded in social exchange theory is tested wherein the authors seek to explain how leaders shape employee perceptions, which, in turn, impact organizational fulfillment of expectations (i.e., psychological contract breach), work-family conflict, and well-being. A fully latent structural equation model was used to test study hypotheses, all of which were supported. Building on existing theory, findings suggest that the supervisor plays a critical role as a frontline representative for the organization and that work-family conflict is reduced and well-being enhanced through a process of social exchange between the supervisor and worker.     

Adolescent girls' interpersonal vulnerability to depressive symptoms: a longitudinal examination of reassurance-seeking and peer relationships

A transactional, interpersonal framework involving adolescents' reassurance-seeking and peer experiences may be useful for understanding the emergence of gender differences in depression prevalence during the adolescent transition. Sociometric nominations of peer acceptance/rejection and ratings of friendship quality provided by adolescents and their friends were used to measure peer experiences among 6th-8th-grade adolescents (N=520) over 3 annual time points. After controlling for age and pubertal development, significant but small prospective effects offered mixed support for hypotheses: (a) depressive symptoms and negative peer relations predicted increasing levels of girls' reassurance-seeking; (b) initial levels of reassurance-seeking and depressive symptoms predicted deteriorating friendship quality among girls and low friendship stability, respectively; and (c) reassurance-seeking combined with poor peer experiences predicted increases in girls' depressive symptoms.     

The role of dopamine in reinforcement: changes in reinforcement sensitivity induced by D1-type, D2-type, and nonselective dopamine receptor agonists

Dose-dependent changes in sensitivity to reinforcement were found when rats were treated with low, moderate, and high doses of the partial dopamine D1-type receptor agonist SKF38393 and with the nonselective dopamine agonist apomorphine, but did not change when rats were treated with similar doses of the selective dopamine D2-type receptor agonist quinpirole. Estimates of bias did not differ significantly across exposure to SKF38393 or quinpirole, but did change significantly at the high dose of apomorphine. Estimates of goodness of fit (r2) did not change significantly during quinpirole exposure. Poor goodness of fit was obtained for the high doses of SKF38393 and apomorphine. Decrements in absolute rates of responding were observed at the high dose of quinpirole and at the moderate and high doses of SKF38393 and apomorphine. Changes in r2 and absolute responding may be due to increases in stereotyped behavior during SKF38393 and apomorphine exposure that, in contrast to quinpirole, were distant from the response lever. The present data provide evidence that sensitivity to reward is affected more strongly by dopamine D1-like receptors rather than D2-like receptors, consistent with evidence from other studies investigating consummatory dopamine behavior and the tonic/phasic dopamine hypothesis.     

Difference and Repetition in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Both Sitting Duet</Emphasis>

In this paper I identify and explore resonances between a contemporary dance piece – Jonathan Burrowss and Matteo Fargions Both Sitting Duet (2003) – and some theories from Gilles Deleuzes Difference and Repetition (1994). The duet consists of rhythmic, repetitive patterns of mainly hand movements performed by two men, for the most part, sitting on chairs. My argument, with Deleuze, is that the repetitions in the dance are productive rather than reductive. They are never repetitions of the same. The ways in which the hand patterns are played with constitute the multiple differences and repetitions we witness. I discuss these in relation to Deleuzes theories of repetition, specifically the ways in which repetition differs from resemblance avoiding the limitations of notions of origin and representation. I argue that, because of these differences which are bound up in the affective qualities of the duet that characterise the distinctive relationship between the two performers, the work, like Deleuzes theories, is transgressive with potential for change. I demonstrate this through its resonances with Deleuzes notions of simulacra and importantly his discussion of the Other. In the process, I aim to show how dance and philosophy can open up something of each other and, in this instance, suggest ways of thinking encounters otherwise. My aim is to foreground the transgressive potential of the extended repetition of the dance for making differences that matter between self and other.     

A feminist critique of family therapy

This paper is a feminist critique of traditional family therapy considering the cybernetic epistemology underpinning it as a particular way of seeing the family. The political implications of this way of seeing d be considered in tern of structural inequalities with a preference for, the intergroup perspective. There will be a close examination and discussion of the one parent family structure. The discussion will then move one a practical evaluation of the ecosystemic view of helping families, in particular single parent families.