Comparing the Performance of Native North Americans and Predominantly White Military Recruits on Verbal and Nonverbal Measures of Cognitive Ability

This study compared the cognitive ability of adult Canadian First Nations (American Indian) aboriginals (N=101) living in remote areas to recruits (N=131) undergoing military training in the Canadian Forces. Comparisons involved both verbal and nonverbal measures: The Canadian Forces Aptitude Test (CFAT), Wonderlic Personnel Test, (WPT), Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) and Mill Hill Vocabulary (MHV) test. All measures were examined for differential test and item functioning; as well, the CFAT was analyzed for adverse impact. Confirming past research, First Nations (FNs) members scored, on average, 18 points lower in IQ estimates based on the WPT, a verbal measure of cognitive ability; however, the differences between the groups were less on the nonverbal tests: SPM (5 points lower) and the MHV (9 points lower). Differential Item Functioning (DIF) analysis detected a few items from the CFAT, SPM and MHV that displayed DIF, but none from the WPT. The SPM and WPT appear to be unbiased measures with respect to differential test functioning (DTF), once language and education are controlled. Making employment decisions solely on verbal cognitive ability test scores, however, is likely to produce adverse impact against members of FN, unless verbal ability is a bona fide occupational requirement for the positions under consideration. Both the verbal and nonverbal cognitive ability tests assessed the same latent structure suggesting that the nonverbal tests could be used in place of the verbal tests with little loss in predictive ability for occupations involving a high degree of spatial ability.     

Resilience in the Face of Catastrophe: Optimism, Personality, and Coping in the Kosovo Crisis

Optimism, personality, and coping styles may alter the effects of stressful events through appraisal and stress reduction. The 1999 Kosovo crisis offered an opportunity to test this proposition under real-life, traumatic stress conditions. Dispositional optimism, personality, and coping contributions were predicted based on geographical distance and degree of reported stress for 3 groups: Kosovar refugees, Albanian citizens helping the refugees in Albania, and Albanian immigrants living in the United States. Results showed Kosovars significantly higher on all stress measures, and on maladjustment. Reduced optimism and reduced control coping were related to higher levels of maladjustment. Pessimism and escape coping showed no relation to psychological adjustment. Resilience was related to a combination of higher optimism, extraversion, openness to experience, conscientiousness, and control coping, paired with lower neuroticism.     

"Christians! Go home": A Revival of Neo-Paganism between the Baltic Sea and Transcaucasia (An Overview)

A rapid growth of new religious movements, in terms of both their numbers and variability, was a surprising outcome of the move to democracy in post-Soviet societies. One of the movements is Neo-Paganism whose emergence paradoxically coincided with the celebration of the anniversary of the baptism of Rus 1,000 years ago and the birth of Christianity 2,000 years ago. The Neo-Pagan movements challenge Christian values--with regard to ethics, attitude towards the natural environment, view of the past, and approach towards cultural variability. The Neo-Pagan impact on Christianity in the post-Soviet lands is rooted in ethnic nationalism--a common phenomenon at the turn of the 1990s. Neo-pagans are searching for both a primordial past and a pure ethnic culture, which they view as invaluable resources to overcome the hardship and ideological vacuum of the transitional period. However, they do this in various ways and thus, various forms of Neo-Paganism manifest themselves between the Baltic Sea and Transcaucasia.     

Orthodoxy and Modernity in Cyprus: The 2006 Archepiscopal Elections in Historical Perspective

This article offers an analysis of the 2006 Archepiscopal elections of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus (OCC). It uses this analysis to develop an interpretation of the OCC's evolution over the last two centuries. Unlike other Orthodox churches, it is the laity and the clergy—through a system of proxy voting—that elect the OCC's high clergy. In the 2006 elections, the first contested elections since 1950, the contenders and the public divided into mainstream modernizers and traditionalists. The election of Chrysostomos II signifies continuation with the OCC's conventional interventionist role in the island's social, economic, and political life. The election also led to the creation of additional eparchies, which suggests the normalization of the OCC's organizational structures. These developments point to a conventional pattern of coexistence between Orthodox religious institutions and modernization. Therefore, the Cyprus case casts doubt on scholarly arguments advocating Eastern Orthodox Christianity's exceptionalism vis-à-vis Western Christianity.     

Spatial learning in pigs: effects of environmental enrichment and individual characteristics on behaviour and performance

This study investigated the effects of both environmental enrichment and individual behavioural characteristics on spatial cognitive capabilities of pigs, using a novel latent spatial learning paradigm based on Tolman’s detour experiments (1948). Pigs were housed either in ‘barren’ pens or in pens enriched with straw bedding from birth. Pigs were restrained in a Backtest at 10 and 17 days postpartum. Based on their escape behaviour in this test, which has been shown to reflect their behavioural style, six ‘high-resisting’(HR) and six ‘low-resisting’ (LR) pigs were selected from each housing environment (n = 24 in total). At 12 weeks of age, pairs of pen mates (LR and HR) were exposed to a maze three times (exploration trials). Pigs were then placed individually in the maze, and social reinstatement proved to be a strong incentive to find the exit leading to the home pen. We subsequently blocked the direct route to the exit, forcing animals to find a detour (memory test 1, MT1). This test was repeated once to investigate the relative improvement, i.e. detour learning (memory test 2, MT2). Housing condition and Backtest response strongly affected exploration patterns. In spite of this, no effects on performance during the subsequent memory tests were found. Performance was substantially improved in MT2, indicating that once a goal is apparent, pigs are able to solve a complex spatial memory task easily. In conclusion, social reinstatement provided a good incentive to complete a spatial task, and the substantial improvement in performance between MT1 and MT2 stresses the need for task complexity when testing spatial memory in pigs. Housing conditions or individual behavioural style did not affect spatial memory during MT1 or MT2. However, housing environment and behavioural style strongly affected explorative behaviour of pigs in an unfamiliar maze during both exploration trials and memory tests. This implicates that apparent effects of environmental enrichment on spatial learning and memory in pigs might reflect differences in explorative patterns rather than in cognitive processes.     

Asian Australian acculturation and attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help

Research with 112 Asian Australian university students found that adherence to Asian cultural values inversely predicted attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help. Students completed demographic questions, the Asian Values Scale, the Suinn – Lew Asian Self‐Identity Scale, (which is a measure of acculturation), and the Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale. There was a significant positive relationship between the Asian Australian students' level of behavioural acculturation and their attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help. Significant differences were found between male and female participants in their attitudes, with female participants indicating greater willingness to seek help. Results also demonstrated a significant difference in gender on acculturation level as well as a significant difference in generational status and acculturation level.     

Some Historical Conditions of Narrative Work

Written to honor the immense contribution of Michael White as a leader in the development of narrative therapy, this historical essay contrasts the origins of psychoanalysis, family therapy and narrative therapy. Changes in the understanding of therapeutic strategies, methods of training and supervision, styles of leadership, the involvement of audiences in the therapeutic and training processes, and conceptions of the nature of the mind are described. A style of direct demonstration of methods, especially of the formulation of questions, is important in narrative work. The central master-role of the therapist in analysis and family therapy is replaced in narrative work by eliciting local knowledge, and the recruitment of audiences to the work. This is consistent with narrative therapy's "de-centered" image of the therapist.     

Central executive function in mild cognitive impairment: a PET activation study

Using positron emission tomography (PET), we explored the neural correlates of an executive function, dual tasking, in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and in elderly controls. The experiment employed simple auditory and visual tasks that were presented both in isolation and simultaneously to create a task condition requiring enhanced attentional control. Behaviorally, both groups performed well, albeit the patients made more errors on the visual task. The PET analysis focused at prefrontal regions where group differences in task-related activation patterns were expected. During dual task performance, the patients showed attenuated activity in the left inferior frontal region when compared to the controls. This suggests abnormalities in the neural processes underlying attentional control in aMCI.