Perspectives of people with mental health problems at hot spots: Attitudes and perceptions of safety,crime, and the police

People who live in places with high levels of crime and disorder are more likely to experience mental illness compared with those who do not live in these types of place (Weisburd et al., 2018; Weisburd & White, 2019). The increased police presence on high crime streets may also increase the likelihood that these individuals will encounter law enforcement. There is a strong body of literature focused on the relationship between neighborhoods and the physical and mental health of residents (e.g. Arcaya et al., 2016; Duncan & Kawachi, 2018; Leventhal & Brooks‐Gunn, 2003), but there are very few studies that look at the perceptions of people with mental illness directly, particularly as they relate to the environment of the street on which they live and attitudes toward the police. In turn, existing studies generally look at the most serious mental health problems (e.g. schizophrenia), ignoring more common mental health concerns such as post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. This paper uses self‐report data from a large in‐person survey of people who live on crime hot spot and non‐hot spot streets in order to assess attitudes among a broader group of persons with mental health problems. Furthermore, we examine the interaction between living in crime hot spots and non‐hot spots and perceptions of these residents. Our findings in this broader sample confirm earlier studies that identify greater fear and less trust of the police among persons with mental illnesses. At the same time, our findings suggest that fear of crime and perceptions of police are moderated by living in a crime hot spot.     

Attention bias for social threat in youth with tic disorders: Links with tic severity and social anxiety

Many individuals with Tourette syndrome and chronic tic disorders (TS/CTDs) report poor social functioning and comorbid social anxiety. Yet limited research has investigated the role of cognitive factors that highlight social threats in youth with TS/CTD, and whether these biases underlie tic severity and co-occurring social anxiety. This study examined whether selective attention to social threat is enhanced young people with TS/CTDs compared to healthy controls, and whether attention biases are associated with tic severity and social anxiety. Twenty seven young people with TS/CTDs and 25 matched control participants completed an experimental measure of attention bias toward/away from threat stimuli. A clinician-rated interview measuring tic severity/impairment (YGTSS Total Score) and questionnaire measures of social anxiety were completed by participants and their parents. Young people with TS/CTD showed an attention bias to social threat words (relative to benign words) compared to controls but no such bias for social threat faces. Attention bias for social threat words was associated with increasing YGTSS Total Score and parent-reported social anxiety in the TS/CTDs group. Mediation analysis revealed a significant indirect path between YGTSS Total Score and social anxiety, via attention to social threat. Tentatively, these associations appeared to be driven by impairment rather than tic severity scores. Preliminary data suggests that youth with TS/CTD have enhanced attention to threat, compared to controls, and this is associated with impairment and social anxiety. Attention to threat could offer a cognitive mechanism connecting impairment and social anxiety, and so be a valuable trans-diagnostic treatment target.     

You Cannot Go Home Again: A Phenomenological Investigation of Returning to the Sojourn Country After Studying Abroad

The goal of the present study was to describe the structure of the experience of individuals who returned home after studying abroad, became disillusioned with their home country, and returned to their sojourn country. Phenomenological interviews were conducted with participants. The emerging bipolar themes of conflict/peace, reality/idealization, freedom/restriction, changing/static, and comfort/discomfort were grounded in the theme of cultural comparison. Implications for counseling those who study abroad are included.     

Focus Groups: A Practical and Applied Research Approach for Counselors

Focus groups are becoming a popular research approach that counselors can use as an efficient, practical, and applied method of gathering information to better serve clients. In this article, the authors describe focus groups and their potential usefulness to professional counselors and researchers. Practical implications related to the use of focus groups in counseling practice are discussed, and case examples are provided demonstrating how focus groups can be useful to counselors.     

Metaphor,Religious Language,and Religious Experience

Is it possible to talk about God without either misrepresentation or failing to assert anything of significance? The article begins by reviewing how, in attempting to answer this question, traditional theories of religious language have failed to sidestep both potential pitfalls adequately. After arguing that recently developed theories of metaphor seem better able to shed light on the nature of religious language, it considers the claim that huge areas of our language and, consequently, of our experience are shaped by metaphors. Finally, it considers some of the more significant implications of this claim for our understanding of both religious language and religious experience.     

Adolescent development of motor imagery in a visually guided pointing task

The development of action representation during adolescence was investigated using a visually guided pointing motor task (VGPT) to test motor imagery. Forty adolescents (24 males; mean age 13.1 years) and 33 adults (15 males; mean age 27.5 years) were instructed to both execute and imagine hand movements from a starting point to a target of varying size. Reaction time (RT) was measured for both Execution (E) and Imagery (I) conditions. There is typically a close association between time taken to execute and image actions in adults because action execution and action simulation rely on overlapping neural circuitry. Further, representations of actions are governed by the same speed-accuracy trade-off as real actions, as expressed by Fitts’ Law. In the current study, performance on the VGPT in both adolescents and adults conformed to Fitts’ Law in E and I conditions. However, the strength of association between E and I significantly increased with age, reflecting a refinement in action representation between adolescence and adulthood.     

Gauging possibilities for action based on friction underfoot

Standing and walking generate information about friction underfoot. Five experiments examined whether walkers use such perceptual information for prospective control of locomotion. In particular, do walkers integrate information about friction underfoot with visual cues for sloping ground ahead to make adaptive locomotor decisions? Participants stood on low-, medium-, and high-friction surfaces on a flat platform and made perceptual judgments for possibilities for locomotion over upcoming slopes. Perceptual judgments did not match locomotor abilities: Participants tended to overestimate their abilities on low-friction slopes and underestimate on high-friction slopes (Experiments 1-4). Accuracy improved only for judgments made while participants were in direct contact with the slope (Experiment 5), highlighting the difficulty of incorporating information about friction underfoot into a plan for future actions.     

Recycling,evolution and the structure of human personality

Lower childhood cognitive ability may be a risk factor for greater cognitive decline in late life and progression to dementia. To assess variation in age-related cognitive change, it is helpful to have valid measures of cognitive ability from early life. Here, we examine the relation between childhood intelligence and cognitive change in later life in two samples, one born in 1921 and the other in 1936. All participants completed the same test of mental ability (one of the Moray House Test series) at age about 11 years, and were re-examined on Raven’s Progressive Matrices at age 77 (1921-born) or age 64 (1936-born). Where possible, the 1921 sample was re-tested at the age of about 80 years old and the 1936 sample re-tested at about 66 years. After taking into account various covariates, including sex, education and occupation, childhood intelligence was a significant predictor of cognitive change in later life. Results were in the direction that participants with lower childhood mental ability experienced relatively greater cognitive decline, whereas those of higher childhood mental ability showed improved performance. This result suggests that higher premorbid cognitive ability is protective of decline in later life.     

Is body checking in the eating disorders more closely related to diagnosis or to symptom presentation?

Body checking behaviours and cognitions are seen as underlying the core pathology of eating disorders-the over-evaluation of eating, shape and weight. While it has been demonstrated that levels of behaviours and cognitions differentiate eating-disordered women from non-eating-disordered women, little is known with regard to how these findings relate to diagnostic group. This study aimed to determine whether body checking cognitions and behaviours are best understood with regard to diagnostic category or symptom presentation. Eighty-four eating-disordered women (with diagnoses of anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder or other Eating Disorders Not Otherwise Specified) completed measures of body checking behaviours and cognitions and eating psychopathology. Results showed that different aspects of body checking were more closely associated with diagnosis and with symptom presentation. Anorexia nervosa and binge-eating-disorder patients had particularly low levels of body checking behaviours and some related cognitions. However, the belief that body checking allows one to be accurate in knowing one's weight was associated with binging and vomiting behaviours, rather than diagnosis. Future directions for research include understanding the links between body checking phenomena and neurological features. Clinical implications are discussed.     

Functional analysis and operant treatment of food guarding in a pet dog

The present study extended functional analysis (FA) methodology to human-directed resource guarding in a dog in an in-home setting. The subject underwent four conditions including control, attention, escape, and tangible, arranged in a modified FA. The results indicated multiply controlled resource guarding (i.e., escape, attention, and tangible functions). The experimenter then conducted a treatment evaluation involving three function-based treatments in a concurrent multiple baseline design. Resource guarding decreased to zero levels in treatments for each maintaining contingency. Treatment effects were maintained when the subject was tested with an owner, with an untrained handler, a highly preferred treat, in an untrained setting, as well as after 2 weeks in the absence of training. Behavior analytic techniques may hold promise for lasting behavior change for resource guarding in domestic dogs, and should be examined in other populations and with other canine problem behavior.