Effects of Mindfulness-Based Therapy for Cancer Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

This meta-analysis was a systematic review of evidence on the effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) on quality of life (QOL), pain, fatigue, anxiety, and depression in cancer patients. Until July 2020, PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Embase were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs). The study included 18 RCTs. The MBSR/MBCT intervention resulted in a significant effect on QOL (SMD 0.80, CI 0.28, 1.32, I²?=?94%). In subgroup analysis, MBSR/MBCT interventions had a significant effect in the early cancer stage on anxiety (SMD ? 3.48, CI ? 4.07, ? 2.88), and QOL (SMD 4.30, CI 3.62, 4.99); in alleviating decreasing pain (SMD ? 0.42, CI ? 0.70, ? 0.14) within 4 weeks after the end of intervention, and alleviating fatigue in younger participants (SMD ? 0.64, CI ? 1.09, ? 0.19). MBSR/MBCT has short-term effects on cancer patients, especially in younger patients and early cancer stages.

     

The Dynamics of Intragroup Differentiation in an Intergroup Social Context

Status hierarchies typically emerge when groups of strangers interact. Relatively little work tests explanations for this process in homogenous groups, and the majority has been conducted in intragroup settings. We test an expectation‐states explanation in an intergroup context using the multilevel application of the actor–partner interdependence model. Participants (N= 48) discussed capital punishment in gender‐homogenous 6‐person groups containing 3 pro– and 3 anti–capital punishment adherents. The more speakers directed turns and proactive behavior at the outgroup than the ingroup, the higher they emerged in status. Further, high‐ but not low‐status group members obtained more successful interruptions by being proactive, but more unsuccessful interruptions by being reactive. Socioemotional standing in the group was an inverted‐U function of participation. Those higher on socioemotional standing also directed relatively less reactive behavior at the outgroup than the ingroup. The findings suggest that intragroup differentiation is subtly yet powerfully affected by status expectations and the intergroup context. Instructions for running these models in SAS and SPSS are appended.     

Retrieval‐induced forgetting of emotional and unemotional autobiographical memories

This experiment extended the retrieval‐induced forgetting (RIF) procedure from simple, episodic information to emotional and unemotional autobiographical memories. In the elicitation phase, participants generated specific memories from their past in response to negative, neutral, or positive category cues. In the retrieval‐practice phase, they practised retrieving (and elaborated further on) some of the memories for some of the categories. In the final test phase, they tried to recall all memories. Memories that received retrieval practice were recalled more often on final test than baseline memories, whereas memories that were not practised, yet competed with practised memories via a shared category cue, were recalled less often than baseline memories. We discuss the roles of inhibition, competition, emotion, and self‐relevance, and consider what laboratory manipulations of memory might reveal about everyday and pathological personal memory.     

Predicting Suicide Attempts among Treatment‐Seeking Male Alcoholics: An Exploratory Study

Documented risk factors for suicide among alcohol‐dependent patients are sensitive but insufficiently specific to effectively identify individuals who are prone to future suicide attempt. As a first step to assess factors not previously considered, this pilot study involved a group of male alcohol‐dependent patients (N = 175) coming to detoxification to examine the potential utility of adverse childhood experiences (ACE) along with other documented events to discriminate individuals with a history of attempted suicide from their detoxifying peers. Family health history questionnaires were used to evaluate their ACEs. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was applied to examine the predictive power of ACEs, alone or in combination with documented risk factors, to lifetime history of attempted suicide. Among our participants, 48 (27.4%) had a history of a suicide attempt and 156 (89.1%) reported at least one out of the nine categories of ACEs. Modeling by ROC analysis, we found that a cutoff of four or more ACEs plus a history of personal violence achieved the best predictive power to a history of any suicide attempt, producing a sensitivity of 0.7, specificity of 0.81, and area under curve of 0.75. A prospective study to replicate and extend our findings is necessary.     

The role of executive function in reading comprehension among beginning readers

Empirical evidence supports the importance of executive function (EF) in reading, but the underlying mechanism through which EF contributes to the reading process is unclear. The present study examined the direct and indirect effects of EF on reading comprehension through the indirect pathway of language and cognitive skills (i.e., syntactic awareness and text-connecting inferencing) among the beginning readers. The sample included one hundred and sixty-five 2^nd and 3^rd grade students. The participants were tested on working memory (visuospatial working memory and verbal working memory) and inhibition (prepotent response inhibition and cognitive inhibition), and their syntactic awareness, inference-making, and reading comprehension. The unitary EF construct was obtained by means of confirmatory factor analysis based on the structure of EF in middle childhood suggested in developmental studies. Structural equation modelling was used to examine the direct and indirect effects of EF on the reading outcome. The findings indicated that EF has a direct effect on reading comprehension among the beginning readers. The indirect pathway showed that EF supports the ability to evaluate on grammatical structure of sentences (i.e., syntactic awareness) during reading. However, the indirect effect of EF on reading via inference-making ability is insignificant. The findings highlight the contributions of EF to reading and provide empirical evidence to the hypothetical relation between EF and language skills suggested in DIER (Kim, 2020, Resarch Quarterly, 50, 459). It further extends our knowledge on the roles of EF in the reading process among the beginning readers. Future research directions are implicated as well.     

A Gricean Interpretation of Nāgārjuna’s Catuṣkoṭi and the No-Thesis View

Nāgārjuna (c. 150–250 CE), the famous founder of the Madhyamika School, proposed the positive catu?ko?i in his seminal work, Mūlamadhyamakakārikā: ‘All is real, or all is unreal, all is both real and unreal, all is neither unreal nor real; this is the graded teaching of the Buddha’. He also proposed the negative catu?ko?i: ‘“It is empty” is not to be said, nor “It is non-empty,” nor that it is both, nor that it is neither; [“empty”] is said only for the sake of instruction’ and the no-thesis view: ‘No dharma whatsoever was ever taught by the Buddha to anyone’. In this essay, I adopt Gricean pragmatics to explain the positive and negative catu?ko?i and the no-thesis view proposed by Nāgārjuna in a way that does not violate classical logic. For Nāgārjuna, all statements are false as long as the hearer understands them within a reified conceptual scheme, according to which (a) substance is a basic categorical concept; (b) substances have svabhāva, and (c) names and sentences have svabhāva.     

Interpersonal–Psychological Theory,Alexithymia, and Personality Predict Suicide Ideation among Maladjusted Soldiers in Taiwan

This case–control study enrolled 226 maladjusted soldiers and 229 controls to investigate the impact of the interpersonal–psychological theory of suicide, alexithymia, personality, and childhood trauma on suicide risk among Taiwanese soldiers. Assessments included the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, Eysenck Personality Inventory, Mini‐International Neuropsychiatric Interview, and Brief Symptom Rating Scale. In addition to thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness, other risks included less extraversion with higher neuroticism, higher alexithymia, poor academic performance, domestic violence, and life‐threatening events. Our study demonstrates the interaction of the interpersonal–psychological theory and other suicide risk factors in Taiwanese soldiers.     

Relationships between Protestant Work Ethic and Work Effort in a Field Setting

Soixante-huit étudiants ont relevé leurs activatés quotidiennes pendant sept journées consécutives. Ils ont ensuite passé l'échclle de Mirels et Garrett, le "Protestant Work Ethic" datant de 1971 (P.W.E.). Les sujets qui présentent un score élevé au P.W.E. consacrent plus de temps a leurs etudes et moins à leurs loisirs (par comparaison avec ceux dont le résultat au P.W.E. est faible). Ces différences existent pour les jours ouvrés, mais pas pour le week-end.
Sixty-eight student subjects recorded their daily activities for seven consecutive days, and afterwards completed Mirels and Garrett's (1971) Protestant work ethic (PWE) scale. Compared to low PWE scorers, high PWE scorers worked longer hours on their study and spent less time on leisure. These differences occurred during weekdays but not at the weekend.