Psychosocial Treatments for Children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

This article reviews studies examining the efficacy of behavioral interventions for the treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). A specific emphasis is placed on evidence-based interventions that include parent training, classroom, academic, and peer interventions. Results indicate that school-aged children respond to behavioral interventions when they are appropriately implemented both at home and in the classroom setting. Combined treatments (behavioral management and stimulant medication) represent the gold standard in ADHD treatment and are often recommended as the first-line treatment option due to the many problems faced by children with ADHD. Diversity issues, although an important consideration in the treatment of ADHD, continue to remain an understudied area. Recommendations for future research are made pertaining to treatment sequencing with regard to behavior management as well as for subgroups of ADHD children who may respond best to specific treatments.     

The Predictive Utility of Narcissism among Childrenand Adolescents: Evidence for a Distinction betweenAdaptive and Maladaptive Narcissism

We examined the predictive utility of narcissism among a community sample of children and adolescents (N=98) longitudinally. Analyses focused on the differential utility between maladaptive and adaptive narcissism for predicting later delinquency. Maladaptive narcissism significantly predicted self-reported delinquency at one-, two-, and three-year follow-ups. This pattern held even when considering other intrapersonal risk factors for conduct problems (i.e., callous-unemotional traits, impulsivity), parenting practices, and when controlling for earlier conduct problems. In addition, adaptive narcissism was predictive of delinquency in the absence of positive parenting practices, with maladaptive narcissism being particularly predictive of delinquency in the presence of negative parenting. The implications for understanding delinquency in terms of the social and motivational characteristics that are the hallmark of maladaptive narcissism are discussed.     

Clinical Effectiveness of the LE<Superscript>3</Superscript>AN Program: A Military Healthy Lifestyle Program

For several decades, obesity has been a major health concern within the general population of the United States as well as within the unique military population. Unlike the civilian sector, military service requires individuals to meet weight and body fat standards. In order to assist overweight military personnel return to standards, Tripler Army Medical Center initiated the LE³AN Program. LE³AN is a one-week, day-treatment, cognitive-behavioral weight management program coupled with 12 months of weekly follow-up. Baseline data was collected on 387 consecutive participants. Despite physical fitness training and required standards in each military service, the average BMIs for men and women were in the obese range, with male participants’ BMIs significantly higher than women’s (34.3 vs 31.9, p<.005). One year outcome data was collected from 167 participants, i.e. 43.2% of treatment initiators. Among participants who completed treatment, men maintained a 6.56% loss of their initial weight while women maintained a 7.35% loss. Over a quarter, 26.6%, of those who started the program (but did not complete it) maintained at least a 5% weight loss at one year, while 61.6% of treatment completers maintained 5% weight losses. The opinions expressed in this article reflect the views of the authors and not those of the Department of Defense or the U.S. Army.     

Community Influences on Adjustment in First Grade: An Examination of an Integrated Process Model

We examined the impact of neighborhood characteristics both directly and indirectly as mediated by parent coaching and the parent/child affective relationship on behavioral and school adjustment in a sample of urban dwelling first graders. We used structural equations modeling to assess model fit and estimate direct, indirect, and total effects of neighborhood structural and social characteristics on parenting behavior and child outcomes. Observed physical incivilities in the neighborhood were associated with lower levels of parent eliciting behavior and higher levels of child behavior problems. The effects of neighborhood structural characteristics were mediated partially through neighborhood community involvement with children, which had a direct significant impact on parent eliciting behavior and an indirect effect on child behavior problems. Neighborhood community involvement with children was associated with higher levels of parent eliciting behavior and lower levels of child behavior problems. Observed physical incivilities had a significant indirect association with poor school adjustment and a marginally significant association with positive school adjustment to first grade. Neighborhood community involvement with children was more strongly associated with positive school adjustment than poor school adjustment.     

The Argument from Moral Experience

It is often said that our moral experience, broadly construed to include our ways of thinking and talking about morality, has a certain objective-seeming character to it, and that this supports a presumption in favor of objectivist theories (according to which morality is a realm of facts or truths) and against anti-objectivist theories like Mackie’s error theory (according to which it is not). In this paper, I argue that our experience of morality does not support objectivist moral theories in this way. I begin by arguing that our moral experience does not have the uniformly objective-seeming character it is typically claimed to have. I go on to argue that even if moral experience were to presuppose or display morality as a realm of fact, we would still need a reason for taking that to support theories according to which it is such a realm. I consider what I take to be the four most promising ways of attempting to supply such a reason: (A) inference to the best explanation, (B) epistemic conservatism, (C) the Principle of Credulity, and (D) the method of wide reflective equilibrium. In each case, I argue, the strategy in question does not support a presumption in favor of objectivist moral theories.

Moral Expertise and the Credentials Problem

Philosophers have harbored doubts about the possibility of moral expertise since Plato. I argue that irrespective of whether moral experts exist, identifying who those experts are is insurmountable because of the credentials problem: Moral experts have no need to seek out others’ moral expertise, but moral non-experts lack sufficient knowledge to determine whether the advice provided by a putative moral expert in response to complex moral situations is correct and hence whether an individual is a bone fide expert. Traditional accounts of moral expertise require that moral experts give reliably correct moral advice supported by adequate justification, an account which, I argue, is too lean in allowing for the possibility of a moral expert who is motivationally indifferent to her own moral judgments and advice. Yet even if the proposition that a moral expert is an individual who provides reliably correct moral advice supported by adequate justification and is necessarily motivated by that advice exhausts the necessary and sufficient conditions for moral expertise, this proposition cannot function as an applicable criterion for non-experts to use in appraising would-be experts’ claims to expertise. The credentials problem thus remains unanswered.

An Integrated View of Empathy: Psychology,Philosophy, and Neuroscience

In this paper, we will examine and untangle a conflict mainly between a developmental psychologist, Martin Hoffman and a social psychologist, Daniel Batson. According to Hoffman, empathic distress, a vicarious feeling through empathy, is transformed into an altruistic motivation. Batson and others on the other hand, criticize Hoffman, claiming that empathic altruism has no relation with empathic distress. We will point out some problems with Batson’s position by referring to the results of fMRI experiments that suggest empathic distress and empathic altruism share a common basis, and defend Hoffman’s argument. This will also offer new insights into the evolution of empathy.

Authority relationships between obedience and disobedience

Recent episodes of public dissent (such as the demonstrations against G8 policies) raise the issue of the psychological processes triggered in obeying and disobeying the authority. Even if obedience to authority is an important aspect of social life and it plays a key role in maintaining social order, the concept of obedience has been studied in social psychology mainly in terms of its destructive aspects. Besides, most of the studies have overlooked the role of disobedience in the authority relationship. Disobedience may be conceived of as a protest that undermines the legitimacy of the authority or it can represent an instrument for controlling the legitimacy of the authority's demands, becoming a factor protecting against authoritarianism. In this article, a new perspective on the study of the relationship between the individual and the authority is put forward, considering obedience and disobedience as parallel concepts, each having constructive and destructive aspects.     

Dirty work, clean hands: The moral psychology of indirect agency

When powerful people cause harm, they often do so indirectly through other people. Are harmful actions carried out through others evaluated less negatively than harmful actions carried out directly? Four experiments examine the moral psychology of indirect agency. Experiments 1A, 1B, and 1C reveal effects of indirect agency under conditions favoring intuitive judgment, but not reflective judgment, using a joint/separate evaluation paradigm. Experiment 2A demonstrates that effects of indirect agency cannot be fully explained by perceived lack of foreknowledge or control on the part of the primary agent. Experiment 2B indicates that reflective moral judgment is sensitive to indirect agency, but only to the extent that indirectness signals reduced foreknowledge and/or control. Experiment 3 indicates that effects of indirect agency result from a failure to automatically consider the potentially dubious motives of agents who cause harm indirectly. Experiment 4 demonstrates an effect of indirect agency on purchase intentions.     

Mysteries of morality

Evolutionary theories of morality, beginning with Darwin, have focused on explanations for altruism. More generally, these accounts have concentrated on conscience (self-regulatory mechanisms) to the neglect of condemnation (mechanisms for punishing others). As a result, few theoretical tools are available for understanding the rapidly accumulating data surrounding third-party judgment and punishment. Here we consider the strategic interactions among actors, victims, and third-parties to help illuminate condemnation. We argue that basic differences between the adaptive problems faced by actors and third-parties indicate that actor conscience and third-party condemnation are likely performed by different cognitive mechanisms. Further, we argue that current theories of conscience do not easily explain its experimentally demonstrated insensitivity to consequences. However, these results might be explicable if conscience functions, in part, as a defense system for avoiding third-party punishment. If conscience serves defensive functions, then its computational structure should be closely tailored to the details of condemnation mechanisms. This possibility underscores the need for a better understanding of condemnation, which is important not only in itself but also for explaining the nature of conscience. We outline three evolutionary mysteries of condemnation that require further attention: third-party judgment, moralistic punishment, and moral impartiality.