Immediate and Latent Interlimb Transfer of Gait Stability Adaptation Following Repeated Exposure to Slips

The authors trained 21 participants by using blocked-and-mixed exposure to right-side slips and then caused them to slip unexpectedly on the untrained left side. Authors retested participants with a right slip and a left slip at 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month, and 4 months. The authors found that preslip stability on the first untrained left slip improved and was significantly greater than that on the first right slip, which probably contributed to the reduction in incidence of falls from ~30% to ~10%. Postslip stability and base of support (BOS) slip velocity were similar to those on the first right slip and much lower than those on the last right slip. Increases in pre- and postslip stabilities and BOS slip velocity during the left slip led to reductions in backward balance loss (BLOB) from ~95% on initial left slip to ~60% and to ~25% on the 1st and 3rd retest sessions, respectively. In contrast, BLOB remained at a constant ~40% level on the right slip of the same retest sessions. The results indicate a partial immediate transfer and a possible latent transfer.     

Pandora's box: An investigation of essay anxiety in adolescents

Abstract

This paper is an investigation into possible causes of essay anxiety experienced by adolescent students. The three students are presented as being representative of three broader categories: the non-starter, the non-completer and the non-exhibitor. Parallels are drawn between the student essay and student family relationships, and essay anxiety is explored in terms of the utilization of defences against the anxiety of loss. In the process, there is an attempt to appreciate some of the deeply rooted, inter-related, developmental factors - in particular, tolerance of aggressive impulses and the experience of the good object as modifying container - which might affect the student's ability to deal productively with an essay.     

Do Patients With Psychosis Experience Loss and Grief As a Result of Their Illness?

BACKGROUND: Depression and suicidality are frequently reported in patients with psychosis and schizophrenia, but the grief process that may be associated with this illness has not been systematically studied. In this study, we examined whether patients diagnosed with psychosis identify, grieve, and mourn losses engendered by the illness. METHOD: 24 patients diagnosed with psychosis in the past five years were surveyed to indicate whether their illness led to losses, and to describe their responses to the losses. Psychosis-related perceived losses were surveyed using three subscales of a loss and grief questionnaire (loss of self, self-care, and roles). Their relationship with beliefs about the illness, symptomatology, coping style, and self-efficacy and insight was studied. RESULTS: 23 (96%) patients named specific losses, and 16 patients (67%) reported feelings associated with grief and mourning. More than half reported loss of self-esteem at the onset of illness and only half saw themselves as having improved in the past month. Patients reported more loss within the past month than at the onset of illness. In the past month, patients with an intact sense of self experienced greater self-efficacy (r = .568, p < .004) while those with loss of self reported feelings of shame (r = ?.582, p < .003). Only patients with insight associated the onset of illness with loss. In the past month, most patients saw themselves as experiencing loss. DISCUSSION: The study results suggest that at some distance from diagnosis, patients still experience themselves as having much loss due to their illness. These unresolved feelings may indicate complicated mourning. Insight appears to be associated with the ability to look back at the onset of the illness and recognize that it engendered losses. Further study of the process of and barriers to grief and mourning is recommended. In clinical practice, the assessment of grief as a part of post-psychotic recovery could lead to providing more appropriate treatment and lead to a positive outcome.     

Working in the Midst of Unfolding Trauma and Traumatic Loss

Abstract

Training developed for New York City social workers in the evolving aftermath of September 11, 2001 is introduced, offering a conceptual framework for clinical practice in the midst of unfolding trauma and traumatic loss. A focus is placed on the shared, collective process of learning and discussion among colleagues, as an effort parallel to work with clients, progressing together to establish meaning and hope through relationships. Professional training framing this catastrophe within trauma and traumatic loss perspectives, and addressing its impact on clinician, client, work, and treatment relationship, is needed. Also providing on-going support, a process of continuity, and a context of community, this training becomes a collective response to the profound impact and complex, evolving needs of this time.     

Taste avoidance caused by spontaneous wheel running: effects of duration and delay of wheel confinement

Confinement of a rat in a running wheel results in the rat's subsequent avoidance of the taste consumed before the confinement. This phenomenon has been ascribed to taste aversion conditioned by spontaneous wheel running. As a first step toward clarification of the underlying mechanism of this phenomenon, we manipulated two parameters of the taste-confinement procedure: duration of wheel confinement (Experiments 1A and 1B) and temporal intervals between the taste consumption and the wheel confinement (Experiments 2A and 2B). In general, longer confinement and shorter inter-event interval caused stronger taste avoidance. However, the results also suggested that it is possible to establish taste avoidance when wheel confinement was delayed 1-h after the taste consumption. These results correspond to those of conventional taste aversion caused by illness-inducing agents, suggesting similar mechanisms in the both preparations. Experiment 3 revealed that running in a wheel rather than wheel confinement itself is the effective factor for establishing taste avoidance.     

Psychological Hardiness and Adjustment to Life Events in Adulthood

Data were collected from 88 persons who had lost their jobs and 227 persons whose youngest child had left home to explore the impact of psychological hardiness on personal distress, adjustment, and coping strategies. Analyses controlling for numerous sociodemographic factors as well as NEO Neuroticism and Extroversion suggested that the interaction between overall hardiness and the experience of differential life events influenced the use of planful problem solving and positive reappraisal as coping mechanisms, as well as influencing levels of positive affect. In addition, a main effect for overall hardiness on several coping strategies, positive affect, and life satisfaction was obtained. Findings also suggested that job loss was a more stressful experience for adults in this study than was the empty nest. These data indicate that hardiness may mediate responses to life events that differ in terms of their predictability and anticipatory nature.     

A Longitudinal Analysis of the Role of Biopsychosocial Factors in Predicting Body Change Strategies Among Adolescent Boys

In this study we examined the role of biopsychosocial factors on adolescent boys' body modification strategies over an 8-month period. Participants were 434 adolescent boys aged between 11 and 16 years. The majority of respondents were from Anglo-Australian backgrounds (83%); the others were from Asian and European non-English-speaking backgrounds. The results indicated a consistent relationship between perceived encouragement to engage in body change strategies and increases in adolescents' body modification strategies, including muscle gain, weight gain, and weight loss. In addition, poor parent relations, being younger, and higher scores on the pubertal development scale predicted increased use of food supplements. However, the stability of the body modification strategies and the examined variables over the 8-month period were low. Further studies are needed to examine the stability of adolescent self-perceptions over both longer and shorter periods. Moreover, researchers need to include other factors that may be more relevant for adolescent boys (e.g., involvement in sports).     

Anaesthesia or psychotherapy: Eradicating thoughts or working them through

The author presents two sessions from the analysis of a depressive narcissistic doctor, which are characterised by a mixture of co-operation and pseudo-co-operation. The dialogue is in parts intellectualised, complicated, lifeless and schizoid. Points at which the patient shows surprising insights are then partly denigrated by him, on the basis that change is not to be expected. Semi-lifeless contact assists the defensive claustrophobia that he experiences in meaningful contact. It becomes very clear that he is then afraid of entering into an openly aggressive conflict that entails the existential threat of object loss. However, this has so far been avoided. The secret pleasure in an anal-narcissistic, sadomasochistic addiction to doubt persists in the partial denigration. The patient's artificially maintained self-doubt and doubt of the object reinforce a genuine confusion that consists in never knowing exactly what lies behind the helpful and needed object.     

5·12汶川地震后灾区教师主观幸福感的变化趋势及中介效应分析

·12汶川地震发生两个月后,对508名灾区的幼儿园、中小学教师进行测量,结合他们对地震前状况的回忆,考察其地震后主观幸福感的变化情况及其影响因素。结果表明：（1）与回忆得到的地震前感受相比,地震后灾区教师体验到主观幸福感水平显著降低。（2）极重灾区教师体验到的主观幸福感降低程度大于重灾区和轻灾区教师。（3）教师遭受的客观损失严重程度能显著预测其体验到的主观幸福感降低;而创伤后身心症状在其中起完全中介的作用,即创伤事件引发教师创伤后身心症状,而这些症状日趋严重,使其体验到的消极情感增加、主观幸福感降低。