Hyperactivity in Children: A Focus on Genetic Research and Psychological Theories

Hyperactivity has attracted a large amount of research interest in recent years. Here we review developments in genetic research and in research testing psychological theories of the condition. Family, adoptee and twin studies indicate a strong role for genetic factors in the etiology of hyperactivity. Evidence is emerging also from molecular genetic studies, implicating specific genes that may be involved. At the level of cognitive functioning, a divided, focused or sustained attention deficit does not seem to be a core deficit in hyperactivity. Although children with hyperactivity often perform poorly on certain executive function tasks, there is disagreement about the interpretation of these findings. The association reported in some studies between a slow inhibitory process and hyperactivity may reflect a generally slow, variable in speed and inaccurate pattern of responding. Hypotheses about psychological mechanisms such as state regulation or delay aversion provide alternative, and particularly encouraging, interpretations of the findings. We discuss the possible integration of the two lines of research—those of genetic research and research on psychological mechanisms.     

The Role of the Family in Childhood Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder

While obsessive–compulsive disorder is widely recognized to have a strong genetic component, psychosocial factors are also acknowledged to be important. The primary focus of this paper is on familial factors associated with OCD in children and adolescents. It explores the family context as a possible risk factor in the development and maintenance of the disorder, including parental modeling, expressed emotion, parenting style, and family accommodation of the child's symptoms. The involvement of the family in the treatment of the disorder is also reviewed. Finally, future directions for research investigating familial factors in childhood OCD are presented.     

Dualism and its Importance for Medicine

Cartesian dualism has been viewed by medical theorists to be oneof the chief causes of a reductionist/mechanistic treatment ofthe patient. Although I aver that Cartesian dualism is one culprit for the misapprehension of the genuine treatment of patients in termsof both mind and body, I argue that interactive dualism whichstresses the interaction of mind and body is essential to treatpatients with dignity and compassion. Thus, adequate medical carethat is humanistic in nature is difficult (if not impossible)to achieve without physicians adhering to a dualistic frameworkin which the body and person is treated during illness.     

Acceptance-based treatment for persons with complex, long standing chronic pain: a preliminary analysis of treatment outcome in comparison to a waiting phase

The concept of acceptance is receiving increased attention as an alternate approach to the suffering that is often associated with persistent and disabling pain. This approach differs from established treatments in that it does not principally focus on reducing pain, but on reducing the distressing and disabling influences of pain as they concern important areas in patients' lives. The present analyses represent a preliminary evaluation of an acceptance-based approach to chronic pain within an interdisciplinary treatment program. One hundred and eight patients with complex chronic pain conditions completed treatment and provided data for the current study. Treatment was conducted in a 3- or 4-week residential or hospital-based format. It included a number of exposure-based, experiential, and other behavior change methods focused on increasing (a) engagement in daily activity regardless of pain and (b) willingness to have pain present without responding to it. Significant improvements in emotional, social, and physical functioning, and healthcare use were demonstrated following treatment. The majority of improvements continued at 3-months post-treatment. Improvements in most outcomes during treatment were correlated with increases in acceptance, supporting the proposed process of treatment.     

Tailoring Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Individuals Diagnosed with Bulimia Nervosa

There is a wealth of data indicating the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy in the treatment of bulimia nervosa. However, the best evidence indicates a treatment success rate of 50%. The purpose of this paper is to briefly describe cognitive behavioral treatment of bulimia nervosa and to offer suggestions on how this therapy approach may be tailored to best serve the needs of individual clients. Such tailoring should ultimately lead to even greater treatment success.     

Recommendations for the Treatment of Hypochondriac Patients

Hypochondriasis is a debilitating condition in which patients are persistently preoccupied with the possibility of being seriously ill. Its is a costly problem for the health care system whose treatment has not received systematic attention until recently. Although based on few controlled studies, results indicated that various brief cognitive-behavioral techniques produce significant changes in illness fears and attitudes. A list of therapeutic questions that require further study is presented and some indications for both therapists and patients are given.     

The Meaning vs. The Medical Model in the Empirically Supported Treatment Program: A Consideration of The Empirical Evidence

A review of the debate on the Empirically Supported Treatment Program is presented. It is argued that underlying the specifics of the debate are fundamentally incompatible paradigms: a meaning vs. a medical model. The findings from two gold standard multi-site studies are reviewed to conclude that the control condition meets requirements for an empirically supported treatment. The empirical finding of the failure of clinical training to improve treatment outcomes is explained by the focus on rational factors in training. It is recommended that training of therapists focus on enhancing experiential capacity rather than mastery of manualized treatment approaches.     

Concurrent second-order schedules: some effects of variations in response number and duration

To examine the effects on concurrent performance of independent manipulations of response-unit duration and number, 6 hens were exposed to concurrent second-order schedules of reinforcement. Each first-order operant unit required completion of a fixed-ratio schedule within the time specified by a fixed-interval schedule, with one further response completing the fixed-interval schedule. The fixed-ratio and fixed-interval requirements comprising the first-order operant units were systematically and independently varied under three pairs of concurrent variable-interval schedules to produce differences in the first-order response and duration requirements (response and duration differentials). These manipulations produced consistent changes in response, time, and operant-unit biases. A 1:4 response differential biased the time and operant-unit measures towards the smaller fixed ratio, but to a degree less than the imposed response differential. The response-based biases favored the larger fixed ratio. Duration differentials of 4:1 and 8:1 biased the response and operant-unit measures towards the shorter fixed interval, again less than the imposed duration differential, but the time biases remained close to zero. Both sorts of differentials acted to bias operant-unit completions more systematically than the other measures, but undermatching to the differentials occurred. The undermatching appears to have arisen from a pattern of fix and sample (in which visits to the less preferred alternative involved only a single completed operant unit) under combinations of unequal operant-unit requirements and reinforcer rates. The response and time bias measures appeared to arise as by-products of the changes in operant-unit completions.     

Neural correlates of a default response in a delayed go/no-go task

Working memory, the ability to temporarily retain task-relevant information across a delay, is frequently investigated using delayed matching-to-sample (DMTS) or delayed Go/No-Go tasks (DGNG). In DMTS tasks, sample cues instruct the animal which type of response has to be executed at the end of a delay. Typically, performance decreases with increasing delay duration, indicating that working memory fades across a delay. However, no such performance decrease has been found when the sample cues exist of present vs. absent stimuli, suggesting that pigeons do not rely on working memory, but seem to respond by default in those trials. We trained 3 pigeons in a DGNG task and found a similar default response pattern: The diverging slopes of the retention functions on correct Go and No-Go trials suggested that pigeons by default omitted their response following No-Go stimuli, but actively retained task-relevant information across the delay for successful responses on Go trials. We conducted single-cell recordings in the avian nidopallium caudolaterale, a structure comparable to the mammalian prefrontal cortex. On Go trials, many neurons displayed sustained elevated activity during the delay preceding the response, replicating previous findings and suggesting that task-relevant information was neurally represented and maintained across the delay. However, the same units did not show enhanced delay activity preceding correct response suppressions in No-Go trials. This activation-inactivation pattern presumably constitutes a neural correlate of the default response strategy observed in the DGNG task.     

Reliability among Senior Managers of the Marlowe–Crowne Short-Form Social Desirability Scale

The majority of scholarly management studies are based on self-report surveys. Consequently, the need to control for social desirability response is important, although few management studies in fact include the use of relevant scales commonly incorporated in psychology research. The full Marlowe–Crowne scale is disaffectingly long for senior-manager sample usage, so one of its short forms is more practical. However, the reliability of the most popular of these, the Strahan–Gerbasi scale, has not been tested with senior-manager samples. This study tests the scale amongst several senior-manager samples and finds it consistently lacks adequate reliability and unidimensionality.