Handgun Ownership and the Religion Factor

This article addresses the relationship between religious affiliation and a very specific form of firearms ownership, that is, handgun ownership. Literature is reviewed relative to explanations of gun ownership. A test of the hypothesized relationship between religious affiliation and handgun ownership demonstrated a statistically significant ( p < 0.03) association. Protestants were found to have a disproportionately high level of handgun ownership compared to other religious groups. Speculation for this finding is reviewed relative to other recent research on this topic.     

A Norwegian version of the Obsessive‐Compulsive Inventory–Revised: Psychometric properties

Solem, S., Hjemdal, O., Vogel, P.A. & Stiles, T.C. (2010). A Norwegian version of the Obsessive‐Compulsive Inventory–Revised: Psychometric properties. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 51, 509–516. The aims of this study were to test the psychometric properties of the Norwegian version of the Obsessive‐Compulsive Inventory–Revised (OCI‐R). The study included a student/community control sample (N = 1167) and a clinical sample (N = 72) with a diagnosis of obsessive‐compulsive disorder (OCD). The results indicated a good fit for the six‐factor structure of the OCI‐R. The mean scores and standard deviations were similar to that of studies from other countries as was the internal consistency. The OCI‐R scores were significantly higher in the OCD sample compared to the control sample. All the subscales, except hoarding, were significant predictors of obsessive‐compulsive severity, and the OCI‐R subscales seemed to be in agreement with the different subtypes of OCD according to DSM‐IV. The OCI‐R showed meaningful correlations with measures related to obsessive compulsive symptoms. As expected, it showed the strongest correlation with the Yale‐Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale, followed by measures of worry, anxiety, and depression. In summary, the Norwegian OCI‐R showed adequate psychometric properties suggesting it could be a suitable measure of obsessive‐compulsive symptoms.     

Cognitive testing in non‐demented Turkish immigrants ‐ comparison of the RUDAS and the MMSE

Nielsen, T. R. Vogel, A., Gade, A. & Waldemar, G. (2012). Cognitive testing in healthy Turkish immigrants ‐ comparison of the RUDAS and the MMSE. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 53, 455–460. Methods for culturally and linguistically appropriate cognitive testing of elderly minority populations are lacking in Europe. The aim of this study was to compare performance on the Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale (RUDAS) and the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) in Turkish immigrants in Denmark and determine the impact of demographic and health‐related variables on test performance. A sample of non‐demented community‐dwelling Turkish immigrants was recruited from the greater Copenhagen area. All participants completed a structured interview regarding demographic, physical and mental health status, as well as measures of depression and acculturation, and cognitive testing with the RUDAS and the MMSE. A total of 76 non‐demented participants aged 50 or more were included in the study. The mean performance on the RUDAS and the MMSE was 26.8 (SD 2.4) and 23.7 (SD 4.3), respectively. In group comparisons, correlation analyses and regression analyses, level of schooling represented a more significant variable for RUDAS and MMSE performance than any other variable. However, the impact of schooling was considerably more pronounced on the MMSE and the test was not found to be a valid measure of general cognitive function in subjects with less than five years of schooling. Although not entirely free of educational bias, the RUDAS can be a valuable supplement to the MMSE for assessment of general cognitive function in Turkish minority populations.     

Culturally sensitive assessment of attachment in children aged 18–40 months in a South African township

The objective of our work is to study the possible relevance nonwestern cultural traditions have on the concordance of attachment patterns assessed in mothers and their young children. The attachment of 46 toddlers and their mothers, living in a black township in Johannesburg, South Africa, was assessed using scores derived from mother‐child observations in the home (Attachment Q‐Sort) and an interview (Working Model of the Child Interview). Mothers also had a semistructured psychiatric interview. Agreement between home observations and interview ratings was 29% for secure and 71% for insecure attachment when U.S.‐developed scoring criteria for the interview were used. Agreement increased to 81% for secure and 67% for insecure attachment when the same protocols were rescored, using a culturally modified scoring system, developed by local cultural experts. This study suggests that verbal representations of attachment patterns are more influenced by cultural traditions than are actual parent‐child interactions.     

The efficacy of teaching psychology students exposure and response prevention for obsessive-compulsive disorder

The aim of the study was to investigate whether inexperienced student therapists could successfully learn exposure and response prevention for obsessive-compulsive disorder. Twenty out of 21 outpatients completed treatment as delivered by ten psychology students. A total of 60 hours group supervision and approximately 30 hours with individual supervision was given to the students over the course of three semesters. Large effect sizes were observed for measures of symptoms and depression. Sixty-two percent ( N = 13) of the intent to treat group achieved clinical significant change and 81% no longer met the diagnosis criteria ( N = 17). The treatment effects observed at the 6 month follow-up period were promising. The results are encouraging for training students in evidence based treatment for specific disorders.     

Visual processing speed in old age

Mental speed is a common concept in theories of cognitive aging, but it is difficult to get measures of the speed of a particular psychological process that are not confounded by the speed of other processes. We used Bundesen’s (1990) Theory of Visual Attention (TVA) to obtain specific estimates of processing speed in the visual system controlled for the influence of response latency and individual variations of the perception threshold. A total of 33 non‐demented old people (69–87 years) were tested for the ability to recognize briefly presented letters. Performance was analyzed by the TVA model. Visual processing speed decreased approximately linearly with age and was on average halved from 70 to 85 years. Less dramatic aging effects were found for the perception threshold and the visual apprehension span. In the visual domain, cognitive aging seems to be most clearly related to reductions in processing speed.