Peer Relationships and Male Academic Achievement: A Review and Suggested Clarification

Earlier reviews of the research have reached conflicting conclusions about the relationship between social behavior and academic achievement. A brief but comprehensive review is presented. It is suggested that there is greater consistency in this research area than has previously been noted. When the research is categorized according to sample age level, it is found among younger subjects that high achievers tend to be more socially active than low achievers, while among college-age students, low achievers tend to be the more socially active. Questions are raised which future research might investigate.     

Cerebral palsy in very preterm infants: new epidemiological insights

The focus of this review is on new insights from recent epidemiological research on cerebral palsy in preterm infants. These include: 1) a better understanding of issues related to diagnosis and classification; 2) new information about the brain abnormalities underlying cerebral palsy in preterm infants; and 3) a better understanding of biological mechanisms that may underlie previously described epidemiological associations. Ongoing efforts to improve the diagnosis and classification of cerebral palsy have been enhanced by findings from serial examinations of cohorts of very preterm infants. Cranial ultrasonography through the anterior fontanelle of very preterm infants has provided information about grossly evident brain damage, found in about one-half of preterm infants who develop cerebral palsy. Insights into the pathophysiologic basis for certain epidemiologic associations have come from studies of experimental brain damage in animals and clinical studies of neurologic disorders in adults. Much of the current epidemiological research into the causes of cerebral palsy in preterm infants has focused on two potential mechanisms of brain damage. One mechanism involves insufficient cerebral perfusion; the other, cytokine-mediated damage, potentially triggered by events such as maternal infection (e.g., intrauterine or periodontal infection), neonatal infection (e.g., sepsis and necrotizing enterocolitis), and neonatal oxygen- or ventilator-induced lung injury. In addition to the preterm infant's increased exposure to such damaging factors, the high frequency of cerebral palsy in these infants might be due, in part, to insufficient levels of developmentally regulated protective substances, such as thyroid hormone and glucocorticoids. Models of causation currently are being investigated using recently developed methods for quantifying, with small quantities of blood, biomolecules that are suspected to either promote or protect against brain damage in the neonate. Clinical investigations now under way can be expected to identify strategies to be tested in clinical trials that could lower the risk of cerebral palsy in very preterm infants.     

Disability and Domination: Lessons from Republican Political Philosophy

The republican ideal of non‐domination identifies the capacity for arbitrary interference as a fundamental threat to liberty that can generate fearful uncertainty and servility in those dominated. I argue that republican accounts of domination can provide a powerful analysis of the nature of legal and institutional power that is encountered by people with mental disorders or cognitive disabilities. In doing so, I demonstrate that non‐domination is an ideal which is pertinent, distinctive, and desirable in thinking through psychological disability. Finally, I evaluate republican strategies for contesting domination, focusing on the limits of contestatory democracy, and proposing a participatory alternative which better addresses problems of political agency in the mentally disordered and cognitively disabled.     

On binocular alternation

Diaz-Caneja (1928) made some prescient observations about binocular rivalry. Being in French, however, his paper remained largely unknown to the broader research community. His findings are similar to those reported very recently by contemporary researchers who had independently observed similar phenomena. Using concentric circles and parallel lines as stimuli, Diaz-Caneja presented half of each form to opposite eyes to provoke binocular rivalry. He observed periods in the ensuing binocular alternations in which rivalry occurred between the good Gestalt forms, despite the fact that they were distributed between the eyes. He proposed that each half of a good form generates synchronised oscillations in the visual system, and that this synchronisation enables the dichoptically viewed halves of the one form to be perceived as a whole.     

Desire for euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide in palliative cancer care.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the attitudes of terminally ill individuals toward the legalization of euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide (PAS) and to identify those who would personally desire such a death. DESIGN: In the Canadian National Palliative Care Survey, semistructured interviews were administered to 379 patients who were receiving palliative care for cancer. Patients who expressed a desire for physician-hastened death were followed prospectively. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Attitudes toward the legalization of euthanasia or PAS were determined, as was the personal interest in receiving a hastened death. Demographic and clinical characteristics were also recorded, including a 22-item structured interview of symptoms and concerns. RESULTS: There were 238 participants (62.8%) who believed that euthanasia and/or PAS should be legalized, and 151 (39.8%) who would consider making a future request for a physician-hastened death. However, only 22 (5.8%) reported that, if legally permissible, they would initiate such a request right away, in their current situations. This desire for hastened death was associated with lower religiosity (p=.010), reduced functional status (p=.024), a diagnosis of major depression (p<.001), and greater distress on 12 of 22 individual symptoms and concerns (p<.025). In follow-up interviews with 17 participants, 2 (11.8%) showed instability in their expressed desire. CONCLUSION: Among patients receiving palliative care for cancer, the desire to receive euthanasia or PAS is associated with religious beliefs; functional status; and physical, social, and psychological symptoms and concerns. Although this desire is sometimes transitory, once firmly established, it can be enduring.     

Multiple family therapy: current status and critical appraisal

This article provides an updated review and synthesis of the research and clinical literature dealing with multiple family therapy as an identifiable treatment approach. Major emphasis is placed on the literature published since an earlier comprehensive review (63). It is concluded that multiple family therapy is a viable and promising treatment modality, yet one that in clinical practice remains underused, conceptually underdeveloped, and poorly differentiated from other treatment approaches. Recommendations are made and pathways are identified that may promote the further growth and development of the approach.     

The Many Faces of Commitment: Facet-Level Links to Performance in Military Contexts

Over the past two decades, considerable progress has been achieved in an effort to better identify and understand the various types of organizational commitment, the foci toward which such committed bonds are directed, and the myriad outcomes associated with these bonds. This research adds to and extends such work within a military context. Specifically, we explore relations among various forms (e.g., affective, normative, and continuance) of both team- and military-focused commitment and several supervisory-rated performance criteria. Across the different criteria, team-focused commitment tended to be a stronger predictor of performance than military-oriented commitment did. However, military-oriented commitment was inversely related to supervisory ratings of soldiers' negative behaviors. We discuss the psychological mechanisms that likely drive these findings, the implications of this work, and several potentially fruitful next steps within this research domain.