Predictive and incremental validity of the Violence Risk Appraisal Guide scores with male and female jail inmates

The present study examines the predictive and incremental validity of Violence Risk Appraisal Guide scores in a sample of 328 male and 145 female jail inmates held on felony charges. Significant gender differences were observed in VRAG item and total score means, as well as in correlations between the VRAG and concurrent measures of aggression. VRAG scores significantly predicted institutional misconduct during incarceration and recidivism in the first year postrelease for male inmates but not for female inmates. In terms of incremental validity, VRAG scores predicted institutional misconduct and recidivism beyond that accounted for by psychopathy for male inmates but not for female inmates. Implications for clinical practice and future research are discussed.     

Male HIV-1 transgenic rats show reduced cocaine-maintained lever-pressing compared to F344 wildtype rats despite similar baseline locomotion

The HIV-1 transgenic (Tg) rat model is valuable for understanding HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) and accompanying substance use and misuse. Tg and F344/NHsd wildtype (WT) rats were allowed to self-administer intrajugular cocaine. For the first 7 sessions, neither genotype self-administered cocaine (0.1 mg/kg/infusion) on a fixed ratio 1 schedule. We thus implemented a lever–cocaine “autoshaping” session followed by a series of manipulations changing dose and reinforcement schedule. Tg rats self-administered much less cocaine than WT rats throughout the study. Of 8 Tg rats, 5 modestly increased self-administration from sessions 36–50. Of those, only 3 showed a lever discrimination. Of 10 WT rats, 8 acquired robust self-administration by session 19; all WT rats self-administered cocaine by the end of the study. WT and Tg rats had similar baseline locomotor activity in the self-administration chamber suggesting that the low levels of cocaine intake in the Tg rats did not reflect a nonspecific motor impairment in this rat strain. Concomitant measurement of activity with self-administration revealed activity increases that followed increased cocaine intake. That relation held in Tg rats. Therefore, the present study provides evidence that HIV-1 Tg rats are less sensitive to the reinforcing effects of cocaine than their F344 WT counterparts.     

Sikh diasporic negotiations: Indian and Canadian history in Can You Hear the Nightbird Call?

The perceived interconnection of Sikh religion and extremism, and the mistaken association of Sikhism with Islam impacted Sikh consciousness and historically, these have presented challenges to Sikh identity, representation, and intercultural negotiations in Canada. With reference to Anita Rau Badami’s Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? (2010), this article investigates Canadian Sikh diaspora’s collective memories, specifically: (i) the return of the Komagata Maru ship from Vancouver (1914) (ii) partition of India (iii) the death of passengers in Air India 182 (23 June 1985) from Toronto to India; (iv) Operation Blue Star (1984) and (v) the 1984 Sikh carnage.     

Do Animated Disney Characters Portray and Promote the Beauty–Goodness Stereotype?

Disney movies are frequently cited as a source of the what‐is‐beautiful‐is‐good stereotype. Two studies (a) assessed prevalence of the stereotype across animated Disney movies; and (b) examined whether exposure to such films influences children's judgments of peers. In Study 1, human characters in 21 films were rated on attractiveness, goodness, and character outcome. Regression analyses demonstrated that attractiveness of a character was a significant predictor of the character's portrayal. In the second study, 42 children (ages 6–12) were exposed to either a high or low beauty‐biased film and then rated target peers. Children rated the attractive target more favorably than the less attractive target. However, film exposure did not increase children's use of the stereotype.     

Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence and Transformational Leadership Style: A Gender Comparison

This study examined the predictive relationship between emotional intelligence and transformational leadership style. The researchers also wanted to determine gender differences in the relationship between emotional intelligence and transformational leadership style, as well as the gender differences in the emotional intelligence scores and transformational leadership style of managers. A significant predictive relationship (p < .05) was found between transformational leadership style and emotional intelligence. No significant interaction (p < .05) was found between gender and emotional intelligence while predicting transformational leadership style. A significant difference (p < .05) was found in the emotional intelligence of scores of male and female managers. Lastly, no significant difference (p > .05) was found in the transformational leadership scores of male and female managers.     

Hackneying hybridity? Fending off ‘foreignness’, Khoja Community and hybridisation in The Magic of Saida

In the context of colonialism, religion and culture, the theory of cultural hybridity has assumed paramount importance due to its ineluctable nature. However, as most critics and theorists have suggested, the concept gestures at the precedence and prior existence of purity and this perception is exceedingly contentious. This article examines the various layers of hybridisation, Khoja Community (specifically Ismaili faith) and the complexities that it inherently contains and focuses on the argument that while Hybridity is contestable due to its ever-shifting connotations and inherent ambiguity, the so-called ‘differences’ in textual representation, culture and religion, actually move forward towards a homogenous state. To study the subject, the study focuses on the narrative, The Magic of Saida, by M. G. Vassanji. Like his trajectory through continents, his characters too traverse the oceans, and explore in new lands through the forces of acculturation and hybridisation. Despite, the seemingly forces of admixture, what is palpable is the ability of readers to discern the ‘differences’ in the intermixed format. If the differences are ostensible in hybridised version, can the resulting creation be called hybridised? This paper investigates this idea and is premised on how the theory is self-contradicting.     

Book Review: Children of Immigration,by Carola Suarez-Orozco and Marcello Suarez-Orozco,Harvard University Press, 2002, 206 pp.

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -     

When Does Yoga Work? Long Term and Short Term Effects of Yoga Intervention among Pre-adolescent Children

In this research, pre-adolescent children of two city schools were randomly assigned to three conditions of a systematic yoga intervention, a non-yogic intervention and a time lagged comparison group intervention. Three assessments at baseline, three months and six months were done on a sample of 178 school children of class fifth and sixth. The outcome variables were anthropometric, cognitive, personality variables and self reported class room behaviours. Various directional hypotheses based on review of literature were tested. In particular, to understand the short term and long term effects of yoga intervention on children, repeated measures analysis and discriminant function analysis was used, which is discussed in the present paper. Results reveal that the effect of yoga interventions emerge only at long term, where the yoga group is clearly ahead of the non-yogic and time -lagged group on a cluster of factors termed as “positive health”. Implications are discussed.