Play and emotional availability in young children with Down syndrome

This study investigates mother–child interaction and its associations with play in children with Down syndrome (DS). There is consensus that mother–child interaction during play represents an important determinant of typical children's play development. Concerning children with DS, few studies have investigated mother–child interaction in terms of the overall emotional quality of dyadic interaction and its effect on child play. A sample of 28 children with DS (M age = 3 years) took part in this study. In particular, we studied whether the presence of the mother in an interactional context affects the exploratory and symbolic play of children with DS and the interrelation between children's level of play and dyadic emotional availability. Children showed significantly more exploratory play during collaborative play with mothers than during solitary play. However, the maternal effect on child symbolic play was higher in children of highly sensitive mothers relative to children whose mothers showed lower sensitivity, the former displaying more symbolic play than the latter in collaborative play. Results offer some evidence that dyadic emotional availability and child play level are associated in children with DS, consistent with the hypothesis that dyadic interactions based on a healthy level of emotional involvement may lead to enhanced cognitive functioning.     

Integrating Religion and Spirituality Into Treatment for Late-Life Anxiety: Three Case Studies

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is common in older adults and, although cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is an efficacious treatment for late-life GAD, effect sizes are only moderate and attrition rates are high. One way to increase treatment acceptability and enhance current cognitive behavioral treatments for GAD in older adults might be to incorporate religion/spirituality (R/S). The cases presented here illustrate the use of a 12-week modular CBT intervention for late-life anxiety, designed to allow incorporation of R/S elements in accordance with patient preferences. The three women treated using this protocol chose different levels and methods of R/S integration into therapy. All three women showed substantial improvement in worry symptoms, as well as a variety of secondary outcomes following treatment; these gains were maintained at 6-month follow-up. These preliminary results suggest that the incorporation of R/S into CBT might be beneficial for older adults with GAD. Strengths, limitations, and future directions are discussed.     

Disintegration,New Consciousness,and Discontinuous Transformation: A Qualitative Investigation of Quantum Change

The role of qualitative methods within humanistic psychology research is explored though a Web-based dialogue among the authors expressing varying, and often quite diverging, views on assorted concerns about research methodologies and their underlying epistemologies. Specifically explored is whether qualitative methods are inherently better for capturing an understanding of human experience congruent with a human science approach to research or, alternatively, whether both qualitative and quantitative approaches simply offer different, and often complementary, advantages and disadvantages. The divisiveness between humanistic and positive psychology is also explored in relationship to the former field's frequent preference for qualitative methods within a human science paradigm, in contrast to the latter field's frequent preference for quantitative methods within a positivistic science paradigm.     

The phenomenology of hypo- and hyperreality in psychopathology

Contemporary perspectives on delusions offer valuable neuropsychiatric, psychoanalytic, and philosophical explanations of the formation and persistence of delusional phenomena. However, two problems arise. Firstly, these different perspectives offer us an explanation “from the outside”. They pay little attention to the actual personal experiences, and implicitly assume their incomprehensibility. This implicates a questionable validity. Secondly, these perspectives fail to account for two complex phenomena that are inherent to certain delusions, namely double book-keeping and the primary delusional experience. The purpose of this article is to address both problems, by offering an understanding “from the inside”. Our phenomenological approach is a form of “radical empathy”, and crosses the Jaspersian limits of understanding. It compares delusional experiences with variations of reality experience in everyday life, and makes use of the structure of imagination. Six factors influencing the experience of reality are discussed and illustrated by clinical and non-clinical examples. These factors are: continuity (1), materiality and resistance (2), multiplicity of sensations and perceptions (3), intensity (4), the sense of authorship (5), and the complex role of intersubjectivity (6). I suggest that experiences of hypo- and hyperreality are not restricted to pathology, but have their place in everyday life as well. Delusional phenomena can be better understood by investigating the interplay of these six factors. With this framework, the two complex phenomena consequently prove to be better understandable to us. Our approach remains within the phenomenal experience and might thereby contribute to the validity of psychopathology.     

Mother-child emotional availability in ecological perspective: three countries, two regions, two genders

This study used a cross-national framework to examine country, region, and gender differences in emotional availability (EA), a prominent index of mutual socioemotional adaptation in the parent-child dyad. Altogether 220 Argentine, Italian, and U.S. mothers and their daughters and sons from both rural and metropolitan areas took part in home observations when the children were 20 months old. In terms of country, Italian mothers were more sensitive and optimally structuring, and Italian children were more responsive and involving, than Argentine and U.S. dyads. In terms of region, rural mothers were more intrusive than metropolitan mothers, and boys from metropolitan areas were more responsive than boys from rural areas. In terms of gender, mothers of girls were more sensitive and optimally structuring than mothers of boys, and daughters were more responsive and involving than sons. Understanding how country, region, and gender influence EA exposes forces that shape child development, parent-infant interaction, and family systems.     

The dirty dozen: twelve failures of the hurricane katrina response and how psychology can help

This comprehensive analysis addresses the United States' alarming lack of preparedness to respond effectively to a massive disaster as evidenced by Hurricane Katrina. First, a timeline of problematic response events during and after Hurricane Katrina orients readers to some of the specific problems encountered at different levels of government. Second, a list of the "Dirty Dozen"--12 major failures that have occurred in prior disasters, which also contributed to inadequate response during and after Hurricane Katrina--is presented. Third, this article encourages expanding psychology's role beyond the treatment of trauma to encompass disaster planning and mitigation efforts from a broader public health perspective. Finally, areas for important interdisciplinary research in human behavior that will influence our nation's overall preparedness for future catastrophes are identified, and ways psychologists can become personally involved beyond treating casualties are discussed.