Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Smoking And Psychological Health In Relation To Country Of Origin, Michael Lyvers, Tessa Hall, Mark Bahr

Mark Bahr

In English-speaking, Western-Anglo countries, where smoking has become stigmatized in recent decades as a result of widespread anti-smoking campaigns, smokers commonly report poorer psychological health on average than non-smokers do. This may be indirectly related to the strong pressures to quit in such countries, as poorer psychological health is associated with a reduced likelihood of quitting, thus leading to a selection bias for smokers with relatively poorer psychological health. In the present study, 147 smoker and non-smoker participants either came from Western-Anglo countries where smoking has become stigmatized (Australia, Canada, U.S.) or countries in regions where smoking remains relatively more …

An Exploratory Analysis Of The Use Of Cognitive,Adaptive And Behavioural Indices For Cluster Analysis Of Asd Subgroups, Vicki Bitsika, Christopher Sharpley, Sharon Orapeleng

Vicki Bitsika

Background Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) includes symptoms that vary in severity and frequency between children. Consequently, multiple psychometric assessment procedures are recommended to detect an ASD, including scales which asses the presence and nature of ASD-related behaviour. However, to date, few studies have examined the relative and specific contribution which such behaviourally oriented scales can make to the diagnosis of individual children with ASD. Method Cluster analysis was used to explore the common characteristics of a group of 53 preschool and elementary school children with an ASD, based upon scores on tests of cognitive ability, adaptive behaviour and behavioural checklists …

Differential Impairment As An Indicator Of Sex Bias In Dsm-Iv Criteria For Four Personality Disorders., Christina D. Boggs, Leslie C. Morey, Andrew E. Skodol, M. Tracie Shea, Charles A. Sanislow, Carlos M. Grilo, Thomas H. Mcglashan, Mary C. Zanarini, John G. Gunderson

Charles A. Sanislow, Ph.D.

This reprinted article originally appeared in Psychological Assessment, 2005, Vol. 17, (No. 4), 492–496. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2005-16347-014.) The aim of the present study was to investigate the possibility of sex bias in the diagnostic criteria for borderline, schizotypal, avoidant, and obsessive–compulsive personality disorders. A clinical sample of 668 individuals was evaluated for personality disorder criteria using a semistructured interview, and areas of functional impairment were assessed with both self-report and semistructured interview. The authors used a regression model of bias to identify bias as differences in slopes or intercepts between men and …

Physical Activity And Neurocognitive Function Across The Lifespan, Jason Themanson, Charles Hillman, Sarah Buck

Jason R. Themanson, Ph.D

No abstract provided.

Exploring The Teaching Mind: Extending Participation In Lifelong Learning Through Engagement With A Supportive Community, Jeremy Szteiter

Jeremy Szteiter

This paper extends the notion of lifelong learning beyond gaining knowledge over a lifetime to preparing oneself to teach what has been learned to others. The "Teaching Mind," as I define the idea, involves thinking about what has been learned and what one knows by reconsidering that knowledge through the eyes of self as a teacher. The Teaching Mind assumes a broad notion of teaching that relates to informal and community learning across all areas of life and culture, beyond professional teaching in formal schools. The pursuit of the Teaching Mind is highly accessible to all those who wish to …

The Construct Validity Of Rule-Breaking And Aggression In An Adult Clinical Sample, Christopher J. Hopwood, S. Alexandra Burt, John C. Markowitz, Shirley Yen, M. Tracie Shea, Charles A. Sanislow, Carlos M. Grilo, Emily B. Ansell, Thomas H. Mcglashan, John G. Gunderson, Mary C. Zanarini, Andrew E. Skodol, Leslie C. Morey

Charles A. Sanislow, Ph.D.

Previous research has demonstrated that aggression (AGG) and non-aggressive rule-breaking (RB) represent elements of antisocial behavior with different etiological mechanisms and associations to personality and psychopathology. However, these constructs have not been investigated in an adult clinical sample. In the current study, interview and self-report derived AGG and RB were associated with personality traits and disorders as well as functioning across several domains, family history, concurrent psychopathology, and prospective behaviors. Both AGG and RB were similarly related to disagreeableness. RB was uniquely related to low conscientiousness, cluster B personality disorders, functioning, problems in childhood, suicide risk, arrests, and substance use …

Acute Aerobic Exercise Effects On Event-Related Brain Potentials, Jason Themanson, Charles Hillman, Matthew Pontifex

Jason R. Themanson, Ph.D

No abstract provided.

Can Clinicians Recognize Dsm-Iv Personality Disorders From Five-Factor Model Descriptions Of Patient Cases?, Benjamin M. Rottman, Woo-Kyoung Ahn, Charles A. Sanislow, Nancy S. Kim

Charles A. Sanislow, Ph.D.

Objective: This article examined, using theories from cognitive science, the clinical utility of the Five-Factor Model (FFM) of Personality, an assessment and classification system under consideration for integration into the forthcoming fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of Mental Disorders. Specifically, the authors sought to test whether FFM descriptors are specific enough to allow practicing clinicians to capture core features of personality disorders.

Method: In two studies, a large nationwide sample of clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, and clinical social workers (N = 187 and N = 191) were presented case profiles based on symptom formats from either the …

Archetypal Energies, The Emergence Of Obama As A Practical Idealist, And Global Transformation, Carroy U. Ferguson

Carroy U "Cuf" Ferguson, Ph.D.

During this time of change, AHP and kindred spirits on the edge have important roles to play. We are the keepers and nurturers of a transformative and evolutionary Vision for Consciousness and a more humane world. At issue is what I will call the “psychic politics” for global transformation, nurtured by practical idealism and the Archetypal Energies. In other writings, I have described Archetypal Energies as Higher Vibrational Energies, operating deep within our individual and collective psyches, which have their own transcendent value, purpose, quality, and “voice”, unique to the individual. We experience them as “creative urges” to move us …

Legal Storytelling: The Theory And The Practice - Reflective Writing Across The Curriculum, Nancy Levit

Nancy Levit

This article concentrates on the theory of narrative or storytelling and addresses the reasons it is vital to encourage in law schools in non-clinical or primarily doctrinal courses. Section I traces the advent of storytelling in legal theory and practice: while lawyers have long recognized that part of their job is to tell their clients' stories, the legal academy was, for many years, resistant to narrative methodologies. Section II examines the current applications of Writing Across the Curriculum in law schools. Most exploratory writing tasks in law school come in clinical courses, although a few adventurous professors are adding reflective …

Theorizing And Litigating The Rights Of Sexual Minorities, Nancy Levit

Nancy Levit

One of the best measures of a society is how it treats its vulnerable groups. A central idea in Professor Martha Nussbaum's writings is that all humans "are of equal dignity and worth, no matter where they are situated in society." The strategic challenge in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) rights litigation is how to get courts to see sexual minorities as people worthy of equal dignity and respect. This article focuses on the roles of a positive emotion - love - and a procedural method of proof - science - in the shaping of laws defining the rights …

Not Scaring Yourself Silly: Effectively Managing Your Stage Fright, Jennifer Cumming

Jennifer Cumming

It is the moment you have been looking forward to for weeks with equal amounts of dread and excitement. Your preparation has gone well, but you wonder if you have done everything you can to be ready and are concerned you will make a mistake. As you wait backstage, you hear the audience taking their seats and the eager buzz of anticipation. Your fellow dancers are going through their last minute preparations and the nervous tension is building around you. Standing in your costume, you worry that your body is responding in the usual ways: your heart is beating faster …

"The Natural History Of Truth: The Neurobiology Of Belief", Neil Greenberg

Neil Greenberg

The pursuit of truth is woven into the fabric of every organism*. Any estimate of how best to survive and thrive in the reality in which we are immersed requires a sense of self, of the world, and of their relationship to each other. I wish to explore the idea that this pursuit has at its heart two complementary modes of reality testing utilizing separate cerebral systems which deal, respectively with the correspondence of experience with the world and the coherence of the experience with previous experiences: “is it real” and “does it fit?” At multiple levels of the nervous …

Bilingual Lexical Disambiguation In Context: The Role Of Non-Selective Cross-Language Activation, Ana I. Schwartz, Li-Hao Yeh, Ana B. Areas Da Luz Fontes

Ana I Schwartz

The present study tested whether lexical disambiguation in sentence context is affected by cross-language lexical activation. In Experiment 1 Spanish-English bilinguals read English sentences biasing the subordinate meaning of homonyms that were either cognates or non-cognates. Participants’ ability to reject follow-up target words related to the dominant meaning showed greatest inhibition when the homonym was a cognate and the dominant meaning was shared with Spanish. In Experiment 2 a separate group of bilinguals read sentences biasing the dominant meaning of the homonyms and were instructed to accept target words related to any meaning of the homonym. In this case cognate …

On A Different Plane: Cross-Language Effects On The Conceptual Representations Of Within-Language Homonyms, Ana B. Areas, Ana I. Schwartz

Ana I Schwartz

We examined whether bilinguals’ conceptual representation of homonyms in one language are influenced by meanings in the other. 117 Spanish-English bilinguals generated sentences for 62 English homonyms that were also cognates with Spanish and which shared at least one meaning with Spanish (e.g., plane/plano). Production probabilities for each meaning were calculated. A stepwise multiple regression revealed that whether a meaning was shared with Spanish or not accounted for a significant portion of the variance, even after entering production probabilities from published monolingual norms. (Twilley et al., 1994). Homonyms classified as highly polarized based on monolingual responses became less polarized if …

Working Memory Influences On Cross-Language Activation During Bilingual Lexical Disambiguation, Ana B. Areas Da Luz Fontes, Ana I. Schwartz

Ana I Schwartz

This study investigated the role of verbal working memory on bilingual lexical disambiguation. Spanish-English bilinguals with low and high digit span read sentences in their second language ending in a cognate homonym (novel), noncognate homonym (fast), cognate (piano) or non-cognate (pencil). The dominant meanings of cognate homonyms were shared across languages while subordinate meanings were unique to the second language. Participants decided whether follow-up targets were related in meaning to the sentence. On critical trials sentences biased the subordinate meaning of the homonym and targets were related to the dominant meaning (novel – BOOK; fast – SPEED), forcing rejection of …

Hamas Controlled Televised News Media: Counter- Peace, Allen Gnanam

Allen Gnanam

The hegemonic force of Hamas censored televised news media in Gaza, can not be fully comprehended and appreciated without recognizing the role of propaganda, censorship, and the historical context of the middle east. These 3 interrelated dimensions will be analyzed using functionalism, the mass society theory, the dominant ideology framework, the critical criminology framework, and the symbolic interactionist framework. Through censorship, Hamas news media outlets were able to unilaterally inject culturally relevant propaganda, into the minds of children and citizens. The hypodermic syringe model can be applied to the state controlled news media situation in Gaza, as the people of …

Enculturation, Allen Gnanam

Allen Gnanam

Enculturation is the process by which individuals of an ethnic group unintentionally, unconsciously, and naturally, acquire culture specific values, knowledge, behaviours, manners, and identities (Gob, Lee, & Yoon, 2008) (Grovtevant, Gunnar & Hellerstedt, 2006) (Kim & Omizo, 2006) (Constantine & Miville, 2006). There are many psychological concepts that can be linked to enculturation such as psychological protective factors, perceived sense of well being, social connectedness, psychological health, cultural identity, help seeking, self efficacy, and self esteem. Research literature pertaining to enculturation has illustrated that, the degree to which these psychological concepts are present within individuals, are strongly influenced by enculturation. …

Summary: Israeli- Palestinian Ethnic Conflict, Allen Gnanam

Allen Gnanam

The Israeli- Palestinian ethnic conflict will continue to escalate throughout both the short term and long term world future. The current and future animosity between both ethnic groups can be attributed to (a) history based accounts and religious tensions, (b) polarizing ideologies held by both sides, and (c) middle eastern resentment toward the Jewish state of Israel. History based accounts will refer to both biased historical accounts and factual historical events that have contributed to the Israeli- Palestinian ethnic conflict. Concepts such as ethnicity, nationalism, ideology, Palestinians, Israeli’s, Arabs, and religion will be conceptualized in the research paper.

Crime And Precaution, Allen Gnanam

Allen Gnanam

Precautionary logic and risk assessments can be associated with counter terrorism, criminal profiling, and the management of high risk individuals/ groups. Overall, risk precautionary logic and risk assessments can be framed using the Ban-opticon concept identified by Bigo, though panopitic elements do exist when discussing concepts of surveillance. The Ban opticon framework has 3 major concepts: (a) Criminal profiling, (b) the management of movement and (c) exceptionalism.

Both precautionary logic and risk assessments are associated with the profiling of harms and threats, the management of individual or group movement, and both are used to provide qualitative and quantitative rationale for …

Brain Activation For Reading And Listening Comprehension: An Fmri Study Of Modality Effects And Individual Differences In Language Comprehension., Augusto Buchweitz, Robert Mason, Tomitch Leda, Marcel Just

Marcel Adam Just

No abstract provided.

Altering Cortical Connectivity: Remediation-Induced Changes In The White Matter Of Poor Readers, Timothy Keller, Marcel Just

Marcel Adam Just

No abstract provided.

Implicit Working Memory., Ran Hassin, John Bargh, Andrew Engell, Kathleen Mcculloch

Andrew Engell

Japanese And English Sentence Reading Comprehension And Writing Systems: An Fmri Study Of First And Second Language Effects On Brain Activation, Augusto Buchweitz, Robert A. Mason, Akiko Hasegawa, Marcel Adam Just

Marcel Adam Just

No abstract provided.

Atypical Frontal-Posterior Synchronization Of Theory Of Mind Regions In Autism During Mental State Attribution, Rajesh K. Kana, Timothy A. Keller, Vladimir L. Cherkassky, Nancy J. Minshew, Marcel Adam Just

Marcel Adam Just

No abstract provided.

The Role Of The Theory-Of-Mind Cortical Network In The Comprehension Of Narratives, Robert Mason, Marcel Just

Marcel Adam Just

No abstract provided.

The Construct Validity Of Passive-Aggressive Personality Disorder, Christopher J. Hopwood, Leslie C. Morey, John C. Markowitz, Anthony Pinto, Andrew E. Skodol, John G. Gunderson, Mary C. Zanarini, M. Tracie Shea, Shirley Yen, Thomas H. Mcglashan, Emily B. Ansell, Carlos M. Grilo, Charles A. Sanislow

Charles A. Sanislow, Ph.D.

Although Passive Aggressive personality disorder (PAPD) plays an important role in many theories of personality pathology, it was consigned to the appendix of the fourth edition of the DSM. The scientific basis of this decision has been questioned, but several controversies persist regarding PAPD, including its structure, content validity, overlap with other PDs, and relations to validating variables such as personality traits, childhood experiences, and clinically relevant correlates. This study examined these facets of PAPD's construct validity in a large clinical sample. Results suggest that the construct is unidimensional, internally consistent, and reasonably stable. Furthermore, PAPD appears systematically related to …

New Onsets Of Substance Use Disorders In Borderline Personality Disorder Over 7 Years Of Follow-Ups: Findings From The Collaborative Longitudinal Personality Disorders Study, Marc Walter, John G. Gunderson, Mary C. Zanarini, Charles A. Sanislow, Carlos M. Grilo, Thomas H. Mcglashan, Leslie C. Morey, Shirley Yen, Robert L. Stout, Andrew E. Skodol

Charles A. Sanislow, Ph.D.

Aims: The purpose of this study was to examine whether patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) have a higher rate of new onsets of substance use disorders (SUD) than do patients with other personality disorders (OPD).

Design: This study uses data from the Collaborative Longitudinal Personality Disorder Study (CLPS), a prospective naturalistic study with reliable repeated measures over 7 years of follow-up.

Setting: Multiple clinical sites in four northeastern US cities.

Participants: A total of 175 patients with BPD and 396 patients with OPD (mean age 32.5 years) were assessed at baseline and at 6, 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, …

Aerobic Fitness And Cognitive Development: Event-Related Brain Potential And Task Performance Indices Of Executive Control In Preadolescent Children, Jason R. Themanson, Charles H. Hillman, Sarah M. Buck, Matthew B. Pontifex, Darla M. Castelli

Jason R. Themanson, Ph.D

The relationship between aerobic fitness and executive control was assessed in 38 higher- and lower-fit children (M_age = 9.4 years), grouped according to their performance on a field test of aerobic capacity. Participants performed a flanker task requiring variable amounts of executive control while event-related brain potential responses and task performance were assessed. Results indicated that higher-fit children performed more accurately across conditions of the flanker task and following commission errors when compared to lower-fit children, whereas no group differences were observed for reaction time. Neuroelectric data indicated that P3 amplitude was larger for higher- compared to lower-fit children …

On The Psychology Of Creativity, Joachim Funke

Joachim Funke

No abstract provided.