Neurodevelopmental disorders affect a substantial minority of the general population. Their origins are still largely unknown, but a complex interplay of genetic and environmental factors causing disturbances of the central nervous system's maturation and a variety of higher cognitive skills is presumed. Only limited research of rather small sample size and narrow scope has been conducted in neurodevelopmental disorders using a twin-differences design. The Roots of Autism and ADHD Twin Study in Sweden (RATSS) is an ongoing project targeting monozygotic twins discordant for categorical or dimensional autistic and inattentive/hyperactive-impulsive phenotypes as well as other neurodevelopmental disorders, and typically developing twin controls. Included pairs are 9 years of age or older, and comprehensively assessed for psychopathology, medical history, neuropsychology, and dysmorphology, as well as structural, functional, and molecular brain imaging. Specimens are collected for induced pluripotent (iPS) and neuroepithelial stem cells, genetic, gut bacteria, protein-/monoamine, and electron microscopy analyses. RATSS's objective is to generate a launch pad for novel surveys to understand the complexity of genotype-environment-phenotype interactions in autism spectrum disorder and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). By October 2013, RATSS had collected data from 55 twin pairs, among them 10 monozygotic pairs discordant for autism spectrum disorder, seven for ADHD, and four for other neurodevelopmental disorders. This article describes the design, recruitment, data collection, measures, collected pairs’ characteristics, as well as ongoing and planned analyses in RATSS. Potential gains of the study comprise the identification of environmentally mediated biomarkers, the emergence of candidates for drug development, translational modeling, and new leads for prevention of incapacitating outcomes.
The aim of the present study was to investigate the development of psychotherapists' professional self during training and the first few years after it. Constant comparison analysis was conducted on interviews with former students (N = 18) at a training institute for psychoanalytic psychotherapy. The resulting core category "searching for recognition" indicated that participants' ambition during the studied time period was to reach high status by becoming psychotherapists. During training, this was expressed by the category "attachment to preformed professional self," meaning that students wanted their preconceptions about therapy to be acknowledged by teachers. After training, participants experienced achieved recognition and, as a result, a sense of freedom to use their own judgment.
Research suggests that processing of emotional stimuli may be eliminated if a concurrent task places sufficient demands on attentional resources. To test whether this holds for stimuli with strong emotional significance, pictures of spiders as well as mushrooms were presented at fixation to spider-fearful and non-fearful participants. Concurrently, perceptual load was manipulated in two levels with a peripheral letter discrimination task. Results of event-related potentials showed that, compared with non-fearful participants, spider-fearful participants showed greater late positive potentials (LPP) to spiders than mushrooms, which provides a manipulation check that spiders were emotionally meaningful to spider-fearful participants. Critically, this effect was not affected by level of perceptual load. These findings suggest that strong emotional stimuli at fixation may resist manipulations of perceptual load.
This contribution to the collection of articles on "African Cultural Models" considers the topic of well-being. Reflecting modern individualist selfways of North American and European worlds, normative conceptions of well-being in hegemonic psychological science tend to valorize self-acceptance, personal growth, and autonomy. In contrast, given the embedded interdependence of everyday life in many West African worlds, one can hypothesize that cultural models of well-being in many Ghanaian settings will place greater emphasis on sustainability-oriented themes of material sufficiency and successful navigation of normative obligations. To explore this hypothesis, we interviewed local cultural experts who function as custodians of religion and an important source of support for well-being in many Ghanaian settings. We asked participants to identify and explain models of well-being implicit in four Ghanaian languages (Akan, Dagbani, Ewe, and Ga). Participants were 19 men and 15 women (age range 32-92 years; Mean = 59.83; SD: 14.01). Results reveal some features of local models, including good health and positive affective states, that appear to resonate with standard understandings of well-being in hegemonic psychological science. However, results also provide evidence for other features of local models-specifically, good living (including moral living, material success, and proper relationality) and peace of mind-associated with a sustainability or maintenance orientation to well-being.
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