Attachment as a framework to facilitate empowerment for people with severe mental illness

Objectives:  Recovery and empowerment have evolved into key objectives in the treatment and care of people with severe mental illness (SMI), and interest has grown in the role of social relationships in recovery. This study is the first to explore whether attachment styles are related to levels of empowerment, and secondly, whether attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance are associated with lower empowerment levels, independently of quality and frequency of social contact.  Design:  We used a cross-sectional design. Methods: In a sample of 157 participants with SMI in outpatient care, associations between attachment (Revised Adult Attachment Scale), self-reported social functioning, and empowerment (Netherlands Empowerment List) were assessed.  Results:  Attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance were both associated with lower levels of empowerment. A stepwise multiple regression analysis showed that the prediction of empowerment was significantly improved by adding attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance to quality and frequency of social contact. Attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance, and quality of social contact were significant predictors; frequency of social contact was not.  Conclusions:  Although our design does not allow causal conclusions, our results highlight the importance of interpersonal processes and behaviours as routes to improving empowerment for people with SMI. A promising approach might thus consist of securing attachment bonds with significant others so that the self and the other are perceived as reliable resources. Our findings also feature the importance of reciprocity and equality in social relationships. Taken together, our study emphasizes the value of social, contextualized interventions in recovery work for people with SMI.  Practitioner points:  Working towards attachment safety in interpersonal relations may be important in recovery-oriented treatment and care for people with severe mental illness (SMI). Helping people with SMI to recognize and change how they tend to relate themselves to others may promote engagement and effectiveness of recovery-oriented treatment and care. Reciprocity and equality in social relationships as vital complements to the more one-sided nature of ‘standing alongside’ and offering support may be important requisites for empowerment

Subtidal macrozoobenthos communities from northern Chile during and post El Niño 1997–1998

Despite a large amount of climatic and oceanographic information dealing with the recurring climate phenomenon El Niño (EN) and its well known impact on diversity of marine benthic communities, most published data are rather descriptive and consequently our understanding of the underlying mechanisms and processes that drive community structure during EN are still very scarce. In this study, we address two questions on the effects of EN on macrozoobenthic communities: (1) how does EN affect species diversity of the communities in northern Chile? and (2) is EN a phenomenon that restarts community assembling processes by affecting species interactions in northern Chile? To answer these questions, we compared species diversity and co-occurrence patterns of soft-bottoms macrozoobenthos communities from the continental shelf off northern Chile during (March 1998) and after (September 1998) the strong EN event 1997–1998. The methods used varied from species diversity and species co-occurrence analyses to multivariate ordination methods. Our results indicate that EN positively affects diversity of macrozoobenthos communities in the study area, increasing the species richness and diversity and decreasing the species dominance. EN represents a strong disturbance that affects species interactions that rule the species assembling processes in shallow-water, sea-bottom environments

An integrative perspective on the interplay between early maladaptive schemas and mental health: The role of self-compassion and emotion regulation

Objectives We aimed to test whether negative emotion regulation difficulties and self-compassion mediate the relationship between early maladaptive schemas (EMSs) and symptoms of psychopathology and life satisfaction. Methods Data were collected from 296 adults (179 females, 117 males), whose age ranged from 17 to 52 years. The mediating roles of self-compassion and negative emotion regulation were examined via Hayes' procedure (PROCESS) for multiple mediation. Results Negative emotion regulation was the only mediator to psychopathological symptoms, with no additional role for self-compassion, whereas self-compassion mediated only to life satisfaction, with no additional role for negative emotion regulation. Conclusions The results provide evidence for unique mediating roles of negative emotion regulation and self-compassion, depending on the outcome variable. That helps to understand how problems that may be identified in terms of positive and negative domains are related to EMSs, and allows to put forward potential strategies within the frame of schema therapy

Benthic response to sedimentation events during autumn to spring at a shallow-water station in the Western Kiel Bight

The response of the benthos to the break up of anoxia in the Kiel Bight (Western Baltic Sea), and to three succeeding events of “external” food supply, consisting of a settled autumn plankton bloom, resuspended matter and macrophyte input during winter, and of a sedimented spring phytoplankton bloom, is described on a community level. The first input of oxygen broke up anoxic conditions and made stored food resources available to decomposition. This “internal” food supply, mainly consisting of protein (folin positive matter), was followed by a drastic increase in heat production and ATP-biomass and caused a period of low redox potential, which lasted for several weeks. During this phase, a plankton bloom (dinoflagellates and diatoms) settled to the sea floor. Although there was an immediate response of benthic activity, this food input was not completely consumed by the strongly disturbed benthic community. During winter resuspended matter and the input of macrophyte debris caused another maximum in benthic activity and biomass despite the low temperature. The response to sedimentation of cells from a diatom bloom during mid March was also without any time lag and was consumed within 5–6 wk. A comparison of the amount of particles collected in a sediment trap with the increase of organic matter in the sediment demonstrated that the sediment collected four times (autumn) and seven to eight times (spring) more than measured by the sediment trap. Strong indications of food limitation of benthic activity were found. During autumn and winter these indications were caused more by physical than by biological processes. The three events of “external” food supply caused a temporary shift in the type of metabolism towards fermentation processes and reduced the redox potential. In spring the development of the benthic community was still being strongly influenced by the events of the preceding summer and autumn

J D Bernal: philosophy, politics and the science of science

This paper is an examination of the philosophical and political legacy of John Desmond Bernal. It addresses the evidence of an emerging consensus on Bernal based on the recent biography of Bernal by Andrew Brown and the reviews it has received. It takes issue with this view of Bernal, which tends to be admiring of his scientific contribution, bemused by his sexuality, condescending to his philosophy and hostile to his politics. This article is a critical defence of his philosophical and political position

J D Bernal: philosophy, politics and the science of science

This paper is an examination of the philosophical and political legacy of John Desmond Bernal. It addresses the evidence of an emerging consensus on Bernal based on the recent biography of Bernal by Andrew Brown and the reviews it has received. It takes issue with this view of Bernal, which tends to be admiring of his scientific contribution, bemused by his sexuality, condescending to his philosophy and hostile to his politics. This article is a critical defence of his philosophical and political position

Climate Change and invasibility of the Antarctic benthos

Benthic communities living in shallow-shelf habitats in Antarctica (<100-m depth) are archaic in their structure and function. Modern predators, including fast-moving, durophagous (skeleton-crushing) bony fish, sharks, and crabs, are rare or absent; slow-moving invertebrates are the top predators; and epifaunal suspension feeders dominate many soft substratum communities. Cooling temperatures beginning in the late Eocene excluded durophagous predators, ultimately resulting in the endemic living fauna and its unique food-web structure. Although the Southern Ocean is oceanographically isolated, the barriers to biological invasion are primarily physiological rather than geographic. Cold temperatures impose limits to performance that exclude modern predators. Global warming is now removing those physiological barriers, and crabs are reinvading Antarctica. As sea temperatures continue to rise, the invasion of durophagous predators will modernize the shelf benthos and erode the indigenous character of marine life in Antarctica

Resolved quadrupolar transition in TiO2

We report an investigation of the direct forbidden absorption edge of TiO2. For the first time we have resolved the weak quadrupolar 1s exciton and measured its binding energy. Taking into account polaron effects, we estimated the bare electron effective mass in the Γ1 minimum of the conduction band and obtained a fairly reasonable value of 3m0