Effectiveness of Systematic Desensitization and Cognitive Behavior Therapy on Reduction of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Symptoms: A Comparative Study

In this paper, we focused on effectiveness of two treatment techniques-cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) and systematic desensitization imagination (SDI) on reducing Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Symptoms among OCD patients. A total of 38 participants was selected and then randomly assigned to two groups, where the first group received systematic desensitization imagination and the latter one cognitive behavior therapy. In the present study Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS; Goodman et al., 1989) was employed to assess the intensity of OCD symptoms during pre and post-test situations. To find out the effectiveness of treatment techniques, repeated measure analysis of variance was used to compare the mean scores of the subjects in pre-post treatment. On the whole, both the therapeutic techniques significantly reduced OCD symptoms. Further, results indicated that CBT was found to be more effective than systematic desensitization technique in reducing OCD symptoms for compulsion and total OCD symptoms. SD and CBT were found to be equally effective in reducing obsession symptoms

Training in Aura Reading: Results from a Small Quasi-Experimental Study in India (Research Note)

The aura is believed to be an invisible field surrounding the physical body, interpenetrating and extending beyond it. The present study examines whether appearance of an aura-like phenomenon around the hand can be perceived visually after a short training session. A quasi-experimental research design was employed with 47 participants with a mean age of 19 years. Results from before and after attempting to view an aura-like phenomenon around the hand were analyzed using Contingency Coefficient analysis. The results suggest that an aura-like phenomenon can be detected around the hand since the participants narrated several experiences that were novel (

Comprehending the Aura between the hands

494-501This paper aimed to gain an understanding of aura between the hands and analyse the varied responses. Qualitative method, content analysis was used to analyse the written comments made by the participants, regarding aura between the hands, in a survey of students (N=47) from a college of complementary therapy. The results were analysed and 11 themes were identified. To name a few, a set of bioplasmic experiences, aura around the hand is an observable phenomenon, the aura has elastic property, aura experienced as a vibrational force. The themes have been analysed and discussed in detail. We conclude that viewing of the aura between the hands is a simple phenomenon and can be learned by almost anyone. Experimentation has led us to infer that, aura between the hands can be felt and seen

Comprehending the Aura between the hands

This paper aimed to gain an understanding of aura between the hands and analyse the varied responses. Qualitative method, content analysis was used to analyse the written comments made by the participants, regarding aura between the hands, in a survey of students (N=47) from a college of complementary therapy. The results were analysed and 11 themes were identified. To name a few, a set of bioplasmic experiences, aura around the hand is an observable phenomenon, the aura has elastic property, aura experienced as a vibrational force. The themes have been analysed and discussed in detail. We conclude that viewing of the aura between the hands is a simple phenomenon and can be learned by almost anyone. Experimentation has led us to infer that, aura between the hands can be felt and seen

Aesthetic sense and social cognition: : a story from the Early Stone Age

Human aesthetic practices show a sensitivity to the ways that the appearance of an artefact manifests skills and other qualities of the maker. We investigate a possible origin for this kind of sensibility, locating it in the need for co-ordination of skill-transmission in the Acheulean stone tool culture. We argue that our narrative supports the idea that Acheulean agents were aesthetic agents. In line with this we offer what may seem an absurd comparison: between the Acheulean and the Quattrocento. In making it we display some hidden complexity in human aesthetic responses to an artefact. We conclude with a brief review of rival explanations—biological and/or cultural—of how this skills-based sensibility became a regular feature of human aesthetic practices

Between Will and Thought: Individualism and Social Responsiveness in Amazonian Child Rearing

This essay provides an ethnographic account of how moral dispositions towards independence and social responsiveness are forged during infancy and toddlerhood among the Runa, an indigenous people in the Ecuadorian Amazon. I will show how two local concepts, munay (will) and yuyay (thought) shape children’s early experiences of the self and the self in relation to others. In particular, I will argue that, unlike middle class Anglo-Americans who repute paternal responsiveness to be necessary for a “healthy” child development, Runa adults strategically chose not to respond to children’s will in order to make them “thoughtful”. Such state of thoughtfulness, I argue, emerges from socialization practices which stress a child’s unique will while at the same time forcefully encourage the development of social responsiveness

A Diverse and Flexible Teaching Toolkit Facilitates the Human Capacity for Cumulative Culture

© 2017, The Author(s). Human culture is uniquely complex compared to other species. This complexity stems from the accumulation of culture over time through high- and low-fidelity transmission and innovation. One possible reason for why humans retain and create culture, is our ability to modulate teaching strategies in order to foster learning and innovation. We argue that teaching is more diverse, flexible, and complex in humans than in other species. This particular characteristic of human teaching rather than teaching itself is one of the reasons for human’s incredible capacity for cumulative culture. That is, humans unlike other species can signal to learners whether the information they are teaching can or cannot be modified. As a result teaching in humans can be used to support high or low fidelity transmission, innovation, and ultimately, cumulative culture

Theorising age and generation in development: A relational approach

This introduction outlines the analytical approach informing the articles presented in this special issue. The project of ‘generationing’ development involves re-thinking development as distinctly generational in its dynamics. For this, we adopt a relational approach to the study of young people in development, which overcomes the limitations inherent to common categorising approaches. Concepts of age and generation are employed to conceptualise young people as social actors and life phases such as childhood and youth in relational terms. Acknowledging the centrality of young people in social reproduction puts them at the heart of development studies and leads the articles comprising this special issue to explore how young people’s agency shapes and is shaped by the changing terms of social reproduction brought about by development

Systems biological and mechanistic modelling of radiation-induced cancer

This paper summarises the five presentations at the First International Workshop on Systems Radiation Biology that were concerned with mechanistic models for carcinogenesis. The mathematical description of various hypotheses about the carcinogenic process, and its comparison with available data is an example of systems biology. It promises better understanding of effects at the whole body level based on properties of cells and signalling mechanisms between them. Of these five presentations, three dealt with multistage carcinogenesis within the framework of stochastic multistage clonal expansion models, another presented a deterministic multistage model incorporating chromosomal aberrations and neoplastic transformation, and the last presented a model of DNA double-strand break repair pathways for second breast cancers following radiation therapy

Teaching: Natural or Cultural?

In this chapter I argue that teaching, as we now understand the term, is historically and cross-culturally very rare. It appears to be unnecessary to transmit culture or to socialize children. Children are, on the other hand, primed by evolution to be avid observers, imitators, players and helpers—roles that reveal the profoundly autonomous and self-directed nature of culture acquisition (Lancy in press a). And yet, teaching is ubiquitous throughout the modern world—at least among the middle to upper class segment of the population. This ubiquity has led numerous scholars to argue for the universality and uniqueness of teaching as a characteristically human behavior. The theme of this chapter is that this proposition is unsustainable. Teaching is largely a result of recent cultural changes and the emergence of modern economies, not evolution