Biomedical subjects

R J Padgett

Publications and source records attributed to R J Padgett.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1998

Moral volition: the fifth and final domain leading to an integrated theory of conscience understanding.

OBJECTIVES: To define discrete developmental levels of understanding of the ways in which normal children and adolescents link autonomy and will to moral obligation and to study the correlation between this progression and previously identified stages of conscience conceptualization. METHOD: One hundred thirty-two normal volunteers between the ages of 5 and 17 years were individually interviewed using the moral volition section of the semistructured Stilwell Conscience Interview. Analysis of the interviews resulted in five levels of understanding of moral self-evaluation and volitionally chosen behavior. RESULTS: Analyses of variance and covariance showed that the five levels of moral volition had significant correlation with five conceptualization stages, with stage criteria showing a stronger correlation than age. Self-identified tasks of oughtness were hierarchically defined beginning with those defining a morality of restraint followed by moralities of mastery/sufficiency, virtuous striving, idealization, and individual responsibility. Perception of increased independence of self in interaction with conscience was noteworthy at stages 4 and 5. CONCLUSIONS: Moral volition is the domain of conscience functioning that defines understanding of moral self-evaluation and volitionally chosen actions; five levels of understanding can be demonstrated in normal children between the ages of 5 and 17 years.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1997

Moralization of attachment: a fourth domain of conscience functioning.

OBJECTIVES: To define discrete developmental levels of understanding regarding the ways in which normal children and adolescents link remembered and current attachment experiences to their moral belief system and to study the correlation between this progression and previously identified stages of conscience conceptualization. METHOD: Using the moralization of attachment section from the semistructured Stilwell Conscience Interview, 132 normal volunteers between the ages of 5 and 17 years were individually interviewed. Analysis of the interviews resulted in five levels of understanding. RESULTS: By analyses of variance and covariance, the five attachment levels showed significant correlation with the five conceptualization stages. Conceptualization stage showed a stronger correlation than age. CONCLUSIONS: In normal development, moralization of attachment is a domain of conscience functioning which follows a five-level hierarchical developmental progression; first, the child's sense of security and empathic responsiveness become paired with a sense of moral obligation; caretaker rules are then incorporated; an understanding of how empathy modifies strict rule-following develops; idols and ideals are chosen that reflect earlier learning in attachment relationships; finally, a visualization of the self as moral standard-bearer or teacher unfolds.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1996

Moral valuation: a third domain of conscience functioning.

OBJECTIVE: To assess development of moral valuation in normal children and adolescents, that is, how moral rules for living are derived and justified, and to examine the relationship of this progression with previously identified stages of conceptualization of conscience. METHOD: Using three semistructured questions from the Stilwell Conscience Interview, 132 normal volunteers between the ages of 5 and 17 years were assessed. All moral valuation responses were examined within three aspects of social reference: authority-derived, self-derived, and peer-derived. Each aspect was scaled for complexity into six anchored levels. RESULTS: The levels of all three aspects correlated positively with conceptualization stages as well as with each other. When the covariate, age, was taken into consideration, peer-derived valuation was significantly correlated with both age and stage. CONCLUSIONS: Moral valuation is a domain of conscience functioning in which moral rules and their justifications are socially referenced in relationship to authority, self, and peers. Anchored levels of these three aspects of moral valuation provide developmental guidelines for mental status examinations in patients between 5 and 17 years of age as well as providing criteria for future comparative studies in various diagnostic categories of psychopathology.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1992

Visual expectation and dimensions of infant information processing.

Visual expectation was assessed in 103 black 6.5-month-olds using Haith, Hazan, and Goodman's paradigm and related to performance on standard developmental assessments and tests of information processing skill. As expected, percent anticipations was higher and RT lower than in 3.0-month-olds previously tested. Split-half and left-right correlations for the RT measures were moderate and similar to those previously reported, as was split-half reliability for percent anticipations. The 2 RT measures were related to fixation duration on both visual recognition memory (VRM) and cross-modal transfer, suggesting moderate cross-task and cross-age consistency in processing speed. Percent anticipations and baseline RT each contributed independently to the prediction of VRM novelty preference. Data from a factor analysis suggested 3 dimensions of cognitive function: processing speed, developmental level, and memory/attention. These findings suggest that the visual expectation paradigm provides a reliable new approach for assessing cognitive processing efficiency and attention during infancy.

Black or African American↗

PubMed1991

Ultrasound surveillance of the cervix in twin gestations: management of cervical incompetency.

Fifty-one consecutive twin pregnancies studied prospectively were compared with 153 consecutive control twin gestations that were concurrently delivered, but chosen retrospectively. Study patients were managed by a protocol that used weekly ultrasound surveillance combined with clinical assessment. Control subjects were not managed by protocol or ultrasound surveillance. Seven of 51 study patients (13.7%) were diagnosed as having cervical incompetency before 30 weeks' gestation (range 18-28 weeks, mean 24). In comparison, 14 of 153 controls (9.2%) delivered before 30 weeks' gestation (range 18-29 weeks, mean 25). The mean cervical length, dilatation, and membrane herniation (funneling) at diagnosis were 1.9, 2.2, and 3.6 cm, respectively, for patients with cervical incompetency. There was a significant difference in perinatal mortality. All study twins survived, whereas nine control subjects delivered at a mean gestational age of 22.7 weeks, with a loss of 17 infants. Life table analysis demonstrated that a significantly greater proportion of controls delivered very low birth weight, premature twins. The use of ultrasound and clinical criteria to select patients for cerclage placement helped prevent birth of the youngest and smallest twins and significantly decreased perinatal mortality in the study group. Routine cerclage placement is not recommended for twin gestations, but multifetal gestations may benefit from ultrasound surveillance for cervical incompetency.

Birth Weight↗

PubMed1987

Older and younger adults' memory for structured and unstructured events.

Because the everyday memory demands of older adults often tend to be event-based, a complete view of memory functioning should include assessments of event memory. To this end 48 older and younger adults were asked to participate in one of two hierarchically structured events. They were tested for their memory immediately afterwards and again a week later. The procedural event was composed of a series of actions logically related and ordered in a necessary sequence to accomplish a goal. In contrast, the temporal event was organized with respect to locations and objects within those locations, but no logically necessary relationship or order existed among them. The results indicated that older and younger adults differed less in their recall of statements which summarized the event than in their recall of the actions composing the event. Both young and old benefited by the greater organization inherent in the procedural event but there was some tendency for younger adults to use this information more effectively. Thus, even memory for event-based information is susceptible to age-related decline but this effect appears to be influenced by the structural characteristics of an event.

Adult↗