Parent and Teacher Ratings on the IOWA Conners Rating Scale

The IOWA Conners Rating Scale is a widely used brief measure of inattentive-impulsive-overactive (IO) and oppositional-defiant (OD) behavior in children. This study examined the psychometric properties of this measure when completed by mothers and teachers. Results of confirmatory factor analyses indicated that a three-factor solution, conforming to current DSM-IV formulations of the disruptive behavior disorders, provided a better fit to the observed data than the currently used two-factor model, in which no distinction is made between inattentive and hyperactive-impulsive behaviors. Both new and currently used scale scores had good internal consistency and test–retest reliability and showed that boys’ scores were significantly higher than girls’ scores. Results held for both mother and teacher ratings. Clinical cutoff scores were proposed and performed reasonably well to screen for ADHD and ODD. Results support the IOWA Conners as a screening measure for the disruptive behavior disorders or as a tool for monitoring treatment response.

Reliability of a Longitudinal Sequence of Scale Ratings

Reliability captures the influence of error on a measurement and, in the classical setting, is defined as one minus the ratio of the error variance to the total variance. Laenen, Alonso, and Molenberghs (Psychometrika 73:443–448, 2007) proposed an axiomatic definition of reliability and introduced the R _T coefficient, a measure of reliability extending the classical approach to a more general longitudinal scenario. The R _T coefficient can be interpreted as the average reliability over different time points and can also be calculated for each time point separately. In this paper, we introduce a new and complementary measure, the so-called R _Λ , which implies a new way of thinking about reliability. In a longitudinal context, each measurement brings additional knowledge and leads to more reliable information. The R _Λ captures this intuitive idea and expresses the reliability of the entire longitudinal sequence, in contrast to an average or occasion-specific measure. We study the measure’s properties using both theoretical arguments and simulations, establish its connections with previous proposals, and elucidate its performance in a real case study. The authors are grateful to J&J PRD for kind permission to use their data. We gratefully acknowledge support from Belgian IUAP/PAI network “Statistical Techniques and Modeling for Complex Substantive Questions with Complex Data.”     

Transitivity as a property of choice

Pigeons' pecks in the presence of two concurrently available initial-link stimuli occasionally produced one of two stimuli associated with mutually exclusive terminal links. Pecks during either terminal link produced food according to aperiodic (variable-interval and variable-ratio) or periodic (fixed-interval and fixed-ratio) schedules of reinforcement. Aperiodic and periodic schedules to which the pigeons were indifferent, in the sense that these schedules maintained equal responding in the initial links, often yielded different preferences in separate choice tests with a third schedule. Conversely, aperiodic and periodic schedules that were equally preferred to a third schedule often failed to generate indifference. These intransitivities imply that (1) aperiodic and periodic schedules are not functionally equivalent in their effects upon choice, and (2) efforts to find a simple method for transforming aperiodic schedules into their periodic equivalents will fail.     

Neuroticism and the Architecture of the Self: Exploring Neuroticism as a Moderator of the Impact of Ideal Self‐Discrepancies on Emotion

ABSTRACT Two studies examined the moderating role of neuroticism in discrepancy‐emotion relations. In Study 1, neuroticism, self‐discrepancies, and depression were measured. Multiple regression analyses revealed a significant interaction between neuroticism and ideal self‐discrepancies such that the magnitude of ideal self‐discrepancies was a stronger predictor of depression for people high in neuroticism than people low in neuroticism. Study 2 used an experimental paradigm to test the same hypothesis. Participants were randomly assigned to an ideal self‐discrepancy salience condition or a control condition in which ideal self‐discrepancies were not made salient. A significant interaction between self‐discrepancy condition and neuroticism emerged such that the ideal self‐discrepancy condition produced higher dejection‐related affect relative to the control condition for people high in neuroticism compared to people low in neuroticism.     

Art as Alchemy: The Bildobjekt Interpretation of Pictorial Illusion

I argue that if we read E. H. Gombrich's Art and Illusion with the charity that it deserves, we will find a much subtler theory of depiction than the illusion theory that is usually attributed to Gombrich. Instead of suggesting that pictures are illusory because they cause us to have experiences as of seeing the depicted objects face to face, I argue that Art and Illusion is better read as making the point that naturalistic pictures are illusory because they cause us to see qualities and properties that the pictures themselves do not possess. Once we appreciate this point, we will be in a better position to appraise the value and limits of naturalistic art.     

Neuroticism as predisposition toward depression: A cognitive mechanism

The relations between the personality trait of neuroticism and mechanisms of cognitive processing are reviewed. Major experimental findings in this area are described and used to evaluate a number of different cognitive theories of neuroticism, including spreading-activation, self-schema and fragmentation models. The empirical findings centre on the observation of idiosyncratic patterns of cognitive processing of emotional stimuli as a function of the level of neuroticism. These idiosyncracies are similar to those which have been observed to occur as a function of depressed mood, and it is suggested that they may be of relevance to the development and maintenance of clinical depression and other emotional disorders. Specifically, it is hypothesized that the cognitive processing of negative self-related information is generally facilitated among high N scorers and that, in appropriate circumstances, this tendency can lead to episodes of clinical depression.     

Studies in Affective Reaction: II. Dependence of Affective Ratings upon the Stimulus-Situation

Meehl, Paul E. Clinical vs. Statistical Prediction: A Theoretical Analysis and Review of the Evidence. Minneapolis: Univ. Minnesota Press, 1954. Pp. 149. Reviewed by Henry Winthrop.     

神经质人格迫选量表的开发及其抗作假效果研究

传统的迫选量表得分是自模式数据,最近提出的Thurstone IRT模型建构了被试对迫选量表反应的数学模型,能够更精确地度量被试的特质水平.研究自编了神经质人格迫选量表,与常用的测量神经质的Likert量表一起,在无压力、模拟应聘和实际应聘三种情境下进行施测.结果发现,迫选量表的实测数据能够较好地拟合Thurstone IRT模型,该模型估计的特质得分不具有自模式数据的性质,比传统计分更能够抵抗作假.无论采用哪种计分方式,迫选量表都比Likert量表更能够抵抗作假.     

Neuroticism in Marriage: II. The Incidence of Neuroticism (Continued)

Abstract

The purpose of the experiment was to demonstrate whether men are more aggressive when disappointed by a woman whom they like rather than dislike. First, 78 men, 19 to 24 years of age, were recruited by using a newspaper advertisement. They were then placed in one of the two conditions: They were confronted by a female confederate that they either liked or did not like; they then received either positive or negative personal evaluations by the particular confederate in relation to prose-reading tasks. Dependent measures on blood pressure, use of bogus electric shock on a person, and evaluation of the confederate were taken as measures of aggression. The following predictions were made: (a) Negative evaluations by the liked confederate would result in more aggression than by either a disliked confederate or by a liked confederate giving a positive evaluation, and (b) subjects would be more aggressive when the female confederate gave them a negative rather than a positive evaluation or when she was disliked rather than liked. Predictions were supported on all the measures of aggression.     

Neuroticism and attachment insecurity as predictors of bereavement outcome

Adult attachment dimensions as well as the personality trait neuroticism have been shown to be related to psychological adjustment after bereavement. No investigations so far have studied the relative contribution of these constructs to grief and depression. In our study of 219 bereaved parents, the two adult attachment dimensions, attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance, were compared to the personality trait neuroticism in predicting psychological adjustment. The attachment dimensions explained a unique part over and above neuroticism, but contrary to expectations, neuroticism explained more variance than attachment dimensions. Implications are discussed.     

Item Response Theory Analyses of the Parent and Teacher Ratings of the DSM-IV ADHD Rating Scale

The graded response model (GRM), which is based on item response theory (IRT), was used to evaluate the psychometric properties of the inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity symptoms in an ADHD rating scale. To accomplish this, parents and teachers completed the DSM-IV ADHD Rating Scale (DARS; Gomez et al., Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 40, 265–274, 1999) for a group of 1,475 primary school-aged children. The results for the discrimination parameters showed that all symptoms for both groups of respondents were generally good for discriminating their respective latent traits. For virtually all symptoms, their threshold values showed moderate to large increases in the level of the latent trait at each subsequent response dichotomy, with the symptoms being especially good at representing the appropriate traits from mean to moderately high trait levels. The item information function values for most symptoms indicated reasonable reliability from, approximately, the mean trait levels to moderately high trait levels. These findings indicate good psychometric properties for the parent and teacher ratings of the DARS. The implications of the findings for the use of the DARS and other similar scales are discussed.     

神经质人格调节青少年应激与抑郁症状的追踪研究

探讨神经质人格对青少年应激与抑郁症状的调节作用。采用自评的流调中心用抑郁量表、大五人格问卷-神经质分量表和青少年生活事件量表对618名在校高中生进行了首次测查,随后每隔3个月对被试的抑郁症状和生活事件进行追踪测查,追踪时间为期一年,结果发现:与低神经质青少年相比,随着生活事件应激水平的升高,高神经质青少年的抑郁躯体症状与心理症状增长速度更快。结论:神经质人格在青少年生活事件应激和抑郁症状的关系中起调节作用。     

Transitivity and the ontology of causation

It is argued that it is very hard to analyse causation in such a way that prevents everything from causing everything else. This is particularly true if we assume that the causal relation is transitive, for it all too often happens that causal chains that we wish to keep separate pass through common intermediate events. It is also argued that treating causes as aspects of events, rather than the events themselves, will not solve this problem. This is because aspects have to be highly disjunctive, and disjunctive conditions tend to undermine causal connections, a fact that is most clearly seen when causation is analysed in terms of INUS conditions. It is concluded that reductive analyses of causation do not work, and that transitivity can only be guaranteed in cases where the elements of the causal chain constitute an independently understood causal process.     

Alchemy and the erotic transference: A Jungian approach

Abstract

In The Psychology of the Transference Jung showed a series of pictures which he discovered in an ancient alchemical text, the Rosarium philosophorum. He connected these to the effects of the transference in psychotherapy. This may seem an unnecessarily obscure way of looking at the transference, yet it makes remarkable sense. Although alchemy is often considered the sole province of Jungian analysis, it can also be seen as illuminating a psychodynamic approach to counselling. Written from a post-feminist viewpoint, a critical approach is taken to certain key Jungian terms. The paper is illustrated with two clinical examples.     

《道藏》炼丹用燃料概说

《道藏》炼丹涉及的燃料问题,情形颇为复杂,并形成一套有别于古代冶铸业的燃料体系。时间越往前,炼丹中使用马通、糠火的情形就越多,至唐末宋初,道教炼丹燃料始渐渐集中于木炭,同时尝试使用其他燃料,如石炭(煤炭)、猬油、粟糠等。总的来说,《道藏》炼丹使用燃料的状况,西汉至东汉初以马通、谷糠为主,木炭次之;晋代至中唐以木炭为主,马通、谷糠次之(陶弘景专以谷糠炼丹则又不论);唐末以后几乎全用木炭。     

Neuroticism as the intensity,reactivity, and variability in day-to-day affect

Neuroticism has been linked to typical levels of affect, affect reactivity to negative events, and variability in affect over time. However, the intercorrelations among these characteristics make it unclear whether neuroticism reflects unique variance in each of these aspects of emotional life. Data from two daily-diary samples revealed that neuroticism was associated with average levels and variability of positive and negative affect and reactivity of negative affect to stressors, but was only uniquely related to mean levels of positive and negative affect. Findings highlight the substantial overlap in affect indices, suggesting that mean levels of affect, at the very least, are at the core of neuroticism, and reveal the need for further research using more nuanced approaches.