Bulimia: A case study with mediating cognitions and notes on a cognitive-behavioral analysis of eating disorders

A case study of a young woman who was following a complex bulimic chain is described. Her emotional-behavioral sequence involved (1) feeling upset, (2) feeling more upset and taking a high dose of laxatives, (3) hinging, (4) taking additional laxatives, (5) feeling depressed, guilty, and angry, and then (6) starving herself for days on end. This paper lists the selfdefeating cognitions mediating the above sequence of emotions and behaviors and reports on a successful disputation of them through a Rational-Emotive Therapy approach. She resumed a normal eating pattern; her menstrual cycle returned in 2 months after having been absent for 13 months; and at followup, 15 months after termination of therapy, disclosed normal weight with no regression to any bulimic behavior. The case study concludes with preliminary notes on a cognitive-behavioral analysis of eating disorders. A model for eating disorders is proposed based upon the study and treatment of other selfindulgent disorders.Paul J. Woods, Ph.D., Co-Editor of thisJournal, is a Fellow of the Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy in New York City, a Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Hollins College, and a Licensed Psychologist in independent practice in Roanoke, Virginia.Russell M. Grieger, Ph.D., Co-Editor of thisJournal, is a Fellow of the Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy in New York City, and a Licensed Clinical Psychologist in independent practice in Charlottesville, Virginia.     

EFFECTS OF REINFORCEMENT HISTORY AND INSTRUCTIONS ON THE PERSISTENCE OF STUDENT ENGAGEMENT

We examined the effects of three reinforcement histories on the persistence of task engagement by 2 fourth-grade students using a partially counterbalanced ABCDBCD design. In each condition, an experimenter made four student contacts during the first 2 min of each session (reinforcement baseline), followed by an 8-min extinction period. The reinforcement history that contained an instructional control component produced the greatest persistence in student engagement. The applied relevance of instructional control is discussed.     

Psychopathic personality traits and temporal perspective: A test of the short time horizon hypothesis

A number of authors have proposed that psychopathic individuals possess an abnormally constricted time horizon (i.e., foreshortened sense of the future). This hypothesis was tested among 101 undergraduates, who were administered a battery of (1) self-report indices of psychopathic personality traits, antisocial behavior, and normal-range personality traits; (2) self-report indices of time perspective; (3) projective tests of time perspective; and (4) laboratory tasks assessing time estimation and capacity for foresight and impulse control. Measures of psychopathy/antisocial behavior tended to be negatively correlated with several self-report indices assessing preoccupation with the future and with a projective task assessing the frequency of thoughts concerning future events, although only one of the correlations with this latter task was significant. In most cases these correlations were not attributable to the variance shared by measures of psychopathy/antisocial behavior and measures of (low) anxiety-proneness, although several correlations decreased substantially after levels of harmavoidance were controlled. In contrast, measures of psychopathy/antisocial behavior were negligibly correlated with laboratory tasks. These results provide mixed support for the short time horizon hypothesis and suggest that further attention to the role of method factors in investigations of future time perspective is warranted.     

Effects of peer reporting on cooperative play and aggression of kindergarten children

Kindergarten children were given opportunities to report to their class during “sharing time” the cooperative or friendly behaviors of their peers which had occurred during the day. Children whose cooperative behavior was reported by a peer received a happy face badge as a reward. Later, only peer praise served as a reward for those whose friendliness was mentioned by a peer. Cooperative behavior increased and aggressive acts decreased when peers reported prosocial behavior to the class. A reversal phase, in which unfriendly acts were reported, produced a decrease in cooperation and an increase in aggression. Peer reporting was a natural and inexpensive means of increasing prosocial responses of these children. Anecdotal teacher reports suggested a generalized behavioral improvement.     

THE USE OF REBT PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES IN LEADERSHIP TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

Training, coaching, and consulting with people in leadership roles can be a primary consulting function for clinicians. In this paper, the authors describe their model of leadership, and what they believe to be the central personality or character components of leadership necessary for producing extraordinary results. Throughout they will show where and how REBT skills can make a significant contribution.     

Naming times for the Snodgrass and Vanderwart pictures

This paper reports the results of two experiments. In the first, voice-key naming times were collected and in the second, keypress naming times were collected for 250 of the Snodgrass and Vanderwart (1980) pictures. The resulting naming times and correct naming rates were well predicted in multiple regression analyses by one or another measure of codability (name or concept agreement) and by age-of-acquisition ratings collected specifically for this study. Voice-key responses appeared to be somewhat more sensitive indicators of naming difficulty, although keypress responses did remarkably well. The Appendix presents the age-of-acquisition ratings, the trimmed vocal and keypress naming times, and the correct naming rates from the two experiments for the 250 pictures.     

Becoming Transdisciplinary: The Emergence of the Transdisciplinary Individual

This article develops the idea of becoming a transdisciplinary individual, and begins by tracing the origins and contemporary currents of transdisciplinarity (from 1972 to present day). Using Nicolescu's earlier concept of a transdisciplinary attitude as an intellectual springboard, this article explores the traits of individuals involved in transdisciplinary projects. Emergent from the literature are four overarching dimensions of understanding what is entailed in becoming and being a transdisciplinary individual: (a) an appreciation of an array of skills, characteristics, and personality traits aligned with a transdisciplinary attitude; (b) acceptance of the idea that transdisciplinary individuals are intellectual risk takers and institutional transgressors; (c) insights into the nuances of transdisciplinary practice and attendant virtues; (d) a respect for the role of creative inquiry, cultural diversity, and cultural relativism. More research is needed on the subjective and embodied experiences of transdisciplinary participants; that is, how they become transdisciplinary individuals.     

Prosody in Infant-Directed Speech Is Similar Across Western and Traditional Cultures

When speaking to infants, adults typically alter the acoustic properties of their speech in a variety of ways compared with how they speak to other adults; for example, they use higher pitch, increased pitch range, more pitch variability, and slower speech rate. Research shows that these vocal changes happen similarly across industrialized populations, but no studies have carefully examined basic acoustic properties of infant-directed (ID) speech in traditional societies. Moreover, some scholars have suggested that ID speech is culturally specific and does not exist in some small-scale societies. We examined fundamental frequency (F₀) production and speech rate in mothers speaking to both infants and adults in three cultures: Fijians, Kenyans, and North Americans. In all three cultures, speakers used higher F₀ when speaking to infants relative to when speaking to other adults, and they also used significantly greater F₀ variation and fewer syllables per second. Previous research has found that American mothers tend to use higher pitch than do mothers from other cultures, but when maternal education was controlled in the current study, we did not find a significant difference in average pitch across our three populations. This is the first research systematically comparing spontaneous ID and adult-directed speech prosody between Western and traditional societies, and it is consistent with a large body of evidence showing similar acoustic patterns in ID speech across industrialized populations.     

Traumatic Brain Injury as a Risk Factor for Alzheimer's Disease: A Review

Accumulating epidemiological evidence implicates traumatic brain injury as a pathogenic agent in the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Considering the increase in the prevalence of both traumatic brain injury and AD in recent times, the possibility that brain trauma may provoke the early development of AD has important implications for health service planning, preventative efforts, and medico-legal compensation settlements. This paper evaluates the plausibility of the proposed link between traumatic brain injury and AD, largely by way of exploring a theoretical perspective advanced by Satz (1993) and considering recent contributions from the epidemiological, neuropathological, and biochemical literature that are pertinent to this issue. The literature reviewed provides sufficient support and empirical vindication to give credence to the proposed association between these two neuropsychological entities at the statistical, theoretical, and biological level.