Replication of the Self-Concept and Identity Measure (SCIM) Among a Treatment-Seeking Sample

Identity distress occurs within a variety of psychiatric conditions. Reliable tools for assessing identity-related functioning among clinical populations are greatly needed. The Self-Concept and Identity Measure (SCIM) is a brief self-report scale designed to assess healthy and disturbed identity dimensions. This measure has been validated within normative but not treatment-seeking samples. The present study used an a priori confirmatory approach to replicate the SCIM’s factor structure among disadvantaged women enrolled in treatment for chemical dependence (N = 216). The original three-factor structure and item loadings generally replicated within this diagnostically diverse, significantly impaired sample. Higher SCIM scores were also associated with other problems, such as emotion dysregulation and depression. Results support the SCIM’s use and scoring with clinical populations.     

Enhancing the National Dialogue on the Prevention of Intimate Partner Violence

Little systematic information exists about how community‐based prevention efforts at the state and local levels contribute to our knowledge of intimate partner violence (IPV) prevention. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) DELTA FOCUS program funds ten state domestic violence coalitions to engage in IPV primary prevention through approaches addressing the outer layers of the social ecology. This paper explored the ways in which DELTA FOCUS recipients have contributed to a national‐level dialogue on IPV prevention. Previously undefined, the authors define national‐level dialogue and retrospectively apply the CDC Science Impact Framework (SIF) to describe contributions DELTA FOCUS recipients made to it. Authors conducted document review and qualitative content analysis of recipient semi‐annual progress reports from 2014 to 2016 (N = 40) using NVivo. A semi‐structured coding scheme was applied across the five SIF domains: Creating Awareness, Catalyzing Action, Effecting Change, Disseminating Science, and Shaping the Future. All recipients sought to promote IPV prevention by communicating and sharing with non‐CDC‐funded state coalitions, national partners, and other IPV stakeholders information and resources accumulated through practice‐based prevention efforts. Through implementing and disseminating their prevention work in myriad ways, DELTA FOCUS recipients are building practice‐based evidence on community‐based IPV prevention.     

Phenomenological immanence,normativity, and semantic externalism

This paper argues that transcendental phenomenology (here represented by Edmund Husserl) can accommodate the main thesis of semantic externalism, namely, that intentional content is not simply a matter of what is ‘in the head,’ but depends on how the world is. I first introduce the semantic problem as an issue of how linguistic tokens or mental states can have ‘content’—that is, how they can set up conditions of satisfaction or be responsive to norms such that they can succeed or fail at referring. The standard representationalist view—which thinks of the problem in first-person terms—is contrasted with Brandom’s pragmatic inferentialist approach, which adopts a third-person stance. The rest of the paper defends a phenomenological version of the representationalist position (seeking to preserve its first-person stance) but offers a conception of representation that does not identify it with an entity ‘in the head.’ The standard view of Husserl as a Cartesian internalist is undermined by rejecting its fundamental assumption—that Husserl’s concept of the ‘noema’ is a mental entity—and by defending a concept of ‘phenomenological immanence’ that has a normative, rather than a psychological, structure. Finally, it is argued that phenomenological immanence cannot be identified with ‘consciousness’ in Husserl’s sense, though consciousness is a necessary condition for it.     

Influence of executive functioning difficulties on verbal aggression in adolescents: Moderating effects of winning and losing and increasing and decreasing levels of provocation

We examined the extent to which executive functioning difficulties were related to verbal aggression under conditions of gradually increasing or decreasing provocation over both winning and losing trials. Sixty adolescent boys and girls completed a modified Taylor aggression paradigm in which verbally offensive remarks were sent and received. Results showed (a) that during increasing levels of provocation, verbal aggression increased on both winning and losing trials, (b) that verbal aggression decreased during decreasing levels of provocation but only on losing trials, and (c) that difficulties on two measures of executive functioning were related to verbal aggression, but only in the context of increasing verbal provocation. Individuals with executive functioning difficulties responded with more verbal aggression than did individuals with less severe executive functioning difficulties. Results have implications for the manner in which provocation is studied and for understanding the conditions in which executive functioning difficulties contribute to verbal aggression. Aggr. Behav. 29:475–488, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Distortions of distance and shape are not produced by a single continuous transformation of reach space

We investigated whether distortions of perceived distance and shape could be captured by a single continuous one-to-one transformation of the underlying space. In Experiment 1, the participants reached to touch points around the perimeter of spherical targets viewed at five different distances, to yield simultaneous measures of perceived distance and shape. Different participants reached while using dynamic monocular, static binocular, or dynamic binocular vision. Thin plate spline (TPS) analysis was applied so as to transform a Cartesian grid in such a way as to carry the original target points to the mean reach locations. In all cases, discontinuities appeared in the transformed grid from folding of the space. In Experiment 2, the participants reached to points that lay at the same locus in reach space, but on different portions of the visible target spheres (e.g., front vs. side). The participants reached to different locations when the points were different with respect to shape (e.g., front vs. side) but reached to the same locations when the points were the same with respect to shape (left vs. right side). TPS analysis revealed discontinuities from holes torn in the underlying space. The results show that perceived distance and perceived shape entail different distortions and cannot be captured by a single continuous transformation of reach space.     

Validation of the shortened cope for use with breast cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy

To study the relationship between cancer and emotional adjustment, investigation of situation-specific coping behaviors with respect to narrowly defined Stressors has recently been promoted. The development and validation of shorter instruments, designed to facilitate completion by clinical populations, has also been recommended. The current study examined the coping skills used by French-Canadian women undergoing radiation therapy for breast cancer. A factor analysis of the 28-item shortened COPE (Carver, Scheier, & Weintraub, 1989) yielded the following eight factors: disengagement, self-distraction, active coping, using emotional support from husband/ partner, using emotional support from friends, turning to religion, humor, and substance use. The test-retest and Cronbach alpha internal consistency reliability coefficients of the French-Canadian shortened COPE were actually higher than those observed in the full-length version of the instrument. In addition, the eight factor-based scores correlated in a theoretically meaningful manner with existing measures of coping skills with illness (Coping with Health Injuries and Problems; CHIP) and mood disturbance (Profile of Mood States; POMS), thus suggesting good construct convergent and concurrent criterion validity. In particular, the disengagement COPE scale was correlated highly with anxiety, depression, and anger. While further validation is recommended, the results show promise for the shortened COPE in assessing coping in women with breast cancer, and also provide continued evidence for the notion that specific coping skills are associated with particular mood states.     

The perception of identity by 6 1/2-month-old infants.

In Study 1, sixteen 6 1/2-month-olds were habituated to a Reversible stimulus (an upright face that could be perceived as an entirely different upright face when it was rotated 180 degrees) and to a Nonreversible stimulus (a face that could be perceived as upright in only one orientation). Following habituation for each type of stimulus, test trials paired the habituated face with a novel stimulus (an inversion of the same face). For both Reversible and Nonreversible stimuli, the physical difference between the old and new test stimuli was the same (a 180 degrees rotation); however, infants devoted more visual attention to the 180 degrees rotation only when it was a Reversible face, suggesting that the identity change was detected. Experiment 2 ruled out the explanation that infants might have failed to dishabituate to the inversion of the Nonreversible stimulus because they could not remember it. Results are interpreted as evidence that 6 1/2-month-old infants are not limited to face recognition based on similarity in pattern arrangement alone, but are capable of processing faces at a representational level.