Midi-level measurement of social anxiety in psychiatric and non-psychiatric samples

This paper reports the development and assessment of midi-level behavioral measures of social anxiety in the context of two experiments, one studying an analog student sample, the other a psychiatric sample. Judgments on nine categories of clinically practical midi-level behaviors (e.g. Facial Expression, Orienting, Sense of Timing), based on a review of the literature on human ethology and on pilot research, were compared to global judgments of social anxiety and social skill and to physiological arousal. Intraclass correlations exceeded 0.80 for judgments of the global and midi-level behavioral ratings on both samples. Results of correlational analyses indicated that while there were several significant predictors of global skill and anxiety among the midis, the magnitude of the relationship between midis and globals was stronger for the patient than the student sample. Further analyses based on S's heart rate (HR) reactivity suggested that while global ratings did not significantly predict H R in a high social anxiety situation, one midi-level behavioral rating (self-manipulations) did. The clinical utility of the newly developed measures is discussed with particular attention to their practicality for behavior therapy.     

Dimensional salience as a function of educational attainment and method of discrimination training

The effects of three methods of selective-attention training with 4-sided forms on the salience of an invagination physical dimension in discrimination judgments with a stimulus domain of 12-sided forms were examined for 6-year-old Ss of low and high educational attainment. The results demonstrated that training procedures involving perceptual demonstration or manipulation increase the invagination dimension salience in the 12-sided stimulus domain more than a verbal training procedure for low educational attainment Ss. Implications for the psychophysical study of relatedness of stimulus domains are discussed.     

Characteristics of Schizogenic Families During a Joint Story-Telling Task

For a joint family story-telling task, families with a schizophrenic offspring were compared to normal families on the completeness and clarity of the final composite stories and on their interactional behavior. The composite stories from schizogenic families were more “vague and confused”, fragmented, and less complete as to the five components required to satisfy the task instructions. Schizogenic families displayed more conflict, failure, and confusion during the interactional task than control families, and, fathers and mothers of schizophrenic offspring displayed more “anxiety and tension”, “depressive mood”, “evasiveness” and “lack of interest” than fathers and mothers of normal families. Mothers of schizophrenic offspring were also described as more “hostile” than control mothers. Comparing schizogenic families from which the patient was absent during the task with schizogenic families with the patient present, and with control families, indicated that the central findings were not attributable to the immediate presence and participation of the schizophrenic member.     

Book reviews

The Journal of Value Inquiry -     

Über Wahrnehmungsverhalten beim 8- bis 10wöchigen Säugling

Zusammenfassung Im Rahmen einer Systemtheorie des Verhaltens und der Persönlichkeit und auf dem Hintergrund der Ergebnisse der Berner Längsschnittuntersuchungen wird eine Hypothese über die Genese der Wahrnehmung entwickelt, wonach die frühesten Wahrnehmungen im wesentlichen Verarbeitungen der Reizwirkungen in einer von zwei Klassen von Verhaltenssystemen sind, nämlich der Abwendung und Selbstsicherung (A-Systeme) bzw. der Zuwendung zur Außenwelt (Z-Systeme).In einem Experiment mit 8-, 9- und l0wöchigen Säuglingen wurde das Wahrnehmungsverhalten in Abhängigkeit von verschiedenen Reizfiguren, von der individuellen Eigenart und vom Aktivationsniveau des Kindes mit Hilfe eines Zeitstichprobenverfahrens beobachtet. Der auf die Differenzierung zwischen den verschiedenen Reizfiguren entfallende Varianzanteil steigt mit zunehmendem Alter an, während die Wirkung der autonomen Aktivationsprozesse allmählich zurücktritt. Mit 10 Wochen kann eine geordnete Form oder gute Gestalt leichter verarbeitet werden als eine mehr zufällige Form.Einige Probleme im Zusammenhang mit Annahmen, Methoden und Ergebnissen des Experiments werden diskutiert, darunter die Theorie der Formwahrnehmung, die Genese von Subjekt- und Objektsystem und die beschränkte Bedeutung der Methode der bevorzugten Fixierung in der Erforschung der Säuglingswahrnehmung.

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Summary Within the framework of a System Theory of behavior and personality and against the background of the results of the Bernese Longitudinal Studies, a hypothesis of the genesis of perception is developed. It states that the earliest perceptions are essentially integrations of the effects of stimuli into one of two classes of behavioral systems, viz. withdrawal and self-preservation (A-systems) or, respectively, approach to the outer world (Z-systems).The perceptual behavior of 8-, 9-, and 10-week-old infants as a function of different stimulus forms, individuality, and activation level was observed by means of a time-sampling rating method. The proportion of variance accounted for by the differences between stimuli was found to increase with age; at the same time the effect of autonomic activation processes was decreasing. At the age of 10 weeks the infant can work up an orderly form or good Gestalt more readily than a more irregularly-shaped form.Some problems in connection with the assumptions, methods, and results of the study are then discussed, including form perception theory, the genesis of subject- and object-system, and some restriction of the method of preferred fixation in the study of infant perception.

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Gegenwärtig als Canada Council Postdoctoral Fellow an der York University in Toronto, Ont., Canada. Der Verfasser möchte seinem verehrten Lehrer Richard Meili seinen herzlichen Dank für die Anregung dieser Arbeit ausdrücken.     

Discrimination learning by macaca mulatta with option to switch between S+ and S−

Three rhesus monkeys were trained to press either of two response keys. A response on the reinforcement key during presentation of the reinforced stimulus produced a sucrose pellet followed by an intertrial interval, but during presentation of the unreinforced stimulus produced only the intertrial interval. A response on the switching key changed the discriminative stimulus from reinforced to unreinforced or from unreinforced to reinforced. The reinforced stimulus was presented automatically on half the trials, but could be produced only by a switching response on the other half. Switching tended to occur in three distinct stages during acquisition of discriminative behavior. The first stage was identified as "nondiscriminative switching"; the second as "nonswitching"; and the third as "discriminative switching".     

Near-death experiences and the measurement of blood gases

Although cerebral anoxia is not thought to be responsible for triggering near-death experiences (NDEs), the issue is not so clear in the case of hypercapnia. Detection of normal blood gases in Michael Sabom's (1982) case study seems to be the major reply to suggestions that hypercapnia may have a causal role in NDEs. We argue, however, that routine arterial measures of blood gases are not a reliable indicator of cerebral levels.     

Isoluminance and contingent color aftereffects

In the typical induction of the orientation-contingent color aftereffect (CCAE), the stimuli are composed of elements that differ in both color and luminance. Three experiments are reported that show that chromatic contrast between stimulus elements is insufficient for the induction of the orientation-CCAE and that luminance contrast is necessary. These experiments expand on previous research concerned with the role of luminance contrast in the induction of orientation-CCAEs by eliminating alternative explanations.