The clinician-investigator: unavoidable but manageable tension

The "difference position" holds that clinical research and therapeutic medical practice are sufficiently distinct activities to require different ethical rules and principles. The "similarity position" holds instead that clinical investigators ought to be bound by the same fundamental principles that govern therapeutic medicine--specifically, a duty to provide the optimal therapeutic benefit to each patient or subject. Some defenders of the similarity position defend it because of the overlap between the role of attending physician and the role of investigator in a research trial. This overlap is maximal when the same physician occupies both roles with respect to a particular patient-subject. We address the ethical tensions inherent in that role conflict and argue that the tensions are real but manageable. The difference position provides a sound ethical framework within which to manage those tensions, while the similarity position is unsatisfactory because it seeks to deny the existence of the tensions.     

A test of the four-factor model of impulsivity-related traits

In a recent article, Whiteside and Lynam [Person. Indiv. Diff. 30 (2001) 669] proposed a new model for understanding personality pathways to impulsive behavior. Their UPPS model maintains that there are four personality dimensions that are related differentially to impulsive behaviors: urgency, sensation seeking, (lack of) premeditation, and (lack of) perseverance. The purpose of the current study was to provide validation for this model and to test some of the specific hypotheses offered by Whiteside and Lynam. The sample used in this study consisted of 481 individuals who completed mailed surveys at age 20 and an in-depth laboratory protocol at age 21. Zero-order correlations and multiple regression analyses were used to examine the relations between the four personality traits and various forms of externalizing behaviors, several types of internalizing psychopathology, and intelligence. Results revealed that the four traits were differentially related to various behaviors and forms of psychopathology consistent with many of Whiteside and Lynam's predictions. Therefore, the UPPS model does appear to offer a novel and useful way of understanding behaviors and forms of psychopathology considered to be characterized by some form of impulsivity.     

Instructions for Authors

Instructions for Authors

Instructions for Authors     

Journal Reviews

B ash , K. (Berne). 'Ein Verglich dreierlei Messmethoden für die Extraversion/Introversion'
C ahen , R. (Paris). 'Inquiétez-vous, c'est psychique'
C ahen , R. (Paris). Prefface to the 'nth' edition of L' Homme à la Decouverte de son Ame
G oldenberg , N. (Ottawa). 'A feminist critique of Jung'
M aduro , R. (San Francisco). 'working with Lations and the use of dream analysis'
M asse -R ouquette , J. (Le Mesnil-St Denis). 'Femme et surréalisme'
M c C ully ,R. (Charleston). 'Parapsychology and symbol formation'
P ignatelli , M. (Rome). 'Un incognita chiamata amore'
Pegnatelli, M. (Rome). 'Il fantasma del terzo'
P ignatielli , M. (Rome). 'Psiche e realta del fenomeno umano'
P ontius , A. (New York). 'Stimuli triggering violence in psychoses'.
P ontius , A. (New York). 'Geometric figure-rotation task and face representation in dyslexia: role fo spatial relations and orientation'.
P ontius , A. (New York). 'Face representation linked with literacy with literacy level in colonial American tombstone engravings and Third World pre-literates'
T aylor , C. (New York). 'Sexual intimacy between patient and analyst'.
Z iegler , A. (Zürich). 'Die schattern von olympia—über Veitstanz und Zitterkrankheiten'     

Time perception and temporal order memory

The purpose of this research was to investigate the relation between the attentional resources underlying time perception and temporal order memory. Subjects made judgments about temporal attributes associated with a series of wordlists. Each word was displayed for 1.4 s, and the lists contained 10 words (14 s total), 15 words (21 s total), or 20 words (28 s total). Subjects judged either the list duration, the temporal order of the words, or both duration and temporal order. In addition, there were three mental workload conditions: control (no additional task requirements), and two mental arithmetic tasks (subtract 3 or subtract 7 from a series of random numbers). The results showed a pattern of bidirectional interference between timing and temporal order: the concurrent temporal order task interfered with duration judgments, and the concurrent timing task interfered with temporal order judgments. Bidirectional interference also occurred between the mental workload task and both duration judgments and temporal order judgments. The results indicate that duration and temporal order are closely related temporal attributes, and suggest that the processing of these attributes relies on a common set of executive attentional resources.     

Failures of retrieval and comparison constrain change detection in natural scenes

In a change detection paradigm, a target object in a natural scene either rotated in depth, was replaced by another object token, or remained the same. Change detection performance was reliably higher when a target postcue allowed participants to restrict retrieval and comparison processes to the target object (Experiment 1). Change detection performance remained excellent when the target object was not attended at change (Experiment 2) and when a concurrent verbal working memory load minimized the possibility of verbal encoding (Experiment 3). Together, these data demonstrate that visual representations accumulate in memory from attended objects as the eyes and attention are oriented within a scene and that change blindness derives, at least in part, from retrieval and comparison failure.     

A motivational analysis of defensive pessimism and self-handicapping

Two studies examined motivational influences on and correlates of defensive pessimism and self-handicapping and investigated the relationship between these two cognitive strategies and performance attainment. The findings indicated that defensive pessimism and self-handicapping have similar motivational profiles, with the primary difference being that self-handicapping represents the absence of approach motivation in the achievement domain, as well as the presence of avoidance motivation. Self-handicapping, but not defensive pessimism, was shown to undermine performance-attainment, and performance-avoidance goals were validated as mediators of this negative relationship. Issues regarding the functional nature of the two cognitive strategies are discussed.     

Investigating the influence of organizational role on perceptions of risk in deep coal mines

The authors replicated O. Ostberg's (1980) study of forestry workers using a range of personnel groups in coal mines. Findings demonstrate a high level of consensus between a range of personnel groups for a set of pictorially depicted behavioral risks, at the level of rank order, but significant differences in terms of relative magnitudes. Magnitudes of perceived risk were found to be greater for those closest to the point of hazard than for members of more geographically and experientially distal groups. Findings are interpreted with reference to experiential influences associated with organizational role. Revealed differences between personnel groups are explained in terms of cognitive availability, specifically effects associated with habituation and familiarity with risk, these sources of perceptual bias appearing to interact with organizational role.