Stability of older adults' preferences for life-sustaining medical treatment.

The use of instructional advance directives assumes that preferences for life-sustaining medical treatment remain stable over time and across changes in life condition. A sample of 332 older adults recorded their preferences for 4 life-sustaining treatments in 9 illness scenarios. These preferences were elicited again 1 and 2 years after the original interview. Overall, preferences for life-sustaining treatment were moderately stable over time, but stability varied significantly across judgments. Preferences were most stable for illness scenarios that were most and least serious and for decisions to refuse treatment. Age, gender, education, and prior completion of an advance directive were all related to preference stability, and evidence indicated that declines in physical or psychological functioning resulted in decreased interest in life-sustaining treatment.     

Condom use among high-risk adolescents: testing the influence of alcohol use on the relationship of cognitive correlates of behavior.

The goal of this study was the exploration of distal effects of alcohol use on condom use. Criminally involved adolescents completed an initial measure of attitudes, beliefs, and prior behavior. Of the 300 who completed the initial measurement, 267 (89%) completed a behavioral assessment 6 months later. Analyses validated a theoretical model of condom use intentions and indicated that intentions and attitudes measured at baseline were significant predictors of condom use behavior 6 months later. Neither alcohol use nor alcohol problems moderated relationships among model variables or the influence of intentions and attitudes on behavior. The findings do not support a distal role for alcohol use in altering the cognitive correlates of condom use intentions and behavior among high-risk adolescents.     

Classroom performance and adaptive skills in children with epilepsy

The relationships of age at onset, seizure syndrome, seizure type, and seizure frequency, respectively, to the classroom performance and adaptive skills of 131 children with epilepsy were studied. The Teacher Report Form of the Child Behavior Checklist was completed by the children's teachers. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted on ratings of academic subject areas and overall adaptive skills. Significant results were obtained for English/Language, Reading, Mathematics, overall School Performance, Learning, Happy, and Total Adaptive skills. Epilepsy syndrome and frequency of seizures were significantly related to some of these analyses, with amounts of variance accounted for ranging from 11% to 23%. Children with secondary generalized epilepsy performed significantly worse than children with other epilepsy syndromes. The results suggest that a seizure disorder associated with a diffuse or multifocal brain insult can produce problems in achievement and school adaptation as manifested on a day-to-day basis. Suggestions for future research are presented.     

Parental and family predictors of behavior problems in inner-city black children

Studied contributions of maternal psychological distress, family stress load, maternal and family risk factors, and family coping strategies in predicting behavior problems in 441 inner-city black primary-grade children. Results indicated maternal psychological distress and high family stress load were associated with high child behavior problems. Family coping strategies offered no protection against risk, while coping with life difficulties by reframing them was detrimental to child behavioral adjustment. Active help-seeking strategies (i.e., family mobilization, acquiring social supports) served to moderate the effects of maternal psychological distress and family risk attributes for boys, but exacerbated the effects of dysfunctional maternal social and psychiatric histories for girls. Implications for understanding vulnerability and resilience in inner-city black children and recommendations for future research are discussed.     

Syntactic parsing as revealed by brain responses: First-pass and second-pass parsing processes

This paper reviews a series of electrophysiological experiments on syntactic processing against the background of a psycholinguistic two-stage model of parsing. The data reveal two event-related brain potential components in correlation with syntactic processes: an early left anterior negativity and a late centro-parietal positivity. It is argued that these two components can be correlated with two separate stages of syntactic processing: the early left anterior negativity reflecting first-pass parsing processes and the late positivity reflecting second-pass parsing processes possibly including processes of reanalyses.     

Activity/nonactivity and the group therapist: “Don't just do something,sit there”

The abstinent stance of psychoanalytically-oriented clinicians is often confused with passivity or coldness toward the patient or the group. Given the current move toward more active, shorter-term treatment, this paper offers a reaffirmation of the value of the abstinent analytic stance. The theoretical rationale for the technique is reviewed, and some specific arguments are made to illustrate the continuing importance of the method in the treatment of patients in psychodynamic group psychotherapy.Reputed to be Adlai Stevenson's advice to President John F. Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis.     

Men's and women's perceptions of non-consensual sexual intercourse

This paper examines the reactions of college men and women (primarily white) to scenarios depicting non-consensual intercourse between men and women with varying levels of prior intimacy. Women were more likely than men to consider the scenarios unacceptable, and the gender difference increased with the level of prior intimacy between the victim and the offender in the scenario. Respondents who reported knowing a rape victim were also more likely to consider the scenarios unacceptable, and this effect was significantly larger for men. We consider the implications of these results for understanding the role of salience of sexual assault and self-interest in shaping men's and women's reactions to non-consensual intercourse.     

A View of the violence contained in chronic fatigue syndrome

In this paper I ask whether there might be any one particular psychopathology likely to be linked specifically with the physical illness known as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) or myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), and whether CFS/ME aids and abets and 'fits' an original mental state. I think the question cannot yet be answered. However it is my hypothesis that in some personality structures the onset of CFS/ME following a physical illness exacerbates negativity and is an aspect of ordinary depression where there is a lowering of energy levels and a loss of zest for life, or it may reveal the pathological aspect of unresolved rage.
Depending on the degree of pathological disturbance, working with and through the rage may or may not result in a resolution of the symptoms of ME. In this paper I consider some of the problems in the transference and countertransference relationship, which make it extremely difficult to separate out reality from phantasy. There is then the further problem of the denial of the psyche by the patient as part of the violence inherent in the illness.
One case is presented, an example of ME in a borderline male patient in whom resolution could not be achieved.     

Means,standard deviations and stability coefficients on the EPI for further education and college of education students

1294 Further Education students and 644 College of Education students were tested with the EPI and subsequently retested after 1 year. Females scored significantly higher than males for Neuroticism, but the converse applied for Extraversion. Stability coefficients for all groups were positive and substantial.     

The relation of field dependence to signal detection while imaging

Twelve field-dependent (FD) and 12 field-independent (FI) males were administered 260 trials of a signal detection task in four phases. Signal type (auditory, visual, or no signal) was crossed with four sets of imaging treatments (pure visual representations, pure sounds without visual counterparts, and two sets representing sounds with visual counterparts). Detection of a signal in isolation was 90% accurate, as was the detection of no signal while imaging. Cross-modality imaging interfered with detection of the stimulus but to a significantly lesser extent than did same-modality imaging. In all detection/imaging treatments, FIs were significantly more sensitive to the signal than were FDs; however, FDs and FIs did not differ in accuracy of detecting isolated signals. The results are discussed in terms of the commonalities shared by perception and imaging as they appear in the Perky effect and cognitive style.