Interhemispheric transfer in schizophrenics, depressives, and normals with schizoid tendencies

Although several studies suggest that schizophrenics suffer from an impairment in the interhemispheric transfer (IHT) of information, methodological weaknesses in these studies preclude clear interpretation of their results. This study addresses these criticisms in order to provide a clearer test of the IHT theory. Schizophrenics, depressives, normal controls, and normals with schizoid tendencies were assessed on five measures of IHT (verbal and nonverbal dichotic listening, intermanual transfer, bimanual block design, finger sequence repetition) and two measures of unilateral hemispheric processing (lateral eye movements, auditory thresholds). Results consistently failed to support an IHT deficit interpretation of schizophrenia. Schizoid normals had a significantly greater right-ear advantage on verbal dichotic listening than both psychiatric groups, a result suggesting enhanced left-hemisphere activation in schizoid normals. It is concluded that the IHT theory requires stronger empirical substantiation than has been obtained to date to warrant further consideration as a central theory of schizophrenia.     

A CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY OF PERSONALITY: EGYPTIAN AND ENGLISH CHILDREN*

679 Egyptian boys and 696 girls completed the Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, translated into Arabic. Factor comparisons were moderately high for extraversion and social desirability but weak for neuroticism and psychoticism. Suitable item substitution produced a scoring key resulting in adequate reliabilities with the exception of a somewhat low reliability for the boys on extraversion and low reliabilities on psychoticism for both sexes. Sex differences on means of the dimensions were as usual, boys scoring higher than girls on extraversion and psychoticism, but lower on neuroticism and social desirability. Moreover, on comparing Egyptian with English means, using scales of items in common only, the English boys and girls scored higher than their Egyptian counterparts on extraversion but significantly lower on social desirability. British boys scored higher on psychoticism than did Egyptian boys but British girls scored lower than Egyptian girls.     

Effect of depression on processing interactions in group psychotherapy

Two studies were conducted to investigate the possibility of individual differences in the ability of inpatients to process interactions in group psychotherapy. The first was a pilot study conducted on groups of major depressive patients and matched normal subjects. Subjects were asked to give process comments after viewing simulations of typical group therapy interactions. These comments were later rated on the extent to which they reflected process qualities and accuracy. These data led to a more rigorous and extensive study that included more appropriate control groups as well as measures of potential confounding factors, such as simulation realism, verbal ability, and interaction comprehension. Results indicated that major depressives suffer from deficits in the ability to process group interactions, relative to three types of control groups, including normals. These differences in processing were not significantly positively correlated with any of the potential confounding factors. The implications for understanding interactional processing and group psychotherapy are discussed.     

Family Functioning of Male Alcoholics and Their Female Partners during Periods of Drinking and Abstinence

Family functioning of 20 alcoholic male veterans and their female partners was assessed in relation to drinking (wet) and abstinent (dry) intervals. Repeated measures analyses performed on the McMaster Family Assessment Device (FAD) indicated that on all 7 scales of the FAD, alcoholics and their mates perceived family functioning to be better during dry than wet periods. In contrast to their alcoholic mates, female partners gave healthier ratings to all FAD scales except Roles in the dry condition and Affective Involvement in the wet condition. According to published cutoff scores for healthy and unhealthy family functioning, alcoholics as a group viewed their wet and dry family functioning as unhealthy, although the female group regarded the family's dry Problem Solving and Behavioral Control as healthy. These findings suggest that the family functioning of alcohol-involved couples is biphasic, oscillating between drinking and abstinent periods.     

The "psychosomatic family" model: an empirical and theoretical analysis

Evolution of the Family Systems Paradigm has been constrained by the dichotomy between theory building and empirical research. This article integrates these two domains by presenting a theoretical analysis of the "psychosomatic family" model as it informs and is informed by an empirical research project. Forty families of children with Crohn's disease (CD), ulcerative colitis (UC), and functional recurrent abdominal pain syndrome (RAP) were rated during standard, videotaped family interaction tasks, lunch, and interview. Laboratory scores of disease activity were associated with triangulation, marital dysfunction, and total "psychosomatic family" scores. Disease activity was not significantly correlated with enmeshment, overprotection, rigidity, conflict avoidance, or poor conflict resolution. Thus, the marital/triangulation and enmeshment/overprotection/conflict clusters may be subcomplexes of the "psychosomatic family" complex. CD, UC, and RAP groups differed in the relations among particular family patterns and disease activity. A heuristic family-psycho-somatic model is presented to facilitate future research.     

From rarity to evaluative extremity: effects of prevalence information on evaluations of positive and negative characteristics

Experiments showed a scarcity principle in evaluative judgments such that the identical characteristic is evaluated more extremely the lower its perceived prevalence. In Study 1, Ss evaluated a fictitious medical condition that was described as either beneficial or detrimental to health and as occurring in either 30% or in one half of 1% of a test population. The condition was evaluated more extremely--as as a more positive health asset or a more negative health liability--in the low-prevalence than in the high-prevalence conditions. Study 2 demonstrated the same effect in self-evaluations and with a different manipulation of perceived prevalence. Ss were told that they actually had the fictitious medical condition, that it was either beneficial or detrimental to their health, and either that they were the only 1 of 5 Ss who had it or that 4 of the 5 did. Low-prevalence Ss exhibited more extreme evaluative, affective, and behavioral reactions to the medical condition than did high-prevalence Ss. The origins and validity of the scarcity principle are discussed, as are its implications for uniqueness theory, reactance theory, and social evaluation theories.     

Intergroup aggression: its predictors and distinctness from in-group bias

Investigated predictors of intergroup aggression and its relations to in-group bias. In a questionnaire, 156 Israeli adults reported perceptions of their own religious group and of the ultraorthodox Jewish out-group and expressed aggression toward the ultraorthodox (opposing institutions that serve their needs, supporting acts harmful to them, and opposing interaction with them). Respondents showed in-group favoritism in trait evaluations, but this bias was unrelated to aggression. Perceived inter-group conflict of interests, the postulated motivator of aggression, predicted it strongly. The effects of conflict on aggression were partially mediated by 2 indexes of dehumanizing the out-group (perceived value dissimilarity and trait inhumanity) and by 1 index of probable empathy with it (perceived in-group-out-group boundary permeability). These variables related to aggression more strongly among persons who identified highly with their in-group. The variables also mediated the effects of religious group affiliation on aggression. The value dissimilarity finding supports derivations from belief congruence theory.     

Psychometric properties of the Survey of Personal Beliefs: a rational-emotive measure of irrational thinking

A test consistency and confirmatory factor analyses were performed on the Survey of Personal Beliefs, a new measure of irrational thinking based on rational-emotive personality theory. The survey, which was logically derived, includes a general rationality factor and subscales measuring five hypothesized core categories of irrational beliefs. Subjects included a nonclinical sample of 130 men and 150 women, with a mean age of 46. Results indicated that the Survey of Personal Beliefs had satisfactory total and scale reliability. The confirmatory analyses supported a higher order factor model including 5 first-order factors ( awfulizing, self-directed shoulds, other-directed shoulds, low frustration tolerance, and self-worth) and 1 second-order or general factor.     

The sensitivity of the Bender-Gestalt Test as a screening instrument for neuropsychological impairment in older adults

We investigated the sensitivity of the Bender (1938) Visual-Motor Gestalt Test (BGT) using the Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Battery (HRB) as the criterion for cortical dysfunction. We studied 95 subjects over age 55 who had been diagnosed as having dementia or pseudodementia. Subjects were classified as mild, moderately, or severely impaired on the HRB and as impaired or unimpaired on the BGT. The results indicated that the BGT is less sensitive (36%) than was expected when used on an impaired geriatric population. The data further indicated that false negatives occurred more frequently with the BGT when individuals had mild neuropsychological impairment. Less frequent misclassifications occurred as the severity of impairment on HRB indices increased.