Subclmical depression and role fulfillment in domestic settings: Spurious relationships,imagined problems,or real effects?

Considerable evidence has accumulated in support of the hypothesis that subclinical depression may inhibit role performance in important ways. However, interpersonal stress and marital discord often precede the development of depressive symptomatology and may independently predict deficits in family role functioning. In addition, cognitive theories suggest that persons with subclinical depression may report poor role functioning even in the absence of any real performance deficits. The current research examines the possibility (1) that the effect of depression on the fulfillment of important family roles is attributable to previously unmeasured contextual variables of ongoing interpersonal stress and/or relationship dissatisfaction or, alternatively, (2) that this relationship is the result of depressive distortion associated with self-report of symptoms and performance. Multiple regression analyses of interview data collected from 495 community-dwelling adults found, however, that depression is related to role functioning beyond any spurious effects attributable to interpersonal stress, spousal stress, or marital satisfaction. In addition, the effect of depression persists when collateral reports of role functioning utilized. Accordingly, it appears that subclinical depression is related to decrements in role performance, and this effect is not entirely due to contextual elements or shared method variance between self-report measures.The authors acknowledge research support from Research Grants R01-AA-07250 and R01-AA-07218 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Research Grant R01-DA-07417 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and National Institutes of Mental Health Grant A-41487-07.     

The concurrent validity of three self-report measures of borderline personality

The recent accumulation of self-report measures of borderline personality disorder (BPD) affords the opportunity to evaluate both the construct validity of the concept and the quality of these measures. This study examines the relationship among three recently developed self-report instruments for assessing BPD from the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey, 1991), the MMPI Personality Disorders Scales (MPD; Morey, Waugh, & Blashfield, 1985), and the Bell Object Relations Inventory (BORI: Bell, Billington, & Becker, 1986). Data on the three measures were provided by 119 undergraduate subjects from a southeastern university. A correlational analysis addresses the convergence of these measures of BPD, their divergence from measures of different but related traits, and their independence from variance due to method. Application of the Campbell-Fiske (1959) criteria indicates adequate convergence for all the BPD measures but a lack of discriminant validity for the BORI scales. The fit of the data to a structural model of construct validity is tested using confirmatory factor analysis, and these results are consistent with the hypothesis of a latent borderline trait factor independent of measurement method factors. In sum, the construct validity of the borderline personality concept using self-report methodologies receives support, and a strong association between borderline personality and paranoid phenomena is also suggested.     

Musical notation for the keyboard: An examination of stimulus-response compatibility

A recent stimulus-response compatibility model was used to provide a performance evaluation of an experimental notation for the keyboard in which pitch varies horizontally in visual space. One hundred and twenty subjects performed a choice reaction time task using either the horizontal notation or a more traditional vertical notation. Half the subjects in each notation group received white noise and half received pitch-varying feedback with responses. A horizontal display advantage was revealed when rules of the model were applied to data analyses. Further, the horizontal display advantage was not dependent on the nature of the feedback. In a second experiment, performance of musicians and non-musicians was compared using the horizontal and vertical notations. Musicians' performance was uniformly better than that of non-musicians, and did not differ with notation orientation. The findings support the use of non-traditional horizontal notations for novice performance on a keyboard instrument.     

An alternative procedure for analyzing job analysis results for content-oriented test development

Content-oriented test development requires information derived from a comprehensive job analysis. The job data typically consist of task and skill statements identified by subject matter experts. These statements characterize a target job and are then used to develop the test plan and item budget. The predominant practice for combining data from the task and job skill domains to facilitate preparation of a test plan and item budget is an impressionistic approach. This study reports variations and extensions of an alternative quantitative procedure for linking task and job skill data (Hughes & Prien, 1989) using results obtained in field studies. The results indicate that the procedure reported by Hughes and Prien (1989) yields consistent results. Also, modifications to the procedure result in more detailed solutions.Dr. Charles Lawshe graciously contributed three sets of job analysis data to this research project. Dr. Lawshe also provided a very thoughtful and cogent critique of our attempts to express these thoughts to a user audience and for this we are grateful.     

The effects of violence on infants and young children: international perspectives on prevention

People become subject to political and social violence when governments fail to give priority to basic health care or education. Attempts to meet foreign obligations also produce severe economic recessions which further impede efforts to improve the general quality of life of disadvantaged populations. Since multiple factors contribute to violence, a multidisciplinary approach is best suited to address the problem. For example, poverty and its associated risks are linked to violence, but living in poverty does not necessarily engender violence. Living in poverty may, however, fuel high rates of child mortality, illiteracy, malnutrition, excessive population growth, street children, and familial disintegration. An integrated action program was developed in Brazil for at-risk individuals and their families based upon the idea of building and reinforcing family ties and intergenerational togetherness. Undernourished infants, street children, the handicapped, women subjected to violence, and neglected senior citizens received special interventions in the program described in the text.     

Self-Monitoring negative statements

We examined the effects of a self-monitoring program on reducing the frequency of negative statements of a student with mild mental retardation who was enrolled in a self-contained classroom at a middle school. A changing criterion design was used within a multiple baseline design across two classroom periods. Additionally, the frequency of positive statements was reported. The results showed a decrease in the number of negative statements, and an increase in the number of positive statements. Maintenance data collected up to 8 weeks after the program ended indicated that the student continued to emit positive rather than negative statements. The use of this procedure to decelerate undesirable behavior is discussed.     

Calibration of a color monitor for visual psychophysics

It has become common for stimuli used in visual psychophysical experiments to be presented on high-resolution color cathode-ray tubes (CRTs) such as the Barco CDCT 6551. These enable a flexibility of color, spatial-frequency content, temporal-frequency content, duration, size, and position that is not provided by most other media. CRTs are, however, not perfect; they suffer from the effects of temporal instability, spatial variability, lack of phosphor constancy, gun interdependence, and gun nonlinearity. This paper describes methods of assessing these aspects of monitor performance with respect to how significant each may be in psychometric terms. Although every application of CRT use in visual psychophysics is different, some general rules can be formulated to help ensure that unwanted effects are kept to a minimum. For the CRT used in this study (Barco CDCT 6551), a warm-up time of 30-45 min is necessary before chromatic and luminous stability ensues. Restriction of individual gun outputs to within 10%-90% of the possible range ensures that the effects of gun interdependence and lack of phosphor constancy are negligible. Calibration methods dealing with the linearization of gun output are also discussed.