Within-child associations between family income and externalizing and internalizing problems

Within-child associations between family income and child externalizing and internalizing problems were examined using longitudinal data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (2004a, 2004b; N=1,132). Variations in income effects were estimated as a function of whether families were poor, whether mothers were partnered, and the number of hours mothers and their partners were employed. On average, children had fewer externalizing problems during times when their families' incomes were relatively high than during times when their families' incomes were relatively low; the estimated benefits of increased income were greatest for children who were chronically poor. For both externalizing and internalizing problems, income was most strongly associated with problems when chronically poor children's mothers were partnered and employed.     

Mean Beck Depression Inventory-II total scores by type of bipolar episode

The 1996 Beck Depression Inventory-II was administered to 120 outpatients diagnosed with DSM-IV-TR bipolar I disorders who had recently experienced manic, mixed, or depressed episodes. A focused contrast supported the hypothesis that the mean Beck-II total score for the 40 patients with depressed episodes (M=34.1, SD = 13.2) was higher than the mean Beck-II total score for the 40 patients with mixed episodes (M=25.9, SD= 13.6) which was, in turn, higher than the mean Beck-II total score for the 40 patients with manic episodes (M= 11.7, SD=7.8, p<.001). The Beck Depression Inventory-II appears to be useful for measuring self-reported depression in patients with bipolar I disorders.     

The role of representational volatility in recognizing pre- and postchange objects

Theories relating attention to change blindness (CB) imply that representations of objects in the focus of attention are stable and coherent. However, CB occurs for objects in the focus of attention. Here, we explore this apparent contradiction and the possibility that changes can be detected without having a complete and stable representation of the prechange object. The first experiment required observers to recognize a prechange object and a postchange object after viewing arrays of various sizes in which the prechange object was replaced by the postchange object after a brief delay. Results indicated that the representation of the prechange object was strong enough to cue a change but not strong enough to support accurate recognition. The remaining experiments demonstrated that the representation of the prechange object is volatile in that a shift in the display or the presence of a postchange object can disrupt the representation. These findings add to current theories of attention and representations by showing that attention may result in volatile representations that can support change detection without supporting accurate recognition.     

Ambient sensory conditions: modification of receptive speech deficits in left-side stroke patients using bright light

Previous research has demonstrated the potential for the use of ambient sensory conditions to improve cognitive functioning. Both light and sound have been shown to improve task performance in various populations including children, younger adults, and elderly participants; however, these cognitive gains may possibly be offset by detrimental cardiovascular reactivity in elderly persons. We now have some evidence for ambient sensory conditions affecting cognitive function following left- or right-side cerebrovascular accidents.     

Screening for obsessive and compulsive symptoms: validation of the Clark-Beck Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory

The 25-item Clark-Beck Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory (CBOCI) was developed to assess the frequency and severity of obsessive and compulsive symptoms. The measure uses a graded-response format to assess core symptom features of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) based on Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) criteria and current cognitive-behavioral formulations. Revisions were made to the CBOCI on the basis of psychometric and item analyses of an initial pilot study of clinical and nonclinical participants. The construct validity of the revised CBOCI was supported in a subsequent validation study involving OCD, nonobsessional clinical, and nonclinical samples. A principal-factor analysis of the 25 items found 2 highly correlated factors of Obsessions and Compulsions. OCD patients scored significantly higher on the measure than nonobsessional anxious, depressed, and nonclinical samples. The questionnaire had strong convergent validity with other OCD symptom measures but more modest discriminant validity.     

Strategies Used in the Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder: A Survey of Practicing Psychologists

One hundred and twenty three practicing psychologists completed surveys regarding the therapeutic techniques they employ for patients with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Participants identified their predominant orientation and rated the frequency with which they used a range of 27 specific strategies. Logistic regression analyses identified an expected relationship between specific techniques and the theoretical orientations to which they are most closely linked. These findings suggest a high level of concordance between self-described theoretical orientation and the specific treatment techniques utilized, but also that some theoretical orientations are comprised of smaller independent clusters of strategies. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Imagery and psychotic symptoms: a preliminary investigation

Recent cognitive accounts of psychotic symptoms have suggested that processes involved in the maintenance of emotional disorders may also be implicated in the maintenance of hallucinations and delusions, and particularly emphasise the appraisals of such symptoms as important. Imaginal appraisals have been identified in emotional disorders, and many studies have reported spontaneously occurring images in patients with anxiety disorders. Such images appear to be linked to affect, beliefs and memories. This study examined the occurrence of imagery, using a semi-structured interview, in 35 patients who were experiencing hallucinations and/or delusions and receiving cognitive therapy. The majority of patients (74.3%) reported images, and most of these were recurrent and associated with affect, beliefs and memories. Common themes included images about feared catastrophes associated with paranoia, traumatic memories, and images about the perceived source or content of voices. The theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed and directions for further research considered.     

On the Distribution of Job Performance: The Role of Measurement Characteristics in Observed Departures from Normality

In a recent article, O'Boyle and Aguinis ( 2012 ) argued that job performance is not distributed normally but instead is nonnormal and highly skewed. However, we believe the extreme departures from normality observed by these authors may have been due to characteristics of performance measures used. To address this issue, we identify 7 measurement criteria that we argue must be present for inferences to be made about the distribution of job performance. Specifically, performance measures must: (a) reflect behavior, (b) include an aggregation of multiple behaviors, (c) include the full range of performers, (d) include the full range of performance, (e) be time bounded, (f) focus on comparable jobs, and (g) not be distorted by motivational forces. Next, we present data from a wide range of sources—including the workplace, laboratory, athletics, and computer simulations—that illustrate settings in which failing to meet one or more of these criteria led to a highly skewed distribution providing a better fit to the data than a normal distribution. However, measurement approaches that better align with the 7 criteria listed above resulted in a normal distribution providing a better fit. We conclude that large departures from normality are in many cases an artifact of measurement.     

Glued to the Image: A Critical Phenomenology of Racialization through Works of Art

I develop a phenomenological account of racialized encounters with works of art and film, wherein the racialized viewer feels cast as perpetually past, coming “too late” to intervene in the meaning of her own representation. This points to the distinctive role that the colonial past plays in mediating and constructing our self‐images. I draw on my experience of three exhibitions that take Muslims and/or Arabs as their subject matter and that ostensibly try to interrupt or subvert racialization while reproducing some of its tropes. My examples are the Jean‐Joseph Benjamin‐Constant exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (2015), the exposition Welten der Muslime at the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin (2011–2017), and a sculpture by Bob and Roberta Smith at the Leeds City Art Gallery, created in response to the imperial power painting, General Gordon's Last Stand, that is housed there. My interest is in how artworks contribute to the experience of being racialized in ways that not only amplify the circulation of images but also constitute difficult temporal relations to images. Drawing on Frantz Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks, I argue that such racialized images are temporally gluey, or stuck, so that we are weighted and bogged down by them.