Second-order dimensions of the Work Values Inventory (WVI)

An item factor analysis of the 45 items of the Work Values Inventory (WVI) for 445 physically disabled clients produced six second-order dimensions: Stimulating Work, Interpersonal Satisfaction, Economic Security, Responsible Autonomy, Comfortable Existence, and Esthetic Concerns. These second-order factors provide a summary of clients' work motivation at a higher level of generality that is consistent with the WVI primary structure. The six factors are virtually independent of age, education, and intelligence and can be hand-scored by a simple procedure.     

Targeting Ontological Security: Information Warfare in the Modern Age

Recent studies have made great strides looking at the implications that the human need for ontological security has for politics and International Relations. However, less attention has been paid to how actors might target this need. While Steele and Mattern both examine the possible manipulation of subjectivity, this article turns to the concept of information warfare (IW) to broaden the view of how, and to what end, this is pursued. Congruently, by elaborating upon how the digitalization of society has increased the potential to influence and manipulate cognition and emotion, OS strengthens current literature on IW. It argues that by covertly perverting the information landscape, IW can alter how events are connected to national narratives, influencing policy by making certain options appear more/less shameful, or it can unravel the bonds of society by polarizing domestic narrative debates, purposely sowing ontological insecurity. This provides a firmer understanding of the strategic implications interference can have generally and of Russia's interference into the 2016 U.S. election specifically. Therefore, by viewing facets of IW as part of a range of tactics employed to manipulate/undermine subjectivity, a more nuanced understanding of interstate relations subsequently emerges.     

Neuroepileptic correlates of autistic symptomatology in tuberous sclerosis

Tuberous sclerosis is a genetic condition that is strongly associated with the development of an autism spectrum disorder. However, there is marked variability in expression, and only a subset of children with tuberous sclerosis develop autism spectrum disorder. Clarification of the mechanisms that underlie the association and variability in expression will potentially throw light on the biological processes involved in the etiology of idiopathic forms of autism spectrum disorder. Current evidence indicates that the likelihood of a child with tuberous sclerosis developing an autism spectrum disorder is greater if the child has a mutation in the TSC2 gene, although autism can and does develop in children with TSC1 mutations. The likelihood is also greater if the child has early-onset infantile spasms that are difficult to control, especially if there is an epileptiform focus in the temporal lobes. The emerging evidence is consistent with the notion that early onset electrophysiological disturbances within the temporal lobes (and perhaps other locations) has a deleterious effect on the development and establishment of key social cognitive representations concerned with processing social information, perhaps especially from faces. However, alternative mechanisms to account for the findings cannot yet be ruled out. Future research will have to employ prospective longitudinal designs and treatment trials to clarify the processes involved.     

Mothers' psychological adjustment following disaster affecting their children

The authors investigated the psychological adjustment of 37 British women whose adolescent children survived the cruise ship Jupiter's sinking in 1988, about 6 years previously. They compared these women with a group of widows (N = 18) and a group of women who had suffered no major negative life event (N= 15). Psychological adjustment of the 37 women was assessed with the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia Lifetime Version (SADS-L; R. L. Spitzer & J. Endicott, 1975) and various standard questionnaires. The women whose children had been involved in the disaster were found to have suffered a greater number of incidents of psychological distress in the period since the disaster than the women who had suffered no major negative life events but fewer incidents of psychological distress than the widows. The significance of these findings and clinical implications are discussed.     

Gay Identity and the Experience of Gay Social Stress1

The hypothesis that identity commitment affects the experience of identity-related stressors brings identity theory and social stress research together. Research findings are not yet conclusive regarding this hypothesis. Part of the contradictory research findings stem from inadequate knowledge about the causal direction of the relationship between depression and commitment. The authors analyze if identity commitment interacts with social stress in its impact on mental well-being. Only chronic stress has a moderate impact on the experience of depression. Commitment toward the gay identity did not buffer the experience of stress. The authors also use a nonrecursive model to establish the causal relationship between depression and commitment. They show that it is depression that lowers identity commitment. It is concluded that identity commitment cannot act as a buffer against identity-related stress because commitment is affected by the resulting distress.     

The Tennessee Self-Concept Scale and the normal personality sphere (16PF)

An examination of the internal structure of the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale (TSCS) and the interrelationship among the TSCS scales and the secondary dimensions of the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) supported three conclusions: (a) The primary dimension underlying the TSCS is positive self-evaluation, freedom from neurotic symptoms, or the absence of anxiety, (b) this central dimension of the TSCS aligns with the 16PF secondary Anxiety vs. Adjustment, and is virtually independent of the other dimensions of the normal personality sphere, and (c) the mutual orthogonality of extraversion, anxiety or neuroticism, and an empirically derived psychoticism scale provided some support for Eysenck's PEN theory of personality organization.     

The effect of strain upon the topology of a soap froth

Abstract

The question of the effect of an imposed strain on the topology of a soap froth is addressed through numerical simulations. Both the standard model of a ‘dry’ twodimensional foam and the case of small liquid fraction are explored. The froths are subjected to both extensional deformation and simple shear. The counter-intuitive result that application of strain can induce ordering in a disordered froth is obtained, quantified and discussed. A qualitative dynamical explanation is proposed.     

Mothers' Psychological Adjustment Following Disaster Affecting Their Children

The authors investigated the psychological adjustment of 37 British women whose adolescent children survived the cruise ship Jupiter's sinking in 1988, about 6 years previously. They compared these women with a group of widows (N = 18) and a group of women who had suffered no major negative life event (N = 15). Psychological adjustment of the 37 women was assessed with the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia Lifetime Version (SADS-L; R. L. Spitzer & J. Endicott, 1975) and various standard questionnaires. The women whose children had been involved in the disaster were found to have suffered a greater number of incidents of psychological distress in the period since the disaster than the women who had suffered no major negative life events but fewer incidents of psychological distress than the widows. The significance of these findings and clinical implications are discussed.     

Evaluation of the William S. Hall Psychiatric Institute Clinical Psychology Internship: a replication and extension

This study extends three earlier investigations involving participants who completed their predoctoral clinical psychology internship at the William S. Hall Psychiatric Institute. Intern graduates (N = 37) evaluated how effectively their internship training prepared them for seven aspects of their current work as practicing psychologists. Participants also rated the relevancy of 24 different internship training experiences to their current work and how much these experiences contributed to their development as clinical psychologists. The present study, in conjunction with the three previous studies, covers most of the 40-year period since the inception of the internship program. Analysis of the current data indicates the internship has improved over time and was deemed an exceptional training experience by its graduates. Findings may be of particular interest to internship directors and faculty interested in improving their training program and those who plan to conduct a self-study to maintain their accreditation for clinical psychology internship.     

Frontal cortex functioning in the infant broader autism phenotype

Atypical attention has been proposed as a marker of the broader autism phenotype. In the present study we investigated this and the related process of inhibitory control at the youngest possible age through the study of infant siblings of children with an autism spectrum disorder (Sibs-ASD). Both attention and inhibition have been related to the frontal cortex of the brain. Nine- to ten-month-old Sibs-ASD and low-risk control infants completed the Freeze-Frame task, in which infants are encouraged to inhibit looks to peripherally presented distractors whilst looking at a central animation. The attractiveness of the central stimulus is varied in order to investigate the selectivity of infants’ responses. In line with previous studies, it was found that a subset of Sibs-ASD infants had difficulty disengaging attention from a central stimulus in order to orient to a peripheral stimulus. The Sibs-ASD group also showed less Selective Inhibition than controls. However, Sibs-ASD infants did demonstrate Selective Inhibitory Learning. These results provide preliminary evidence for atypical frontal cortex functioning in the infant broader autism phenotype.