Effects of flurazepam and triazolam on neuropsychological performance

A double-blind study examined the effects of a single dose of either triazolam or flurazepam on measures of concept formation, attention, concentration, and motor function, the morning following drug ingestion. Subjects were 53 healthy university students, screened for history of neurological or psychiatric illness. In comparison to placebo-treated controls, there was no difference in the effects on neuropsychological performance, although subjects who received flurazepam reported more side effects. It was concluded that although these drugs may produce side effects, single doses do not appear to impair various aspects of neuropsychological ability the morning after ingestion.     

Orality and latency of volunteering to serve as experimental subjects: a replication

Comparison of Rorschach orality scores for undergraduate subjects who signed up to participate in psychology experiments during the first (n = 217) and second (n = 87) halves of the semester revealed that early participators report a significantly (p = .03) greater number of oral Rorschach responses (X = 3.765) than late participators (X = 3.218). This result confirms an earlier serendipitous finding (Masling, O'Neill, & Jayne, 1981) that volunteering to participate in required experiments is not a chance event and can, in fact, be predicted using methods derived from psychoanalytic theory. Our finding supports the utility of psychoanalytic principles in predicting important aspects of nonlaboratory behavior.     

On the development of color naming in young children: data and theory

Among the semantics of different common attributes of the environment, consistent and correct color naming seems to develop paradoxically late in children, for even young infants discriminate and categorize colors well, color is a salient feature of the child's world, and children are aware of color as a separate domain, know color terms, and respond to color questions with color names. Several specific anomalies characterize early linguistic development in this domain: Errors in beginning color naming are perseverative or random, there seems to be a minimum age for correct and consistent color naming, developmental rate shows wide individual differences, and acquisition among girls is generally faster than among boys. This essay reviews data that support these observations, and evaluates three traditional explanations for them--including the perceptual salience of color for children, experience and learning in the child, and cognitive development--against a fourth new possibility. It is hypothesized that appropriate color naming may depend on the maturation and integration of specific cortical neurological structures; among several interpretations, the neurological one accounts best for diverse characteristics of early color naming.     

Effects of Parental Acceptance-Rejection on Children’s Internalizing and Externalizing Behaviors: A Longitudinal,Multicultural Study

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Grounded in Interpersonal Acceptance-Rejection Theory, this study assessed children’s (N?=?1315) perceptions of maternal and paternal...     

Oral-Dependence and Gender: Factors in Help-Seeking Response Set and Self-Reported Psychopathology in Psychiatric Inpatients

Psychoanalytic theory suggests that orality and being female are positively related to adopting a help-seeking stance in the world. This may result in inflated scores on self-report psychological tests. These hypotheses were investigated using Rorschach-based, oral-dependence scores (Masling, 1986), the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) help-seeking F minus K index (Gough, 1950; Meehl, 1951), and the MMPI clinical and supplementary scales. High orals are found to be more likely than low orals to adopt a help-seeking response set which in turn results in inflated scores on a number of MMPI clinical scales. Contrary to stereotypes, women are no more likely than men to be help seeking or oral dependent. Several other significant findings, including that orality is positively related to MMPI Scale 2 (Depression) scores for women, not men, are also discussed.     

From Structure to Process: On the Integration of AMPD and HiTOP

Summary: The development of a new scale suitable for research with the criminal offender was described. Based on the factor analysis of an item pool delineating sociopathic personality traits, five factors were derived to compose an 80-item criminal offender introspective report (COIR).     

Construct Validity of the Relationship Profile Test: Links with Defense Style in Substance Abuse Patients and Comparison with Nonclinical Norms

One-hundred fourteeen adults undergoing voluntary inpatient treatment for substance use disorders (SUDs) completed the Relationship Profile Test (RPT; Bornstein et al. 2003), and Bond, Gardner, and Christian’s (1983) Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ). Analyses examined gender differences in RPT subscale scores and evaluated patterns of RPT-DSQ correlations in the SUD sample; a secondary analysis compared RPT scores in the present sample with those of Bornstein et al.’s (Journal of Personality Assessment 80:64–74, 2003) nonclinical sample. Results supported the construct validity of the RPT as a measure of destructive overdependence (DO), dysfunctional detachment (DD), and healthy dependency (HD) and provided preliminary clinical norms for the DO, DD, and HD scales. Findings also documented potential limitations of the RPT in SUD patients. Continued evaluation is needed to assess the utility of the RPT in clinical populations.