The effects of hormones,Type A behavior pattern,and provocation on aggression in men

Thirty-eight male college students, classified as either Type A or Type B based on their Jenkins Activity Survey (JAS-T) scores, competed in a reaction time task that allowed them to administer shocks to an increasingly provocative fictitious opponent. Salivary testosterone and cortisol were measured both prior to and after the task. Aggression was defined as the level of shock the subject was willing to set for the opponent. The results of this study indicate that a relationship exists between endogenous testosterone levels in men and direct physical aggression. Some evidence for the moderating effects of hormones on the level of aggression expressed by Type As was observed. No direct relationship between Type A and aggression was found.     

Three forms of stress in Cambodian adolescent refugees

Sixty-nine Cambodian adolescents and young adults were interviewed to determine their experience as children surviving the Pol Pot regime (1975–1979);their first-year experience of resettlement in this country; and their experience of stressful events during the past year. Current DSM-III-R diagnostic status was also determined. A strong relationship between earlier war trauma, resettlement strain, and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was found. In contrast, the strongest relationship with depressive symptoms was found for recent stressful events. These results are discussed in light of current findings from stress and PTSD research.Dr. Clarke is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry in the Division of Child Psychiatry, Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland, Oregon. Dr. Sack is Director of the Division of Child Psychiatry and Principal Investigator of the Khmer Adolescent Project. Brian Goff is a Research Assistant.This project was supported by the National Institutes of Mental Health [NIMH] grant #5-RO1-MH42927-02, Dr. William H. Sack, M.D., Principal Investigator.     

Ecology of depression in late childhood and early adolescence: a profile of daily states and activities

This study investigated daily states and time use patterns associated with depression. Four hundred eighty-three 5th to 9th graders reported on their experience when signalled by pagers at random times. Depressed youth reported more negative affect and social emotions, lower psychological investment, lower energy, and greater variability in affect. These differences were weaker for 5th and 6th graders, suggesting that self-reported feeling states are a poor indicator of depression prior to adolescence. No differences were found in the daily activities of depressed youths nor in the amount of time spent alone, but depressed youths experienced other people as less friendly and more often reported wanting to be alone, especially when with their families. They also spent less time in public places and more time in their bedrooms. Finally, depressed boys, but not girls, spent much less time with friends, particularly of the same sex, suggesting that social isolation is more strongly associated with depression for boys.     

Concurrent validity of the motor domain of the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales

The concurrent validity of the motor domain from the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales was estimated using scores from the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales as criteria. A moderately high correlation between the measures was obtained. Implications, particularly for preschool children, were discussed.     

An on-line assessment of causal reasoning during comprehension

Fletcher and Bloom (1988) have argued that as readers read narratives, clause by clause, they repeatedly focus their attention on the last preceding clause that contains antecedents but no consequences in the text. This strategy allows them to discover a causal path linking the text's opening to its final outcome while minimizing the number of times long-term memory must be searched for missing antecedents or consequences. In order to test this hypothesis, we examined the reading times of 25 subjects for each clause of eight simple narrative texts. The results show that: (1) causal links between clauses that co-occur in short-term memory (as predicted by the strategy) increase the time required to read the second clause; (2) potential causal links between clauses that never co-occur in short-term memory (again as predicted by the strategy) have no effect on reading time; and (3) reinstatement searches are initiated at the end of sentences that are causally unrelated to the contents of short-term memory or that contain clauses that satisfy goals no longer in short-term memory. These results support the claim that subjects engage in a form of causal reasoning when they read simple narrative texts.     

Semantic and associative priming in the cerebral hemispheres: some words do, some words don't ... sometimes, some places

This study investigated spreading activation for words presented to the left and right hemispheres using an automatic semantic priming paradigm. Three types of semantic relations were used: similar-only (Deer-Pony), associated-only (Bee-Honey), and similar + associated (Doctor-Nurse). Priming of lexical decisions was symmetrical over visual fields for all semantic relations when prime words were centrally presented. However, when primes and targets were lateralized to the same visual field, similar-only priming was greater in the LVF than in the RVF, no priming was obtained for associated-only words, and priming was equivalent over visual fields for similar + associated words. Similar results were found using a naming task. These findings suggest that it is important to lateralize both prime and target information to assess hemisphere-specific spreading activation processes. Further, while spreading activation occurs in either hemisphere for the most highly related words (those related by category membership and association), our findings suggest that automatic access to semantic category relatedness occurs primarily in the right cerebral hemisphere. These results imply a unique role for the right hemisphere in the processing of word meanings. We relate our results to our previous proposal (Burgess & Simpson, 1988a; Chiarello, 1988c) that there is rapid selection of one meaning and suppression of other candidates in the left hemisphere, while activation spreads more diffusely in the right hemisphere. We also outline a new proposal that activation spreads in a different manner for associated words than for words related by semantic similarity.     

Typicality effects in artificial categories: is there a hemisphere difference?

In category classification tasks, typicality effects are usually found: accuracy and reaction time depend upon distance from a prototype. In this study, subjects learned either verbal or nonverbal dot pattern categories, followed by a lateralized classification task. Comparable typicality effects were found in both reaction time and accuracy across visual fields for both verbal and nonverbal categories. Both hemispheres appeared to use a similarity-to-prototype matching strategy in classification. This indicates that merely having a verbal label does not differentiate classification in the two hemispheres.     

Internalizing and externalizing characteristics of sexually and/or physically abused children

This study evaluates the behavioral consequences of childhood abuse (sexual, physical, or both), with particular focus on prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Three abuse type groups and nonabused controls were contrasted on behavioral rating scales and on structured psychiatric interview data. The participants (109 abused children and 16 normal control children) were recruited from Arkansas Children’s Hospital and local agencies for abused children. As expected, proportionately more females than males were sexually abused. Overall, males were rated as more disturbed than females. Type of abuse did not consistently influence behavioral ratings. Externalizing scores were significantly higher than internalizing scores in all abused groups. PTSD was diagnosed in 50% of the abused children, with a higher rate for boys who had been sexually abused as opposed to physically abused only (58% versus 13%). The most frequent comorbid condition with PTSD was Separation Anxiety. Sexually abused boys were hospitalized for psychiatric treatment at a higher rate than were other abused children.