Major alternatives to the Classic Experimental Design

In summary, giving up any of the three defining features of the Classic Experimental Design has (at least) two important effects. Each concession creates a significant threat to our confidence that any improvements observed were actually attributable to the treatment we are studying. At the same time, each concession opens a door by enhancing, sometimes greatly, the feasibility of conducting work in settings that are the most true to everyday clinical practice. When the work is thoughtfully and responsibly conducted, the alternative designs can contribute to clinical knowledge in a way that is equally important to the contributions made by work that conforms to the stringent requirements of the "Classic" design. In the next article, we will discuss single-time-point designs, along with the important dictum, memorized by most everyone who has taken a course called "Introduction to Research" or "Introduction to Statistics" that correlation is not causation.     

Understanding the relations among gender,disinhibition, and disruptive behavior in adolescents

This study examined whether disinhibition shows similar relations with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and conduct disorder (CD) symptomatology among male and female adolescents. The mixed-incentive or punishment condition of Newman's go/no-go task was administered to 172 adolescents. As expected, ADHD symptoms in boys and girls were predictive of disinhibition (i.e., commission errors) in the mixed-incentive but not punishment condition. Also consistent with expectations, CD symptoms in boys were predictive of disinhibition in the mixed-incentive but not punishment condition. In contrast, CD symptoms in girls were not predictive of disinhibition in either condition. These findings are discussed in terms of implications for understanding sex differences in the etiology of ADHD and CD.     

Positive and negative symptoms of schizotypy and the Five-factor model: a domain and facet level analysis

In this study, we investigated the Five-factor model in the concurrent prediction of positive symptom schizotypy as measured by the Magical Ideation (Eckblad & Chapman, 1983) and Perceptual Aberration (Chapman, Chapman, & Raulin, 1978) scales and negative symptom schizotypy as measured by the Physical Anhedonia (Chapman, Chapman, & Raulin, 1976) and Revised Social Anhedonia (Eckblad, Chapman, Chapman, & Mishlove, 1982; Mishlove & Chapman, 1985) scales. Previous studies suggest that these measures reflect the core symptoms found in schizotypal and schizoid personality disorder (Bailey, West, Widiger, & Freiman, 1993). Negative symptoms were significantly predicted by Neuroticism (+), Extraversion (-), Openness (-), and Agreeableness (-) domains of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R; Costa & McCrae, 1992). Additionally, positive symptoms were significantly predicted by Neuroticism (+), Openness (+), and Agreeableness (-). In addition, we examined the validity of lower order traits in de- scribing these symptoms of character pathology. These findings lend further support for the use of domain and facet scales of the NEO-PI-R in the identification of personality pathology.     

Relations of Tripartite Dimensions of Emotion to Childhood Anxiety and Mood Disorders

This study examined preliminary higher-order models relating tripartite dimensions of emotion to severity of anxiety and depressive disorders in 100 clinically referred children and adolescents. In light of the accumulating support for multifactor models of vulnerability and negative emotion in children, the present investigation was designed to establish preliminary estimates of the structure and magnitude of the relations of three emotion factors with dimensions of social anxiety, depression, panic, generalized anxiety, obsessions/compulsions, and separation anxiety. Results were consistent with structures that minimally specified two higher-order emotion factors, yet only some parameter estimates were consistent with theory regarding the tripartite model. Problems with the measurement of tripartite factors and possibilities for further research are outlined.     

Word Frequency Effects on the Processing of Subject–Verb Number Agreement

This paper examines the role of word frequency in the computation of subject–verb number agreement. Previous research in both production and comprehension has demonstrated that processing difficulties can arise in sentence structures containing a singular subject noun followed by a plural distractor noun, as in The key to the cabinets.¨ A whole sentence reading task was employed to determine whether the relative frequency with which the distractor noun appears in its singular or plural form would affect the degree of processing difficulty experienced by readers. Results suggest that the agreement process is, indeed, sensitive to this factor and this finding is compatible with activation-based accounts of the implementation of number agreement.     

The Factor Structure of the Beavers Interactional Scales

Confirmatory factor analysis and regression analyses of the Beavers Interactional Scales did not appear to support the model offered by its developers, namely, several specified family attributes contributing respectively to two global factors of Family Competence and Family Style. Moreover, regression analysis indicated that only three of 12 items predicted raters' assessments of Global Family Health, and one of seven items predicted Global Family Style. Individuals interested in the family dynamic centripetal/centrifugal might best think of that as a unitary entity and rate it accordingly.     

Group preprogrammed systematic desensitization without the simultaneous presentation of aversive scenes with relaxation training

This study investigated the assumption that it is necessary to simultaneously present muscle relaxation and aversive scenes in order for decrements in anxiety to occur. Utilizing 70 high test anxious students, the following treatment groups were delineated: (a) preprogrammed systematic desensitization, (b) non-simultaneous (scenes presented prior to muscle relaxation), (c) relaxation, and (d) no-treatment control. Self-report measures of test and general anxiety as well as college grades constituted the dependent measures. The results indicated that there tended to be no significant differences between the preprogrammed systematic desensitization and non-simultaneous groups on the dependent measures and that the latter group tended to show significant decrements in anxiety and obtain better grades than the relaxation and no-treatment control groups. These findings question the necessity of simultaneously pairing muscle relaxation and aversive scenes in treating anxiety by this method.     

Psychometric properties of the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale in a clinical sample

This study examined the psychometric properties of the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS) in a clinical sample of 513 youth referred for mental health assessment at a university clinic. Internal consistency and factor analysis provided support for the factorial validity of the RCADS. Convergent and discriminant validity tests against both clinical interview and self-report criteria also suggested favorable properties of the RCADS. In comparative tests with traditional measures of anxiety and depression, the RCADS generally showed greater correspondence to specific diagnostic syndromes. Clinical cutoffs are reported for the purposes of future clinical and research applications.     

Problem solving deteriorates following mood challenge in formerly depressed patients with a history of suicidal ideation

The authors divided 34 participants who had a history of depression into 2 groups, those having previous suicidal ideation or behavior (n=19) and those having no such symptoms (n=15), then compared the 2 groups with a group of participants who had no history of depression (n=22). Assessment of interpersonal problem-solving performance using the Means-Ends Problem-Solving (MEPS) task before and after a mood-induction procedure showed that only those formerly depressed people with a history of suicidal ideation shifted in MEPS performance, producing significantly less effective problem solutions following mood challenge, consistent with a differential activation account of vulnerability for recurrence of suicidal ideation and behavior. The deterioration in effectiveness following mood challenge was moderated by lack of specificity in autobiographical memory.