Structural differentiation of disgust from trait anxiety in the prediction of specific anxiety disorder symptoms

Research has begun to implicate the role of disgust in the etiology of specific phobias and obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). However, it remains unclear if the association between disgust and specific anxiety disorder symptoms is an artifact of trait anxiety or a potential mechanism through which trait anxiety effects specific anxiety disorder symptoms. The present study employed structural equation modeling to differentiate disgust from trait anxiety in the prediction of four types of specific anxiety disorder symptoms in a non-clinical sample (N=352). Results indicate that disgust and trait anxiety latent factors were independently related to spider fears, blood-injection-injury (BII) fears, general OCD symptoms, and OCD washing concerns. However, when both variables were simultaneously modeled as predictors, latent disgust remained significantly associated with the anxiety disorder symptoms, whereas the association between latent trait anxiety and the anxiety disorder symptoms became non-significant or was substantially reduced. Statistical tests of intervening variable effects converged in support of disgust as a significant intervening variable between trait anxiety and spider fears, BII fears, and OCD symptoms (particularly washing concerns). The relevance of these findings for future research investigating the role of disgust in specific anxiety disorders is discussed.     

DOES PERCEPTION OUTSTRIP OUR CONCEPTS IN FINENESS OF GRAIN?

We seem perfectly able to perceive fine‐grained shades of colour even without possessing precise concepts for them. The same might be said of shapes. I argue that this is in fact not the case. A subject can perceive a colour or shape only if she possesses a concept of that type of colour or shape. I provide new justification for this thesis, and do not rely on demonstrative concepts such as THIS SHADE or THAT SHAPE, a move first suggested by John McDowell, but rejected by Christopher Peacocke and Richard Heck among others. 1     

The price of growing up

This paper considers a seldom-discussed feature of assessment, namely, the significance of the setting of a fee and its connection with the setting in which a fee is agreed. Its importance is illustrated with reference to the three-times-weekly sessions over a period of one year with a single woman in her 30s. It will be seen how, in much the same way as aspects of her earliest history coloured her development from the start, the experience of setting the fee in the first session of treatment influenced subsequent features of the work.

In this case, the charging of a lowered fee will be shown to have affected the nature of the therapeutic relationship and it will be seen how the issue of payment of a fee at all provided a focus from which psychodynamically important material could be developed. It gave opportunity for the testing and working-through of a number of elements, both conscious and unconscious, throughout the first year of treatment. That is, the issue of the fee was found to be grossly over-determined — symptomatic of roots in several quite separate feelings and memories, each of which had to be uncovered before the issue could begin to be resolved.     

Truth As,At Most,One

Michel Foucault's Force of Flight: Toward an Ethics of Thought By James W. Bernauer Humanities Press International, 1990. Pp. 261. ISBN 0–391–03740–4. $15.00 pbk.

Hipparchia's Choice, An Essay Concerning Women, Philosophy, Etc. By Michèle Le Doeuff, translated by Trista Selous Basil Blackwell, 1991. Pp. vii + 364. ISBN 0–631–17639‐X. £45.

Psychology Edited by Stephen Everson Cambridge University Press, 1991. Pp. 269. ISBN 0–521–35338–6. £32.50.

On the Nature and Existence of God By Richard M. Gale Cambridge University Press, 1991. Pp. 422. ISBN 0–521–40300–6. £35.

The Good Polity: Normative Analysis of the State Edited by Alan Hamlin and Philip Pettit Basil Blackwell, 1989, pbk 1991. Pp. vii + 207. ISBN 0–631–18088–5. £14.95 pbk.

Language, Saussure and Wittgenstein: How to play games with words By Roy Harris Routledge, 1988, pbk 1990. Pp. xv +136. ISBN 0–415–05225–4. £9.99 pbk.

Plausible Worlds: Possibility and Understanding in History and the Social Sciences By Geoffrey Hawthorn Cambridge University Press, 1991. Pp. xiii + 192. ISBN 0–521–40359–6. £27.50.

Freedom, Truth and History: An Introduction to Hegel's Philosophy By Stephen Houlgate Routledge, 1991. Pp. 288. ISBN 0–415–06658–1. £35.

Locke on Money. Volumes I and II By Patrick Hyde Kelly Clarendon Press, 1991. Vol. 1 Pp. xv + 342. ISBN 0–19–82456–7. £50.00 Vol. II Pp. vii + 322. ISBN 0–19–824837–7 £45.00.

L'Union substantielle. I. Blondel et Leibniz By Marc Leclerc Culture et Vérité, 1991. Pp. v + 415. ISBN 2–87299–014–3.

Plato's Parmenides By C. C. Meinwald Oxford University Press, 1991. Pp. 192. ISBN 0–1–506445–3. £27.50.

Idee und Weltwille: Schopenhauer als Kritiker Hegels By Alfred Schmidt Carl Hanser Verlag, 1988. Pp. 175. ISBN 3–446–15161–3.     

Intelligence is associated with criminal justice processing: Arrest through incarceration

Findings flowing from empirical research consistently indicate that IQ is associated with criminal involvement, with persons of relatively lower IQ being more likely to engage in various types of crime when compared with persons of relatively higher IQ. As with all research, however, there are a number of limitations with the existing literature that may bias the IQ–crime connection in unknown ways. Specifically, previous research has generally analyzed sub-samples drawn from non-nationally representative samples, has relied on a narrow range of criminal justice measures, has not fully examined whether the IQ–crime link is observed across demographic subgroups, and has not always ruled out the effects of potential confounds. The current study is designed to overcome the most serious of these limitations and offer new evidence of the link between IQ and criminal involvement. Analysis of data drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) provides strong evidence indicating that IQ and crime are linked even after addressing various shortcomings of previous research. Limitations of the study are discussed and directions for future research are offered.     

Attenuation of change blindness in children with autism spectrum disorders

Change blindness refers to the difficulty most people find in detecting a difference between two pictures when these are presented successively, with a brief interruption between. Attention at the site of the change is required for detection. A number of studies have investigated change blindness in adults and children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Some have produced evidence that people with ASD find changes to social stimuli harder to detect and changes to non‐social stimuli easier to detect, relative to comparison participants. However, other studies have produced entirely contradictory findings. There is a need for consistency in methodology to aid understanding of change blindness and attentional processes in ASD. Here, we replicate a change blindness study previously carried out with typically developing (TD) children and adults and with adults with ASD. Results reveal attenuated change blindness for non‐social stimuli in children with ASD relative to TD norms. Our results are interpreted, alongside others' findings, as potentially indicative of a complex relationship between different influences on attention over time.