Delusions and Hallucinations as a Reflection of the Subcultural Milieu Among Psychotic Patients of the 1930s and 1980s

Delusions and hallucinations reported in the social histories of 150 patients admitted to an East Texas state hospital during the 1930s and of 150 patients admitted during the 1980s were examined for content that would characterize and contrast the patient subcultural milieu of the two time periods. Patients admitted during the 1930s tended to reflect the material deprivation and personal powerlessness of the great depression in delusions of great wealth and positive “special powers.” The hallucinatory visions and voices of the 1980s patients reflected a more threatening and negative subcultural milieu, with more visions of blood, snakes, and dead people or animals. Command hallucinations to hurt, to kill, or to do “perverse things” would also suggest that the subculture milieu of the 1980s had become more dangerous.     

COMPARING TYPES OF COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS FOUND IN FOURTH GRADE READERS

Abstract

This article examines the implications of Dr. Dolores Durkin's recent research on Reading comprehension. The author takes the seminal findings of Dr. Durkin's study and applies these to improving classroom reading instruction.     

Method matters: effects of explicit versus implicit social comparisons on activation, behavior, and self-views

The authors investigated the impact of explicit versus implicit social comparisons. Simply being primed with a superior or inferior standard (implicit comparison) produced contrast as evidenced by accessibility of self-knowledge (Study 2), intellectual performance (Study 3), and self-ratings (Study 4), inconsistent with the standard. However, when participants were explicitly asked to compare, increased accessibility of a similarity focus (Study 1) and self-knowledge, behavioral performance, and self-ratings congruent with the standard were obtained more easily, indicative of assimilation. Explicit comparisons produced assimilation when the self was seen as mutable (rather than immutable; Study 4), when behavioral consequences were measured immediately after the comparison (rather than later; Study 3), and when the participants described (rather than ranked) their intelligence (Study 5). These findings support the interpretation comparison model. Implications for resolution of empirical inconsistencies in the social comparison literature are discussed.     

Shaping exhale durations for breath CO detection for men with mild mental retardation

Roll, Higgins, and Badger (1996) used a carbon monoxide (CO) detector to determine whether participants smoked in a smoking-cessation study. We sought to replicate their work with adults with mild mental retardation. However, verbal instructions were inadequate to establish stable exhalations of sufficient durations for reliable and accurate CO evaluation. This report describes a shaping procedure that enabled 3 of 4 participants to achieve 20-s exhalation durations.     

Evaluation of a behavioral measure of risk taking: the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART)

The present study (N = 86) sought to evaluate a laboratory-based behavioral measure of risk taking (the Balloon Analogue Risk Task; BART) and to test associations between this measure and self-report measures of risk-related constructs as well as self-reported real-world risk behaviors. The BART evidenced sound experimental properties, and riskiness on the BART was correlated with scores on measures of sensation seeking, impulsivity, and deficiencies in behavioral constraint. Also, riskiness on the BART was correlated with the self-reported occurrence of addictive, health, and safety risk behaviors, with the task accounting for variance in these behaviors beyond that accounted for by demographics and self-report measures of risk-related constructs. These results indicate that the BART may be a useful tool in the assessment of risk taking.     

Driving anger and other driving-related behaviors in high and low ADHD symptom college students

This study examined differences between college students with high and low symptoms of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Fifty-nine introductory psychology students completed ADHD diagnostic measures and were compared on measures of driving anger and driving anger expression; accident-related, aggressive, and risky driving behaviors; general anger; and general anger expression. Results indicated high ADHD symptom college students experience more driving anger, display such anger in more hostile/aggressive ways, are more aggressive and risky on the road, experience more crash-related outcomes, are more generally angry, and tend to display anger in socially unacceptable ways. Results are discussed in regard to the understanding and treatment of ADHD.     

Dyadic short forms of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III

Various short forms of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)/WAIS-R have been developed to obtain estimates of overall intellectual level, although little research of WAIS-III short forms has been published to date. Full Scale IQ (FSIQ) estimatesfromfour WAIS-III dyadic short forms were obtained by entering selected subtest scores from a mixed neurologic/ psychiatric sample (n = 196) into regression equations. Results were cross validated on a second sample (n = 57). Within both samples, WAIS-III FSIQ scores were highly correlated (r = .90-.92, p < .001) with estimated FSIQ scores. Estimated FSIQ fell within 5 points of actual FSIQ in 49% to 74% of cross-validation cases and within 10 points of actual FSIQ in 81% to 93% of the sample. Comparable to findings from previous short-form investigations, actual and estimated FSIQ classification levels agreed in 46% to 67% of cases in the cross-validation sample. These dyadic WAIS-III forms appear appropriate for obtaining gross estimates of FSIQ in similar populations, although caution is recommended in interpreting estimated IQ scores.     

Anger, anxiety, and depression as risk factors for cardiovascular disease: the problems and implications of overlapping affective dispositions

Several recent reviews have identified 3 affective dispositions--depression, anxiety, and anger-hostility--as putative risk factors for coronary heart disease. There are, however, mixed and negative results. Following a critical summary of epidemiological findings, the present article discusses the construct and measurement overlap among the 3 negative affects. Recognition of the overlap necessitates the development of more complex affect-disease models and has implications for the interpretation of prior studies, statistical analyses, prevention, and intervention in health psychology and behavioral medicine. The overlap among the 3 negative dispositions also leaves open the possibility that a general disposition toward negative affectivity may be more important for disease risk than any specific negative affect.     

A Relational Psychodynamic Perspective on Assimilative Integration

In this paper we discuss recent advances in relational psychoanalytic thinking, and demonstrate how an assimilative approach to integration can be based on this theoretical and clinical model. We describe 3 instances in which active interventions may be used to enhance relationally oriented, psychoanalytic work: by impacting on relationships outside of therapy that maintain pathological patterns, by filling in intrapsychic deficits, and by supporting the patient's active efforts at change. We provide clinical examples to illustrate each of these points.