Repeated failure: a source of helplessness or a factor irrelevant to its emergence?

We tested the validity of the egotism model of human helplessness. In contrast to the original theoretical approach of Seligman and his associates, which points to response-outcome noncontingency as the main source of helplessness, the egotism alternative proposes that repeated failure itself is the critical determinant of helplessness symptoms. Repeated failure threatens the self-esteem of the subject, who supposedly engages in a least-effort strategy during the test phase of a typical learned helplessness study, which results in performance impairment. To examine the egotism explanation, we gave subjects noncontingent-feedback training with or without repeated failure on five consecutive discrimination problems. In two experiments, noncontingent-feedback preexposure produced helplessness deficits in performance on avoidance learning, whereas repeated failure appeared irrelevant to helplessness. This and our other findings from research are inconsistent with the egotism explanation and support instead Seligman's original proposal, in which helplessness is attributed to prolonged experience with noncontingency.     

Attenuation of amphetamine-stereotypy by mesostriatal dopamine depletion enhances plasma corticosterone: implications for stereotypy as a coping response

The relationship between amphetamine-induced stereotyped behavior and a neuroendocrine index of arousal, plasma corticosterone (CCS), was investigated. 6-Hydroxydopamine lesions of the caudate-putamen, which produced dopamine depletions of 60%, blocked stereotypy and prolonged the elevation in corticosterone associated with d-amphetamine treatment (5 mg/kg). Similar dopamine depleting lesions of the nucleus accumbens, which attenuated the locomotor, but not the stereotypic, response to AMPH did not have this effect on CCS. This pattern of results supports the hypothesis that stereotypy has a coping function which may serve to alter arousal and further suggests important differences between the nigrostriatal and mesolimbic dopamine projections in modulating the responsiveness of the neuroendocrine system. These results have implications for understanding the function of behavioral stereotypies common to a number of psychopathological conditions, including schizophrenia and childhood autism.     

A flavor paired with lithium chloride blocks the formation of a pentobarbital-lithium chloride association

Thirsty rats were used in order to determine whether a vinegar solution, which had been paired with an injection of lithium chloride, could block the formation of an association between a pentobarbital- and a lithium chloride-induced state. During phase 1 the rats in the blocking group had a 2.0% vinegar solution paired with an injection of 240 mg/kg of lithium chloride, during phase 2 these rats were reexposed to the vinegar prior to each injection of 20 mg/kg of pentobarbital and 240 mg/kg of lithium chloride, and during phase 3 these rats were given access to a novel 0.75% saccharin solution and were injected with pentobarbital after saccharin removal. Animals with this history did not form an association between the pentobarbital- and lithium chloride-induced states during phase 2 as evidenced by their refusal to consume the saccharin solution over repeated pairings of saccharin with pentobarbital during phase 3. Control groups that received forward pairings of pentobarbital and lithium chloride, in the absence of a previously conditioned vinegar solution during phase 2, formed an association between pentobarbital and lithium chloride. These findings indicate that drug states and flavors can interfere with each others' capacity to predict the occurrence of lithium chloride.     

Relation of cognitive operational performance to comprehension and production of dimensional adjectives

This study compared normal developing children, aged 34 to 51 mo., on comprehension and production of relative dimensional adjectives using object manipulations in a close elicitation procedure and on Piagetian operational tests of conservation of continuous quantity, length, reversibility and seriation. Analysis indicated a significant difference on the expressive language performance of the transitional and the concrete operational children over the preoperational children, but no significant differences occurred between the first two groups. Children who performed better on seriation were significantly better on expressive language performance. Children classified as operational for length performed better on all language measures than those classified as nonoperational. Reversibility and conservation of a continuous quantity did not differentiate children.     

Reliability of parental reports using the Katz Adjustment Scales: before and after hospital admission for schizophrenia

We examined the interrater and test-retest reliability of the KATZ Adjustment Scale (Relative rated or R form) longitudinally in a sample of schizophrenic patients, assessing their function before hospital admission, as well as at 1 and 9 mo. after discharge. Changes in mean scores over those assessments suggested sensitivity to change while mothers and fathers both completed the measure with moderate consistency over time. Interrater reliability was moderate at best and quite poor at initial testing, when the subjects were most disturbed clinically, suggesting that the scales may be acceptable when the individual is stable but that ratings may be unreliable when there is an exacerbation in clinical state.     

Diabetes and illness image: an analysis of diabetic early-adolescents' self-perception through the Draw-a-person test

To study the self-projective representations expressed by diabetic children, aged between 10 and 15 yr., and to compare these with representations of a control group the Draw-a-person test associated with those for subsequent Draw-a-sick-person were administered to 23 children regularly checked by an Antidiabetic Centre. The diabetic subjects drew an image of "sick person" having projective elements with a regressive value and denoting a refuge in the past, together with depressive signs of retiring into themselves and of less consideration of the self. Also, the diabetic children seemed to be less prone to the cultural stereotype which requires a smiling and happy image of "the healthy person." At the same time there was also a transparent symbolic defense which allowed the diabetics to adapt variously and to move from their anxious state toward psychological recovery.     

Georg Ilberg (1862-1942). His life and medical-humanistic legacy

Georg Ilberg, who is almost forgotten nowadays, was a scholar of Kraepelin and Ganser. From 1910 to 1928 he was director of the Landes-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt (country mental hospital) for mental patients Sonnenstein at Pirna. He was active in the scientific-literary field to a great age and worked as editor of the Allgemeine Zeitschrift für Psychiatrie from 1924 to 1934. Although he principally advocated the exclusion of certain mental patients from reproduction at the beginning of the 1930s, in a review in 1942, his integer humanist basic position and his pronounced social feeling made him to protest in public against the putting to death of mental in-patients.     

Cognition and olfaction: a review

Examines research in cognitive psychology, which has in the past paid little attention to the olfactory modality. But there is now a significant body of literature on the role of the olfactory system in memory and cognition. Human beings possess an excellent ability to detect and discriminate odors, but they typically have great difficulty in identifying particular odorants. This results partly from the use of an improverished and idiosyncratic language to describe olfactory experiences, which are normally encoded either in a rudimentary sensory form or as part of a complex but highly specific biographical episode. Consequently, linguistic processes play only a very limited role in olfactory processing, whereas hedonic factors seem to be of considerable importance.