Aggressiveness and hyperactive behaviour as related to adrenaline excretion

The central question concerns the relationship between aspects of behaviour and physiological reactions. Measures of sympathetic-adrenal activity in terms of adrenaline excretion in a normal and a stressful situation as well as teacher ratings of behaviour were analysed for a representative group of 86 boys aged 13. Adrenaline excretion was in both situations significantly negatively related to ratings of aggressiveness, motor restlessness, and concentration difficulties and also to the sum of the latter two, used as an indicator of hyperactive behaviour. The association between hyperactive behaviour and adrenaline excretion persisted in the stressful situation when aggressiveness was controlled, whereas there was no significant relationship between aggressiveness and adrenaline output when hyperactive behaviour was controlled. Furthermore, hyperactive boys differed significantly from non-hyperactive boys in displaying lower adrenaline excretion in both situations. The results are discussed in terms of low sympathetic-adrenal reactivity to external demands as a risk factor and as a possible indicator of vulnerability for social and/or pervasive conduct disturbances.     

Psychiatric malpractice in the military

Available data indicates that the incidence of malpractice in military psychiatry, involving both civilian and active duty beneficiaries, is the lowest of all specialties and may be lower than in the civilian sector. Recovery for malpractice damages by means of claim versus suit is restricted to civilian patients; active duty service members recover through a special disability system. The federal government provides military psychiatrists with considerable protection from personal financial loss when involved in malpractice, but there may be limits to that protection. There have been recent efforts to criminally prosecute military physicians in some instances. A registry review of military psychiatry malpractice cases from 1978 to 1987provides a profile of the malpractice situation and suggests areas of practice that need vigilance. The Department of Defense has established a broad-based, comprehensive program of quality assurance and risk management in the interest of maximizing the benefit of medical care and minimizing substandard practice.     

How and when to correct for juror hindsight bias in mental health malpractice litigation: Some preliminary observations

This article examines the hindsight bias in the context of mental health malpractice litigation, analyzes various legal mechanisms for dealing with the bias, and discusses whether the law should strive for debiasing in all mental health malpractice cases.     

Automation of learning-set testing: The video-task paradigm

Researchers interested in studying discrimination learning in primates have typically utilized variations in the Wisconsin General Test Apparatus (WGTA). In the present experiment, a new testing apparatus for the study of primate learning is proposed. In the video-task paradigm, rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) respond to computer-generated stimuli by manipulating a joystick. Using this apparatus, discrimination learning-set data for 2 monkeys were obtained. Performance on Trial 2 exceeded 80% within 200 discrimination learning problems. These data illustrate the utility of the video-task paradigm in comparative research. Additionally, the efficient learning and rich data that were characteristic of this study suggest several advantages of the present testing paradigm over traditional WGTA testing.     

Emotions and emotional communication in infants

Important advances have recently been made in studying emotions in infants and the nature of emotional communication between infants and adults. Infant emotions and emotional communications are far more organized than previously thought. Infants display a variety of discrete affective expressions that are appropriate to the nature of events and their context. They also appreciate the emotional meaning of the affective displays of caretakers. The emotional expressions of the infant and the caretaker function to allow them to mutually regulate their interactions. Indeed, it appears that a major determinant of children's development is related to the operation of this communication system. Positive development may be associated with the experience of coordinated interactions characterized by frequent reparations of interactive errors and the transformation of negative affect into positive affect, whereas negative development appears to be associated with sustained periods of interactive failure and negative affect.     

Hypothesizing and evidence-gathering: the nexus of understanding

Prior discussion of hypothesizing as a session "guideline" has not fully clarified the derivation of hypotheses. Reviewing relevant philosophy of science literature, the authors develop the notions of evidence and evidence-gathering in systemic family therapy. The authors claim evidence-gathering and hypothesizing are interdependent, reciprocal elements of scientific understanding. The structure of evidence is described along with practical and qualitative rules for collecting and using evidence. This model is applied to a case example illustrating the logic of clinical process. Implications are discussed for family therapy training and supervision.     

A TEST OF SHAVELSON'S HIERARCHICAL MULTIFACETED SELF-CONCEPT MODEL IN A FILIPINO COLLEGE SAMPLE

Shavelson's hierarchical, multifaceted self-concept model (HMFM) has proven useful to educational and psychological researchers. The reliability and factorial validity of a well-known HMFM instrument - the Fleming-Courtney Self-Rating Scales (SRS) - were examined for a sample of 198 Filipino college students. Confirmatory factor analysis compared six structural models. A six-factor, oblique model that included two social factors (Social Acceptance and Social Anxiety) fit the data best, and a second-order factor analysis supported the hierarchical structure of the SRS. The men were significantly higher than the women on three self-concept scales, but the only large effect was for Physical Abilities, consistent with findings in a U.S. college sample. Results provided some support for the utility of both the SRS and HMFM for Filipinos.     

The effects of depression on structural aspects of the recall of prose

Investigated depressed patients' memory for stories. This indicated that although normal Ss showed particularly good recall for units central to the structure of the story, this did not hold for depressed Ss. In contrast, effects of centrality were comparable in high- and low-IQ Ss and effects of imageability of story units were comparable in both depressed and normal Ss. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that depressed patients do not use structure to organize stories when encoding them. A failure to identify central aspects of material and selectively recall them is likely to be a handicap to everyday functioning.     

Acupuncture and emotion: the influence of acupuncture anesthesia on the sensory and emotional components of pain

Objective indices (heart rate, perspiration quantity, finger plethysmograph curves, and facial expression) and subjective indices (sensory and emotional subject reports) were recorded for 25 young Chinese adults (16 men, 9 women) during and after the simultaneous application of a strong pain stimulus and either foot classical (alloneural points Tsusanli and Yanglingchuan) or hand classical (alloneural points Hegu and Neiguan) acupuncture. Both forms of acupuncture were equally effective, showing that stimulation of the same nerve is not essential for pain relief. Acupuncture assuaged the emotional, but not the sensory, response to the painful stimulation.