Continuous and discrete latent structure models for item response data

Relations are examined between latent trait and latent class models for item response data. Conditions are given for the two-latent class and two-parameter normal ogive models to agree, and relations between their item parameters are presented. Generalizationss are then made to continuous models with more than one latent trait and discrete models with more than two latent classes, and methods are presented for relating latent class models to factor models for dichotomized variables. Results are illustrated using data from the Law School Admission Test, previously analyzed by several authors.     

The Future of Psychology in Family Medicine

Psychology has been integral to the field of family medicine since its inception as a medical specialty in the 1960s. Psychologists and other behavioral scientists contribute to family medicine in teaching clinical skills, in defining research questions, in developing research methodology, and in creating integrated physical/mental health care delivery systems. Future developments in the field of psychology in family medicine are likely to emphasize development and evaluation of screening measures which identify mental health problems in primary care, development of early intervention for those mental health problems, and more precise measurement of process and quality of care and health outcomes. Psychologists have an important role to fulfill in educating physicians on alternatives to pharmacologic and medical interventions for common presenting problems in primary care. However, current economic forces shaping the practice of medicine may work against further enhancing the efficacy of the physician in dealing with psychosocial issues. The future role of psychology in family medicine is not yet delineated, and while the move toward parity of reimbursement for mental and physical health care delivery may enhance this collaboration, there is a need to continue to evaluate how the psychological well-being of patients is influenced in the evolution of new models of care delivery.     

Capacity and retention capability of working memory modify the strength of the RT/IQ correlation: a short note

The limited capacity theory assumes that working memory (WM) has limited capacity to process information and, at the same time, to store other pieces of information, necessary for further processing. Quick processing of data is supposed to be the only way to solve the task without the risk of losing vital pieces of information. We predicted, then, that the correlation between mental speed, measured by reaction time (RT), and the intelligence quotient (IQ) should not appear in the case of persons who possess a relatively capacious WM store, or who show increased retention capability of their WM store. Such persons do not need to be fast, whereas, for people who show poorer indices of capacity or retention capability of WM, mental speed is the only way to tackle a complex and difficult intellectual task. As predicted, the RT/IQ correlation appeared much stronger in the group of subjects characterized by lower retention capability and capacity of WM.     

Correspondence

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -     

Extracting the coherent core of human probability judgement: a research program for cognitive psychology

Human intuition is a rich and useful guide to uncertain events in the environment but suffers from probabilistic incoherence in the technical sense. Developing methods for extracting a coherent body of judgement that is maximally consistent with a person's intuition is a challenging task for cognitive psychology, and also relevant to the construction of artificial expert systems. The present article motivates this problem, and outlines one approach to it.     

Self-Deceptive Coping: Adaptive Only in Ambiguous Contexts

ABSTRACT Two experiments investigated claims for the efficacy of self-deceptive coping (e.g., Sackeim, 1983, 1988). In Study I the performance of self-deceivers on solvable anagrams was found to he remarkably poor relative to that of non-self-deceivers after both groups were exposed to unsolvable problems. The starkly unambiguous failure experience may have precluded self-deception. Therefore, in Study 2 participants were exposed to unsolvable problems either with or without an excuse. Self-deceivers who encountered failure with an excuse subsequently performed much better on the solvable tasks than those without an excuse. These findings suggest that the use of self-deception following threat is constrained by the availability of contextual ambiguity (e.g., excuses). The effect of the excuse was not related to participants' mood or attributions for performance.     

Marital attributions in spouses of depressed patients

Causal attributions (i.e., locus, stability, globality) and responsibility attributions (i.e., bad intent, selfish motivation, blame) were assessed in the spouses of 27 depressed psychiatric inpatients and 30 nondepressed dyads to test predictions derived from Hooley's (1987) symptom-controllability model of marital distress. Results indicated that (1) depressed patients and their spouses were less dyadically adjusted than nondepressed spouses, (2) causal and responsibility attributions about depressive behaviors predicted lower dyadic adjustment, and (3) attributions of causality mediated the relationship between group status (depressed or nondepressed) and dyadic adjustment among spouses who had higher expectations for their partner to change. Results suggest that among spouses with a high expectancy for change, depression may be a risk factor for marital distress.     

An investigation of the effects of comorbid Axis II pathology on outcome of inpatient treatment for unipolar depression

DSM-based research on comorbidity has suggested thatdepression andpersonality disorder frequently occur together and that the combination of syndromes is associated with a poor response to treatment for depression. The present study was designed to explore the effect of comorbid Axis II pathology for a sample of 45 inpatients who received treatment for major depression. Both categorical and dimensional ratings of personality disorder were used in the statistical analysis. Positive categorical diagnosis of Cluster C (anxious-avoidant) disorder, as well as higher dimensional rating of Cluster A (odd-eccentric) pathology, was predictive of a poor response to treatment (p<.05), as measured by change in pre-post clinical ratings on the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale. These results were construed as indicative of a significant Axis II comorbidity effect in the context of an inpatient, multimodal treatment setting for depression. The results also spotlight the influence of techniques of measurement in determining the outcome of statistical analysis.