Harmful dysfunction, disorder, disease, illness, and evolution.

Can psychiatric disorders be conceptualized as "harmful dysfunctions" (J. C. Wakefield, 1992a, 1992b, 1999; S. O. Lilienfeld & L. Marino, 1995)? Wakefield's (1992a) central concept of disorder as "harmful dysfunction" is discussed by placing it in the context of a complementary discussion of disease, illness, the sick role, and evolution (D. F. Klein, 1978). S. O. Lilienfeld and L. Marino (1995) contended that proper biological function cannot be determined. This argument obscures the key significance of involuntary impairment of evolved functions. The claim that the Roschian concept has no counterpart in reality is incorrect and does not support the conclusion that dysfunctions are irreducibly evaluative and therefore arbitrary. J. C. Wakefield's (1999) views in this area are supplemented. The role of monothetic and polythetic categorization, extremal terms, and the concept of normality in nosology is considered. This analysis refutes the implication that deviance and illness are equivalent. The resolution of this debate is practically relevant to emphasizing areas of research investment, such as therapeutics.     

The waiting-list group.

This report describes a pilot study of a waiting-list group (preliminary process group [PPG]) that provided treatment for applicants to a university affiliated, urban mental health center. All individuals on the treatment waiting list were informed of the PPG. This semistructured group, meeting weekly, began with members presenting their problems, followed by free discussion, and ending with goal setting for the next week. Approximately one seventh (35 out of 262) of the clinic's applicants during a 4 1/2-month period chose to enter the PPG. They differed from those who chose not to participate (wait list) by being older and less educated. Approximately 80% of both wait-list and PPG participants subsequently entered therapy. Significantly more PPG patients than those on the wait list entered group treatment. The PPG served clinic needs by providing prompt service for self selected individuals and by supporting the group therapy program.     

Derivation and prediction of temperamental types among preschoolers.

The number and nature of temperamental types in 488 children aged 3 years 6 months was examined on the basis of a broad set of temperamental characteristics, including positive and negative emotionality and the attentional and behavioral control domains. Configural frequency analysis methods showed clear support for two temperament types: controlled-nonexpressive and noncontrolled-expressive. These types showed meaningful differences against external criteria related to a wide range of problem behaviors from the emotional, social, and attentional domains. The reports of problem behaviors were obtained contemporaneously from fathers and caregivers. These findings replicated a year later when children were aged 4 years 6 months. Furthermore, the findings showed that infant and toddler-age temperamental characteristics differentiated these preschool-aged types. The authors discuss the implications of the results for a categorical view of temperament-personality.     

Chronic benign pain

Chronic benign pain (CBP) can be defined as a type of unpleasant sensory experience that arises from inflammation, visceral stress or damage, or other such pathophysiologic process(es), and that is not associated with a metastatic process. A patient's complaint of pain should be taken seriously by the practitioner, both in terms of the discomfort evoked and the likelihood that the potential cause of the pain requires diagnostic evaluation. This article reviews the diagnosis and treatment of the following common conditions associated with CBP syndromes: fibromyalgia, lower back pain syndrome, sickle-cell disease, reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome, and peripheral neuropathies.     

The reliability and stability of the turner and Engle working memory task

The present study explored the psychometric properties of Turner and Engle’s (1989) operation span task, a widely used measure of working memory capacity. We administered the task three times to 33 college students, using equivalent test materials. The interval between the first and second administrations was 3 weeks, with 6–7 weeks between the second and third administrations. Alpha coefficients were all .75 or more. Recall accuracy decreased as operation set size increased. Raw test-retest correlations ranged from .67 to .81, the corrected reliability was .88, and stability scores ranged from .76 to .92. Performance improved from the first to the second test. Relative to reported reliabilities of other tasks used to assess individual differences in working memory capacity, the operation span task appears to have several statistical advantages.     

Hyperactive boys in their classroom: Assessment of teacher and peer perceptions,interactions, and classroom behaviors

Teacher ratings, peer perceptions, peer interactions, and classroom behaviors of 17 hyperactive and 17 active elementary school-age boys, nominated by their teachers, were compared using multivariate analyses and planned comparisons in order to better describe and assess hyperactivity in its most probable setting —the classroom. Hyperactive boys were found to be significantly different from actives on measures from all data sources in that they were perceived and interacted more negatively. Cluster analyses of teacher ratings of 90 hyperactives from a clinical sample and 17 hyperactives from the current sample were used to discriminate among different types of hyperactives. Four types were named anxious, conduct problem, inattentive, and low problem hyperactives. The fact that six conduct problem hyperactives were found to be more disruptive and have higher activity level ratings than six inattentive hyperactives, when observed in their classrooms, points to the need to study and treat hyperactives as heterogeneous groups.This study is based in part on a doctoral dissertation submitted to the Psychology Department, Indiana University, by the first author. Thanks are expressed to the students and teachers of the Monroe County School System who took part in the study. The authors also wish to thank Prof. Robert Sprague of the University of Illinois for providing the Conners Rating Scales on 90 hyperactive children.     

Visual dominance in the pigeon

In Experiment 1, three pigeons were trained to obtain grain by depressing one foot treadle in the presence of a 746-Hertz tone stimulus and by depressing a second foot treadle in the presence of a red light stimulus. Intertrial stimuli included white light and the absence of tone. The latencies to respond on auditory element trials were as fast, or faster, than on visual element trials, but pigeons always responded on the visual treadle when presented with a compound stimulus composed of the auditory and visual elements. In Experiment 2, pigeons were trained on the auditory-visual discrimination task using as trial stimuli increases in the intensity of auditory or visual intertrial stimuli. Again, pigeons showed visual dominance on subsequent compound stimulus test trials. In Experiment 3, on compound test trials, the onset of the visual stimulus was delayed relative to the onset of the auditory stimulus. Visual treadle responses generally occurred with delay intervals of less than 500 milliseconds, and auditory treadle responses generally occurred with delay intervals of greater than 500 milliseconds. The results are discussed in terms of Posner, Nissen, and Klein's (1976) theory of visual dominance in humans.     

The relationship between vocational interests and job satisfaction: Reconciliation of divergent results

It was hypothesized that congruency of vocational interests with present occupation would be positively related to job satisfaction for long job-tenured employees, and would be unrelated to satisfaction for short job-tenured employees. In two samples of 54 and 47 middle managers, the hypothesis was supported for satisfaction with work and supervision. This differential pattern of correlations may help explain the inconsistent relationship between vocational interests and job satisfaction obtained in past studies.     

Peer victimization and social anxiety in adolescence: a prospective study

This study reports a one‐year prospective investigation of the relations between overt and relational victimization and social anxiety and phobia in a sample of adolescents. The Social Experience Questionnaire—Self Report Form (SEQ‐S), Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (SAS‐A), and Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children (SPAI‐C) were administered to 144 ninth grade adolescents. A follow‐up assessment with the SEQ‐S, SAS‐A, and SPAI‐C was conducted one year later. Results indicated that relational victimization predicted symptoms of social phobia but not general social anxiety and avoidance one year later. Overt victimization was not a significant predictor of social anxiety and phobia one year later. Social anxiety and phobia did not predict peer victimization one year later. However, increases in social anxiety and social phobia symptoms (for boys) over time were positively associated with increases in relational victimization over time. Implications of these findings for peer victimization and social anxiety in the development of social phobia and negative peer experiences are discussed. Aggr. Behav. 00:1–16, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Splitting Heirs: Patterns of Inheritance among Barcelona's Jews

In the later thirteenth century, patterns of inheritance shifted among Barcelonese Jews away from a preference for holding inherited land in common toward dividing the estate on the death of the testator. An early example of this practice is the Hebrew will of Astrug de Tolosa. By situating this will in the context of other Jewish wills from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, as well as comparing it to those of contemporary Christians, one may see how ideas about the family in this important Jewish community evolved. This article focuses on provisions for wives and daughters and the designation of heirs and concludes that Jews and Christians shared a view of dowry and inheritance as components of a single system for transferring property to the next generation. However, unlike Christians, Jews resisted favoring a single heir with the bulk of the estate. Examining the provisions of inheritance makes it possible to argue that despite differing legal frameworks, Jewish and Christian practice bespeak common cultural contexts – yet ones whose parallels were not always complete.