Effects of physical and verbal aggression,depression, and anxiety on drinking behavior of married partners: a prospective and retrospective longitudinal examination

In an ethnically diverse sample of 195 married couples, we conducted a latent factor growth analysis to investigate the longitudinal link (4 time points over 4½ years) between marital aggression (physical and verbal aggression self‐ and partner‐reports) and individual internalizing symptoms (depression and anxiety) as they relate to trajectories of alcohol use among husbands and wives. Alcohol use was operationalized as a latent factor with self‐ and partner reports of problem drinking as measured by the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test and the Alcohol Dependence Scale. Verbal aggression by husbands or wives, by itself, has no effect on their alcohol use over time. In conjunction with depression, however, verbally aggressive husbands do have elevated drinking levels. The effects of husbands' and wives' physical aggression on their own and their partners' drinking behavior were also significant. This study is one of the first to examine the change over time in alcohol use for marital partners as related to marital aggression and internalizing symptoms. Our results shed light on areas of marital functioning (aggression, internalizing, alcohol use) that have not been investigated in conjunction with each other in a longitudinal design. Aggr. Behav. 35:296–312, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Placebo in the investigation of psychotropic drugs,especially antidepressants

The paper presents major ethical, legal and methodological problems related to the use of placebo in mental disorders, especially in depression. It is pointed out that although authoritative groups of experts and numerous publications in the field of psychopharmacology indicate advisability of the double blind design with placebo in clinical trials of antidepressants, in recent years there have been more and more voices questioning legitimacy of this method. Objections of an ethical nature are raised, and reliability of this approach is put into doubt from the methodological viewpoint. These issues are discussed in more detail in the paper. Available alternative solutions should be implemented in psychotropic drug studies. The author shares these objections and doubts of an ethical nature, and believes that the placebo procedure is not a necessity in clinical trials of antidepressants. An earlier version of this paper was presented at an international conference, “Placebo: Its Action and Place in Health Research Today,” held in Warsaw, Poland on 12–13 April, 2003.     

Counterfactual thinking and posttraumatic stress reactions

Preoccupation with alternative outcomes (counterfactual thinking) is a central component of the ruminations of trauma victims. The questions investigated were whether such thinking should be distinguished from general rumination and whether elements of counterfactual thinking might relate to the process of adjustment. A sample of assault victims was interviewed. They completed a battery of self-report scales and thought-listing procedures. Frequency of counterfactual thinking was closely associated with continuing levels of posttraumatic distress. However, high availability of counterfactuals (as indexed by verbal fluency) was related to potentially adaptive outcomes, such as the generation of behavioral plans. In addition, as expected, levels of different aspects of counterfactual thinking were moderated by metacognitive control strategies as a function of time since the trauma.     

The concept of quality in clinical research

Quality in clinical research may be defined as compliance with requirements together with credibility and reliability of the data obtained. Sponsors usually apply Quality Management Systems (QMS) to ensure, control, maintain, and improve quality. These systems encompass several preventive measures, tools, and controls. Standard QMS applied by clinical research sponsors may be based on ISO 9000. An earlier version of the paper was presented at the 6th International Bioethics Conference on the subject of ‘The Responsible Conduct of Basic and Clinical Research’, held in Warsaw, Poland, 3–4 June 2005.     

The Intersection of Perceptions and Experiences of Bullying by Race and Ethnicity among Middle School Students in the United States

Little is known about how ethnic identity influences bullying. Using a racially diverse sample, we examine how within-race perceptions match experiences. We utilize bivariate probit regression to examine the correlation between actual and perceived victimization and bullying experiences. Results suggest no differences in victimization by ethnicity but perceived victimization differed across groups. Perceived and actual bullying differed across all groups. School climate acted as a protective factor against bullying and victimization, but school diversity increased the likelihood of bullying by whites and Latinos. These findings shed light on the importance of ethnic identity in understanding the etiology of bullying.     

Marked referential communicative behaviours,but no differentiation of the “knowledge state” of humans in untrained pet dogs versus 1-year-old infants

The study examines whether untrained dogs and infants take their caregiver’s visual experience into account when communicating with them. Fifteen adult dogs and 15 one-year-old infants were brought into play with their caregivers with one of their own toys. The caregiver gave the toy to the experimenter, who, in different conditions, placed it either above or under one of two containers, with both the infant or dog and the caregiver witnessing the positioning; in a third condition, the caregiver left the room before the toy was placed under one of the two containers and later returned. Afterwards, for each condition, the caregiver asked the participant to indicate the location of the toy. Neither dogs nor infants—untrained to the use of the partner’s knowledge state—showed much difference of behaviour between the three conditions. However, dogs showed more persistence for most behaviours (gaze at the owner, gaze at the toy and gaze alternation) and conditions, suggesting that the situation made more demands on dogs’ communicative behaviours than on those of infants. When all deictic behaviours of infants (arm points towards the toy and gaze at the toy) were taken into account, dogs and infants did not differ. Phylogeny, early experience and ontogeny may all play a role in the ways that both species communicate with adult humans.     

Structural Completeness in Relevance Logics

It is proved that the relevance logic \({\mathbf{R}}\) (without sentential constants) has no structurally complete consistent axiomatic extension, except for classical propositional logic. In fact, no other such extension is even passively structurally complete.