Lifetime history of cigarette smoking associated with aggression and impulsivity in both healthy and personality disordered volunteers

Cigarette smoking has been associated with several personality and behavioral traits including impulsivity and aggression, primarily in adolescents and/or pregnant women. In this study, the authors tested the hypothesis that history of cigarette smoking is also associated with dimensional measures of aggression and impulsivity in adult subjects. Subjects were 179 personality disordered (PD), and healthy volunteer control (HV), subjects in whom history of cigarette smoking and measures of both aggression and impulsivity were collected. Scores on measures of both aggression and impulsivity were elevated as a function of personality disorder status and history of cigarette smoking status; no interaction between these two factors were noted on these measures. Including socio-economic status and global psychosocial functioning in the model eliminated the difference associated with diagnostic grouping and impulsivity but not the difference in aggression associated with lifetime history of smoking. These data suggest that lifetime history of cigarette smoking is associated with elevations in life history of aggression regardless of the presence of psychiatric disorder in nontreatment seeking individuals.     

'No-show': therapist racial/ethnic disparities in client unilateral termination

In the present study, the authors examined the source of racial/ethnic minority (REM) disparities in unilateral termination (i.e., the client ending therapy without informing the therapist)--a form of dropout that is associated with poor alliance and outcome. First, the authors tested whether some therapists were more likely to have clients who reported unilaterally terminating as compared with other therapists. Next, the authors examined 2 competing hypotheses regarding the therapists role in termination disparities: (a) that racial/ethnic disparities in unilateral termination are similar across therapists and thus due to other components of the treatment process or (b) that racial/ethnic disparities in unilateral termination are specific to therapists, where some therapists are more likely, on average, to have higher rates of unilateral termination with REM clients as compared with White clients. The sample included 155 REM clients and 177 White clients who were treated by 44 therapists at a university counseling center. The results showed that therapists accounted for a significant proportion of the variation in clients' unilateral termination, and REM clients were more likely to report they unilaterally terminated from therapy as compared with White clients. Furthermore, racial/ethnic disparities in clients' report of unilateral termination varied across therapists' caseloads. These results suggest that therapists have a central role in their clients' unilateral termination and have implications for understanding racial/ethnic mental health disparities.     

A self-fulfilling prophecy in a competitive psychomotor task

Fifty-six pairs of male college students competed in games of electronic table tennis. The participants were led to expect a bias in the game equipment, such that one player would have an advantage and the other a disadvantage. All participants recorded levels of aspiration both before and after being informed of the alleged bias. Upon completion of the game, the subjects made ratings of causal attribution to five factors: ability, task difficulty, effort, luck, and equipment bias. The results showed that the students with the putative disadvantage set significantly lower aspiration levels and performed at a significantly lower level than those students with the supposed advantage. Thus the putative bias became a real bias, although a psychological rather than a physical one. It is suggested that the source of the bias and the performance differences was a self-fulfilling prophecy. In contrast to the results of earlier studies, there were no meaningful differences in ratings of causal attribution.     

A Response to Celmer and Winer

According to Celmer and Winer (1990). the presence of an absolute papal ban against women who aspire to the Roman Catholic priesthood creates both a unique opportunity for investigation of vocational theory (Holland, 1985) and a rare sample for the counselor and researcher. While acknowledging our respect for this ambitious and thought-provoking investigation, we found problems with the sample selection procedure, the choice of samples, and the instrument selection that threaten the external validity of the study. As a result of these limitations, the application of this study for the counselor and the researcher was diminished.     

The Status of Multicultural Counseling Training at Counseling Center Internship Sites

The current status of multicultural counseling training at university counseling center predoctoral internship sites was evaluated. Fifty training directors completed a mailed survey, and the results contribute to an understanding of graduate training programs. Training considerations and recommendations are discussed.     

Children and Videogames: Leisure Activities,Aggression, Social Integration,and School Performance1

A survey was conducted among 346 children from the 7th and 8th grade of 7 elementary schools to examine possible positive and negative effects of playing videogames. Analyses revealed that playing videogames did not appear to take place at the expense of children's other leisure activities, social integration, and school performance. A gender difference arose: Boys spent more time playing videogames than did girls. There was no significant relationship between the amount of time children spent on videogames and aggressive behavior. A negative relationship between time spent playing videogames and prosocial behavior was found; however, this relationship did not appear in separate analyses for boys and girls. Furthermore, a positive relationship was found between time spent on videogames and a child's intelligence.     

Ideal- Und Realtypen Der Planwirtschaft

Ohne ZusammenfassungEin formal- klassifikatorischer Beitrag zur Terminologie der modernen Wirtschaftssysteme     

The relationship between impulsive verbal aggression and intermittent explosive disorder

Intermittent explosive disorder (IED) is the sole psychiatric diagnostic category for which aggression is a cardinal symptom. IED focuses on physical aggression, but researchers have argued for the inclusion of verbal aggression (VA) (e.g., arguing, threatening) as a part of the IED criteria set. The utility of VA in identifying clinically relevant aggression, however, is unknown. IED participants were compared to individuals without a marked history of physical aggression, but who report frequent (two or more times a week) VA, and non-aggressive personality-disorder individuals on behavioral and self-report measures of aggression, self-report measures of related constructs (e.g., anger, affective lability), and a clinician assessment of psychosocial impairment. Both the IED and VA groups were more aggressive, angry, and clinically impaired than personality-disorder individuals, while the IED and VA groups did not differ from each other on these measures. These results support the clinical importance of frequent VA for future iterations of the IED criteria set.