Does the Beck Anxiety Inventory measure anything beyond panic attack symptoms?

The Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) has become a popular measure in anxiety assessment and the BAI does not overlap in content with measures of depression. There is also some factor analytic evidence to support this distinction. However, an inspection of the BAI's content indicates that many of its items resemble, or are identical to, the symptoms of panic attacks listed in the DSM-IV. Further empirical support for this suspicion is provided from the results of a factor analysis of the BAI items and the individual DSM-IV panic symptoms contained in the Panic Attack Questionnaire, using data from a sample of 157 panic disorder patients. A three-factor model (dizziness related, catastrophic cognitions/fear, cardiorespiratory distress) emerged that replicated a three-factor model of panic symptoms identified in earlier work with another panic disorder sample. All but one of the BAI items loaded highly on the three panic symptom clusters and no separate BAI factor was obtained. The BAI appears to be confounded with, or actually measures, panic attacks rather than anxiety in general. Several implications of this finding are discussed.     

Resilience in siblings of children with sickle cell disease

This pilot study was conducted to identify factors responsible for promoting resilience in siblings of children with sickle cell disease. Twenty siblings (10–17 years of age) of children (5–13 years) with sickle cell disease were selected from the Pediatric Clinic of Howard University Center for Sickle Cell Disease. The siblings responded to questionnaires, and the data obtained was analyzed by chi-square for association. The results indicated that age, birth order, and gender had no effect on resilience in the siblings. However, family size, number of parents in the home, sibling's knowledge of the illness, degree of morbidity of the illness, socioeconomic status of the family, and parents' attitudes and childrearing practices were all found to affect resilience. These findings provide additional insight into the psychosocial aspects of, and genetic counseling for sickle cell disease, as well as for other chronic genetic disorders.     

Seeking Social Support in Old Age as Reasoned Action: Structural and Volitional Determinants in a Middle-Aged Sample of Argentinean Women1

Given that the availability of social support influences physical and psychological well-being, the provision of positive contacts is often crucial for older women. The purpose of the present study was to test the utility of both structural and volitional factors as determinants of support-seeking intentions. Two intentions to seek social support were studied in a group of 106 middle-aged women: (a) the intention to go to a doctor at least once a year after 55; and (b) the intention to visit a family member at least once a week after 55. The structural variables of interest were age, educational level, presence of partner, number of children, and number of grandchildren. The volitional factors assessed were intentions, beliefs, attitudes, and norms. There was little evidence that structural factors influenced support seeking. In contrast, as predicted from the theory of reasoned action (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980; Fishbein & Ajzen. 1975), intentions to go to the doctor and to visit a family member could be successfully predicted from attitudes and norms.     

Primate learning tasks reveal strong impairments in patients with presenile or senile dementia of the Alzheimer type

Eight subjects with the likely diagnosis of presenile or senile dementia of the Alzheimer type were tested on two frequently used primate learning tasks: a concurrent object discrimination task and a delayed non-match-to-sample task. In addition, various tests for cognitive, mnemonic, perceptual, and language functions were applied. The results suggest a severe decline of the Alzheimer subjects in all measures when compared with 10 control subjects matched for age, gender, and education. The two animal learning tasks revealed strong impairments, thus demonstrating a high sensitivity for the detection and assessment of human amnesic disorders. Implications of these findings for human neuropsychological, and especially comparative neuropsychological, research are discussed.     

The main features of value experience

Conclusion This brings us not only to the conclusion of my list of eight features proposed as being common to all or most value experience, but also to a reminder of its purpose. First, I hope that, in the spirit of Husserl's dictum, to the things themselves, this proposal will initiate a discussion of a basic research type of question, namely: What are the main features of value experience? Second, I hope that the fruits of such a discussion might eventually contribute to the working out of a metatheory for value inquiry: a theory about criteria of adequacy for any general theory of value.In a paper of this scope it is obvious that one cannot even begin to discuss all the points and subpoints made in the manner in which they deserve. Much less can one defend all, or even any, of its claims with the kind of logical rigor and linguistic fastidiousness which have come to be the norm in most Anglo-American philosophy today. As a counterbalance to a tendency in some professional circles to making adherence to this norm the end of, rather than merely a means for, philosophic understanding, I have offered this paper after the spirit of Socrates and Plato, who certainly appreciated appropriate logical rigor and linguistic tidiness. Philosophy was nevertheless always for them first and foremost a mutual adventure of exploration into value through significant dialogue. Thus, rather than submitting one more piece of logic or language to the microscope, it has been my purpose to go exploring this time with a telescope. I cordially invite other seekers to join me and to challenge my findings.Presidential Address delivered to the American Society for Value Inquiry meeting at the Denver Hilton, Denver, 19–20 April 1979. I wish to thank Gene G. James, Richard T. Hull, and Murray S. Hunt for helpful comments on an early draft of this paper.     

Evidence for feature perturbations

Feature perturbations were proposed by Wolford (1975) to explain the pattern of errors generated by subjects in experiments involving speeded presentations. These experiments were carried out to test the notion of feature perturbations in a fairly direct fashion. The logic of the experiments involved the creation of an artificial alphabet in which feature perturbations, if they occurred, would lead to predictable error patterns. The results of the three experiments supported the notion of feature perturbations. Evidence was also found for errors which resulted from items that were correctly identified but that were reported in an incorrect order. These latter errors were shown to be distinct from errors resulting from feature perturbations.