Self-report, peer-report, and teacher-report measures of childhood depression: an analysis by item.

We explored the low correlation among different types of childhood depression measures at the item level. The items from the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), Peer Nomination Inventory of Depression (PNID), and the Child Behavior Checklist-Teacher Report Form (CBCL-T) were combined, and both first- and second-order factor analyses were conducted. Results indicate that self-report, peer-report, and teacher-report assessments of depression measure generally uncorrelated constructs. Second-order analysis suggests that depression as a global construct is being measured to some degree by items from all three instruments. Canonical analysis was employed to identify items that best predicted CDI, PNID, and CBL-T summary scores simultaneously. Also, the relationship between specific items with similar content was investigated. Results from these analyses generally supported a conclusion that the three types of measures yield scores that are primarily independent and that the use of summary scores is not masking stronger relationships within measures. These findings have implications for clinical practice and construct elaboration.     

Reliability and validity of the Coolidge Axis II Inventory: a new inventory for the assessment of personality disorders.

This group of studies describes the development of a 200 item, self-report, 4-point true-false inventory (Coolidge Axis II Inventory [CATI]) to assess personality disorders according to the criteria established in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd ed., rev. [DSM-III-R]; American Psychiatric Association, 1987). The 13 personality disorder scales of the CATI had a mean test-retest reliability of .90 and a median internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) of .76. There was a 50% concordance rate with clinician's diagnosis for 24 personality disordered patients. The median concurrent validity (raw score sums) between the CATI and the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-II for the 13 personality disorder scales was .58. Preliminary studies also support the reliability and validity of Depression, Anxiety, and Brain Dysfunction scales.     

Job experiences over time, multiple roles, and women's mental health: a longitudinal study.

Are changes over time in the quality of a woman's job associated with changes in her psychological distress? Do family roles moderate these relationships? We addressed these questions using longitudinal data from a 2-year 3-wave study of a stratified random sample of 403 employed women who varied in occupation, race, partnership, and parental status. After estimating individual rates of change for each woman on each of the predictors and the outcome, we modeled the relationships between family role occupancy and change in job-role quality on the one hand, and change in psychological distress on the other. Among single women and women without children, as job-role quality declined, levels of psychological distress increased. Among partnered women and women with children, change in job-role quality was unrelated to change in psychological distress.     

Compartmentalization of positive and negative self-knowledge: keeping bad apples out of the bunch.

Three studies examined whether categorical organization of knowledge about the self explains variance in self-esteem and depression beyond that which is accounted for by sheer amount of positive or negative content. Compartmentalization is the tendency to organize positive and negative knowledge about the self into separate, uniformly valenced categories (self-aspects). As long as positive self-aspects are activated, access to negative information should be minimized. Compartmentalization was associated with high self-esteem and low depression scores for individuals whose positive self-aspects were important; when negative self-aspects were important, compartmentalization was correlated with low self-esteem and high depression scores. An analysis of self-aspect labels showed that individuals with compartmentalized organization define negative self-aspects in especially narrow terms. A possible relationship between compartmentalized organization and cognitive complexity is discussed.     

The effect of hypnotically elicited testimony on jurors' judgments of guilt and innocence.

Survey data from several countries indicate that many people believe that hypnosis may increase the accuracy of an eyewitness's memory; most experimental research, however, suggests that this belief is inaccurate. This study examined whether the belief could influence judgments of guilt and innocence in a simulated criminal trial. The results indicated that British undergraduates were more likely to find a male defendant guilty when told that the testimony against him had been elicited under hypnosis. Results concerning a nonhypnotic memory facilitation technique were found to be inconclusive, and the salience of hypnotically elicited testimony was ruled out as a contributory element.     

Stimulus effects on concurrent performance in transition

Six experimentally naive pigeons were exposed to concurrent variable-interval variable-interval schedules in a three-key procedure in which food reinforcement followed pecks on the side keys and pecks on the center key served as changeover responses. In Phase 1, 3 birds were exposed to 20 combinations of five variable-interval values, with each variable-interval value consistently associated with a different color on the side keys. Another 3 pigeons were exposed to the same 20 conditions, but with a more standard procedure that used a nondifferential discriminative stimulus on the two side keys throughout all conditions. In Phase 2, the differential and nondifferential stimulus conditions were reversed for each pigeon. Each condition lasted for one 5-hr session and one subsequent 1-hr session. In the last 14 conditions of each phase, the presence of differential discriminative stimuli decreased the time necessary for differential responding to develop and increased the sensitivity of behavior to reinforcement distribution in the 1st hr of training; during the last hours of training in each condition, however, the effects of the differential discriminative stimuli could not be distinguished from the effects of reinforcement distribution per se. These results show the importance of studying transitions in behavior as well as final performance. They may also be relevant to discrepancies in the results of previous experiments that have used nonhuman and human subjects.     

A cross-validation of MMPI-2 substance abuse scales.

We evaluated the efficacy of the Addiction Potential Scale (APS) and the Addiction Acknowledgement Scale (AAS), two new scales designed to assess substance abuse problems with the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2), in samples from settings different from those used in their development. Results replicate earlier findings that both scales discriminate between psychiatric and substance abuse samples and do so more effectively than other substance abuse scales designed for use with the MMPI and carried over to the MMPI-2. Results also suggest that APS may be more resistant than AAS to response distortion.     

Statistical power and the Rorschach: 1975-1991

The Rorschach Inkblot Test has been the source of long-standing controversies as to its nature and its psychometric properties. Consistent with behavioral science research in general, the concept of statistical power has been entirely ignored by Rorschach researchers. The concept of power is introduced and discussed, and a power survey of the Rorschach literature published between 1975 and 1991 in the Journal of Personality Assessment, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Journal of Clinical Psychology, Journal of Personality, Psychological Bulletin, American Journal of Psychiatry, and Journal of Personality and Social Psychology was undertaken. Power was calculated for 2,300 statistical tests in 158 journal articles. Power to detect small, medium, and large effect sizes was .13, .56, and .85, respectively. Similar to the findings in other power surveys conducted on behavioral science research, we concluded that Rorschach research is underpowered to detect the differences under investigation. This undoubtedly contributes to the inconsistency of research findings which has been a source of controversy and criticism over the decades. It appears that research conducted according to the Comprehensive System for the Rorschach is more powerful. Recommendations are offered for improving power and strengthening the design sensitivity of Rorschach research, including increasing sample sizes, use of parametric statistics, reduction of error variance, more accurate reporting of findings, and editorial policies reflecting concern about the magnitude of relationships beyond an exclusive focus on levels of statistical significance.     

The beliefs adults and children hold about television and video games.

In Phase 1 of this study, we asked 23 parents between the ages of 30 and 52 years and 26 children between the ages of 10 and 19 years to list effects of television and video games on children. A questionnaire was developed using the most frequently given responses (e.g., television influences children's aggressive behavior, verbal abilities, or time with friends). In Phase 2, this questionnaire was administered to different groups of parents and children and a control group of adults without offspring (N = 204) who were asked to rate the influence of each item on the questionnaire. Multivariate analyses of variance indicated that there were similarities and differences among the groups. For example, parents and other adults held similar beliefs about the influence of television, but parents held more positive beliefs about the influence of video games than the other adults. Children held more positive beliefs about the influence of television than parents, but parents and children held similar beliefs about the influence of video games.