Interpretation of the personality inventory for children-revised (PIC-R): Influence of cognitive impairment

The Personality Inventory for Children-Revised (PIC-R) is a parent-report measure of social-emotional adjustment for children 3 to 16 years of age. The present study examined the clinical value of the PIC-R by exploring the impact of age and developmental status on PIC-R profiles, particularly on the Psychosis (PSY) scale, within a sample of preschool and school-age children referred for assessment of suspected cognitive impairment and learning problems. Compared to school-age children, significantly more preschoolers obtained elevated scores on the Psychosis scale; those preschoolers with cognitive impairments were even more likely to obtain significantly elevated Psychosis scale scores, despite the absence of diagnosed childhood psychosis. No significant relationship was found between Psychosis scale elevations and cognitive impairment in the school-age group. The PIC-R was moderately accurate in identifying cognitively impaired preschoolers but only minimally accurate in identifying cognitively impaired school-age children.     

Aggression as One Response to Conflict1

This paper presents two studies that explore the link between self-reported conflict management strategies and aggression. It was predicted that conflict strategies involving concern for the needs of the other would be inconsistent with aggressive behavior. On the other hand, conflict strategies that involve coercion and domination were predicted to be positively related to aggressive behavior. Studies using self-report and behavioral measures of aggression provide support for these predictions.     

Attraction and altruism: With a little help from my friends

The present experiment was designed to determine whether the reinforcement value of an altruistic response is a function of attraction toward the victim and/or the affective state of the subject. Subjects (N = 95) received positive or negative evaluations from a victim or from a bystander and subsequently performed an altruistic response which terminated shock delivery to a victim on a series of 14 trials. Analyses of variance indicated that the acquisition of an altruistic response was greatest when attraction toward the victim was most positive (p < .0001) and nonexistent when attraction toward the victim was least positive. The results were consistent with the proposition that attraction rather than affect mediates altruistic reinforcement. Those subjects receiving negative evaluations from the victim failed to acquire the altruistic response, suggesting that failure to help may function as a form of passive aggression.     

Suppressing valid inferences with conditionals

Three experiments are reported which show that in certain contexts subjects reject instances of the valid modus ponens and modus tollens inference form in conditional arguments. For example, when a conditional premise, such as: If she meets her friend then she will go to a play, is accompanied by a conditional containing an additional requirement: If she has enough money then she will go to a play, subjects reject the inference from the categorical premise: She meets her friend, to the conclusion: She will go to a play. Other contexts suppress the conditional fallacies. The first experiment demonstrates the effects of context on conditional reasoning. The second experiment shows that the inference suppression disappears when the categorical premise refers to both of the antecedents, such as: She meets her friend and she has enough money. In this case, subjects make both the valid inferences and the fallacies, regardless of the contextual information. The third experiment establishes that when subjects are given general information about the duration of a situation in which a conditional inducement was uttered, such as: If you shout then I will shoot you, they reject both the valid inferences and the fallacies. The results suggest that the interpretation of premises plays an even more central role in reasoning than has previously been admitted.     

Chronic self-destructiveness: Conceptualization,measurement, and initial validation of the construct

Individual differences in various behaviors suggest that those who are primarily motivated by current emotional factors are more likely than those motivated by more distant cognitive considerations to engage in acts that are ultimately self-destructive. To assess and explore these behavioral differences, 12 samples of undergraduate subjects, totaling 864 (527 females, 337 males), a group of 15 businesswomen, and 111 male VA patients were used to develop a measure of this construct in a series of reliability and construct validity studies. By means of internal-consistency item analyses, two cross-validated 52-item measures of chronic self-destructiveness were constructed for males and females. Reliability was established with respect to internal consistency (alpha coefficients range from .73 to .97) and temporal consistency over a 1-month period (test-retest correlations range from .90 to .98). There is a slight drop in chronic self-destructiveness scores across age groups. Test scores were found to be positively related to external locus of control, negatively related to Type A coronary-prone behavior, and unrelated to either social desirability response set or need for achievement. Individuals high in chronic self-destructiveness, compared to those with low scores, are more likely to be in treatment for drug or alcohol abuse, to report having cheated in courses, to have had traffic violations, to report having gone through a rebellious stage in adolescence, and to postpone obtaining a medical test for cancer. Chronic self-destructiveness appears to be a personality dimension that affects behavior across a wide range of ages and situations.We wish to thank John Wapner for his assistance in obtaining data in the clinical sample.     

Validation of the Multidimensional Schizotypy Scale-Brief in Two Large Samples

This study reports on an initial examination of the construct validity of the Multidimensional Schizotypy Scale-Brief (MSS-B) and the first investigation of its psychometric properties outside of its derivation samples. The MSS-B contains 38 items that assess positive, negative, and disorganized schizotypy and has comparable content coverage and psychometric properties as the original 77-item Multidimensional Schizotypy Scale. Two large samples (n?=?1430 and 1289) completed the MSS-B, as well as measures of schizotypal personality traits and the Five-Factor Model of Personality. MSS-B scores were computed from the full-length scale in sample 1, whereas participants in sample 2 were administered the MSS-B. The psychometric properties and intercorrelations of the MSS-B subscales were consistent with findings from the original derivation samples, with no shrinkage in reliability. In terms of relations with schizotypal traits, the MSS-B positive schizotypy dimension had its strongest association with cognitive-perceptual schizotypal traits, MSS-B negative schizotypy had its strongest association with interpersonal schizotypal traits, and MSS-B disorganized schizotypy had its strongest association with disorganized schizotypal traits. The schizotypy dimensions were characterized by hypothesized patterns of distinct associations with the Five-Factor Model. The present findings are consistent with results from the full-scale MSS.