Modelling cognition in emotional disorder: The S-REF model

Cognitive therapy techniques are applied to an ever-increasing range of psychological disorders. However, both basic methods and general theory of therapy have evolved more slowly. Although cognitive therapy is based on experimentally testable concepts derived from cognitive psychology, an integration of these areas capable of explaining cognitive-attentional phenomena and offering treatment Implications remains to be achieved. In this paper, we outline the Self-Regulatory Executive Function (S-REF) model of emotional disorder, which integrates information processing research with Beck's schema theory. The model advances understanding of the roles of stimulus-driven and voluntary control of cognition, procedural knowledge (beliefs), and of the interactions between different levels of information-processing. It also accounts for cognitive bias effects demonstrated in the experimental psychopathology literature. The model presents implications concerning not only what should be done in cognitive therapy, but how cognitive change may be most effectively accomplished.     

When More is Better than Less; Three Theories of Psychosis—Projection, Double Bind, and Possession

Three psychological theories of psychosis are described, each of which has standing in psychiatry. Defined by the terms projection, double bind, and possession, they initially appear to have little or nothing in common to explain psychosis, but converge at four points: (1) A high degree of anxiety precipitated by a dilemma or conflict perceived to be unsolvable by the person; (2) the anxiety triggers a shift from one thought or motive in the direction of its opposite, because the original was believed too antagonistic to the wishes of significant others; (3) the opposite, in order to remain opposite, requires that the original thought or motive be forgotten, (4) a singular means to produce and reinforce forgetting is the interposition of psychiatric symptoms. In psychiatry today treatment would fit more consistently with the three theories taken as a whole rather than any one, and a rationale for this viewpoint is elaborated.     

Prevalence of ADHD and comorbid disorders among elementary school children screened for disruptive behavior

In the context of a school-based prevention of conduct disorder program, 7,231 first- through fourth-grade children were screened for cross-setting disruptive behavior. Frequencies of DSM-III-R psychiatric disorders and patterns of comorbidity were assessed. We also examined the association of psychiatric diagnosis with child and parent characteristics to determine differential risk based on diagnostic subgroups. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and oppositional-defiant disorder (ODD) were the most frequent diagnoses. Mood and anxiety disorders were infrequent as single diagnoses. Patterns of comorbidity demonstrated that both externalizing and internalizing disorders commonly cooccurred with ADHD. More severe degrees of psychopathology and psychosocial risk accrued to the subgroup of youths with ADHD plus a comorbid externalizing disorder.This study was supported by grant MN-46584 from the National Institute of Mental Health.     

The truncated nuclear family

The truncated nuclear family is defined: it is the garden-variety family pathology found. The critical role of polarized continuity and discontinuity values in producing the truncated nuclear family is discussed. There is a brief review of factors in American society which, over the decades since the Second World War, have evolved the nuclear family as a dominant family unit, and of how those and other factors in society have produced the large numbers of truncated nuclear families seen in clinics, particularly in the past decade. Family therapy is the treatment of choice for the truncated nuclear family, provided there is a readiness of the family to undertake the stress of therapy.Dr. Zuk is family therapy consultant to agencies in New Orleans and elsewhere, and clinical professor (psychology) in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurology at Tulane University Medical School.This paper is a chapter in the forthcoming 2nd edition ofProcess and Practice in Family Therapy, to be published by Human Sciences Press of New York City in 1985.     

Relationships between perceptions of organizational size and the organizational choice process

Expectancy theory concepts were used to predict (a) the attractiveness of, (b) the amount of effort directed toward entering, and (c) the eventual choice of a job in relatively big and small work organizations. It was found, among a group of graduating seniors from a technical college, that antecedent perceptions regarding organizational size (expectancy, valence, instrumentality) were significantly related to the relative attractiveness of different-sized organizations and the number of job interviews taken with relatively big and small companies. In addition, economically tied extrinsic outcomes were seen as more readily attainable in big organizations, whereas certain intrinsic outcomes were perceived to be more easily obtained in small organizations.     

Types produce types—Especially fathers

Employing a larger sample and a more stringent statistical criterion, this study replicated an attempt by T. G. Grandy and R. F. Stahmann (Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1974, 5, 231–239.) to test Holland's hypothesis that parents' personality types foster similar offspring personality development. The relationships between paternal and offspring personality types were consonant with the findings of Grandy and Stahmann but the role of maternal personalities remained unclear. An explanation was offered that fathers' personality types carry more weight in the development of offspring types.     

Training children's self-control: A field experiment in self-monitoring and goal-setting in the classroom

A field experiment investigated the effects of training in self-monitoring and goal-setting skills on classroom study behavior and academic achievement among elementary school students in an individualized mathematics program. In the Self-Monitoring Conditions, students were shown a simple system for observing and maintaining daily records of their own study behavior during their math classes; orthogonally, in the Goal-Setting Conditions, students were shown a simple method of setting and recording daily performance goals during their math classes. Exposure to self-monitoring procedures produced significant increases in both appropriate study behavior and in actual achievement in the mathematics program, while exposure to goal-setting procedures had no effect on either study behavior or academic achievement. Nor, contrary to expectation, did exposure to the goal-setting instructions enhance the effectiveness of the self-monitoring system. The implications of these results in terms of implicit and explicit models of self-reinforcement processes were discussed.     

Individual loudness functions determined from direct comparisons of loudness intervals

Five subjects were required in each trial to directly compare two pairs of tones and indicate which pair of tones had the greater loudness difference. Ten 1,200-Hz tones differing only in intensity were employed. Subjects made binary comparisons among the 45 tone pairs that can be formed from these 10 tones. The loudness difference comparisons of each subject were found to satisfy two properties (transitivity and monotonicity) that are required for an interval scale representation of loudness. Therefore, individual loudness scales were constructed using a nonmetric scaling technique designed for comparisons of sensory intervals. These loudness scales differed significantly from subject to subject. Since a nonnumerical scaling procedure was employed, these individual differences could not be attributed to biases in the way in which observers use numbers or numerical concepts to describe the loudness of tones. Hence, they suggest strong individual differences in the coding of sound intensity.     

The contribution of visual persistence to the perceived duration of brief targets

Two experiments were conducted to examine the role of sensory persistence on tasks of perceived duration employing very brief visual stimuli. Using a standard temporal judgment task, the first experiment replicated both the “size effect” and “empty-filled” illusion reported by previous investigators. However, entirely comparable results were also found with a probematching task, which theoretically assesses the degree of persistence exhibited by a stimulus. The second experiment examined the effect of target luminance on perceived duration. Consistent with a sensory persistence interpretation, judgments of duration increased with increasing luminance. The results from the two experiments were discussed in terms of varying degrees of retinal persistence produced by different stimuli. This view was contrasted with currently dominant interpretations that postulate changes in perceived duration to reflect different information-processing requirements across stimulus conditions.