Can Communication Deviance Be Measured in a Family Problem-Solving Interaction?

Communication deviance (CD) refers to confusing and fragmented communication that prevents family members from attaining a shared focus of attention and meaning. Levels of communication deviance based on individual parental projective test protocols--Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) and Rorschach--have repeatedly been found to be higher in parents of schizophrenic offspring than in parents of normal or nonpsychotic offspring. CD has also been measured in family transactions in which parents and their offspring interact with one another around a projective test stimulus, the Consensus Rorschach. There have been relatively few attempts to measure specific CD codes in familial interaction that is not initiated around an ambiguous visual stimulus. The present article examines the reliability and construct validity of an interactional measure (ICD) obtained from family transactions in which parents and patients are working toward the solution of a salient family problem. ICD from this family problem-solving task was compared to more traditional measures of CD from parental TAT protocols in a sample of 59 parents of 37 recent-onset schizophrenic patients. Results indicated that CD could be reliably measured in an interactive setting not initiated around a projective test stimulus, and provided evidence for the construct validity of ICD.     

Applied developmental psychology: Problems and prospects for an emerging discipline

Some problems and prospects for the emerging discipline of applied developmental psychology are analyzed. A working definition of applied developmental psychology is offered, along with a categorization scheme which places developmental psychologists along the basic-applied continuum. Some of the tasks that applied developmentalists can perform are listed, followed by a discussion of the boundaries of applied developmental, particularly the boundary with clinical psychology. Next, the training of applied developmental psychologists at the predoctoral and postdoctoral levels is explored. Finally, some of the professional issues that might confront applied developmentalists as the field evolves are described.     

Word recognition in a foreign language: A study of speech perception

Models of speech perception have stressed the importance of investigating recognition of words in fluent speech. The effects of word length and the initial phonemes of words on the speech perception of foreign language learners were investigated. English-speaking subjects were asked to listen for target words in repeated presentations of a prose passage read in French by a native speaker. The four target words were either one or four syllables in length and began with either an initial stop or fricative consonant. Each of the four words was substituted 60 times in identical sentence contexts in place of nouns deleted from the original story. The results indicated that four-syllable words were more easily detected than one-syllable words. Contrary to expectation, stop-initial words were not more accurately detected than fricative-initial words. Based on these findings additional considerations that seem needed in order to apply current models of word recognition to naive listeners are discussed.     

The Papago Psychology Service: A community mental health program on an American Indian reservation

A community psychology service run by the Papago Indian tribe and staffed largely by Papago Indians who have been trained as mental health workers is described. This service is unique among mental health services for Indians in that the tribe has complete control of the funds for the service and sets its own policies. It was developed for a rather traditional Indian group, and the culture, the traditions, and the wishes of the Papago community were respected. Consultation with medicine men was built into the program from the start, and adaptation of mental health techniques to fit the culture is stressed. Before this clinic was established, few mental health resources were directly available to the reservation. Similar to other Indian tribes, the Papagos are economically disadvantaged, with an unemployment rate of over 50%, low educational attainment, and very high rates of alcoholism, suicide, and vehicular accidents. The topics covered are the tribe's view of health programs for its people, the present Papago community and traditional means of treatment, traditional psychotherapy adapted to Papago culture, the indigenous Papago mental health worker, and the non-Indian professional consultant.     

Punitiveness in response to films varying in content: A cross-national field study of aggression

Punitiveness in male movie-goers in London, Philadelphia, Rome and Toronto was measured before or after they attended films varying in content (aggressive, sexual, neutral) and arousal potential (low, high). A second dependent variable, altruism, was also assessed for some Ss. Hypotheses stemming from social learning theory and arousal theory were tested by comparing changes in punitiveness at aggressive, nonaggressive arousing (sexual) and nonaggressive nonarousing (neutral) films. At aggressive films there was an increase in punitiveness whereas a reduction in punitiveness was found at neutral films. Sexual films led to a smaller (nonsignificant) increase in punitiveness than aggressive films. The findings implied that arousal was a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for increasing punitiveness. There were no significant cross-national differences in response to the films. Since the results did not generalize to other, nonaggressive responses, the film effects may be aggression-specific. Two additional findings in the U.S. sample were that urban Ss were more punitive than rural Ss and that the length of urban residency correlated negatively with altruism.     

Binocular fusion and contour suppression

Data from three separate investigations are presented to support the conclusion that suppression of visual contours occurs during binocular fusion of identical figures. These data are discussed in relation to examples of confirming and disconfirming results of other investigators.     

Geometry or not geometry? Perceived orientation and spatial layout in pictures viewed at an angle

Cutting (1988) suggests that changes in the perceived orientations of pictured objects that occur with changes in viewing angle are caused by the geometrical changes that accompany these changes in viewing angle. His geometrical analysis does predict the differential rotation effect reported by Goldstein (1979, 1987), but fails to predict other important aspects of the data. Cutting's analysis does, however, support Goldstein's (1987) conclusion that in future research on picture perception it is important to clearly distinguish between the attributes of perceived orientation and spatial layout.