Rorschach records of Nazi war criminals: a reanalysis using current scoring and interpretation practices

The Nuremberg trials focused worldwide attention on 22 Nazi war criminals. Rorschach Inkblot tests were administered to these Nazi leaders in an attempt to understand the Nazi personality. Past studies which have described and interpreted these Rorschach records have made at least two types of errors in their analyses. One is that of overinterpretation and excessive inference. A second common error has been the failure to detect meaningful distinctions between protocols that represent significant differences in personality style. This latter error is shown in repeated attempts to group all Nazi protocols into one distinct "Nazi personality." This investigation attempted to quantify the analysis of these Nazi Rorschach records, specifically those Nazi leaders who were sentenced to life imprisonment or execution for their war crimes against humanity, by utilizing Exner's (1985a) standardized Comprehensive Scoring System as well as computerized objective interpretation software based on the Exner system (1986). This modern analysis of the Rorschach records demonstrates that the Nazi war criminals cannot be grouped together into one specific mental disorder that would adequately characterize these diverse individuals. The varying degrees of psychopathology of the Nazi leaders are illustrated by analyses of individual Rorschach protocols.     

Diagnosis of major depression by self-report

The Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90), Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI), and Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) test profiles of inpatients and outpatients with DSM-III major depression (n = 48) were contrasted with the test profiles of a control group of patients with diverse psychiatric disorders (n = 68). In addition, the diagnostic efficiency of the relevant depression subscales for the diagnosis of major depression were examined. The results indicated that the three self-report tests may be used to diagnose DSM-III major depression, and that the depressed patients had characteristic test profiles.     

Sex differences on the revised Beck Depression Inventory for outpatients with affective disorders

The revised Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was administered to 174 male and 276 female psychiatric outpatients diagnosed with affective disorders. The mean BDI scores, mean number of symptoms claimed, and corrected item-total correlations were comparable for both sexes, and the coefficient alpha for each sex was .88. Principal components analyses found four dimensions of depression underlying both sexes' BDI item-intercorrelation matrices. Although men and women had comparable dimensions with respect to weight loss, self-blame, and somatic-performance symptoms, men had affective and performance symptoms loading on the same factor, whereas women had affective and cognitive symptoms loading on the same dimension.     

Self-evaluation maintenance and the mediational role of emotion: the perception of friends and strangers

Two studies examined the causal role of emotional arousal in self-evaluation maintenance processes. In previous work, Tesser and Campbell (1982) found that Ss were most charitable in their perception of another's performance when self-relevance was low and the other was close. If emotional arousal mediated this pattern of behavior, then the pattern of behavior should be replicated when arousal is present but attenuated when arousal is misattributed or low. The misattribution hypothesis was tested in Study 1. Study 2 was a correlational study in which physiological arousal and misattribution were measured. The results supported the prediction that SEM processes would be attenuated when arousal was attributed to external sources. The misattribution effect was particularly pronounced among more highly aroused Ss. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for the SEM model and person perception.     

Relation of sympathy and personal distress to prosocial behavior: a multimethod study

Assessed sympathy and personal distress with facial and physiological indexes (heart rate) as well as self-report indexes and examined the relations of these various indexes to prosocial behavior for children and adults in an easy escape condition. Heart rate deceleration during exposure to the needy others was associated with increased willingness to help. In addition, adults' reports of sympathy, as well as facial sadness and concerned attention, were positively related to their intention to assist. For children, there was some indication that report of positive affect and facial distress were negatively related to prosocial intentions and behavior, whereas facial concern was positively related to the indexes of prosocial behavior. These findings are interpreted as providing additional, convergent support for the notion that sympathy and personal distress are differentially related to prosocial behavior.     

Cardiovascular reactivity and interpersonal influence: active coping in a social context

Previous studies have demonstrated that effortful attempts to secure positive outcomes or avoid negative outcomes produce significant increases in systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and heart rate (HR). Although these effects of active coping on cardiovascular reactivity are central in current psychosomatic theories, virtually all of the research to date has used impersonal, asocial tasks. Our two studies examined the cardiovascular effects of effortful attempts to influence other people. In Study 1, male subjects attempting to influence the opinions of their discussion partner to improve their own chances of winning money displayed significantly greater SBP, DBP, and HR reactivity. In Study 2, we obtained similar effects on SBP and DBP reactivity in men and women, while both preparing an influence attempt and making that attempt. Furthermore, reactivity levels were larger as the magnitude of incentive for successful persuasion increased. Implications of this interpersonal equivalent of active coping for the development of cardiovascular disease are discussed.     

Dimensions of appraisal and physiological response in emotion

Appraisal theorists propose physiological activity in emotion to be systematically organized around appraisal of the adaptational significance of the environment in ways that promote two functions commonly ascribed to emotion: communication and preparation for coping. However, relations between appraisal and physiological activity remain largely untested. This article reviews existing evidence to generate specific hypotheses linking appraisal to physiological activity and presents an imagery-based experimental test of a subset of these hypotheses. No evidence was found for a relation between other-agency and the eyebrow frown, but brow activity and heart rate were affected by effort-related appraisals: Anticipated effort influenced heart rate, and perceived goal-obstacles influenced the eyebrow frown. Implications of the findings and theoretical approach are discussed.     

Perceptions of control, competence, and contingency as influences on the stress-behavior symptom relation in school-age children

Analyzed data from 154 school-age children and their mothers to examine the relations between stress, perceived competence and contingency, and behavior symptoms. Analyses focused on the relative merits of unidimensional vs multidimensional measures of control in predicting symptoms. The stress of undesirable life events and behavior symptoms were related in the expected direction. Multiple regression models with R2 ranging from .11 to .14 (all ps less than .0002) included significant main effects for stress, competence, and control. Analyses supported the relative superiority of the multidimensional measure of control. Models containing main effects and interaction terms were of equivalent magnitudes in accounting for variance in symptom scores. Findings support the idea of perceived control as a moderator of the stress-illness relation and are consistent with earlier suggestions that simple main effects models may be the most useful in examining these relations.