Fathering and Early Onset Conduct Problems: Positive and Negative Parenting, Father–Son Attachment, and the Marital Context

Research literature linking negative and positive aspects of the father–child relationship with early onset conduct problems is reviewed. Evidence from the Preschool Families Project, a longitudinal study of clinic-referred preschool boys at risk for conduct disorder, is presented, including previously unpublished data on father–child attachment. Both negative (e.g., harsh, angry, and physically punitive) and positive (involvement, warmth, and secure attachment) dimensions of fathering, as well as aspects of the marital relationship, appear to be associated with the emergence of early onset conduct problems.     

Psychological correlates of the French sound system

Six samples of CCVC phoneme sequences were devised to represent linguistically specifiable distances from existing French words, distance being measured in terms of number of substitutions needed to make an existing French word. Fifty-four native speakers of French rated the sound sequences for their subjective proximity to French, using ungraded rating scales. Results showed a general correspondence between the linguistic and psychological measurements, although certain phoneme sequences did not follow the predicted order. These were examined to see if their displacement could be attributed to the number of different French words reached through substitutions.     

Information processing of letter and word pairs as a function of on and off times

The present study seeks to extend a provisional model of visual information processing with sequential inputs currently under development, employing a computer-based cathode-ray tube display system. Letter and word pairs were presented for 28 different on-off time combinations with on times ranging from 5 msec to 50 msec and off times ranging from 1 msec to 125 msec. The results suggest that both on, off, and total processing times affect per cent correct detections, and that while a gradual increase in per cent correct detections occurs up to about 50 msec of total processing time, a marked discontinuity appears to occur approximately between 50 and 60 msec of total processing time, with per cent correct detections jumping abruptly from about 40% correct detections to about 90% correct detections over a total processing time span of only 10 msec.     

Clinical Exchange: The Architectural Failure

The Clinical Exchange invites eminent clinicians of diverse persuasions to share, in ordinary language, their clinical formulations and treatment plans of the same psychotherapy patient—one not selected or nominated by those therapists—and then to discuss points of convergence and contention in their recommendations. This Exchange concerns a Mr. L, a 47-year-old, married man presenting for outpatient individual psychotherapy with chief complaints of depression, anxiety, and a lengthy history of vocational underachievement. Drs. Herbert Fensterheim, Leslie Greenberg, and Leigh McCullough, who anchor their practices in the cognitive-behavioral, experiential, and psychodynamic orientations, respectively, are the featured commentators. Finally, Dr. Jerold Gold, the case contributor and Mr. L's psychotherapist, provides a few closing comments.     

Proximal and Distal Defense: A New Perspective on Unconscious Motivation

Death-related thoughts produce different effects on thought and behavior when they are in current focal attention and when they are on the fringes of consciousness. When such thoughts are conscious, people attempt to either remove them from consciousness or push death into the distant future by distorting their beliefs to logically imply that they have many remaining years to live. When such thoughts are highly accessible but outside current focal attention, people increase efforts to view themselves as persons of value living in a meaningful universe. In this way, awareness of the inevitability of death produces diverse effects on human thought and behavior that bear little obvious resemblance to the problem of death.     

Special perspective: An immodest proposal: should treating mental health professionals be barred from testifying about their patients?

Notwithstanding ethical rules that address therapeutic and forensic role conflicts for psychologists and psychiatrists, overzealous patient advocacy by therapists, tightened reimbursement for therapy, and a growth market for forensic psychology and psychiatry, have led many therapists to appear willingly as forensic experts on behalf of their patients. Existing ethical rules, as well as other proposed approaches to address this problem, assume that it can be resolved by modest changes in existing practice that permit therapists to testify as long as their testimony avoids psycholegal opinions. This essay questions whether these modest changes can adequately address this problem and advances consideration of a more radical proposal to address this problem, prohibiting therapists from testifying about their patients. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.