The first 900: a nine-year longitudinal analysis of consecutive adolescent inpatients

Data for the presenting complaints, average age and sex distribution, average length of stay and the discharge diagnosis for 900 consecutive adolescents treated at the Adolescent Center of Houston International Hospital between 1974 and 1982 were reviewed. The number of cases remained fairly constant over the 9 years. As the males and females showed an increase in age, the increase in age for males (13.4 years to 15.2 years) was greater than that for females (14.4 years to 15.0 years). The average age for male admissions during 1974-1976 was significantly lower than 1980-1982 (p less than 0.03). The average length of stay for males during 1980-1982 was significantly greater than 1974-1976 (p less than 0.05). The most frequent presenting symptoms in decreasing order for 1974-1982 were depression, school problems, family problems, threatening behavior, runaway behavior, and suicidal ideation. Depression increased from 15.6% in 1974-1976 to 29.6% of presenting symptoms. Substance abuse increased from 4% (1974-1976) to 8.8% (1980-1982). Suicidal ideation increased three-fold over the same period (3.3% to 10.6%). A significantly greater number of males presented with 1) impulsivity, 2) aggressiveness, 3) withdrawal behavior, 4) stealing, and 5) disruptive behavior. A significantly greater number of females presented with 1) runaway behavior, and 2) suicidal ideation. The 10 most frequent discharge diagnoses are listed. Depression as a diagnosis increased almost four-fold between 1977-1979 and 1980-1982 (7.6% versus 27.5%).     

"Mom and dad": views on the relationship between direct-care staff and therapists in residential, adolescent treatment facilities

Some of the common conflicts that occur between therapists and direct-care staff in residential, adolescent treatment facilities are highlighted. These conflicts often parallel those occurring between an adolescent's parents. Common issues include the amount of time spent with the adolescent patient, questions of authority, and communication difficulties. These conflicts can have positive consequences, if each party recognizes that the other brings a needed perspective to adolescent treatment.     

Pursuing and distancing: the construct and its measurement

Although the concept of interpersonal pursuing and distancing has been introduced and used clinically, the lack of a reliable and valid measure has deterred its more formal investigation and relevance to personality theory. The Pursuing-Distancing (P-D) Scale, a 92-item measure of the behavioral expression of these characteristics, was developed. Evidence for internal consistency as well as internal support of construct validity is presented and discussed. An 80-item revised scale is available from the authors and is currently being evaluated in a variety of external validation settings.     

Response to two presentations of the Sentence Completion Test of ego development

This was a study of the differences among individuals on their performance on oral and written versions of the Washington University Sentence Completion Test of ego development. The study included 192 subjects from three age groups: College age, community residents, and retired people. No oral versus written differences were found in scores. Gender was the only factor to exhibit a consistently significant effect on Sentence Completion Test score differences.     

Rorschach content interpretation in post-traumatic stress disorders: a reply to Carr

In traumatized patients, Rorschach responses draw from a variety of sources, including the traumatic event itself, past and current experiences, and internal fantasy. As complex and highly condensed mental constructions, these responses often serve to reveal the meaning of the trauma in terms of the patient's prevailing personality conflicts. In many cases, this meaning may be hidden in the response's distortion of or elaboration on images drawn from the actual event.     

Components of reward in social dilemmas

A social dilemma (Dawes, 1980) may be defined as a situation in which a collection of individuals is faced with a conflict between maximizing selfish interests and maximizing collective interests. The dilemma is based on the fact that if all choose to maximize selfish interests, all are worse off than if all choose to maximize collective interests. In a decomposed social dilemma (Pruitt, 1967), the outcomes are divided into two components: one component is based on one's own choice and the second component is based on the choices made by the others. Using 3-person decomposed games, two types of incentives were contrasted: a positive incentive (bonus) for cooperative choices and a negative incentive (penalty) for noncooperative choices. Two experiments were conducted using male college students. The results of both experiments showed that the positive incentive evoked a higher level of cooperation than the negative incentive. The results are discussed in terms of nonadditive utility components, Pruitt's motivational interpretation, and Kelley and Thibaut's (1978) theory of interdependence.