Modeling Rater Disagreement for ADHD: Are Parents or Teachers Biased?

The present study is the first to utilize twin modeling to examine whether parent-teacher disagreement for ADHD ratings is due to parent or teacher bias, or due to raters observing different but valid ADHD behaviors. A joint analysis was conducted with 106 twin pairs, including twins selected for ADHD and control twin pairs. Total ADHD scores were analyzed using multiple rater models that estimate genetic and environmental contributions common to both raters and unique to each rater. Results suggest that 1) disagreement in ADHD ratings is strongly due to parents and teachers observing different ADHD behaviors, some of which is valid and some of which is due to bias, and 2) parents may be more biased than teachers in their ADHD ratings.     

PDD Symptoms in ADHD,an Independent Familial Trait?

The aims of this study were to investigate whether subtle PDD symptoms in the context of ADHD are transmitted in families independent of ADHD, and whether PDD symptom familiality is influenced by gender and age. The sample consisted of 256 sibling pairs with at least one child with ADHD and 147 healthy controls, aged 5–19 years. Children who fulfilled criteria for autistic disorder were excluded. The Children’s Social Behavior Questionnaire (CSBQ) was used to assess PDD symptoms. Probands, siblings, and controls were compared using analyses of variance. Sibling correlations were calculated for CSBQ scores after controlling for IQ, ADHD, and comorbid anxiety. In addition, we calculated cross-sibling cross-trait correlations. Both children with ADHD and their siblings had higher PDD levels than healthy controls. The sibling correlation was 0.28 for the CSBQ total scale, with the CSBQ stereotyped behavior subscale showing the strongest sibling correlation (r = 0.35). Sibling correlations remained similar in strength after controlling for IQ and ADHD, and were not confounded by comorbid anxiety. Sibling correlations were higher in female than in male probands. The social subscale showed stronger sibling correlations in elder than in younger sibling pairs. Cross-sibling cross-trait correlations for PDD and ADHD were weak and not-significant. The results confirm that children with ADHD have high levels of PDD symptoms, and further suggest that the familiality of subtle PDD symptoms in the context of ADHD is largely independent from ADHD familiality.     

Family and child influences on early academic and emotion regulatory behaviors

Research on child and family factors in early childhood has shown that both are associated with social and instrumental functioning at school entry. The present study sought to examine the direct and indirect effects of child negative emotionality, maternal education, depression, IQ, and quality of maternal instruction on children's academic and emotion regulatory behaviors from the toddler period to school entry using a sample of 174 boys from low-SES backgrounds. Results revealed direct effects of maternal IQ on academic outcomes at school entry that were mediated by maternal instruction. Further, maternal instruction predicted the child's academic and emotion regulation (ER) outcomes even after accounting for other maternal and child variables. The effects of both instruction variables moderated the impact of maternal education. The results suggest that maternal instruction plays an important role in early school success, particularly for children at risk for school problems.     

Cognitive Functioning in Adolescents with Self-Reported ADHD and Depression: Results from a Population-Based Study

This study aims to assess cognitive functioning differences among adolescents with retrospectively self-reported: ADHD and an onset of depression, only ADHD, only depression, and neither ADHD nor depression. Data from the Tracking Adolescents’ Individual Lives Survey (TRAILS) cohort was used in this study. Neuropsychological functioning was assessed in 1549 adolescents, at baseline and follow-up (mean ages 11 and 19 years). The Composite International Diagnostic Interview was used to classify adolescents into 4 groups: ADHD with onset of depression, only ADHD, only depression, and neither ADHD nor depression. Linear mixed effects models were used to analyse group differences in cognitive functioning at baseline and follow-up, and the change in cognitive functioning between these 2 time-points. Results showed a significant main effect of group on response time variability at baseline, working memory maintenance at follow up, and change in response time variability scores between baseline and follow-up. As compared to the healthy and depressed-only groups, adolescents with only ADHD showed longer response time variability at baseline and, which declined between baseline and follow-up. Adolescents with ADHD plus depression showed higher reaction time for working memory maintenance than the depressed only and healthy groups at follow-up. In conclusion, adolescents with self-reported ADHD show poorer cognitive functioning than healthy adolescents and those with only depression. Amongst adolescents with ADHD, specific cognitive domains show poor functioning depending on the presence or absence of comorbid depression. While adolescents with only ADHD have lower reaction time variability, those with comorbid depression have poorer working memory maintenance.     

Dalí's homage to Rothko: a defense against fusion with the victim

This paper explores the thematic content of a painting by Salvador Dalí in homage to artist Mark Rothko, completed after the latter's suicide. The manifest title of the work suggests respect for Rothko, but the latent intent of the painting, the author suggests, is more of a memoriam to Rothko in a complex identification with him. Among other psychological issues, the author elaborates on two factors that may have played a part in Dalí's artistic reaction to Rothko's suicide: the death of the artist's infant brother nine months before his own birth, and his lifelong struggle against fusion with the victim (Orgel 1974a, 1974b).     

A Psychoanalytic View of Racial Myths in a Nazi Propaganda Film: Der Ewige Jude (The Eternal Jew)

This paper describes the emotional appeal of propaganda utilizing concepts from psychoanalysis, small group psychology, and psychohistory. The film propagandist attempts to exploit irrational emotional responses to visual scenes and commentary to change attitudes, values, and behavior in a mass setting. A link between shared unconscious fantasies and myth is offered as an explanatory concept to explain propaganda's wide emotional appeal. The German Nazi anti-Semitic film, Der Ewige Jude, serves as the case example of the exploitation of such fantasies in a mass setting for a political end.     

Cognition and the Planning Process: An Investigation of Stability of Effects and Decision Makers' Insights

According to Hartman, White, and Crino (1986), planning situations differ in environmental volatility, system adaptation, and the nature of planning requirements, different combinations of which can generate 12 distinct planning situations and 8 information processing aids to be used as planning tools. Each information processing aid has been prescribed to be more appropriate for use in some planning situations than in others (Hartman et al.). In the first part of this study, we tested the hypothesis that a planner in a specific situation would prefer to use the information processing aid(s) prescribed for that situation. We developed 12 different cases and used 456 student subjects. Results indicated that preference did not correspond closely to the Hartman et al. theory but that some other form of implicit theory may be operating. The second part of the research replicated the first part and also examined how 57 subjects viewed their planning problems and weighed the factors involved. Part 2 was also designed to determine the nature of any implicit theory the subjects may have used. Results suggest that the pattern of preferences, although not corresponding to available theory, represents a stable phenomenon.     

Treatment of sexual dysfunction

Abstract

This study is based on a statistical analysis of 240 client records. The task of the study was to determine the variables inherent to women with diagnosed sexual problems. Data were secured for 93 variables in four classifications—sociological, sexological, psychological, and counseling. Frequency distributions revealed sociological characteristics which were representative of young, middle-class, well-educated women, except for a greater incidence of divorce and separation. Typical sexual experiences included extramarital relationships, oral and anal intercourse, masturbation, and childhood sexual contacts with adult males who were either a member or friend of the family. Compared to other reports of sexual experience, clients showed greater frequencies of intercourse, homosexual and extramarital experience, and childhood sexual contacts with adult males, but less frequency of orgasm. In addition, mean T-scores were moderately elevated (60–69) for eight of 13 MMPI scales.     

L'état c'est moi — Except When I Am Not: Commentary on Paper by Orna Guranlik and Daphne Simeon

In this discussion, I situate Guralnik and Simeon's argument about depersonalization and interpellation among ways that different psychoanalytic theorists have understood the interaction of the psychic and social domains. I elaborate on what Guralnik and Simeon mean when they refer to the role of “the State” in dissociation, interpellation, and depersonalization. Upon showing how self-states simultaneously incorporate and resist the State, Guralnik and Simeon provide a clinical rationale to confront interpellation's “discursive instructions.” This leads me to explore the curious status of the term state in psychoanalytic theory and practice.