Elevated prolactin levels among adult male sex offenders

A sample of 528 successive admissions to the Phoenix Program, a voluntary inpatient treatment program for sex offenders, was studied in regards to serum prolactin levels. Serum prolactins were obtained as part of a battery of endocrine tests. A substantial number of patients had prolactin levels above the normal range, i.e., 21.0 microg/L. In this sample, fully 10.0% of the men showed elevated prolactin levels (the maximum being 41.0 microg/L), compared with an expected 2.5% according to laboratory norms. None of these individuals had clinical manifestations of prolactinoma. The significance of this increased rate of hyperprolactinemia in this sample of sexual offenders is unclear. There was a negative correlation with age and no correlation with other endocrine tests.     

Power and Action in Critical Theory Across Disciplines: Implications for Critical Community Psychology

Although critical scholarship and community psychology share similar aspirations, the links between them remain unexplored and under-theorized. In this article we explore the implications of critical scholarship in various specialties for the field of community psychology. To understand the contributions of critical scholarship to a theory of power and action for social change, we conducted a systematic analysis of a ten-year period of publications in seven journals associated with the critical scholarship tradition. We created precise criteria for the concepts of power and action and applied them to the publications. Results indicate an interesting paradox at play. Whereas community psychology is more action oriented than critical scholarship, its actions fall short of challenging institutionalized power structures and the status quo; and whereas critical scholarship is more challenging of the status quo than community psychology in theory, it has failed to produce viable actions that challenge the status quo. We discuss the implications of this state of affairs for the development of a more critical community psychology.     

Semantical archaeology: A parable

A somewhat fictionalized account of several interpretations of implication is presented together with comparisons between classical, modal, tense, and intuitionistic logics.     

Global positive expectancies of the self and adolescents' substance use avoidance: testing a social influence mediational model

Grounded in theories of global positive expectancies and social influences of behavior, this investigation posited a model in which global positive expectancies are related to substance use as mediated by attitudes, subjective norms, self-efficacy, and intentions. Using a cohort sample (n = 525), structural equation modeling was employed to test the hypothesized predictions of future substance use. The findings suggest that, relative to adolescents with lower global positive expectancies, adolescents with higher global positive expectancies use substances less frequently over time because of their protective attitudinal and control-oriented perceptions towards that behavior. Additionally, results from the current investigation also extend prior findings on the factor structure of global positive expectancies, suggesting these expectancies can be viewed as a second-order factor representing optimism and two components of hope-agency and pathways.     

The Personality Assessment Inventory Drug Problems Scale: a validity analysis

An analysis of the relationship among the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey, 1991, 1996) Drug Problems (DRG) scale scores, the Addiction Severity Index (ASI; McLellan et al., 1992) scores, and urine toxicology reports revealed that the PAI Drug Problem scale scores of 100 substance-using and substance-abusing men and women were distributed in a manner that was in agreement with the guidelines suggested by Morey (1991, 1996) in the PAI manual. There were significant correlations among the PAI DRG scale and the ASI scales related to frequency of use, negative consequences of use, and need and desire for treatment. Overall, higher scores did reflect both more serious involvements with drug use and more serious problems as a consequence of their involvement.     

Interpersonal personality measures show circumplex structure based on new psychometric criteria

The importance of the interpersonal circle in organizing the interpersonal domain is complemented by its empirical relations with broader personality taxonomies and with more specific personality variables. Yet circumplex structure in interpersonal measures has often been investigated using the "eyeball test" rather than using circumplex criteria of known effectiveness. Simulations (Acton, 1999) showed the effectiveness of 5 exploratory criteria (3 entirely new) that assess the properties of equal spacing, constant radius, and no preferred rotation. Along with Browne's (1992) criterion, these were applied to the Interpersonal Checklist (ICL; LaForge & Suczek, 1955; N = 763), Interpersonal Adjective Scales (IAS; Wiggins, 1979; Ns = 716 and 187), Revised IAS (IAS-R; Wiggins, Trapnell, & Phillips, 1988; N = 474), Inventory of Interpersonal Problems Circumplex Scales (IIP-C; Alden, Wiggins, & Pincus, 1990; Ns = 616 and 1,381), and Inventory of Interpersonal Goals (IIG; Horowitz, Dryer, & Krasnoperova, 1997; N = 318). In corroboration of interpersonal theory, all showed circumplex structure.     

Rethinking individualism and collectivism: evaluation of theoretical assumptions and meta-analyses

Are Americans more individualistic and less collectivistic than members of other groups? The authors summarize plausible psychological implications of individualism-collectivism (IND-COL), meta-analyze cross-national and within-United States IND-COL differences, and review evidence for effects of IND-COL on self-concept, well-being, cognition, and relationality. European Americans were found to be both more individualistic-valuing personal independence more-and less collectivistic-feeling duty to in-groups less-than others. However, European Americans were not more individualistic than African Americans, or Latinos, and not less collectivistic than Japanese or Koreans. Among Asians, only Chinese showed large effects, being both less individualistic and more collectivistic. Moderate IND-COL effects were found on self-concept and relationality, and large effects were found on attribution and cognitive style.     

Factors contributing to the survival of self-help groups

Despite the growing utilization of self-help groups, there have been only a handful of studies that have examined the factors that contribute to their survival. The purpose of this study was to explore the factors that contribute to self-help group survival by examining their relationship with external sources (i.e., national and local self-help organizations, professionals) and group organizational characteristics (i.e., leadership diversification, recruitment, attendance at group meetings). Representatives from 245 active and 94 recently disbanded self-help groups were included in the analysis. Results indicated that the primary factors that discriminated between active and disbanded groups were the number of new people to attend a meeting, average group meeting attendance, length of existence, leadership diversification, outreach to potential group members, and support from national and local organizations. Results are discussed in terms of what national self-help organizations, self-help clearinghouses, and others who interact with self-help groups can do to empower and support them.     

The haptic Müller-Lyer illusion in sighted and blind people

We examined the effect of visual experience on the haptic Müller-Lyer illusion. Subjects made size estimates of raised lines by using a sliding haptic ruler. Independent groups of blind-folded-sighted, late-blind, congenitally blind, and low-vision subjects judged the sizes of wings-in and wings-out stimuli, plain lines, and lines with short vertical ends. An illusion was found, since the wings-in stimuli were judged as shorter than the wings-out patterns and all of the other stimuli. Subjects generally underestimated the lengths of lines. In a second experiment we found a nonsignificant difference between length judgments of raised lines as opposed to smooth wooden dowels. The strength of the haptic illusion depends upon the angles of the wings, with a much stronger illusion for more acute angles. The effect of visual status was nonsignificant, suggesting that spatial distortion in the haptic Müller-Lyer illusion does not depend upon visual imagery or visual experience.     

Tracking simple and complex sequences

We address issues of synchronization to rhythms of musical complexity. In two experiments, synchronization to simple and more complex rhythmic sequences was investigated. Experiment 1 examined responses to phase and tempo perturbations within simple, structurally isochronous sequences, presented at different base rates. Experiment 2 investigated responses to similar perturbations embedded within more complex, metrically structured sequences; participants were explicitly instructed to synchronize at different metrical levels (i.e., tap at different rates to the same rhythmic patterns) on different trials. We found evidence that (1) the intrinsic tapping frequency adapts in response to temporal perturbations in both simple (isochronous) and complex (metrically structured) rhythms, (2) people can synchronize with unpredictable, metrically structured rhythms at different metrical levels, with qualitatively different patterns of synchronization seen at higher versus lower levels of metrical structure, and (3) synchronization at each tapping level reflects information from other metrical levels. The latter finding provides evidence for a dynamic and flexible internal representation of the sequence's metrical structure.