The Social Costs of Treatment Programs

The medicalization of deviance refers to the identification as diseases or illnesses of patterns of behavior that were previously considered in moral terms. Herbert Spencer viewed society as analogous to a living organism. A problem or disease in one part of the organism affects the entire organism. Early sociologists built on this idea and arrived at the conclusion that deviant behavior could be thought of as social disease and social pathology. The early social pathologists were concerned with crime, mental illness, drug abuse, and suicide. There is a tendency to treat such ailments in a hospital or clinical setting. The medicalization of deviance removes responsibility from the individual as well as from the society which continues to produce the problem. Treatment programs give the false impression that something worthwhile is being done about society's behavioral problems and turn the individuals treated back into the same social milieu in which the problem was incubated in the first place. The medicalization of deviance creates a vested-interest industry dependent upon the treatment of individuals. It has constructed a system of individualized microlevel treatment programs that can be beneficial on a limited basis for a few individuals and their families, but it tends to treat only the symptoms but not change the society of which they are but emanations.     

Low-frequency acoustic modulations generated by the high-frequency portion of the cochlea, noninvasively recorded from the scalp of mice (Mus musculus)

Vocalizations often contain low-frequency modulations of the envelope of a high-frequency sound. The high-frequency portion of the cochlear nerve of mice (Mus musculus) generates a robust phase-locked response to these low-frequency modulations, and it can be easily recorded from the surface of the scalp. The cochlea is most sensitive to envelope modulation frequencies of approximately 500 to 2000 Hz. These responses have detection thresholds that are approximately 10 dB more sensitive than auditory brainstem responses, and they are very sharply tuned. These measurements may provide a nontraumatic means of repeatedly assessing cochlear functions involved in sound localization and perception of vocalizations.     

Modality effects and the development of the word length effect in children

Two experiments investigated the development of the word length effect in children aged 4 to 10 years, comparing auditory and visual stimuli. The question addressed was whether word length effects emerged earlier with auditory presentation or visual presentation, or whether they emerged at the same age regardless of presentation modality. Results provided evidence that word length effects emerge earlier with visual than auditory presentation. The implication of our results is that with visual presentation, 4-year-olds engage in some form of verbalization strategy that involves obtaining phonological representations of picture names and mapping them on to articulatory output plans. This strategy is clearly verbal in nature, but is not necessarily characterised as cumulative verbal rehearsal.     

Factorial structure and MMPI correlates of a fear survey schedule in a clinical population

The Wolpe-Lazarus Fear Survey Schedule was administered in a neurotic population and factor analyzed. The largest factor (Tissue Damage/Medical) was uncorrelated with either the MAS or MMPI scales. However, total Fear Survey scores and Factor II (Interpersonal) showed a similar pattern of significant positive associations with both measures. The clinical relevance of global vs. part fear survey scores is discussed.     

Infants' understanding of object-directed action

When and in what ways do infants recognize humans as intentional actors? An important aspect of this larger question concerns when infants recognize specific human actions (e.g. a reach) as object-directed (i.e. as acting toward goal-objects). In two studies using a visual habituation technique, 12-month-old infants were tested to assess their recognition that an adult's reach is directed toward its target object. Infants in the experimental condition were habituated to a display in which an actor reached over a wall-like barrier with an arcing arm movement, to pick up a ball. After habituation infants saw two test displays, for which the barrier was removed. In the direct test event the actor reached directly for the ball, the arm tracing a visually new path, but the action consistent with attempting to reach for the object as directly as possible. In the indirect test event the actor traced the old path, reaching over in an arc, even though the wall was no longer present. This arm movement was identical to that in habituation but no longer displayed a reach going directly to its object. In a control condition infants saw the same movements but in a situation with no goal-object. In the experimental conditions, with a goal object present, infants looked longer at the indirect test event in comparison to the direct test event. In the control conditions infants looked equally at both indirect and direct test events. We conclude that sensitivity to human object-directed action is established by 12-month-olds and compare these results to recent findings by [Gergely, G., Nadasdy, Z., Csibra, G., & Biro S. (1995). Taking the intentional stance at 12 months of age. Cognition, 56, 165-193] and [Woodward, A. (1998). Infants selectively encode the goal object of an actor's reach. Cognition, 69, 1-34].