Discrimination of facial expressions of emotion by depressed subjects

A frequent complaint of depressed people concerns their poor interpersonal relationships. Yet, although nonverbal cues are considered of primary importance in interpersonal communication, the major theories of depression focus little attention on nonverbal social perception. The present study investigated the ability of depressed, disturbed control, and normal American adults to make rapid discriminations of facial emotion. We predicted and found that depressed subjects were slower than normal subjects in facial emotion discrimination but were not slower in word category discrimination. These findings suggest that current theories of depression may need to address difficulties with nonverbal information processing. There were also no significant differences between depressed and disturbed control subjects, suggesting that the unique social-behavioral consequences of depression have yet to be identified.     

Reciprocal unconditional-conditional organization of the fundamental emotions and paraadaptive personality reactions

Paraadaptive personality reactions (PPR) are modes of behavior and experience on the borderline of normal psychology and psychopathology. In them the thinking is overdetermined or obsessive. Overdetermined PPR are well illustrated in common proverbs. The people’s wisdom has also knowledge of the obsessive (or “magic”) paraadaptive rituals for prevention of possible misfortunes (such as touching wood, keeping away from a black cat,etc.). One part of the PPR is described in the psychoanalytical literature as defense mechanisms. The analysis of thought dissociation in schizophrenia shows that the reciprocal relations could be considered as a basic principle of functional organization on all levels of nervous and psychic activity. Proceeding from this assumption, the author proposes the conception of a reciprocal neuropsychological unconditional-conditional affect-behavioral system (ABS). It consists of ten subsystems corresponding to the basic emotions. Each subsystem stimulates the personality toward predetermined forms of thinking and behavior. In adequate conditions the reciprocal processes in the ABS are well counterweighted and integrated. In some persons and in situations of greater affective “loading” this reciprocal balance is disorganized, which leads to PPR. In this paper a neuropsychological analysis is made of the overdetermined PPR, reflected in such proverbs as “Not being able to beat the donkey, he beats the packsaddle” and “The thief cries catch the thief.”     

Probability learning and Piagetian probability conceptions in children 5 to 12 years old

This study focused on the relations between performance on a three-choice probability-learning task and conceptions of probability as outlined by Piaget concerning mixture, normal distribution, random selection, odds estimation, and permutations. The probability-learning task and four Piagetian tasks were administered randomly to 100 male and 100 female, middle SES, average IQ children in three age groups (5 to 6, 8 to 9, and 11 to 12 years old) from different schools. Half the children were from Middle Eastern backgrounds, and half were from European or American backgrounds. As predicted, developmental level of probability thinking was related to performance on the probability-learning task. The more advanced the child's probability thinking, the higher his or her level of maximization and hypothesis formulation and testing and the lower his or her level of systematically patterned responses. The results suggest that the probability-learning and Piagetian tasks assess similar cognitive skills and that performance on the probability-learning task reflects a variety of probability concepts.     

Adolescent suicide attempters presenting to a pediatric facility

This study profiles the characteristics of adolescent suicide attempters and the treatment they received in a pediatric emergency room (ER). A retrospective chart review of 4,072 adolescents seen in the ER at a children's hospital (CH) from July 1984 to June 1985 was undertaken. Twenty-seven adolescents who had deliberately injured themselves were identified. The average age was 14 years 7 months (range 11-19 years). Fifty-two percent of the patients were white and 78% were female. Ingestion was the most common method (78%), followed by attempted hanging (11%), and wrist laceration (7%). After evaluation by a pediatrician in the ER, 30% of the patients were treated and released, 11% were transferred directly to a psychiatric hospital, and 59% were admitted to the CH, with an average hospital stay of 1.88 days. Once hospitalized, consultations from psychiatry (81%), social service (50%), psychology (19%), and neurology (6%) were obtained. At the time of discharge from either the ER or CH, the patients had a variety of plans for ongoing care, with 52% being referred to outpatient counseling, 37% being transferred to a psychiatric hospital, and 11% having no documented plan for ongoing care. These results demonstrate that the evaluation of suicidal adolescents cared for in a pediatric facility may be episodic and suggest the need for a comprehensive program to approach the problem.     

Affective quality of family relations and adolescent identity exploration

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between adolescent pubertal status, the affective quality of family relations, and the early adolescent's exploration of a sense of ego identity. Fifty-one intact families with adolescents in the seventh grade agreed to participate. Each family member completed a battery of questionnaires designed to assess familial adaptation to pubertal growth and identity exploration. The results reveal that the affective quality of parent-adolescent relationships and the pubertal status of the adolescent appear to influence the adolescent's exploration of ego identity. The need to establish the functional significance of familial adaptation to adolescent pubertal growth for identity development is discussed.     

Intolerance of responsibility for internal conflict

A type of patient is described, who has marked intolerance of taking responsibility for his internal conflicts so as to confront them, analyze them, and change. Defensive repetition in pathological object relations aims to avoid what is wrong within and to engage another so as to protect oneself. Genetic, dynamic, and technical aspects of such defensive, dependent relating are considered. Responsibility for oneself and for what is within oneself is held to be terrifying--more than anyone can bear on his own. How destructiveness has become, and remains, so terrifying is discussed.