Life event categories differentially predict psychopathology symptom levels.

The present study used a prospective design to investigate whether eight categories of daily negative life events or "hassles" differentially predict psychopathology levels, and/or changes in psychopathology levels over 1 month in a mixed-sex, nonclinical sample of undergraduate subjects. Hassles were assessed using the Revised Hassles Scale (HS-R; DeLongis, 1985); psychopathology was assessed using the Hopkins Symptom Checklist (SCL-90; Derogatis, Lipman, & Covi, 1973) on two occasions, separated by 1 month. Scores on all eight HS-R subscales predicted Time 2 scores on most or all of the SCL-90 psychopathology scales. However, the magnitudes of these correlations varied widely, indicating that these subscales may be substantially different in their abilities to predict psychopathology levels.     

The autoshaping procedure as a residual block clock

In the first experiment, 4 pigeons were each presented with a recurring sequence of four key colors followed by the delivery of grain (block clock). Once the rate of pecking had stabilized, three of the colors were replaced, during different series of sessions, by a darkening of the key. The rate of pecking was reduced within those segments of the interval between deliveries of food during which the key was dark; when the key was dark during the final portion of the interval, rates were reduced throughout the entire interval. In the second experiment, 3 new pigeons were exposed to a different sequence of colors, and the final stimulus was replaced in successive conditions by a novel color, a darkened key, and a restoration of the original color. The data indicated that darkening the key had a more severe, more extensive, and more persistent effect than did a mere change in color. These results suggest that it may be fruitful to conceptualize the autoshaping procedure as a special version of the block clock in which pecking is suppressed throughout the greater part of the interval by darkening the key. In the final condition, the same stimulus appeared in each of the last three portions of the interval. The rate of pecking was lower during the last two portions than when distinctive colors were presented, with the peak rate now appearing in the fifth of seven equal temporal components.     

University students' felt alienation and their attitudes toward African-Americans, women and homosexuals.

177 respondents attending a midwestern state university reported greater alienation from the wider society when they held more positive attitudes than negative ones toward women and homosexuals. Alienation and attitudes toward African-Americans, women, and homosexuals were not influenced by gender or religiosity.     

A critical role for "affective neuroscience" in resolving what is basic about basic emotions.

Ortony and Turner (1990) asked "What's Basic About Basic Emotions," and they concluded "very little." They proceeded to advocate a "componential" or "mosaic" view of how emotional systems should be analyzed. Their thesis was flawed by their failure to consider the available neurobehavioral data. Genetically dictated brain systems that mediate affective-emotional processes do exist, even though there are bound to be semantic ambiguities in how we speak about these systems. This commentary summarizes key lines of evidence for coherently operating emotional systems in the brain and advocates the position that the issue of basic emotions can no longer be credibly discussed without adequate consideration of the relevant brain research in the area. The type of conceptual, logical analysis pursued by Ortony and Turner, in the absence of a thorough analysis of the available neurological data, is not an adequate basis for resolving what is basic about basic emotions.     

ALCOVE: an exemplar-based connectionist model of category learning.

ALCOVE (attention learning covering map) is a connectionist model of category learning that incorporates an exemplar-based representation (Medin & Schaffer, 1978; Nosofsky, 1986) with error-driven learning (Gluck & Bower, 1988; Rumelhart, Hinton, & Williams, 1986). Alcove selectively attends to relevant stimulus dimensions, is sensitive to correlated dimensions, can account for a form of base-rate neglect, does not suffer catastrophic forgetting, and can exhibit 3-stage (U-shaped) learning of high-frequency exceptions to rules, whereas such effects are not easily accounted for by models using other combinations of representation and learning method.     

Disorder as harmful dysfunction: a conceptual critique of DSM-III-R's definition of mental disorder.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd ed., rev.; DSM-III-R) operationally defines disorder essentially as "statistically unexpectable distress or disability." This definition is an attempt to operationalize 2 basic principles: that a disorder is harmful and that a disorder is a dysfunction (i.e., an inability of some internal mechanism to perform its natural function). However, the definition fails to capture the idea of "dysfunction" and so fails to validly distinguish disorders from nondisorders, leading to invalidities in many of DSM-III-R's specific diagnostic criteria. These problems with validity are traced to DSM-III-R's strategies for increasing reliability.     

Premenstrual symptoms: the role of irrational thinking.

104 women, between the ages of 18 and 45 years, were surveyed to investigate the relationship between premenstrual symptomatology, as measured by the Modified Menstrual Distress Questionnaire, and irrational thinking, as measured by the General Attitude and Belief Scale. The women who reported greater premenstrual symptomatology also reported significantly higher scores in the "need for comfort" irrationality subscale. This indicated that these women had particular difficulty dealing with hassles and the resulting feelings of tension and irritability in the premenstruum. It was suggested that the absence of significant effects for other rationality-irrationality subscales could be associated with testing at different times during the menstrual cycle. Irrationality, like other conditions (such as anxiety and depression) prevalent in the premenstruum, could change in intensity across phases of the menstrual cycle.     

Depression, suicide ideation, and aggression among high school students whose parents are divorced and use alcohol at home.

106 high school students from a small rural high school completed the Children of Alcoholics Scale, Zaks and Walters' Aggression Scale, Beck Depression Scale, and a modified version of the Beck Scale of Suicide Ideation. Analyses of variance showed boys were not experiencing suicide ideation any more than girls; suicide ideation was similar across the four grades, but on aggression alcohol-dependent boys scored significantly higher than girls, and in Grade 9 boys' scores were significantly higher than those in Grade 10. The sophomores' scores on alcohol dependency were significantly lower than the freshmen's scores. Boys and children from divorced homes had higher scores on aggression than girls and children from nondivorced homes. Children from homes in which alcohol was used had higher depression scores than children from nonalcoholic homes. Freshman girls and sophomore boys had higher depression scores than senior boys and girls. A Pearson r of 0.28 between scores on alcohol dependency and suicide ideation was significant, but research is needed to understand better the associations of thoughts of suicide and drug-alcohol dependency among these high school students so strategies for prevention and intervention can be focused.     

Correlations of Beck Depression Inventory and Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale.

The scores of 15 adolescents who had a primary diagnosis of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, 21 of Conduct Disorder, and 23 control subjects on the Beck and Reynolds depression scales were correlated .58 over-all, .73 for the Posttraumatic group, .48 for the Conduct Disordered group, but .37 for controls. The Reynolds scale did not identify depression in these adolescents as effectively as did the Beck scale.