Validation of the Beck Depression Inventory-II in a low-income African American sample of medical outpatients

The psychometric properties of the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) are well established with primarily Caucasian samples. However, little is known about its reliability and validity with minority groups. This study evaluated the psychometric properties of the BDI-II in a sample of low-income African American medical outpatients (N=220). Reliability was demonstrated with high internal consistency (.90) and good item-total intercorrelations. Criterion-related validity was demonstrated. A confirmatory factor analysis supported a hierarchical factor structure in which the BDI-II reflected 2 first-order factors (Cognitive and Somatic) that in turn reflected a second-order factor (Depression). These results are consistent with previous findings and thus support the use of the BDI-II in assessing depressive symptoms for African American patients in a medical setting.     

ON THE REINFORCING EFFECTS OF THE CONTENT OF VERBAL ATTENTION

During a functional analysis, a boy with autism and oppositional defiant disorder displayed destructive behavior that was maintained by attention in the form of verbal reprimands (e.g., “Don't hit me”). In a second analysis, contingent verbal reprimands produced higher rates of the behavior than contingent statements that were unrelated to the target response (e.g., “It is sunny today”), suggesting that some forms of attention were more reinforcing than others. A treatment based on these analyses reduced the behavior to near-zero levels.     

Maintaining placement for troubled and disruptive adolescents in voluntary residential care: The role of reduced youth-to-staff ratio

We evaluated a program to protect the placements of 23 highly troublesome youth in voluntary residential care by reducing youth-to-staff ratios. Specifically, the youth were moved from regular program homes (with eight youth) to reduced ratio homes (with only four youth) instead of being terminated from the program. We provide evidence supporting the assertion that youth in the study sample were highly troublesome and at high risk for program failure and more restrictive placements. Placement in the reduced ratio homes protected the trouble youths' placement, resulting in an additional mean length of stay of 950 day without an increase in program restrictiveness. Further, the reduced ratio homes increased the chances of success in the program for the study sample to a level equivalent to that for the much less troubled comparison sample. Cost estimates are also provided.     

Geometry and generality in Frege's philosophy of arithmetic

This paper develops some respects in which the philosophy of mathematics can fruitfully be informed by mathematical practice, through examining Frege'sGrundlagen in its historical setting. The first sections of the paper are devoted to elaborating some aspects of nineteenth century mathematics which informed Frege's early work. (These events are of considerable philosophical significance even apart from the connection with Frege.) In the middle sections, some minor themes ofGrundlagen are developed: the relationship Frege envisions between arithmetic and geometry and the way in which the study of reasoning is to illuminate this. In the final section, it is argued that the sorts of issues Frege attempted to address concerning the character of mathematical reasoning are still in need of a satisfying answer.I am indebted to many people for helpful conversations and comments on this paper, notably Stephen Glaister, Phil Kremer, Madeline Larson, John McDowell, Jim Conant, Charles Chihara, William Craig, Jan Alnes, Joan Weiner, Leon Henkin, Paul Benacerraf, Juliet Floyd, Bill Demopoulos, Jose Ferreiros, Tom Hawkins, Gideon Rosen. Two superb papers on Frege — Bill Demopoulos' (1994) and Mark Wilson (1992) played a significant role in the early stages of composition. Special thanks are due to Hans Sluga, Mark Wilson, Bob Brandom, and Ken Manders for comments, encouragement, information and advice.     

Objectifying Sarah Palin: Evidence that objectification causes women to be perceived as less competent and less fully human

Although a great deal of research has examined the effects of objectification on women’s self-perceptions and behavior, empirical research has yet to address how objectifying a woman affects the way she is perceived by others. We hypothesize that focusing on a woman’s appearance will promote reduced perceptions of competence, and also, by virtue of construing the women as an “object”, perceptions of the woman as less human. We found initial experimental evidence for these hypotheses as a function of objectifying two targets - Sarah Palin and Angelina Jolie. In addition, focusing on Palin’s appearance reduced intentions to vote for the McCain-Palin ticket (prior to the 2008 US Presidential election). We discuss these findings in the context of the election and the objectification of women.     

Happiness versus sadness as a determinant of thought confidence in persuasion: a self-validation analysis

The present research introduces a new mechanism by which emotion can affect evaluation. On the basis of the self-validation hypothesis (R. E. Petty, P. Bri?ol, & Z. L. Tormala), the authors predicted and found that emotion can influence evaluative judgments by affecting the confidence people have in their thoughts to a persuasive message. In each study, participants first read a strong or weak persuasive communication. After listing their thoughts about the message, participants were induced to feel happy or sad. Relative to sad participants, those put in a happy state reported more thought confidence. As a consequence, the effect of argument quality on attitudes was greater for happy than for sad participants. These self-validation effects generalized across different emotion inductions, different persuasion topics, and different measures of thought confidence. In one study, happy and sad conditions each differed from a neutral affect control. Most important, these metacognitive effects of emotion only occurred under high elaboration conditions. In contrast, individuals with relatively low motivation to think showed a main effect of emotion on attitudes, regardless of argument quality.     

Nostalgia counteracts self‐discontinuity and restores self‐continuity

Nostalgia is a resource that functions, in part, as a response to self‐discontinuity and a source of self‐continuity. We tested and supported this regulatory role of nostalgia in the tradition of establishing a causal chain. In Study 1, we examined the naturalistic association between events precipitating self‐discontinuity and nostalgia. Self‐discontinuity, especially when stemming from negative life events, was associated with higher proneness to nostalgia. In Study 2, we experimentally induced negative self‐discontinuity (i.e. relatively disruptive), positive self‐discontinuity (i.e. relatively non‐disruptive) or self‐continuity (i.e. neutral non‐disruptiveness) and subsequently assessed state levels of nostalgia. Only negative self‐discontinuity evoked heightened nostalgia. In Study 3, we experimentally induced nostalgia (versus ordinary autobiographical recollection) and assessed self‐continuity. Nostalgia augmented self‐continuity. In Study 4, we experimentally induced nostalgia (versus ordinary autobiographical recollection versus positive autobiographical recollection) and assessed self‐continuity. Again, nostalgia augmented self‐continuity and did so above and beyond positive affect. Here, we ruled out demand characteristics as a rival hypothesis. Taken together, the findings clarify the role of nostalgia in the dynamic between self‐discontinuity and self‐continuity and elucidate the restorative properties of nostalgia for the self‐system. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Identifying the mechanisms underpinning recognition of structured sequences of action

We present three experiments to identify the specific information sources that skilled participants use to make recognition judgements when presented with dynamic, structured stimuli. A group of less skilled participants acted as controls. In all experiments, participants were presented with filmed stimuli containing structured action sequences. In a subsequent recognition phase, participants were presented with new and previously seen stimuli and were required to make judgements as to whether or not each sequence had been presented earlier (or were edited versions of earlier sequences). In Experiment 1, skilled participants demonstrated superior sensitivity in recognition when viewing dynamic clips compared with static images and clips where the frames were presented in a nonsequential, randomized manner, implicating the importance of motion information when identifying familiar or unfamiliar sequences. In Experiment 2, we presented normal and mirror-reversed sequences in order to distort access to absolute motion information. Skilled participants demonstrated superior recognition sensitivity, but no significant differences were observed across viewing conditions, leading to the suggestion that skilled participants are more likely to extract relative rather than absolute motion when making such judgements. In Experiment 3, we manipulated relative motion information by occluding several display features for the duration of each film sequence. A significant decrement in performance was reported when centrally located features were occluded compared to those located in more peripheral positions. Findings indicate that skilled participants are particularly sensitive to relative motion information when attempting to identify familiarity in dynamic, visual displays involving interaction between numerous features.