Power bases and attribution in three cultures

The authors used a Saudi context to verify the cross-cultural generality of findings (A. Rodrigues & K. L. Lloyd, 1998) reported for U.S. and Brazilian samples in which compliant behavior caused by reward, informational, and referent influences was perceived as more controllable and more internal than compliant behavior resulting from legitimate, expert, and coercive influences. This differential attribution led, in turn, to different affective and behavioral responses. In the present study, cognitive and affective reactions of Saudi students were measured with regard to compliant behavior (leading to a good outcome or a bad outcome) caused by each of the 6 bases of power described by B. H. Raven (1965). As expected, power bases had significant effects. However, when the outcome of the compliant behavior was bad, compliant behavior caused by a coercive influence led to the perception of more internality and controllability. Also--and not found in previous studies--the perception of less internality and controllability of compliant behavior was caused by an informational influence. Findings are discussed in the light of related research and Saudi cultural characteristics.     

Triadic transferences of pathological family images

Traditionally, self-object and psychosexual transferences have been thought of as dyadic processes. This paper emphasizes the importance of seeing the triadic transferences that are contained within the more visible dyadic transferences. Triadic transferences are the partial recreation of replicas of pathological family images that were constructed from experiences with father-motherchild triads during childhood. Detecting them lessens the likelihood of therapeutic impasses occurring which resemble family of origin dyadic alliances. Childhood development and developmental arrest are discussed from a triadic perspective. In a healthy psychological family a triadic heterosexual family image is constructed which contains a triadic self and a resolved Oedipus.Revision of a paper presented at the 12th International Congress of the International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions, Kyoto, Japan, July 20, 1990. A preliminary version, entitled Triadic Transferences, was presented at the 12th Annual Meeting of the American Family Therapy Association, Philadelphia, PA, June 21, 1990.The masculine gender form is used for convenience, but with the recognition that statements apply to both genders.     

Effects of the medical resonance therapy music® on haemodynamic parameter in children with autonomic nervous system disturbances

The present investigation is dedicated to the effects of the Medical Resonance Therapy Music^® (MRT-Music) on basic haemodynamic parameter in children with transient arterial hypertension due to disturbances of the autonomic nervous system with different degrees of initial sympatheticotonia. After the nuclear accident at Chernobyl many children developed blood pressure too high for their age norm. Having already observed a decrease in high blood pressure in pregnant women during Medical Resonance Therapy Music (Gerasimovich, Einysh, 1999; Gerasimovich, Sidorenko, 1995; Sidorenko, Tetiorkina, Korotkov, 1997) we studied the effects of the Medical Resonance Therapy Music^® (MRT-Music) on such children—with very positive results: the treatment with the music preparations demonstrated a clear sympatholythic effect and led the disturbed haemodynamic state back to its healthy age norm.     

Effects of the medical resonance therapy music in the complex treatment of epileptic patients

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Medical Resonance Therapy Music (MRT-Music) as a psycho-physiological method for the treatment of epilepsy in severe epileptic patients, whose attacks persevered despite comprehensive drug treatments. Under investigation were frequency and severity of epileptic attacks, the subjective state, the dynamics of the inter-paroxysmal symptoms and the individual parameters of the functional asymmetry of the brain (IPFA). Frequency and severity of the paroxysms changed positively in 80 percent of the cases: frequency of attacks were reduced by 75 percent and many attacks manifested in the form of abortive variants. The paroxysmal component, the degree of amnesia and the polymorphism of the attacks were reduced. Such positive changes were 4 times less frequent in the control group. Changes in subjective state were 90 percent positive: the patients felt more healthy, were calmer, had a better mood and fewer ups and downs in mood, released tension, and reduced unrest, wrath, and irritation. The evaluation of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) showed clear improvements in the inter-paroxysmal clinical picture, particularly in those paramaters that characterise the general degree of sickness, psychasthenic and paranoid traits, hypochondria, aggression and depressive states. Similar positive changes in the control group were observed two times less frequently. The changes of the IPFA-values were positive in 73.3 percent of the patients (27.8 percent in controls), had differently directed shiftings, were dependent on the initial level, and were determined by the location of the epileptic focus. *** DIRECT SUPPORT *** A31BB039 00004     

Maternal perinatal representations and their associations with mother–infant interaction and attachment: A longitudinal comparison of Portuguese and Brazilian dyads

Prior research in Western countries (mostly the US, Canada and northern Europe) indicates that mothers' representations are associated with mother–infant interaction quality and their child's attachment security later in the first year. Fewer studies, however, have evaluated whether these associations hold for mother–infant dyads in other countries, such as Brazil and Portugal. Although these countries share a similar language and culture, they differ on societal dimensions that may affect parenting attitudes and mother–infant relationships, such as economic stress, social organisation, social policy, and the availability of services for young families. In this longitudinal study, we followed two independent samples of Brazilian and Portuguese mother–infant dyads from the perinatal period to 12 months post-partum. We assessed mothers' perinatal representations using semi-structured interviews in the first 48 hours after the infant's birth, and evaluated the associations of these representations with mother interaction quality at 9 months and infant attachment at 12 months. Results were similar in each country, corroborating prior research in single Western countries: Mothers with more positive perinatal representations were more sensitive to their infants during free play at 9 months and were more likely to have infants classified as securely attached at 12 months.     

Rules-plus-exception tasks: A problem for exemplar models?

Erickson and Kruschke (2002b) have shown that human subjects generalize category knowledge in a rule-like fashion when exposed to a rule-plus-exception categorization task. This result has remained a challenge to exemplar models of category learning. We show that these models can account for such performance, if they are augmented with exemplar-specific specificity or exemplar-specific attention. This result, however, is only achieved if the choice rule that converts evidence for competing categories into probabilities is sensitive to small differences between evidence values close to 0. Exemplar-specific attention provided the best overall approximation of the data. Exemplar-specific specificity provided a slightly worse approximation, but it predicted better the rule-like generalization pattern observed.     

Disorders in planning and strategy application in frontal lobe lesion patients

The aim of this study was to investigate deficits in planning ability using an adapted version of the Modified Six Elements Test, from the Behavioral Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome—BADS [Wilson, B. A., Alderman, N., Burgess, P. W., Emslie, H., & Evans, J. J. (1996). Behavioural Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome (BADS). Bury St Edmunds, U.K.: Thames Valley Test Company. Trans. Ricardo O Souza, Sergio L Schmidt. Rio de Janeiro: Cognição]. Subjects were left- and right-frontal lobe lesion patients. Other measures of executive dysfunctions used were verbal fluency, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, and the Trail Making Test. These other instruments were sensitive to detect executive deficits in the left frontal lobe lesion group, except the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, which showed impairment only for the frontal lobe lesion group as a whole. The Modified Six Elements Test detected planning disorders in left frontal lobe lesion patients. The deficit of these patients was due to a greater likelihood to break the rules of the task, that is, in plan-following processes, rather than in planning the strategic approach to solve it.     

Building Models for the Relationship Between Attitudes Toward Suicide and Suicidal Behavior: Based on Data from General Population Surveys in Sweden,Norway, and Russia

Our aim was to build a model delineating the relationship between attitudes toward suicide and suicidal behavior and to assess equivalence by applying the model on data from different countries. Representative samples from the general population were approached in Sweden, Norway, and Russia with the Attitudes Toward Suicide (ATTS) questionnaire. Data on experience of suicidal behavior among significant others and self‐reported suicidal expressions were also collected. Structural equation modeling resulted in gender and country specific models where experience of suicidal behavior among significant others and self‐reported suicidal expressions earlier in life predicted attitudes, and attitudes predicted current suicidal expressions. The models included the attitude factors acceptance of suicide, condemnation, and preventability; age and level of education were also incorporated. The different models reveal possible ways to better understand gender and culture‐specific paths between attitudes and suicidal behaviors, and their relevance in a suicide prevention context is considered.