Effect of Pain on the Heart Rate of Normal and Schizophrenic Individuals

Wilder's Law of Initial Values (LIV) is described and carried through to Pavlov's theory of excitation-inhibition of the CNS, then to Eysenck's personality theory of introversion-extraversion. LIV-derived inferences of two-whiskered curvilinearity are developed with respect to measurement of introversion-extraversion and adjustment.     

No Guts,No Glory: The Influence of Risk-taking on Adolescent Popularity

ABSTRACT

Existing research finds adolescent popularity to be correlated with risk-taking. While a subset of this research uses longitudinal methods to examine whether part of this correlation may reflect the influence of popularity on risk-taking, research has paid insufficient attention to examining the reverse relation. Drawing on literature from a range of disciplines, we argue that a portion of the correlation reflects the positive influence of risk-taking on popularity. Using longitudinal data from a northeastern sample of adolescents, we test this argument. Net of statistical controls, we find that risk-taking among males, but not females, is associated with higher popularity, but that this relation is curvilinear, such that progressively higher levels of risk-taking yield diminishing returns in male popularity. Results provide one explanation for why male adolescents tend to take more risks in the presence of peers. Likewise, they suggest that attempts to prevent adolescent risk-taking, particularly among males, may require practitioners to move beyond conceiving of adolescent risk-taking as purely irrational behavior reflecting an ostensible inability to perceive potential consequences. Instead, results suggest that male risk-taking should be understood in the context of the salient social rewards that may make it rational from an adolescent perspective.     

The first to know: A systemic analysis of confidentiality and the therapist's family

Abstract

One of the most common yet unrecognized breaches of confidentiality occurs when family therapists share confidential information with their own families. For many therapists, the boundaries between professional and private seem unclear, especially pertaining to disclosing clients' confidential information. Therapists are encouraged to examine their own practices concerning sharing confidential information with their families. Therapists' families have their own rules, patterns, boundary issues, and power struggles which affect therapists' behaviors. Therapists can discuss this issue with their families and develop postures that insure clients' privacy.     

When a ROWS is a ROSE: Phonological effects in written word comprehension

When skilled readers make speeded categorization judgements about printed words, errors occur to homophones of real category exemplars. In Experiments 1 and 2, for example, subjects incorrectly accepted both the word STEAL (as a member of the category A METAL) and the nonword JEAP (as A VEHICLE) significantly more often than incorrect non-homophonic items matched in orthographic similarity to real exemplars. Experiment 3 demonstrated equivalent error rates for homophone targets differing from real exemplars by various types of single-letter change, but reduced error rates, especially for non-word homophones, when subjects were instructed to accept only correctly spelled instances. Experiments 4 and 5 established that the magnitude of the homophone effect is predicted by the degree of orthographic similarity between homophonic mates but not by spelling-sound regularity of the presented homophone. The results suggest that automatic phonological activation plays a major role in the comprehension of written words.     

DIMENSIONS OF FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS ASSOCIATED WITH DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMATOLOCY IN MOTHERS OF YOUNG CHILDREN

Although mothers of young children have a higher incidence of depressive symptomatology than do either women who are not mothers or men, very little is known about the psychological nature of this phenomenon. This study examines the way in which psychological dimensions of family relationships are associated with or contribute to this increased risk in married Caucasian mothers raising first-born children. The relationships between maternal depressive symptomatology and recollections of parental relationships during childhood, marital satisfaction, and maternal separation anxiety were examined. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that these three factors explained 35.5% of the variance in maternal depressive symptomatology. These results, in addition to significant zero-order correlations, are discussed in light of the existing psychological literature.     

Variability and standardized test profiles in typically developing children and children with Williams Syndrome

Williams Syndrome (WS) is a developmental disorder, which due to its specific cognitive profile, has been of interest to multidisciplinary research in order to study the pathways between cognition, brain, and genes. Previous studies investigating individual performance on cognitive tasks have reported large variability within the WS cognitive profile, which has encouraged the investigation of WS subgroups. The current study compared the variability in performance scores on five verbal and non‐verbal standardized tests in 33 children with WS and in 33 typically developing (TD) children of a similar chronological age (CA). In contrast to previous studies, the current study did not find significant differences in variability in performance on British Picture Vocabulary scale, Test Reception of Grammar and Digit span Forward between WS and TD groups when CA was controlled for. However, there was significantly less variability in younger WS participants for performance scores on Pattern Construction compared to the TD group. In light of these results, methodological issues and the importance of taking CA into account in analyses will be discussed.