The Feeling-Tone Questionnaire: Reliability and Validity of a Direct Patient Assessment Screening Instrument for the Detection of Depressive Symptoms in Cases of Dementia

The purpose of this study was to develop a reliable and valid measure of affective disorder in elderly demented patients. The field lacks instruments which are sensitive to detecting depressive signs in severely as well as mildly and moderately demented subjects. Two samples of subjects were chosen for study. The first sample consisted of subjects from six institutions, which were chosen for study from a probability sample of 25 long-term care institutions in New York City. This sample was part of the Cross-National Institutional Study conducted in New York and London (Gurland et al., 1979; Mann et al., 1984). Thirty patients were selected at random within each institution. The second sample consisted of 52 inpatients at Willard Psychiatric Center, a traditional state psychiatric hospital in upstate New York. All subjects had a chart diagnosis of dementia and were 60 years old or older. The mean age of the sample was 82 years and 56% of the subjects were female. The Feeling-Tone Questionnaire, which was developed for these analyses, consists of 16 dichotomous items and 16 5-point Likert ratings of affect. The reliability of this scale using Cronbach's alpha is .91 for the long-term care institutional sample and .90 for the psychiatric hospital sample. Interrater reliability for two raters on ten cases is .99. Test–retest reliability on ten cases with a 1-day to 2-day interval between trials is .81. A short mood scale was developed from the observational data as a validity measure for the Feeling-Tone Questionnaire. Evidence for the validity of the Feeling-Tone Questionnaire is provided.     

Helps to Fostering Students' Spiritual Health [1]

Interviews with 98 teachers from a variety of schools were used to develop a definition of spiritual health, and to establish how these teachers thought spiritual health might best be fostered and what hindered its development in the school curriculum. A recurring theme, which seemed to be coming through the comments from teachers in this study, was the very important role that teachers play in helping students develop relationships. This was of vital importance as spiritual health was seen as being reflected in the quality of relationships that students develop with themselves, others, the environment, and with a Transcendent Other. The characteristics of teachers most frequently mentioned as desirable for the promotion of spiritual health were classified as follows:

? caring, sensitive, personal approach;

? concern for individuals;

? committed to personal beliefs and values.

Investigation of these teacher characteristics showed variation by gender, personal view of spiritual health, major curriculum concern, teacher and school type. Implications of these variations are discussed in this paper, together with the role of Spiritual Facilitator, to help nurture students' spiritual health.     

Research on the Internet: Validation of a World-Wide Web mediated personality scale

Two studies were performed to assess the validity of a World-Wide Web (WWW) measure of self-monitoring. In Study 1, Usenet Newsgroups likely to be read by high and low self-monitors were identified and a comparison was made of the extent to which contributors engaged in a form of self-presentation (use ofhandles orscreen names) likely to be influenced by self-monitoring tendencies. Handles were used significantly more frequently in thehigh self-monitoring Newsgroups, supporting the distinction made. In Study 2, participants recruited through these sets of Newsgroups completed the WWW-mediated test. Those from the high self-monitoring groups scored significantly higher. Self-reports of self-monitoring behavior also reflected scores on the scale. The results are interpreted as demonstrating the construct validity of the instrument used and the viability of criterion-group-oriented methods in Internet-mediated research.     

Integration of Cognitive-Behavioral and Interpersonal Therapies for Latinos: An Argument for Technical Eclecticism

The integration of psychotherapeutic techniques is a common practice among today's clinicians. However, most discussions on psychotherapy integration have focused on general theoretical issues without attention to special populations. Latinos now represent the largest ethnic minority population in the United States and the mental health needs of this population are increasing. Although there are few controlled outcome studies that focus on Latinos, basic research suggests that integrating components of interpersonal therapy (IPT) into cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) may be particularly effective with this population. Specific suggestions for integrating CBT and IPT techniques are presented, and ways in which this integration can be adapted in a culturally sensitive manner are reviewed. An ethical and culturally sensitive CBT-IPT integration for Latinos requires empirical verification. Future studies on CBT-IPT synthesis should demonstrate the effectiveness of such integration relative to CBT or IPT alone.     

Boltzmann and Epistemology

Synthese - This paper is an attempt to clarify why Ludwig Boltzmann from about 1895 to 1905 seemed to adopt a series of extreme epistemological positions, ranging from phenomenalism to pragmatism,...     

Book reviews

Classical Probability in the Enlightenment. LORRAINE DASTON, 1988. Princeton, Princeton University Press. xviii + 423 pp., US$19.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–691–08497–1, 0–691–00644‐X (paperback)

Following Form and Function: a Philosophical Archaeology of Life Science. STEPHEN T. ASMA, 1996. Evanston, IL, Northwestern University Press. xiii + 232 pp., price not available

Concepts and Methods in Evolutionary Biology. ROBERT N. BRANDON, 1996. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. xiv+221 pp., $US59.95 (hardback), $Can 27.50 (paperback). ISBN 0–521–49545–9 (hardback), 0–521–49888–0 (paperback)

The Completeness of Scientific Theories: on the Derivation of Empirical Indicators within a Theoretical Framework: the Case of Physical Geometry. The University of Western Ontario Series in Philosophy of Science, Volume 53. MARTIN CARRIER, 1994. Dordrecht, Kluwer. xviii + 248 pp., price not available. ISBN 0–7923–24757 (hardback)

The Philosophy and History of Molecular Biology: New Perspectives. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Volume 183. SAHOTRA SARKAR (Ed.), 1996. Dordrecht, Kluwer. 264 pp., $US127. ISBN 0–7923–3947–9

Awareness: What it is, What it does. CHRIS NUNN, 1996. London and New York, Routledge. price not available. ISBN 0–415–13227–4     

Indigenous Psychologies: The Meaning of the Concept and its Assessment: Introduction

La signification des concepts de psychologie indigoène et d'indigoénisation, les processus par lesquels ils se réalisent, est exploré dans les quatres premiers articles de ce numéro spécial. Les concepts sont examinés tout d' abord à partir des perspectives plus larges de la psychologie sociale des sciences (Adair) et la psychologie interculturelle (Poortinga), ainsi que dans deux applications concrètes des approches de psychologie indignée au Mexique (Díaz-Loving) et en Corée (Kim, Park, et Park). Dans la seconde partie, trois articles rendent compte des recherches empiriques évaluant l'ampleur du développement indignée en Turquie, ex-URSS, au Venezuela, et Porto-Rico. Cette introduction au numéro spécial résume quelques uns des points communs et des différences dans les contributions.
The meaning of the concepts of indigenous psychologies and of indigenisation, the process by which they are achieved, are explored within the first four articles of this special issue. The concepts are examined initially in the abstract from the broader perspectives of the social psychology of science (Adair) and cross-cultural psychology (Poortinga), and in two concrete applications of indigenous psychology approaches in Mexico (Díaz-Loving) and Korea (Kim, Park, & Park). In the second part of this special issue, three articles report on empirical research assessing the extent of indigenous development that has occurred in Turkey, the former USSR, Venezuela, and Puerto Rico. This introduction summarises some of the commonalities and differences among the contributions.     

Clinical features of major depressive disorder in adolescents and their relatives: impact on familial aggregation, implications for phenotype definition, and specificity of transmission

Three questions were addressed using family study data from a community sample: (a) Which clinical features of major depressive disorder (MDD) in adolescents are associated with elevated rates of MDD in relatives? (b) Which features of MDD in relatives distinguish family members of depressed adolescents from relatives of adolescents without mood disorders (NMD)? and (c) Do depressed adolescents with particular features have higher proportions of depressed relatives with the same features? Participants included 268 MDD adolescents, 401 NMD adolescents, and their 2,202 first-degree relatives. Rates of MDD were highest among relatives of depressed adolescents with recurrent episodes and greater impairment. Depression severity best distinguished the relatives of depressed adolescents from relatives of controls. Specific clinical features did not aggregate in families.     

Pancultural Gender Stereotypes Revisited: The Five Factor Model

Williams and Best's (1982, 1990a) cross-culturalgender stereotype data from 25 countries, previouslyanalyzed in terms of affective meanings, ego states, andpsychological needs, were re-analyzed in terms of the Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality.In each country, participants were approximately 100university students, equally divided by gender. Withresults averaged across all countries, it was found that the pancultural male stereotype was higherthan the pancultural female stereotype on Extraversion,Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Openness toExperience while the pancultural female stereotype was higher on Agreeableness. Re-analysis of thestereotype data from Japan and Pakistan, which had beenfound relatively atypical in previous analyses, revealedFFM profiles generally similar to the pancultural profiles. The evaluative nature of each factoris discussed and related to the stereotypes associalization models.