Refinements in the Rorschach Ego Impairment Index incorporating the human representational variable

The Ego Impairment Index (EII; Perry & Viglione, 1991) is a composite measure of psychological impairment and thought disturbance developed from the empirical and theoretical literature on the Rorschach. In this article, we summarize reliability and validity data regarding the EII. Our major goal was to present the rationale and empirical basis for recent refinements in the EII. Among the subcomponents of the original EII was the Human Experience variable (HEV), which has recently been revised and replaced with the Human Representational variable (HRV; Viglione, Perry, Jansak, Meyer, & Exner, 2003). In this study, we replaced the HEV with the HRV to create the EII-2. This was accomplished by recalculating the factor coefficients with a sample of 363 Rorschach protocols. We present additional validity data for the new EII-2. Research recommendations and interpretive guidelines are also presented.     

Social exclusion and the deconstructed state: time perception, meaninglessness, lethargy, lack of emotion, and self-awareness

The authors hypothesize that socially excluded individuals enter a defensive state of cognitive deconstruction that avoids meaningful thought, emotion, and self-awareness, and is characterized by lethargy and altered time flow. Social rejection led to an overestimation of time intervals, a focus on the present rather than the future, and a failure to delay gratification (Experiment 1). Rejected participants were more likely to agree that "Life is meaningless" (Experiment 2). Excluded participants wrote fewer words and displayed slower reaction times (Experiments 3 and 4). They chose fewer emotion words in an implicit emotion task (Experiment 5), replicating the lack of emotion on explicit measures (Experiments 1-3 and 6). Excluded participants also tried to escape from self-awareness by facing away from a mirror (Experiment 6).     

Intellectual performance and ego depletion: role of the self in logical reasoning and other information processing

Some complex thinking requires active guidance by the self, but simpler mental activities do not. Depletion of the self's regulatory resources should therefore impair the former and not the latter. Resource depletion was manipulated by having some participants initially regulate attention (Studies 1 and 3) or emotion (Study 2). As compared with no-regulation participants who did not perform such exercises, depleted participants performed worse at logic and reasoning (Study 1), cognitive extrapolation (Study 2), and a test of thoughtful reading comprehension (Study 3). The same manipulations failed to cause decrements on a test of general knowledge (Study 2) or on memorization and recall of nonsense syllables (Study 3). Successful performance at complex thinking may therefore rely on limited regulatory resources.     

The nature of speech production impairments in anterior aphasics: an acoustic analysis of voicing in fricative consonants

This study investigated the acoustic characteristics of voicing in English fricative consonants produced by anterior aphasics and the effects of phonetic context on these characteristics. Three patients produced voiced and voiceless fricative-vowel syllables in isolation, following a voiced velar stop, and following a voiceless velar stop. Acoustic analyses were conducted of the amplitude and patterning of glottal excitation, as well as fricative noise duration. Results showed that, although the patients are able to coordinate the articulatory gestures for voicing in fricative consonants, they demonstrated abnormal patterns of glottal excitation in the amplitude measures, owing to weaker amplitudes of glottal excitation in voiced fricatives. Context effects failed to emerge because of dysfluent speech. These results suggest that the locus of the speech production deficit of anterior aphasics is not at the higher stages of phoneme selection or planning but rather in articulatory implementation, one related to laryngeal control.     

Seeing double: the role of meaning in alphanumeric-colour synaesthesia

When PD, an alphanumeric-colour synaesthete, is shown black digits or letters, each grapheme elicits a highly specific colour, called a "photism" (e.g., a 2 induces green, a Z induces brown). Previous experiments showed that photisms interfere with video-colour naming when the photism colour and the video colour are incongruent. Here we used coloured ambiguous graphemes that could be interpreted as either digits or letters depending on context (e.g., an ambiguous grapheme was interpreted as a 2 if presented within a block of digit trials, but as a Z if presented within a block of letter trials). Ambiguous graphemes were presented in video colours that were either congruent or incongruent with PD's photisms. Crucially, what was a congruent trial in one context was an incongruent trial in the other context. PD's pattern of response times indicated that identical graphemes could induce differently coloured photisms depending on their interpretation. This suggests that the meaning of graphemes ultimately determines their synaesthetic colour.     

When parallel processing in visual word recognition is not enough: new evidence from naming

Low-frequency irregular words are named more slowly and are more error prone than low-frequency regular words (the regularity effect). Rastle and Coltheart (1999) reported that this irregularity cost is modulated by the serial position of the irregular grapheme-phoneme correspondence, such that words with early irregularities exhibit a larger cost than words with late ones. They argued that these data implicate rule-based serial processing, and they also reported a successful simulation with a model that has a rule-based serial component—the DRC model of reading aloud (Coltheart, Rastle, Perry, Langdon, & Ziegler, 2001). However, Zorzi (2000) also simulated these data with a model that operates solely in parallel. Furthermore, Kwantes and Mewhort (1999) simulated these data with a serial processing model that has no rules for converting orthography to phonology. The human data reported by Rastle and Coltheart therefore neither require a serial processing account, nor successfully discriminate among a number of computational models of reading aloud. New data are presented wherein an interaction between the effects of regularity and serial position of irregularity is again reported for human readers. The DRC model simulated this interaction; no other implemented computational model does so. The present results are thus consistent with rule-based serial processing in reading aloud.     

The category test perseveration, loss of set, and memory scales: three new scales and their relationship to executive functioning measures

The Category Test (CT) is a neuropsychological measure that taps into multiple domains of complex reasoning but yields a single error score, limiting the use of the test. In this study, three new CT scales were developed to assess specific aspects of executive dysfunction: Perseveration, Failure to Maintain Cognitive Set, and Inability to Recall and Re-Initiate Past Behavior. The relationship of these scales to well-established neuropsychological measures was examined in head-injured individuals and schizophrenia patients. The CT Perseveration score was correlated with the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) Perseverative Responses score, but also with measures from the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised and the California Verbal Learning Test. The CT Memory score correlated with other memory measures, but also with the WCST Perseveration measure. Although future studies designed to test discriminant and convergent validity are warranted, these scales may be useful in determining specific aspects of impaired CT performance.     

Discrete varieties of care in the clinical pastoral tradition: continuing the dialogue

In the current cultural context, clinically trained ministers, lay and ordained, offer themselves to troubled souls through at least three distinct varieties of assistance: pastoral care, pastoral counseling, and pastoral psychotherapy. This essay delineates three accepted disciplines, emphasizing the importance of ascertaining, and perhaps re-evaluating, the particular needs and desires of persons who are in physical, mental, or spiritual distress. "Pastoral care," "pastoral counseling," and "pastoral psychotherapy" each play an important role in fulfilling the traditional mandate for "the cure of souls."     

Efficacy of telephone-administered cognitive behaviour therapy for obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders: case studies

Cognitive behaviour therapy is effective for obsessive-compulsive disorder and for obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders such as trichotillomania. Unfortunately, many people with these disorders, especially those living in rural areas, have limited access to treatment. Telephone-administered cognitive behaviour therapy may help address this problem. In a recent study of telephone treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder, we found that such treatment was often effective (42% in remission at post-treatment, and 47% in remission at 12-week follow-up). This article presents 2 case reports of the same treatment, applied to obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders (trichotillomania and compulsive skin picking). Treatment was associated with symptom reduction for both participants, although one subsequently relapsed. Possible reasons for relapse are discussed. The findings encourage further studies to identify the characteristics of people most likely to benefit from telephone treatment for spectrum disorders.     

Skewed autonomy-relatedness in preadolescents' conceptions of their relationships with mother, father, and best friend.

Healthy adaptation within all close relationships--whether with parents, friends, or romantic partners--involves striking a balance between connectedness to and independence from the relationship partner. For some individuals, adaptation within one or more relationships is skewed, or characterized by either an excessive concern for closeness that impedes autonomy (preoccupied stance) or an excessive concern for autonomy that inhibits closeness (avoidant stance). In this study with boys and girls aged 9-14 years, children who reported a preoccupied or avoidant stance toward their mother displayed increased social impairment in the peer group over time. There were predictable associations among children's stances toward mother, father, and best friend. Children resembled their best friend in relationship stance. The study illustrates the advantages of applying common relationship constructs (e.g., autonomy-relatedness) to the study of diverse close relationships.