Escape from the Island: Grammaticality and (Reduced) Acceptability of wh-island Violations in Danish

In the syntax literature, it is commonly assumed that a constraint on linguistic competence blocks extraction of wh-expressions (e.g. what or which book) from embedded questions, referred to as wh-islands. Furthermore, it is assumed that there is an argument/adjunct asymmetry in extraction from wh-islands. We report results from two acceptability judgment experiments on long and short wh-movement and wh-extraction from wh-islands in Danish. The results revealed four main findings: (1) No adjunct/argument asymmetry in extraction from wh-islands. (2) Long adjunct wh-movement is less acceptable than long argument wh-movement, and this difference is attributable to matrix verb compatibility and factivity, not D-linking. (3) Long movement reduces acceptability, but is more acceptable than island violations. (4) Training effects reveal that island violations, though degraded, are grammatical in Danish. Since the standard assumptions cannot account for the range of results, we argue in favor of a processing account referring to locality (processing domains) and working memory.     

Changes in Developmental Contexts as Predictors of Transitions in HIV-Risk Behaviors Among Young Men Who Have Sex with Men (YMSM)

Emerging adulthood is a transitional time often marked by instability in many areas of life, including residential status, work, school, and romantic relationships. The purpose of this study is to examine transitions in HIV-risk related behaviors among a cohort of ethnically-diverse young men who have sex with men (YMSM) and to reveal how changes in developmental contexts during emerging adulthood might be associated with these behavioral changes. Hidden Markov models were used to examine movement across different stages of behavioral risk-taking over time. Semi-annual surveys were administered across 2 years; analyses included those with at least three of the five waves of data. Results indicated substantial movement at the individual-level transitions. Additionally, high variability in sexual risk, alcohol misuse, and illicit drug-risk behaviors was predicted by age, ethnicity, and correlates of emerging adulthood, such as residential status, work, post-secondary school enrollment, and primary-relationship status. Findings provide evidence of great change in risky behaviors among YMSM during this pivotal time, particularly among those who actively experiment in varying levels of risk-taking. In order to prevent experimental behaviors from evolving into more serious risk, interventions must consider ways to assist YMSM to adjust to life changes brought on by emerging adulthood.     

Psychoanalytic Identity: Charles Rycroft and the British Freudian Tradition

This paper explores Rycroft's views on narcissistic barriers to the formation of analytic identity, together with the analyst's relation to (or ablation of) his forbears. It sketches Rycroft's relation to his training analysts, Ella Sharpe and Sylvia Payne and the British Freudian tradition, delineating a line of descent running from Hanns Sachs, through Sharpe and Payne to Rycroft. Rycroft defined himself in creative dialogue with Freud and his own contemporaries within the British Freudian tradition.     

Social skills and social phobia: An investigation of DSM-IV subtypes

Social phobia is characterized as pervasive social timidity in social settings. Although much is known about this disorder, aspects of its clinical presentation remain unexplored, in particular characteristics that distinguish the generalized and non-generalized subtypes. For example, it remains unclear whether patients with the non-generalized subtype display social skills deficits in social interactions, and if so, are these deficits clinically, as well as statistically, significant? In this study, adults with either the non-generalized (NGSP; n = 60) or generalized (GSP; n = 119) subtype of social phobia and adults with no psychological disorder (n = 200) completed an extensive behavioral assessment of social skill and social anxiety. As expected, adults with NGSP and GSP reported equal distress and displayed similar rates of avoidance during an Impromptu Speech Task when compared to adults with no disorder. In contrast, the three groups were distinctly different when interacting with another person in various social situations. Adults with NGSP displayed social skill deficits when compared to individuals with no disorder, but they had fewer deficits than the GSP subtype. However, the identified skill deficits were clinically as well as statistically significant only for the GSP subtype. The results are discussed in terms of the contribution of skill deficits to the conceptualization and treatment of social phobia.     

Trends in Publication of Spirituality/Religiosity Articles in Critical Care Populations

Research on spirituality and religion (S/R) is receiving more attention as healthcare staff recognize the importance of treating the whole person. This is especially pertinent in critical care, where patients and families deal with a multitude of issues. As not all research comes exclusively from theologically educated authors, this study explored publication trends of S/R articles in critical care. Findings indicated medically credentialed professionals, not chaplains and/or pastoral care staff, constituted the majority of authors in S/R articles.     

Modeling Concordance Correlation Coefficient for Longitudinal Study Data

Measures of agreement are used in a wide range of behavioral, biomedical, psychosocial, and health-care related research to assess reliability of diagnostic test, psychometric properties of instrument, fidelity of psychosocial intervention, and accuracy of proxy outcome. The concordance correlation coefficient (CCC) is a popular measure of agreement for continuous outcomes. In modern-day applications, data are often clustered, making inference difficult to perform using existing methods. In addition, as longitudinal study designs become increasingly popular, missing data have become a serious issue, and the lack of methods to systematically address this problem has hampered the progress of research in the aforementioned fields. In this paper, we develop a novel approach to tackle the complexities involved in addressing missing data and other related issues for performing CCC analysis within a longitudinal data setting. The approach is illustrated with both real and simulated data.     

It could have been better: The effects of counterfactual communication on impression formation

While research on counterfactuals has closely examined the psychological antecedents and consequences of thinking counterfactually (imagining alternatives to past events), little is known about the effects of counterfactual communication, and in particular, how such thoughts are interpreted by others. In this paper, I argue that counterfactual communication differentially affects impressions formed of speakers by receivers depending on the general content of the counterfactual. Findings from an archival study and a scenario study demonstrated convergent results: Individuals who communicated upward counterfactuals (thoughts of how things could have been better) were more positively perceived by receivers than were individuals who communicated downward counterfactuals (thoughts of how things could have been worse). This difference stemmed from an enhancement effect of upward counterfactuals. Further analysis revealed that the relationship between counterfactual communication and impression formation was mediated by receivers' perceptions of the extent to which speakers took responsibility for their actions. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Validation of a 28‐item version of the Systemic Clinical Outcome and Routine Evaluation in an Irish context: the SCORE‐28

This article describes the development, in an Irish context, of a three‐factor, twenty‐eight‐item version of the Systemic Clinical Outcome and Routine Evaluation (SCORE) questionnaire for assessing progress in family therapy. The forty‐ item version of the SCORE was administered to over 700 Irish participants including non‐clinical adolescents and young adults, families attending family therapy, and parents of young people with physical and intellectual disabilities and cystic fibrosis. For validation purposes, data were also collected using brief measures of family and personal adjustment. A twenty‐eight‐item version of the SCORE (the SCORE‐28) containing three factor scales that assess family strengths, difficulties and communication was identified through exploratory principal components analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the factor structure of the SCORE‐28 was stable. The SCORE‐28 and its three factor scales were shown to have excellent internal consistency reliability, satisfactory test‐retest reliability and construct validity. The SCORE‐28 scales correlated highly with the General Functioning Scale of the Family Assessment Device, and moderately with the Global Assessment of Relational Functioning Scale, the Kansas Marital and Parenting Satisfaction Scales, the Satisfaction with Life Scale, the Mental Health Inventory – 5, and the total problems scale of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Correlational analyses also showed that the SCORE‐28 scales were not strongly associated with demographic characteristics or social desirability response set. The SCORE‐28 may routinely be administered to literate family members aged over 12 years before and after family therapy to evaluate therapy outcome.     

Development and Psychometric Evaluation of the Suicide Anger Expression Inventory—28

We conducted 4 studies to develop and cross-validate scores on a multidimensional self-report measure of suicide and anger expression, the Suicide Anger Expression Inventory-28 (SAEI-28). The SAEI-28 evaluates Suicide Rumination, Maladaptive Expression, Reactive Distress, and Adaptive Expression with 7 content specific items each. Participants were between ages 14 and 47 years old. Study 1 developed a pool of content relevant and representative items for the new inventory. Study 2 explored potential domains of the SAEI-28 items, evaluating preliminary estimates of internal consistency reliability. Study 3 examined specific structures of the SAEI-28 items and scale reliability. Study 4 evaluated the fit of the oblique 4-factor model to 2 alternative solutions. Support was found for estimates of internal consistency reliability for the scales. Criterion-related validity and potential correlates for the SAEI-28 scales were also assessed.