Assessing risk for violence among male and female civil psychiatric patients: the HCR-20, PCL:SV, and VSC

This study evaluated the predictive validity of violence risk assessments conducted using the HCR-20, the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV), and by the Violence Screening Checklist (VSC) in a sample of 268 involuntarily hospitalized male and female psychiatric patients. Information pertaining to violence and crime was coded from medical charts and correctional records. The HCR-20/PCL:SV evidenced modest non-significant associations in postdictive assessments of inpatient violence among men. Moderate to strong significant associations were found between the HCR-20/PCL:SV and inpatient violence among women. Pseudo-prospective assessments using the HCR-20 and PCL:SV resulted in moderate to large relationships with violence and crime in men and women following community discharge. It is concluded that the VSC is a promising tool for assessing acute inpatient violence risk with men. Findings offer preliminary validation of the predictive validity of the HCR-20 and PCL:SV with female civil psychiatric patients.     

Environmental and individual predictors of Australian young adults' interest in new ideas

Relations were examined among family social status, learning environments, individual characteristics, and young adults' interest in new ideas. Data were collected from 19-yr.-old Australians (4,609 females and 4,174 males), as part of a longitudinal investigation. Multiple regression analysis indicated that the predictors combined to have a small association with young adults' interest in new ideas.     

Environmental and individual influences on Australian young adults' likelihood of attending university: a follow-up study

In this longitudinal study, which is a follow-up analysis of a previous investigation (K. Marjoribanks, 2002a), the author examined environmental and individual influences on the likelihood of Australian young adults attending university. Participants were 5,181 Anglo-Australian (parents born in Australia, English was the language of the family), 460 Asian, 699 English (parents born in England), 746 European, and 163 Middle Eastern students (M age = 14.7 years, when the study began). The analyses indicated that Asian, European, and Middle Eastern young adults were more likely to attend university than were young adults from Anglo-Australian and English families, and young women had higher odds of attending university than did young men. Family social status variations in the likelihood of university attendance could be explained by differences in individual characteristics and proximal learning environments. Adolescents' individual characteristics and proximal learning environments combined to have a large independent association with the decision to attend university.     

The Physical Appearance Ambiguous Feedback Scale (PAAFS): a measure for indexing body image related cognitive bias

Recent conceptualizations of body image disturbance have included an information processing model that includes a focus on an interpretive information processing bias. Study 1 involved the development and validation of a measure of appearance-based cognitive bias, the Physical Appearance Ambiguous Feedback Scale (PAAFS). In Studies 2 and 3, two samples of college females (n=313) were tested and the psychometric characteristics of the PAAFS were evaluated. Reliability was acceptable and convergence with measures of body image and eating disturbance was moderate. In Study 4, 313 college females completed the PAAFS in the laboratory based on an instructional content designed to induce processing bias. Preliminary evidence indicates that the PAAFS appears to be sensitive to instructional set manipulations and dispositional level of body dissatisfaction.     

Limits of the retrieval-inhibition construct: list segregation in directed forgetting

The authors hypothesized that retrieval inhibition in list method directed forgetting could be improved by presenting a task that maximized the segregation step of the retrieval-inhibition process. In Experiment 1, they presented lists of semantically related words in a list method directed-forgetting task to maximize retrieval inhibition. Contrary to predictions, this manipulation eliminated the directed-forgetting effect. The authors further investigated the results of Experiment 1 in Experiments 2 and 3 by manipulating recall instructions and by presenting lists that contained both a categorized and an unrelated list-half. They found directed-forgetting effects for semantically related word lists when participants were asked to recall only the TBR (to-be-remembered) items but not when participants were asked to recall both the TBF (to-be-forgotten) and TBR items. They also found that directed-forgetting effects were not produced when categorized items were presented in the 1st list.     

Masked repetition and phonological priming within and across modalities

Lexical decision latencies to word targets presented either visually or auditorily were faster when directly preceded by a briefly presented (53-ms) pattern-masked visual prime that was the same word as the target (repetition primes), compared with different word primes. Primes that were pseudohomophones of target words did not significantly influence target processing compared with unrelated primes (Experiments 1-2) but did produce robust priming effects with slightly longer prime exposures (67 ms) in Experiment 3. Like repetition priming, these pseudohomophone priming effects did not interact with target modality. Experiments 4 and 5 replicated this general pattern of effects while introducing a different measure of prime visibility and an orthographic priming condition. Results are interpreted within the framework of a bimodal interactive activation model.     

The Role of Creativity in Marriage and Family Therapy Practice: A National Online Study

The purpose of this study, using an online methodology, was to investigate therapists' perceptions of the role of creativity in couples' and family therapy. Along with completing a quantitative measure assessing creativity in their work, participants responded to four open-ended questions which addressed the meaning of creativity, characteristics of a creative family therapist, some creative interventions they have used with couples and families, and barriers to their own creativity as a family therapist. A total of 142 marriage and family therapists in 36 states in the United States participated. The findings shed light on the unique importance of creativity in couples and family treatment.     

Commission error rates on a continuous performance test are related to deficits measured by the Benton Visual Retention Test

This study is one in a series investigating the relationship between impulsive behavior on a Continuous Performance Test (i.e., the Immediate and Delayed Memory Task) and other cognitive deficits measured by clinical instruments. Forty-two adolescents were selected for two groups, controls and hospitalized patients with disruptive behavior disorders. Each adolescent completed the Immediate and Delayed Memory Task and the Benton Visual Retention Test. Our main findings were that, even when controlling for IQ, the Immediate and Delayed Memory Task commission errors were associated with adverse Benton performance, but only in the patient group. These results may be explained by a shared association between processes of impulsivity and other deficits of executive control that may interfere with successful performance of the Benton.     

Low doses of interleukin-1beta improve the leverpress avoidance performance of Sprague-Dawley rats

Recent research has indicated that the pro-inflammatory cytokines, particularly interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta), can affect learning and memory. We injected male Sprague-Dawley rats with IL-1beta (1.0, 3.0, or 6.0 microg/kg, i.p.) or saline vehicle, 24h before a single 4-h session of leverpress escape/avoidance conditioning. No effect of IL-1beta at any dose was observed in the number of escape responses across the 4-h session. However, subjects treated with the two lower doses (1.0 and 3.0 microg/kg) of IL-1beta performed more avoidance responses during the final hour of the 4-h session than the other two groups. Subjects treated with the highest dose of IL-1beta (6.0 microg/kg) did not differ from controls. Results are discussed in terms of the possible mechanisms behind the IL-1beta-induced enhancement of learning, as well as the observed dose-response relationship.