Overgeneral autobiographical memory predicts higher prospective levels of depressive symptoms and intrusions in borderline patients

Overgeneral memory (OGM), the tendency to retrieve categories of events from autobiographical memory instead of single events, is found to be a reliable predictor for future mood disturbances and post-traumatic symptom severity. Patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) often report co-morbid episodes of major depressive disorder (MDD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Therefore, we investigated whether OGM would predict depression severity and (post-traumatic) stress symptoms in BPD patients. At admission (N?=?54) and at six-month follow-up (N?≥?31), BPD patients completed the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Disorders, the Assessment of DSM-IV Personality Disorders, the Autobiographical Memory Test, the Beck Depression Inventory—2nd edition (BDI-II), and the Impact of Event Scale. OGM at baseline predicted (a) higher levels of depressive symptoms at follow-up and (b) more intrusions related to a stressful event over and above baseline levels of borderline symptoms, depressive symptoms, and intrusions, respectively. No association was found between memory specificity and event-related avoidance at follow-up. Despite previous findings suggesting that OGM in BPD is less robust than in MDD and PTSD, our results suggest that memory specificity in BPD patients may have some relevance for the course of depressive and stress symptomatology in BPD.     

Using the Steers-Rhodes (1984) framework to identify correlates of employee lateness

Based on a sample of factory workers, this field study examined correlates of employee lateness. The framework provided by Steers and Rhodes (1984) was used to identify variables related to voluntary and involuntary lateness. Both motivation and ability to be on time were found to be important determinants of lateness as well as joint moderators in explaining lateness. The negative job satisfaction-lateness relationship suggested that a proportion of lateness behavior represented a response to an aversive work environment.     

Perceptual asymmetries in face recognition

Four experiments were carried out to investigate perceptual asymmetries in face recognition. Perceptual asymmetries favoring the half-face on the observer's left were found under free viewing conditions for both unfamiliar faces (Experiment 1) and famous faces (Experiment 3). For unfamiliar faces, this asymmetry was not obtained when fixation was controlled by presenting faces tachistoscopically (Experiment 2). For famous faces, the perceptual asymmetry favoring the half-face normally seen on the left did not appear to be retained in memory (Experiments 3 and 4). Asymmetries in face perception have been explained in terms of a direct access model of laterally effects. However, these results raise the possibility that asymmetric scanning or attentional factors may be important.     

Resistance in convergent and in divergent conflicts

Psychoanalytic theory has limited the term conflict to refer only to convergent conflict, whose elements tend to move toward each other, as in repression. Formulations made from the viewpoint of the method of free association have led the author to favor an expansion in the concept of conflict to include also divergent conflict, whose elements tend to move apart, as in regression-progression and in mourning. A broad range of clinical and theoretical phenomena of psychoanalysis can be accounted for by such a revision in the concept of conflict. Focusing on resistance, this paper provides a historical review and discusses the application of an expanded concept of conflict in the field of psychoanalytic technique.     

Effects of religious denomination on sex differences in occupational expectations

The degree of difference between men and women in occupational expectations and attitude toward careers for married women are related to the degree of discrimination against women in religious denominations. Occupational expectations are scored along the dimension of masculinity. Discrimination against women is indicated by extent and timing of the ordination of women within the denominations for which subjects indicated a preference. Data are a subselection of 12,018 cases from a national sample of 189,733 first-time full-time entering college freshmen. The difference between women and men in masculinity of occupational choice and agreement with the attitude “Activities of married women are best confined to the home and family” are positively related to denominational discrimination against women.     

Selected linguistic and perceptual abilities of empirically derived subgroups of learning disabled readers

A battery of eight linguistic and perceptual tests chosen because of their use in previous research and in the public schools was administered to 100 school-verified verified learning disabled readers (LDR) and 50 normal readers (NR) matched for age and IQ. Standard scores, derived from a comparison of each LDR child's score with the NR group's performance on each diagnostic measure, were cluster analyzed to identify subgroups within the LDR group. Six LDR subgroups were found. Multivariate analysis of variance and discriminant analysis indicated that all LDR subgroups were significantly different from one another as well as significantly different from the NR group's performance on the diagnostic battery. In addition, significant differences were found among the six LDR subgroups on measures of oral reading, reading comprehension, and spelling skills. However, the six groups did not differ with respect to family history variables and the attainment of developmental milestones. These results were compared with those of previous studies and were examined for their implications for a more precise match between LDR learner characteristics and type of teaching method and/or materials.     

Sex bias in psychological research. Progress or complacency?

A total of 4,952 articles published in 1970, 1975, 1980, 1985, and 1990 in the areas of developmental, clinical, physiological, and social psychology were reviewed for the purpose of assessing various indicators of sexism in human psychological research. Significant changes in sex of first author, sex of participants, sexist language, and inappropriate generalization indicated that sexism has clearly diminished in the past two decades. Despite these improvements, however, the data revealed continued evidence of discriminatory practices, suggesting that efforts to eliminate sexism must be strengthened if psychology is to be a nonsexist discipline.     

A longitudinal study of job loss in relation to the grief process

This study extended a previous assessment of the applicability of the grief process to job-loss, using a longitudinal sample. A sample of 38 unemployed men were interviewed shortly after job loss (t₁), and at four times over the following year (t₂–t₅), using a structured interview, a personal scaling technique [PQRST: Mulhall (1978), Manual for Personal Questionnaire Scaling Technique. NFER], and standard questionnaires of attachment to the former job, anxiety and depression. Of the sample, 24% fulfilled a criterion for a grief-like response at t₁. Factor analysis of the PQRST showed evidence for a general grief factor. A composite grief score from the interview was associated with two measures of job attachment (at t₁), and with questionnaire measures of depression and anxiety at t₁–t₁. There was a gradual decline over time in the grief reaction.