A two-score composite program for combining standard scores

It is often desirable for mental health practitioners to combine standard scores from different tests, raters, or times into a single composite standard score. Most often the result is a more reliable and accurate standard score. This paper describes a computer program that uses two standard scores, score reliability and correlation with a third variable, to yield a composite standard score, reliability and correlation. Trends, limitations, optimum benefits, and examples are discussed. References are provided for calculating composites based on more than two scores.     

Computer generation of bivariate normal-curve values

As psychological assessment broadens and becomes increasingly based on multiple sources of data, univariate normal-curve tables become less and less useful in determining the prevalence and severity of clinical disorders. Multivariate normal-curve data are required. The Visual Basic based Bivariate Agreement Program allows users to obtain percentages of the bivariate normal distribution at various correlations and univariatez-score values. This computer program simulates a bivariate distribution of up to 75,000 cases, and reports the percentage of cases above, below, and outside thez-scores. Program function and simulation integrity are discussed, and an application illustrates program use.     

Detailed comments on the review essay

Knowledge, Technology &; Policy -     

Alteration of Auditory Cortex Activity with a Visual Stimulus through Conditioning: A 2-Deoxyglucose Analysis

In two experiments, the 2-deoxyglucose metabolic mapping technique was used to examine the hypothesis that a stimulus of one modality (a light) will begin to activate the sensory cortex of a stimulus of another modality (a tone) with which it has been repeatedly paired. Adult gerbils received repeated presentations of either a light or the light paired with a tone known to affect 2DG labeling patterns in the auditory cortex. Intermittent footshock was included on a pseudo-random basis to maintain arousal in the subjects. One day after training, each gerbil was injected with 2DG and either received repeated presentations of the light only or was simply exposed to the training context. Analysis of the auditory cortex revealed no differences in overall metabolic activity of the auditory cortex between the groups. However, in both experiments, the light that was previously paired with the tone changed the relative activity of the cortical subfields compared to the light not previously paired with the tone. Specifically, the results indicate greater activity in the anterior auditory field (AAF—Experiments 1 and 2) and the posterior fields (DPVP—Experiment 2) relative to the primary field AI in response to the light that was previously paired with the tone during training. Gerbils either only placed in the context during the 2DG session or that received unpaired presentations of the light and tone during training did not show this shift in relative labeling between the subfields. Because no differences in overall activity of the auditory cortex were found, we conclude that the shift in relative labeling between the subfields reflects, on average, both an increase in activity of fields AAF and DPVP and a concomitant decrease in AI activity in response to the light stimulus. The results have implications for our understanding both of brain learning mechanisms in general and the potential functions of auditory cortex subfields in particular.     

Dissociating automatic and controlled processes in a memory-search task: Beyond implicit memory

Our goal in this paper was to examine the processes that give rise to action slips. Procedures used to examine implicit memory and automatic processes were found to be unsatisfactory. However, the process-dissociation procedure proved useful for examining the contribution of the automatic and controlled processes underlying performance. The procedure was used in conjunction with a Sternberg memory-search task to examine the effects of set size, response speed, and stimulus-response mapping on controlled and automatic processes. The formulation allowed us to predict accurately how subjects would perform in a varied mapping condition. Moreover, set size and response speed were found to influence the controlled search process, but to leave the automatic influences unaffected. Stimulus-response mapping, on the other hand, was found to lead to probability matching in the automatic processes; this pattern was found to remain constant across changes in set size and response speed.     

Using Qualitative Methods to Develop Contextually Relevant Measures and Preventive Interventions: An Illustration

Qualitative methods were used to develop a contextually relevant quantitative measure of parenting stress and inform the design of family-focused interventions aimed at preventing adolescent mental and behavioral health problems. The study focused on the experiences of low-income one- and two-parent families representing three ethnic groups (Mexican, African, and European Americans) living in low-income neighborhoods in a large Southwestern city. This report describes the place of this study in a broader program of prevention research, the qualitative methods and data analysis procedures employed, and how the results were used to develop a new measure of parenting stress and inform future program design. The report also includes reflective comments on the methods used and lessons gained.     

Developmental Career Assessment and Counseling: The C-DAC Model

The C-DAC model seeks to implement current development theory and to use innovative assessment measures together with improved counseling methods to improve vocational and life career counseling. At this stage, the project pays more attention to assessment, partly because if one is to counsel with career maturity in mind, one must understand the developmental status of the counselee. In career counseling, facts as well as feelings are important. Therefore, in this article the authors deal with the assessment of career development in detail, treating interests (measured by the Strong) and expressed preferences as basic status data to be viewed in the light of career maturity, the salience of life roles, and the values sought in life as moderator variables. The instruments are described and their use shown in a sample profile for assessment and checking by the reader in another readily available published source.     

Why we need a theory of suffering, and lots of other theories as well: commentary

In the first section of his article, "The Role of Suffering and Community in Clinical Ethics," Erich Loewy sketches a theory of suffering. His conviction is that clinical medical ethics is not clearly rooted in theory and is inadequately grounded because of this. While acknowledging the merits of virtue ethics and casuistry, Loewy quickly dispenses with them, as contenders for this theoretical basis. Kantianism and utilitarianism are likewise rejected as "a universally acceptable grounding for ethics." In their place, Loewy proposes that "a deeper and more universal grounding can be found in the capacity of sentient beings to suffer." It is on this capacity to suffer that he builds his hierarchies of moral value, including primary, secondary, and symbolic worth. This theory of suffering should be welcomed. It promises to expand our awareness of clinical experience, and moral life generally, away from autonomy, utility, or virtue orientations toward attention to suffering and our response to it. Such a theory can give us a revitalized language to probe the issues of medical ethics. This should lead us to a careful reading of Loewy's larger work on which this article is based. Yet my enthusiasm is tempered by Loewy's noncritical acceptance of a peculiar, yet pervasive, understanding of the role and use of theory in ethics....     

Treating post-traumatic stress disorder among Vietnam combat veterans: An existential perspective

In the existential therapeutic approach the traumatic event is not divorced from the totality of one's life. The authors believe that finding some degree of meaning in the traumatic event is essential and that the recovery process begins when one feels that meaning and the sense of self are congruent.