The justification of paternalistic actions in psychotherapy

This article defines the nature of paternalistic interventions in psychotherapy and discusses reasons why the client's right to consent to treatment is important. We describe a reasoning process developed by Culver and Gert (1982) that can be used to determine when paternalistic actions are and are not ethically justifiable in mental health practice. We demonstrate how this procedure may be applied to psychotherapy by using a number of case illustrations.     

Odor intensity and pleasantness for a diverse set of odorants

Data Analysis Office, U.S. Army Natick Laboratories, Natick, Massachusetts 01760 Observers compared the odor of butanol to the odors of various concentrations of 32 chemicals, and also rated the odor pleasantness and unpleasantness of these 32 odorants by a line matching procedure. All stimuli were presented to the observers by air dilution olfactometers. Odor intensity matches between each odorant and butanol were often describable by power functions. A derived magnitude estimate of odor intensity was obtained through a calibration of the butanol concentration scale. Most odorants grew less rapidly in intensity than butanol, and all odorants grew in intensity as decelerating functions of concentration. A more general function of the form P =: k₁ + k₂C^k3 was needed to account for the pleasantness-unpleasantness judgments. In this study, most odorants were rated either neutral or unpleasant. Observers showed far more variability in hedonic judgments than in intensity judgments.     

The processing of affixed words

Two experiments are reported which suggest that affixed words are not morphologically decomposed but are processed as single units. Experiment 1 involved a lexical decision task, and it suggested that lexical access does not require decomposition. Experiment 2 involved a task designed to maximize the opportunity for decomposition, but it showed that subjects processed the test items as single units. These results are discussed in relation to o;her evidence that has been offered to support the occurrence of morphological decomposition.     

Early Election Returns and the Voting Behavior of Adolescent Voters1

High school students participated in a field experiment that tested the effects of exposure to early election returns in a nonpartisan referendum. On a pretest of attitudes, students stated their preferences on the issue of the school's grading policy. One week later, just before voting, subjects in the experimental condition received information announcing the probable outcome of the election. There was a significant relationship between class achievement level and (a) likelihood of changing vote, and (b) the direction of change. Students in the brighter classes changed their votes less frequently, but when they changed their preferences they showed a greater bandwagon effect. Students in the classes of lower academic achievement changed their votes more frequently, but when they changed their preferences they showed a greater underdog effect. Differences between the more typical political election in which bandwagon and underdog effects are seldom reported and the experimental election were discussed.     

The role of accommodation in the control of binocular rivalry

The role of accommodation in the control of binocular rivalry (BR) has been granted various degrees of importance by Es in the past. The most recent investigation by Fry (1936) concluded that accommodation provides the basis of BR control through the blurring of retinal images. However, the present study found that the introduction of very small artificial pupils (0.5 mm) did not reduce BR control. It was concluded that if accommodation changes are occurring with large pupils, the resulting image blurring plays no part in control of rivalry. Experiment 2 tested the effect of paralyzed intrinsic eye muscles and found almost the same degree of control as in the normal state. The slight decrease of control that was present was attributed to a general performance decrement, since slight performance decrements with eye paralysis were also found in a visual reaction-time task and hand dynamometer test. In Experiment 3, it was found that the increased control that was obtained over several practice sessions was mostly retained during subsequent eye paralysis. These findings and, in addition, a very significant control of rivaling afterimage stimuli under eye paralysis strongly suggest a central component of BR control rather than one based on accommodation.     

Training the disturbed enuretic

Twenty-two disturbed enuretic children were treated for their bedwetting with training procedures. Eighteen of 22 (81.8%) reached the initial success criterion in an average of 57.5 days. Ten of the 18 (55.6%) met the retraining criteria of relapse, and 9 of the relapses were successfully retrained, while I stopped wetting spontaneously. As compared to non-relapsed children, relapsed children had a significantly higher number of initial symptoms checked. The results indicate that a training approach is effective for the treatment of enuresis in disturbed children, but the more disturbed have a greater likelihood of relapse.     

The effect of spatial order on piecemeal shape recognition: A developmental study

Stationary shapes were displayed piecemeal by moving an aperture from one place to another around their contours. Shape recognition was poorer with an unpredictable order of display. This result is more consistent with hypothesis-testing than with either eye-movement or visual information models of shape recognition. Shape recognition was poorer for 9- and 11-year-old children than for adults.     

Relative Deprivation,Dissatisfaction, and Militancy: A Field Study In A Protest Crowd1

The links between relative deprivation (RD), dissatisfaction with financial situation, and propensity for militancy were examined in a field study of a farmers' rally in Adelaide, South Australia. The rally was held to protest the blockade of sheep exports by the meat workers' union. Consistent with Gurr's (1970) theory, a majority of protesters were relatively deprived. However, there was no support for Morrison's (1971) hypothesis that participants in a conservstive protest demonstration are in a state of “decreinental” RD. No support mas found for Gurr's postulate that RD is the basic condition for participants in collective violence. RD war significantly associated with feelings of dissatisfaction but not with predispositions toward militancy. Dissatisfaction alone was a significant predictor of militant predisposition. Factors that may act to weaken the link between RD and militancy in actual episodes of collective behavior were discussed.