Is feminine masochism a concept worth reviving?

In this paper the author explores situations when a patient seems to regress masochistically from a progressive development. She is concerned with moments when the patient's struggle towards oedipal relating may be easily confused with a situation where the patient is only caught up with pre-oedipal conflicts and as a result the analyst might interpret in a way that pushes the patient backwards. The author revisits and focuses upon Freud 's classical concept of 'feminine masochism' as a particularly illuminating example of an element in the clinical picture which may alert us to this situation. She aims to show that, viewed as part of a developmental model, the concept of feminine masochism can offer the analyst a signal that the patient is fleeing from sexual oedipal conflicts. Reviving the concept may therefore be clinically useful in highlighting the regression from oedipal anxiety in situations where this might otherwise be missed .     

Gender,Emotional Support,and Well-Being Among the Rural Elderly

The current study sought to clarify the effects of social support on the psychological well-being of rural elders. Data were provided by 180 older men and women (mean age = 73.6 years) living in Northern Appalachia. Similar to the demographic profile of this region, most (97.2%) of the participants were Caucasian. Although mean differences in perceptions of emotional support did not emerge, the relative importance of various sources of support differed for men and women. For men, higher satisfaction with family support was associated with lower negative affect and higher positive affect. For women, although satisfaction with emotional support from family and more years of education were associated with lower levels of negative affect, emotional support from friends enhanced positive affect. The results suggest that new programs may be needed in order to help older rural men and women to maintain well-being in late life.     

VIDANN: A video annotation system

VIDANN is a computer program that allows participants to watch a video on a standard TV and to write their annotations (thought/feeling entries) on paper attached to a writing tablet. The system is designed as a Microsoft ActiveXmodule. It can be further adapted by the individual researcherthrough the use of a VBScript. All data, including the participant’s handwriting, are stored in an XML database. An accompanying Wizard has been designed that enables researchers to generate VBScripts for standard configurations.     

A Machine Learning Approach to Identifying the Thought Markers of Suicidal Subjects: A Prospective Multicenter Trial

Death by suicide demonstrates profound personal suffering and societal failure. While basic sciences provide the opportunity to understand biological markers related to suicide, computer science provides opportunities to understand suicide thought markers. In this novel prospective, multimodal, multicenter, mixed demographic study, we used machine learning to measure and fuse two classes of suicidal thought markers: verbal and nonverbal. Machine learning algorithms were used with the subjects’ words and vocal characteristics to classify 379 subjects recruited from two academic medical centers and a rural community hospital into one of three groups: suicidal, mentally ill but not suicidal, or controls. By combining linguistic and acoustic characteristics, subjects could be classified into one of the three groups with up to 85% accuracy. The results provide insight into how advanced technology can be used for suicide assessment and prevention.     

Metacognitive Development

Traditional developmental research in memory and reasoning, as well as current investigations in such disparate areas as theory of mind, epistemological understanding, knowledge acquisition, and problem solving, share the need to invoke a meta-level of cognition in explaining their respective phenomena. The increasingly influential construct of metacognition can be conceptualized in a developmental framework. Young children's dawning awareness of mental functions lies at one end of a developmental progression that eventuates in complex metaknowing capabilities that many adults do not master. During its extended developmental course, metacognition becomes more explicit, powerful, and effective, as it comes to operate increasingly under the individual's conscious control. Enhancing (a) metacognitive awareness of what one believes and how one knows and (b) metastrategic control in application of the strategies that process new information is an important developmental and educational goal.     

Effects of workshop trainings on evidence-based practice knowledge and attitudes among youth community mental health providers

Enhancing the public health impact of evidence-based practices (EBPs) in usual care settings is a key priority of the National Institute of Mental Health. Longitudinal data from community mental health providers (N = 268) participating in a series of state-sponsored workshops in modular approaches to EBPs for youth are presented. EBP workshop attendance for youth anxiety resulted in increased knowledge for EBPs for anxiety (and not other conditions) and EBP workshop attendance for youth disruptive behaviors resulted in increased knowledge for EBPs for disruptive behaviors (and not other conditions). Providers' tendencies toward incorrectly classifying non-EBP therapies as evidence-based increased over time, suggesting that providers over-generalize the EBP label as a result of attending these types of workshops. Regarding EBP attitudes, most measures of attitudes improved when providers attended a workshop. Additionally, an overly inclusive view of what constitutes an EBP at intake was related to significant decreases in openness to trying EBPs over time, whereas more positive attitudes at intake was related to achieving a more refined view of what constitutes an EBP over the course of attending trainings. Study limitations and implications for implementation of EBPs in usual care settings are discussed.     

Sex differences during visual scanning of occlusion events in infants

A growing number of sex differences in infancy have been reported. One task on which they have been observed reliably is the event-mapping task. In event mapping, infants view an occlusion event involving 1 or 2 objects, the occluder is removed, and then infants see 1 object. Typically, boys are more likely than girls to detect an inconsistency between a 2-object occlusion event and a 1-object display. The current research investigated underlying reasons for this sex difference. Three eye-tracking experiments were conducted with infants at 9 and 4 months (mean age). Infants saw a ball-box or ball-ball occlusion event followed by a 1-ball display; visual scanning of the occlusion event and the 1-ball display was recorded. Older boys were more likely than older girls to visually track the objects through occlusion and more likely to detect an inconsistency between the ball-box event and the 1-ball display. In addition, tracking objects through occlusion was related to infants' scanning of the 1-ball display. Both younger boys and girls failed to track the objects through occlusion and to detect an inconsistency between the ball-box event and the 1-ball display. These results suggest that infants' capacity to track objects through occlusion facilitates extraction of the structure of the initial event (i.e., the number of distinct objects involved) that infants can map onto the final display and that sex differences in the capacity emerge between 4 and 9 months. Possible explanations for how the structure of an occlusion event is extracted and mapped are considered.     

Control cognitions and causal attributions as predictors of fatigue severity in a community sample

Control cognitions and causal attributions of fatigue were examined in relation to Weiner's Causal Attribution theory in a community sample. Participants were 97 females and 43 males, aged 18-83 years. Weiner's dimensions of stability and uncontrollability and physical and psychosocial attributions of fatigue were related to fatigue severity. Escape-avoidance coping mediated between psychosocial causal attributions of fatigue to fatigue; whereas planful problem-solving and exercise moderated between stability cognitions to fatigue and psychosocial attributions of fatigue to fatigue, respectively. This, the cause(s) of fatigue were perceived as stable, uncontrollable, and involving physical and psychosocial factors, participants reported worse fatigue. Taken together, the results suggest that fatigue treatments may be most effective when they are tailored or matched to the belief systems of the individuals with fatigue.     

A flexible latent trait model for response times in tests

Latent trait models for response times in tests have become popular recently. One challenge for response time modeling is the fact that the distribution of response times can differ considerably even in similar tests. In order to reduce the need for tailor-made models, a model is proposed that unifies two popular approaches to response time modeling: Proportional hazard models and the accelerated failure time model with log–normally distributed response times. This is accomplished by resorting to discrete time. The categorization of response time allows the formulation of a response time model within the framework of generalized linear models by using a flexible link function. Item parameters of the proposed model can be estimated with marginal maximum likelihood estimation. Applicability of the proposed approach is demonstrated with a simulation study and an empirical application. Additionally, means for the evaluation of model fit are suggested.