Patient inquiry into mental hospitalization: a quantitative analysis.

In this section we have assembled a small collection of data concerned with the issue of whether or not adolescents would profit from reflective inquiry into the closed area of mental health care. We have analyzed, arranged and interpreted the data from our study and conclude it demonstrates that adolescent inpatients did profit substantially from a reflective inquiry into mental health care. The number of subjects involved in this experimental program was small. The subjects of the experimental program were not selected randomly. Moreover, the researcher could not control for a number of intervening variables. For this particular group the intervening variables were many: changes in the subjects' individual treatment program, level of tranquilizing medication, attitude of other staff toward the experimental program, relations with parents or relatives, et cetera. This list covers some of the more important weaknesses of the experimental design. In the account of the experiment we reported the influence of other significant intervening variables as they emerged during the course of the study. Even with these important limitations the total push of the results in the direction of our argument compels us to conclude that it is clearly profitable for adolescent inpatients to reflectively inquire into the closed area of mental health care. Although the data reported here are not of predictive value, we believe they indicate the importance of having adolescent inpatients reflectively examine their social situation.     

Perfectionism, depression, and academic performance

In samples of 30 Canadian and 117 American undergraduates, academic performance was more strongly correlated with perfectionism scores (Revised Almost Perfect Scale) (r = .20 and -.17) than with those on self-reported depression (CES-Depression) (r = -.09).     

Distraction for Pediatric Immunization Pain: A Critical Review

The paper provides a critical review of distraction for pediatric immunizations in order to determine clinical practicality and efficacy of this commonly employed intervention. The MEDLINE and PsycINFO databases were searched to identify papers that included an evaluation of a distraction intervention as a method of pediatric immunization pain management. Fifteen papers were included in this review. Effect sizes were calculated to estimate the clinical significance of findings. In order to examine possible differences in effect sizes related to distraction characteristics, chi square analyses were conducted. Results indicate that distraction is clinically effective in the reduction of pain during pediatric immunizations. Support is found for behavioral and cognitive explanations of distraction mechanisms. Further, various distraction stimulus characteristics were found to be associated with the clinical significance of findings. This article is based on the preliminary examination paper of the first author under the direction of the second, at West Virginia University.     

Involuntary commitments to public mental institutions: issues involving the overrepresentation of blacks and assessment of relevant functioning

This article contributes to the debate in the mental health and legal systems concerning involuntary commitments to mental hospitals. The focus is on issues involving the overrepresentation of Black people among adults committed to U.S. public mental institutions and issues involving the assessment of relevant behavioral functioning in particular. Empirical findings, legal principles and procedures, and methodological limitations are reviewed to identify problems in current practice and relevant evidence bearing on those problems. Special emphasis is placed on the possible explanations for the overrepresentation of Blacks and on dependable assessments of relevant functioning that are needed to justify the state's coercive power to involuntarily confine people, regardless of race. The article concludes with a summary and recommendations for research and practice.     

Conflict Intensity,Family History,and Physiological Stress Reactions to Conflict Within Romantic Relationships

This study drew upon the physiological model of stress and desensitization processes to deduce hypotheses linking the intensity of conflict communication and exposure to familial verbal aggression in childhood to experiences of conflict within romantic relationships. One hundred college‐aged students (50 dating couples) participated in a dyadic interaction in which partners discussed a source of conflict in their romantic relationship. Participants reported childhood exposure to familial verbal aggression, third‐party observers rated the intensity of conflict communication, and salivary cortisol indexed physiological stress responses to the conflict interactions. As predicted, results showed a positive association between conflict intensity and cortisol reactivity, and this association was attenuated for individuals who reported higher, rather than lower, levels of childhood exposure to familial verbal aggression.     

Comment on “four methods of locating the egocenter: A comparison of their predictive validities and reliabilities”

Barbeito and Ono (1979) recently reported a psychometric evaluation of four methods of measuring the egocenter. Evaluations of this kind can be extended, with a view to obtaining independent estimates of reliability and validity coefficients. In this way, the advantage(s) of one type of measure over another can be more clearly delineated.     

Conciliatory gestures facilitate forgiveness and feelings of friendship by making transgressors appear more agreeable

The authors examined how conciliatory gestures exhibited in response to interpersonal transgressions influence forgiveness and feelings of friendship with the transgressor. In Study 1, 163 undergraduates who had recently been harmed were examined longitudinally. Conciliatory gestures exhibited by transgressors predicted higher rates of forgiveness over 21 days, and this relationship was mediated by victims' perceptions of their transgressors' Agreeableness. Study 2 was an experiment including 145 undergraduates who experienced a breach in trust from an anonymous partner during an iterated prisoner's dilemma. When transgressors apologized and offered financial compensation, participants reported higher levels of forgiveness and feelings of friendship when compared to a control condition and an aggravating condition. The effects of apology/compensation on forgiveness and perceived friendship were mediated by victims' perceptions of their transgressors' Agreeableness. Results suggest that conciliatory gestures promote forgiveness in part by depicting transgressors as more sympathetic, considerate, fair, and just (i.e., agreeable).