The use of the MacAndrew Alcoholism Scale in detecting substance abuse and antisocial personality

We evaluated the hypothesis that characterological factors, particularly antisocial personality, influence scores on the MacAndrew Alcoholism Scale (MAC). Using the Washington University research criteria to establish diagnoses, the following subgroups were defined: subjects who received no psychiatric diagnoses; subjects who received diagnoses other than alcoholism, drug dependence, or antisocial personality; and subjects who received a diagnosis of alcoholism, drug dependence, and/or antisocial personality, alone or in combination with other psychiatric diagnoses. The highest MAC scores were obtained by subjects diagnosed as having antisocial personality without alcoholism or drug dependence and subjects diagnosed with antisocial personality, drug dependence, and alcoholism. Alcoholics without antisocial personality or drug dependence, and subjects with other psychiatric diagnoses scored lowest. Although higher MAC scores were obtained by males, MAC scores greater than 24 correctly classified the greatest number of males and females as alcoholic, drug dependent and/or antisocial. These findings are interpreted as consistent with MacAndrew's reinterpretation of the scale as assessing a dimension of personality, rather than solely a tendency to addiction.     

A FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS OF PHOTO-OBJECT MATCHING SKILLS OF SEVERELY RETARDED ADOLESCENTS

Matching-to-sample procedures were used to assess picture representation skills of severely retarded, nonverbal adolescents. Identity matching within the classes of objects and life-size, full-color photos of the objects was first used to assess visual discrimination, a necessary condition for picture representation. Picture representation was then assessed through photo-object matching tasks. Five students demonstrated visual discrimination (identity matching) within the two classes of photos and the objects. Only one student demonstrated photo-object matching. The results of the four students who failed to demonstrate photo-object matching suggested that physical properties of photos (flat, rectangular) and depth dimensions of objects may exert more control over matching than the similarities of the objects and images within the photos. An analysis of figure-ground variables was conducted to provide an empirical basis for program development in the use of pictures. In one series of tests, rectangular shape and background were removed by cutting out the figures in the photos. The edge shape of the photo and the edge shape of the image were then identical. The results suggest that photo-object matching may be facilitated by using cut-out figures rather than the complete rectangular photo.     

Facial and autonomic manifestations of the dimensional structure of emotion

While subjects viewed and rated a series of 25 emotionally evocative slides, their heart rate and skin conductance were continuously monitored and their facial expressions were covertly videotaped. Judges subsequently viewed the videotapes and rated trial-by-trial the pleasantness and intensity of each subject's facial expressions. Both phasic skin conductance responding and judged facial intensity were curvilinearly related to self-reported pleasantness, with the largest responses occurring at both extremes of the self-report scale. In contrast, phasic cardiac reactions and judged facial pleasantness were linearly related to self-reported pleasantness; extreme pleasantness was accompanied by heart rate acceleration, and unpleasantness by cardiac deceleration. The results suggest that visceral information reflects the dimensions that underlie the organization of affects and, hence, may play a more important role in emotional experience than is assumed in a number of currently held theories of emotion.     

When “I like you” indicates disagreement an experimental differentiation of information and affect

It was hypothesized that the independent manipulation of the informational content and the affective meaning of personal evaluations would indicate that both informational judgments and attraction responses are a joint function of the two stimulus components. In a 2 × 2 factorial design, each of 80 subjects was exposed to a videotape message from a stranger which was either affectively positive or negative and informationally positive or negative. Analysis of variance indicated that perceived similarity was influenced only by the informational variable (p < .0001) while attraction was influenced by both information (p < .0001) and affect (p < .002). It was suggested that the most inclusive theories of person perception and attraction will necessarily encompass elements of both cognitive and reinforcement formulations.     

Personal Values and Academic Performance Among Engineering Students

Independently drawn random samples of 20 dean's list and 20 academic probation engineering sophomores were the subjects in this investigation of student academic status in relation to personal values and aptitude variables. Dean's list students differed significantly (.05 level) from academic probation students on variables such as need for achievement, direction of aspirations, peer group values, independence in planning, persistence, self-control, and high school record. No statistically significant differences were found on variables such as socio-economic status, influence of the home, self-insight or scholastic aptitude. It was concluded that the successful engineering student differs from the relatively less successful engineering student in certain measurable characteristics. These results elucidate the efficacy of the utilization of nonintellective variables in such differentiation.     

Cognitive tuning,encoding, and the attribution of causality

Subjects were given a transmission or reception set before or after viewing a videotape of an event which involved an extreme outcome. The results indicated that transmitters made relatively extreme attributions to plausible causal agents when the set was given prior but not subsequent to viewing the event. The results also showed that subjects who had been given a transmission set before viewing the videotape exhibited relatively high recognition of aspects of the event they observed. It is suggested that the data provide support for an encoding interpretation of transmission-reception differences in the attribution of causality.     

Interrogatives in dialogue: Case study of mother and child 16–19 months

Question-answer sequences were examined within the dialogues of a mother-infant dyad. Mother and male infant were observed at the infant's ages of 16, 17, 18, and 19 months. The structure, content, and function of the mother's questions were analyzed in conjunction with the child's contingent responses. The child exhibited an increase in overall responsiveness to his mother's questions for the period observed. In terms of question structure and content, at about 17 months the mother began to ask more of those questions to which the child responded with a higher percentage of relevant-appropriate responses. In terms of question function, no single systematic pattern of change occurred in the frequencies of various question functions and responses. It was concluded that the present data describe a process of simultaneous change in the direction of greater congruency between mother and child behaviors, although further research is needed to determine the generalizability of the present results.