Delay of Gratification,Psychopathology, and Personality: Is Low Self-Control Specific to Externaiizing Problems?

We assessed the delay of gratification behavior of 428 twelve and thirteen-year-old boys, half of whom were known to manifest symptoms of behavioral disturbance. Consistent with the hypothesis that low self-control is a risk factor specific to externalizing (aggressive and delinquent) disorders, boys who showed signs of externalizing disorders tended to seek immediate gratification in a laboratory task more often than both nondisordered boys and boys who showed signs of internalizing (anxious and depressed) disorders. In addition, children who were able to delay immediate gratification were described by their mothers as ego controlled, ego resilient, conscientious, open to experience, and agreeable. These results suggest that poor delay of gratification may be one of a select number of specific risk factors for externalizing     

Inductive reasoning in psychometrics: A philosophical corrective

A brief historical overview of inductive logic is presented, and the logic of enumerative induction is discussed in its two generalized forms: rule-derivative and event-predictive. The psychometric tradition and experimental studies in induction are briefly recapitulated to indicate that they have not included event-predictive induction, that probabilities have not been prevalently included in rule-generative induction, and that the linguistic medium might be utilized more fully in the inductive area. An experimental test model designed in order to address these considerations is discussed. This test model of event-predictive induction in the linguistic medium was administered to a large sample of college graduates. Statistical characteristics of the tests and items were very satisfactory when compared to operational subtests. The theoretical significance of the study for future psychometric and experimental investigations in induction is discussed.     

Dreams and COVID-19

This work originates from reflections on the observation of recurring themes in dreams of patients in psychoanalytic treatment during the most restrictive lockdown period in Italy (March - May 2020). The authors focus on the peculiar dialogic state between consciousness and the unconscious that arose following a collective event such as that of the pandemic, which determined the activation of complex personal nuclei, compensatory effects of the unconscious psyche and new perspective functions. These latter aspects are interpreted with reference to the contributions of Erich Neumann, bringing a new psychological vision of the relationship between Man and Nature in relation to catastrophic events.     

Reciprocal Influences Between Girls’ Conduct Problems and Depression,and Parental Punishment and Warmth: A Six year Prospective Analysis

Although the reciprocal effects of parenting and child behavior have long been recognized, the emphasis of empirical study in the field of developmental psychopathology has been on parenting effects on children. For girls in particular, little is known about unique parenting effects on conduct problems in comparison to depression, or vice versa. In the current study, data from the large-scale (n = 2,451) Pittsburgh Girls Study were used to examine the reciprocal relations between parenting and child behavior over a six year period (child ages 7-12 years). Girls and their caregivers (85% of whom were biological mothers) were interviewed annually in their homes. Girls reported on symptoms of conduct disorder and depression, and caregivers reported on level of parent-child warmth and use of harsh punishment. The results of generalized estimating equation regression models demonstrated that both parenting behaviors were uniquely predictive of changes in girls' conduct problems and depressed mood. When the effects of race and poverty on these associations were controlled for, both parenting effects on girls' conduct problems remained significant, but only low parental warmth remained as a significant predictor of depressed mood. Girls' conduct problems, but not depressed mood, predicted changes in harsh punishment over time. The small effect of girls' depressed mood, on changes in parental warmth, was further weakened when socio-demographic factors were also included in the model.     

Misinterpretation of conditional statements in Wason's selection task

Errors may be made on Wason's selection task because either (a) the rule to be tested is misunderstood, or (b) reasoning from that rule is inaccurate, or both. We report two experiments using the experimental paradigm introduced by Gebauer and Laming in which subjects are given six problems in succession. We use the subset of cards selected by each subject as (a) an indication of how the rule is understood and, when that selection is consistent throughout all six problems (so that we can infer a consistent understanding of the rule), as (b) a basis for evaluating the accuracy of the subject's reasoning according to three independent criteria. Experiment 1 adds an exactly parallel contextual version of the task to permit comparison between performances (by the same subjects) on the two versions. Experiment 2 repeats Exp. 1, but with negatives inserted in the conditional rule. Most subjects make a consistent selection of cards throughout all six problems, but typically appear to misunderstand the rule. This is so in both abstract and contextual tasks and replicates the finding by Gebauer and Laming. Most misunderstandings consisted of either (a) reading the simple conditional rule as a bi-conditional or (b) substituting “top/underneath” for “one side/other side”. In Exp. 1 subjects seldom misevaluated the rule they appeared to be testing, but such “errors” of evaluation were common in Exp. 2. Negatives confuse the subjects and should not be used in any conditional application that matters. In Exp. 2 (but not 1) there was a significant correlation between interpretations of the two tasks. We provide an explanation of “matching bias” (it results from the confluence of the two common misunderstandings above) and comment on “mental models” which are, at present, unable to accommodate the variety of results we present here. We also relate our experimental paradigm to the conditional inference task and to truth tables. Received: 26 February 1999 / Accepted: 5 November 1999     

Internal Consistency and Test-Retest Stability of the Geriatric Depression Scale-Short Form in African American Older Adults

The Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) is one of the most widely used self-rated mood questionnaires for older adults. It is highly correlated with clinical diagnoses of depression and has demonstrated validity across different patient populations. However, the reliability of the GDS among African American older adults remains to be firmly established. In a baseline sample of 401 African American adults age 51 and over, the GDS-15 item short form demonstrates good internal consistency (KR20 = .71). Stability over a 15-month interval in a retest sample of 51 adults is deemed adequate (r = .68). These findings support the use of the GDS-15 item short form as a reliable mood questionnaire among African American older adults.     

Nudging: A Lesson in the Theatrics of Choice

The aim of this piece is to clarify three key matters: (a) the extent to which, as citizens, our volition is impacted as a result of the implementation of nudges in the health domain; (b) the efficacy of educational campaigns as a means of behavioral change relative to other nudges as well as typical regulatory instruments; and (c) the empirical, theoretical, and practical details that ethical debates concerning nudges might want to consider.     

The content validity of juvenile psychopathy: an empirical examination

This study examined the content validity of a juvenile psychopathy measure, the Childhood Psychopathy Scale (CPS; D. R. Lynam, 1997), based on a downward translation of an adult instrument, the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; R. D. Hare, 1991). The CPS was compared with two other indices of juvenile psychopathy: (a) an index derived from expert ratings and (b) an empirical index based on correlations with adult psychopathy. The 100 items of the Common Language Q-Sort (CLQ; A. Caspi et al., 1992) provided a common metric for the comparison. Psychopathy and personality were assessed at age 13 years with the mother-reported CPS and the CLQ. Psychopathy was assessed at age 24 years with the interviewer-rated Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV; S. D. Hart, D. N. Cox, & R. D. Hare, 1995). Data from over 250 participants of the middle sample of the Pittsburgh Youth Study were used to examine these relations. Item content analyses demonstrated considerable overlap among the three indices, indicating that the downward translation utilizes criteria similar to those of experts and the empirically-derived measure. In addition, these indices, even after removing overlapping items, demonstrated considerable convergence, also supporting the content validity of the downward translation. These results suggest that the downward translation method is adequate for understanding the juvenile psychopathy construct.