Development and Practice of the Systems Paradigm in Argentina, Chile and Peru

The systems paradigm has been developing in the southern region of South America for more than three decades, albeit at different paces and with a variety of achievements as can be expected when describing the process of countries as diverse as Argentina, Chile and Peru. This article describes the circumstances and actions that have enabled the systemic approach to gain a legitimate place in the local psychotherapy field permeating family, marital/couple, and individual therapy. Moreover, the family/contextual perspective has attained a valued respectability in the family legal system as well as in community interventions. Overall, the community is aware of and at ease with this efficacious contextual approach. As in other parts of the world, the universities have joined the private entities in the training endeavor and the accreditation process is a complex goal with obstacles that have not yet been surmounted.     

Spanish and English Neuropsychological Assessment Scales (SENAS): further development and psychometric characteristics

The Spanish and English Neuropsychological Assessment Scales were devised to be a broad set of psychometrically matched measures with equivalent Spanish and English versions. Study 1 in this report used item response theory methods to refine scales. Results strongly supported psychometric matching across English and Spanish versions and, for most scales, within English and Spanish versions. Study 2 supported in both English and Spanish subsamples the 6-domain model of ability that guided scale construction. Study 3 examined differential item functioning (DIF) of one scale (Object Naming) in relation to education, ethnicity, gender, and age. Effects of DIF on scale-level ability scores were limited. Results demonstrate an empirically guided psychometric approach to test construction for multiethnic and multilingual test applications.     

Mismatch between what is expected and what actually occurs triggers memory reconsolidation or extinction

In previous experiments on contextual memory, we proposed that the unreinforced re-exposure to the learning context (conditioned stimulus, CS) acts as a switch guiding the memory course toward reconsolidation or extinction, depending on reminder duration. This proposal implies that the system computes the total exposure time to the context, from CS onset to CS offset, and therefore, that the reminder presentation must be terminated for the switching mechanism to become operative. Here we investigated to what extent this requirement is necessary, and we explored the relation between diverse phases in the reconsolidation and extinction processes. We used the contextual memory model of the crab Chasmagnathus which involves an association between the learning context (CS) and a visual danger stimulus (unconditioned stimulus, US). Administration of cycloheximide was used to test the lability state of memory at different time points. The results show that two factors, no-reinforcement during the reminder (i.e., CS re-exposure) and CS offset are the necessary conditions for both processes to occur. Regardless of the reminder duration, memory retrieved by unreinforced CS re-exposure emerges intact and consolidated when tested before CS offset, suggesting that neither reconsolidation nor extinction is concomitant with CS re-exposure. Either process could only be triggered once the definitive mismatch between CS and US is confirmed by CS termination without the expected reinforcement.     

Duplicate publication and ‘paper inflation’ in the fractals literature

The similarity of documents in a large database of published Fractals articles was examined for redundancy. Three different text matching techniques were used on published Abstracts to identify redundancy candidates, and predictions were verified by reading full text versions of the redundancy candidate articles. A small fraction of the total articles in the database was judged to be redundant. This was viewed as a lower limit, because it excluded cases where the concepts remained the same, but the text was altered substantially. Far more pervasive than redundant publications were publications that did not violate the letter of redundancy but rather violated the spirit of redundancy. There appeared to be widespread publication maximization strategies. Studies that resulted in one comprehensive paper decades ago now result in multiple papers that focus on one major problem, but are differentiated by parameter ranges, or other stratifying variables. This ‘paper inflation’ is due in large part to the increasing use of metrics (publications, patents, citations, etc) to evaluate research performance, and the researchers’ motivation to maximize the metrics. The views in this paper are solely those of the authors, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Department of the Navy or any of its components, UNAM, University of Virginia or University of Karlsruhe.     

Development of the Multidimensional Acculturative Stress Inventory for adults of Mexican origin

The Multidimensional Acculturative Stress Inventory (MASI), a 36-item stress measure that was developed to assess acculturative stress among persons of Mexican origin living in the United States, was tested on a community sample of 174 adults (117 women, 57 men). Principal-components analyses yielded 4 stable and internally consistent factors: Spanish Competency Pressures (7 items), English Competency Pressures (7 items), Pressure to Acculturate (7 items), and Pressure Against Acculturation (4 items). These 4 factors accounted for 64.4% of the variance and correlated in the expected directions with criterion measures of acculturation and/or psychological adjustment. Further reliability and validity testing of the MASI is discussed as well as the utility of this measure in assessing acculturative stress among adults of Mexican origin.     

Vertical jumping and signaled avoidance

This paper reports an experiment intended to demonstrate that the vertical jumping response can be learned using a signaled-avoidance technique. A photoelectric cell system was used to record the response. Twenty female rats, divided equally into two groups, were exposed to intertrial intervals of either 15 or 40 s. Subjects had to achieve three successive criteria of acquisition: 3, 5, and 10 consecutive avoidance responses. Results showed that both groups learned the avoidance response, requiring increasingly larger numbers of trials as the acquisition criteria increased. No significant effect of intertrial interval was observed.     

Diagnostic judgments as a function of client and therapist race

The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the process of differential evaluation of clients as a function of client and therapist race. It was hypothesized that race of client and therapist would interact, influencing the judgments of client psychopathology, appropriateness for therapy, verbal facility, and likelihood of treatment success despite standardization of the clinical stimuli. Graduate students in clinical psychology and with varying levels of training (i.e., 1 to 5 years) were asked to rate videotaped interviews of clients in which race of the client and level of psychopathology (i.e., normal, neurotic, and psychotic) were systematically varied. There were significant differences in ratings as a function of race of client, race of therapist, and level of psychopathology observed. Black clients were not rated differently on degree of psychopathology but were rated as less verbally skilled and less appropriate for treatment but more likely to benefit from treatment than white clients. Contrary to expectations, white therapists tended to underrate the pathology of black clients. On the other hand, black therapists tended to overrate the pathology of white clients and made mixed judgments of black clients. The implications of these findings are discussed.This study was supported in part by NIMH Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) Grant G12RR03206-2.     

Marital discord and psychiatric disorder in children and adolescents

The relationship between marital discord and any DISC-2.1/DSM-III-R child psychiatric diagnosis was explored. Interview data from a community sample of 90 parent/child pairs and a clinic sample of 37 parent/child pairs were analysed. The data were collected at Columbia University/the New York State Psychiatric Institute as part of the pilot project of a multi-site methodological study. Rates of marital discord and DISC diagnoses were found higher in the clinic sample than in the community sample. The association between marital discord and any diagnosis remained significant when other risk and protective factors were controlled. Policy implications and recommendations for future research strategies suggested by the current exploratory study were discussed.