Manic-depressive tendencies and Jungian dimensions of personality in college students

In a sample of 39 students, manic tendencies were associated with sensing and judging scores, while depressive tendencies were not associated with the measures of personality.     

Culture and the economy

In a sample of 18 industrialized nations, measures of national character did not improve the power of socioeconomic variables in predicting unemployment rates.     

Facial Expressions of Emotion: Are Angry Faces Detected More Efficiently?

The rapid detection of facial expressions of anger or threat has obvious adaptive value. In this study, we examined the efficiency of facial processing by means of a visual search task. Participants searched displays of schematic faces and were required to determine whether the faces displayed were all the same or whether one was different. Four main results were found: (1) When displays contained the same faces, people were slower in detecting the absence of a discrepant face when the faces displayed angry (or sad/angry) rather than happy expressions. (2) When displays contained a discrepant face people were faster in detecting this when the discrepant face displayed an angry rather than a happy expression. (3) Neither of these patterns for same and different displays was apparent when face displays were inverted, or when just the mouth was presented in isolation. (4) The search slopes for angry targets were significantly lower than for happy targets. These results suggest that detection of angry facial expressions is fast and efficient, although does not "pop-out" in the traditional sense.     

The clergyman's use of mental health resources

Pastoral Psychology -     

Cocaine exposure is associated with subtle compromises of infants' and mothers' social-emotional behavior and dyadic features of their interaction in the face-to-face still-face paradigm

Prenatal cocaine and opiate exposure are thought to subtly compromise social and emotional development. The authors observed a large sample of 236 cocaine-exposed and 459 nonexposed infants (49 were opiate exposed and 646 nonexposed) with their mothers in the face-to-face still-face paradigm. Infant and maternal behaviors were microanalytically coded. No opiate-exposure effects were detected. However, mothers of cocaine-exposed infants showed more negative engagement than other mothers. The cocaine-exposed dyads also showed higher overall levels of mismatched engagement states than other dyads, including more negative engagement when the infants were in states of neutral engagement. Infants exposed to heavier levels of cocaine showed more passive-withdrawn negative engagement and engaged in more negative affective matching with their mothers than other infants. Although effect sizes were small, cocaine exposure, especially heavy cocaine exposure, was associated with subtly negative interchanges, which may have a cumulative impact on infants' later development and their relationships with their mothers.     

Reverie: between thought and prayer

Abstract:  Taking inspiration from a quotation by Lao Tzu, this paper considers 'reverie' as a dynamic process of containment as well as a state of mind. Reverie as a quality of thought akin to prayer is explored in the relationship between self and other. In infant observation, the paper contemplates the development of a baby's capacity to reach beyond the personal world to an archetypal experience of being held, where the creation of an internal space in mind could indicate the beginnings of spiritual awareness. 'Maternal/analytic reverie' views the passage of unconscious communication between patient and analyst as the result of a 'window' opening in the meniscus of the analyst's self. 'Paternal/supervisory reverie' reflects on the impact on a patient of an extra containing mind of a supervisor. 'Archetypal reverie' considers the transforming impact of numinous dreams on the psyche, and reflects on the power of prayer. Drawing on clinical examples from these four areas, the aim is to demonstrate the usefulness of the 'void within' and the perceptive function of emptiness in the 'doors and windows' of our mind.     

The Manic-Depressiveness Scale

Thalbourne's Manic-Depressiveness Scale was given to 1250 college students. The reliabilities were quite low, and the factor pattern did not match the face content of the items.     

Factorial structure of short scales measuring manic-depression in Kuwaiti undergraduates

A sample of 202 Kuwaiti college students (63 men and 139 women; Mage=21.6 yr., SD=2.4) responded to the Thalbourne, et al.'s Manic-Depressiveness Scale. In a factor analysis with a varimax rotation, 14 of 18 items had significant loadings (>.3) on the first factor, including 8 items of the original depression scale. 6 items significantly loaded on the second factor, including 3 items of the original mania scale. This did not match the hypothetical structure of the scale.     

Preliminary study of police experience of misconduct in their colleagues

A pilot study of 33 male and 2 female municipal police officers, most between 30 and 40 years old, found that those whose colleagues more often engage in misconduct experience more excitement and more stress in their work.