A conceptual validation study of the texture response on the Rorschach.

This study addresses the Rorschach texture response (T). The authors proposed a developmental line incorporating tactile self-soothing functions and tactile aspects of interpersonal closeness and related it to T. It was hypothesized that T would be linearly related to one's reliance on tactile cues cognitively by categorizing objects according to texture and behaviorally by touching and stroking. Subjects were 81 women, between the ages of 18 and 30. The results confirm the notion that T is related to both cognitive and behavioral reliance on tactile cues. It was also hypothesized that high T subjects, more than others, would increase their use of tactile cues and touching when stressed, but this hypothesis was not supported. The results were considered to be consistent with the proposed developmental line but not for differential regression along the line. They also supported T as being related to a tactile mode of information processing.     

Why physicians should not do ethics consults

Increasing complexities facing physicians negotiating the bedside decision continue to fuel the debate over who is the appropriate party to offer ethics consults, should one be needed, during the decision-making process. Some very good arguments have been put forth on behalf of clinical ethicists as being the proper and best party to engage in ethics consultations. However, serious questions remain about the role of the clinical ethicist and his ability to provide the necessary level of objectivity called for in an ethics consult. I argue that the clinician's professional psyche, or mode of thinking as a professional, leaves him little room to maneuver as an objective and detached third party ethics consultant. Several factors are cited and discussed that greatly influence the analyses applied to a case problem by physicians. The most formidable of these factors are habits and the practice of defensive medicine. I conclude that clinical ethicists are less suited for the overall tasks required of an objective consultant in medical cases that appear to involve insurmountable ethical issues.     

Human figure drawings of adjudicated and nonadjudicated adolescents

We investigated differences between human figure drawings of adjudicated and nonadjudicated adolescents. In addition, the relationship between human figure drawings and crime category (person, property, other, none) was examined for the adjudicated adolescents. Subjects consisted of four groups of adolescents (n = 25 each): adjudicated males, adjudicated females, nonadjudicated males, and nonadjudicated females. Human figure drawings were obtained from all subjects; they were scored using a system that was developed for use with adolescents. Kruskal-Wallis one-way analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were used to assess the effects of adjudication status and gender. There were 11 significant differences between adjudicated and nonadjudicated adolescents and 11 differences among the four groups. Results of Kruskal-Wallis ANOVAs also showed two significant differences among crime categories.     

A cross-cultural test of the personality integration hypothesis1

This study attempted to validate the psychological integration hypothesis by comparing the levels of psychological functioning of individuals from four cultural groups on three dimensions of personality. The personality attributes investigated were field-dependence/independence cognitive style, tolerance of ambiguity (an affective style variable) and machiavellianism (an index of stylistic orientation in interpersonal relationships). Subjects were 218 first-level supervisors from five industrial plants in Auckland, New Zealand. Comparisons of mean group scores on each personality variable showed that a similar rank order among the groups held for each personality variable. It was also found that, for the sample as a whole, there were positive intercorrelations between the personality variables. The symmetrical rank ordering of the groups on the personality variables was considered to indicate that members of each group had attained relatively similar levels of psychological development on each personality attribute. The relatively low levels of intercorrelations between the personality variables were held to indicate that they were measuring separate areas of psychological functioning.     

Efficiency of arithmetic operations in bilinguals as a function of language

English-Spanish bilinguals solved simple arithmetic problems and were required to respond In their preferred (P) language. the language In which they originally learned arithmetic, or In their nonpreferred (NP) language. Each arithmetic problem required one. two, or three addition operations. Reaction time was a linear function of number of operations. The intercept for the P language was lower than that for the NP language. but there were no differences In slope. The intercept difference was interpreted In terms of translation time. either as translation of the sum from the P to the NP language or as translation from an abstract representation to the NP as opposed to the P language.     

Natural anchoring at the neutral point of category rating scales

Contextual theories of judgment assume that the rating of any stimulus depends on its relationship to a context of similar stimuli. For example, any specific act of behavior would be rated less favorably when considered in the context of good behaviors then when considered in the context of bad ones. However, two experiments suggest an absolute anchoring of the natural neutral point, an exception to this generalization. In Experiment 1, morally indifferent acts remained “neutral,” regardless of context; and in Experiment 2 the break-even or zero-point in a simulated game of chance was always rated “neutral.” In both experiments, contextual manipulations had powerful effects upon ratings of other stimuli, though never shifting them across the neutral point. Furthermore, both experiments suggest that neutral-point anchoring also affects the use of the most extreme categories in a manner that is unique to this phenomena. In Experiment 2 for example, the introduction of extremely positive “wins” not only made other wins seem less favorable while leaving ratings of the zero-point unchanged, but also made the most negative losses seem more favorable. It is as if the introduction of an extremely positive “win” also introduces the possibility of an extremely negative “loss.” Taken together these findings contradict the basic adaptation-level premise that the entire scale is determined by the neutral point; they are also inconsistent with the assumption of range theories that the scale is anchored by the endpoints of the range of stimuli actually experienced.     

The diagnosis, epidemiology, and etiology of childhood schizophrenia

About half the Australian population of children who were functioning at a moderate or greater level of intellectual subnormality and who also presented schizophrenic behaviors were surveyed. From more than 300 such cases only 21 were confirmed as schizophrenic. Their average age was seven years eight months, four were girls, and eight had histories of normal physical health. Individual data were collected on antenatal and perinatal factors, childhood health, developmental progress, family history, physical characteristics, neurological signs, biochemical anomalies, and behavioral and psychiatric characteristics. These data sustained the hypotheses that the (a) incidence of the condition is slight, that (b) childhood schizophrenia is the result of a multicausal transactional process; that (c) there is a continuum from organic to functional conditions and that (d) the intellectual potential of these children is generally overrated.     

Linguistic meaning related differences in evoked potential topography: English, Swiss-German, and imagined

Functionally different neural populations for processing different categories of word meaníng are suggested by the topography of event-related EEG scale-field distributions. Noun and verb meanings of English and Swiss-German homophones produced differences in anterior-posterior topography during the first 300 to 350 msec of the response. Similar results were found for a degraded-speech stimulus when subjects imagined noun and verb meanings. Anterior—posterior scalp-field differences appeared both in an analysis of the positions of field maximal and minimal values; and in principal component analysis of ERPs.