Narrative unity and clinical judgment

Alasdair MacIntyre's recent thinking both about the concept of a practice and the existence of narrative unity in human life raises important questions about how we should view clinical medicine today. Is it possible for clinical medicine to pursue patient well-being in a society (allegedly) afflicted with what he calls ‘modernity’? Here it is argued that MacIntyre's pessimistic view of the individual in contemporary society makes his call for patient autonomy in the clinical setting pointless. Finally, recent work in gerontology is cited to make three points: first, MacIntyre's pessimism about us is too extreme; second, the concept of a ‘fictionalized’ personal history is closer to reality than either MacIntyre's notion of narrative unity or the ideas of his imagined opponent (Sartre); and finally, we should not expect clinical medicine to produce patient well-being, when this is understood narratively.     

A titration procedure for generating escape behavior

In a grid-shock escape paradigm using time-out as reinforcement, both fixed-ratio and variable-interval performances were established directly from a continuous reinforcement schedule with rats and guinea pigs. A procedure was developed that employed a stepwise decrease in reinforcement time for all responses except the terminal response. Acquisition and long-term maintenance data were obtained from Ss trained on this titrated negative-reinforcement procedure.     

The role of spatial frequency in the processing of hierarchically organized stimuli

Can spatial frequency differences between local and global forms account for differences in the way different levels of structure are analyzed? We examined this question by having subjects identify local or global forms of hierarchical stimuli that had beencontrast balanced. Contrast balancing eliminates low spatial frequencies, so that both local and global forms must be identified on the basis of high spatial frequency information. Response times (RTs) to global (but not local) forms were slowed for contrast-balanced stimuli, suggesting that low spatial frequencies mediate the global RT advantage typically found. In contrast, interference between local and global forms was little affected by contrast balancing or by shifts of attention between local and global forms, suggesting that it does not result from inhibitory interactions between spatial frequency channels or from temporal precedence of low versus high spatial frequency information. Finally, shifts of attention between local and global forms were also little affected by contrast balancing, suggesting that they were not based on spatial frequency.     

Dispositional Optimism/Pessimism and Coping Strategies: Predictors of Psychosocial Adjustment of Rheumatoid and Osteoarthritis Patients1

Because rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has a more unpredictable course than osteoarthritis (OA), we hypothesized that generalized expectancies (optimistic/ pessimistic) influence the psychosocial adjustment of RA patients, whereas disease severity influences the adjustment of OA patients. Path analysis (LISREL VI) revealed that pessimistic RA patients (N= 107) and the more physically disabled OA patients (N= 108) reported poorer adjustment. The hypothesized mediating role of coping was supported for the RA but not the OA sample; that is, pessimism was associated with poor adjustment through greater use of wishful thinking coping. Unexpectedly, problem-solving coping was not found to mediate the optimism adjustment relationship.     

The Psychophysiology of Sensation Seeking

This article summarizes studies relating the trait of sensation seeking to electrodermal and heart-rate responses and cortical evoked potential arousal. Stimulus factors of novelty, intensity, and stimulus significance are important. High sensation seekers tend to give stronger physiological orienting responses than lows to novel stimuli of moderate intensity, particularly when such stimuli are of specific interest. Lows tend to show defensive responses as defined by heart-rate acceleration. The cortical reaction of the highs tends to be augmented by intense visual or auditory stimuli, while that of the lows tends to be reduced or unresponsive to variations in stimulus intensity. Differences between psychophysiological responses of high and low sensation seekers are interpreted as reflective of different evolved biological strategies for processing novel or intense stimulation.     

SEEING TWO AS ONE:

Abstract -Object tokens are episodic visual representations that mediate the ability to track visual events as they move about and change over time. Multiple tokens also allow the viewer to individuate multiple instances of a single type of object. In the present study, we established a functional link for object tokens in two seemingly disparate visual phenomena: apparent motion and repetition blindness [RB]. In RB, repeated items are more difficult to perceive than unre-peated items. Using displays in which two sets of alphanumeric characters streamed in opposite directions across a computer screen in apparent motion, we found increased RB for targets appearing within a single apparent motion stream, relative to targets in different apparent motion streams. The results are inconsistent with refractory period or memory retrieval accounts of RB and support the role of object tokens in both apparent motion and RB.     

Process characteristics of worry and obsessive intrusive thoughts

One hundred and twenty-five university students were administered a battery of self-report measures to assess worry disposition and content, frequency of obsessive intrusive thoughts, and 10 conceptually derived appraisal dimensions of worry and obsessional intrusions. Process ratings indicated that the worrisome thoughts were considered more disturbing than the ego-dystonic intrusive thoughts. Worry was also distinguished by a focus on the possible consequences of negative events, whereas concern about the personal meaning of the thought was a unique process dimension for obsessive intrusive thoughts. Both content and process variables are important in differentiating worry and obsessive-like intrusive thoughts in a nonclinical population.