Are the symptoms of cannabis use disorder best accounted for by dimensional, categorical, or factor mixture models? A comparison of male and female young adults

Despite the consensus that criteria for cannabis abuse and dependence and symptoms of withdrawal are best explained by a single latent liability, it remains unknown whether alternative models provide a better explanation of these criteria. A series of latent factor, latent class, and hybrid factor mixture models were fitted to data from 872 recent cannabis users from the Minnesota Twin Family Study who completed Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd ed., revised, and 4th ed.) diagnostic criteria for cannabis abuse, dependence, and symptoms of withdrawal. Despite theoretical appeal, results did not support latent class or factor mixture modeling. Instead, symptoms of abuse, dependence, and withdrawal were better summarized by a single latent factor Cannabis Use Disorder (CUD) for male and female young adults. An almost 2-fold sex difference in item endorsement was best explained by a single mean difference on the CUD factor, indicating that young men have a greater latent liability toward expressing CUD.     

Identification of Individuals at Risk for Lynch Syndrome Using Targeted Evaluations and Genetic Testing: National Society of Genetic Counselors and the Collaborative Group of the Americas on Inherited Colorectal Cancer Joint Practice Guideline

Identifying individuals who have Lynch syndrome (LS) involves a complex diagnostic work up that includes taking a detailed family history and a combination of various genetic and immunohistochemical tests. The National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC) and the Collaborative Group of the Americas on Inherited Colorectal Cancer (CGA-ICC) have come together to publish this clinical practice testing guideline for the evaluation of LS. The purpose of this practice guideline is to provide guidance and a testing algorithm for LS as well as recommendations on when to offer testing. This guideline does not replace a consultation with a genetics professional. This guideline includes explanations in support of this and a summary of background data. While this guideline is not intended to serve as a review of LS, it includes a discussion of background information on LS, and cites a number of key publications which should be reviewed for a more in-depth understanding of LS. These guidelines are intended for genetic counselors, geneticists, gastroenterologists, surgeons, medical oncologists, obstetricians and gynecologists, nurses and other healthcare providers who evaluate patients for LS.     

Humor styles impact the relationship between symptoms of social anxiety and depression

Recent research suggests that examining humor styles may contribute to our understanding of clinical problems, such as risk and resiliency. The goal of the current study was to examine whether humor styles moderate the association between social anxiety and depressive symptoms in an unselected sample. Three-hundred and six participants (66% female) at a large Southern US university completed self-report measures of humor styles and symptoms of social anxiety and depression. Regression analyses suggested that affiliative and self-defeating humor styles individually moderated the relationship between social anxiety and depressive symptoms. Clinical implications regarding the monitoring of humor use as a means of understanding the maintenance of depressive symptoms among socially anxious individuals are discussed.     

Organizations, Managers, and Wage Inequality

Lips (2012) has offered a useful critique of the human capital approach to understanding the wage gap. In this essay, rather than offering ways to fix human capital theory, I direct readers away from supply-side accounts of wage determination, by reviewing theory and U.S.-based research on the organizational bases of wage inequality and other forms of workplace stratification. Specifically, I concentrate on one growing line of empirical investigation – the effect of women in powerful organizational positions – arguing that evidence of women managers being agents of change is growing, but additional research and data collection efforts are needed. I conclude by arguing that further research on workplace stratification should focus on the pivotal role of managers.     

Addressing Sexual Assault within Social Systems: System Justification as a Barrier to College Prevention Efforts

Sexual assault perpetrated by men against women is a distressingly common occurrence, particularly on college campuses. One of the barriers to assault prevention efforts is the general perception of violence against women as an unwanted yet implicitly tolerated aspect of the status quo. Drawing on system justification theory, a concept used to explain why individuals accept aspects of their social systems that are objectively unjust, the mechanisms that perpetuate sexual assault are examined. Furthermore, this theory is used to examine current prevention efforts on college campuses and suggestions for modifications to these programs will be made.     

The relation of discrete stimuli can be integrated despite the failure of conscious identification

ABSTRACT

The integration of the sameness or difference of two unconscious stimuli occurs and affects behaviour without subjective visual consciousness. Yet, intermittent stimulus awareness or a process simpler than integration could also account for these results. In a masked go/no-go task, participants provided or withheld a response based on the same/different relation of two stimuli. Post-trial performance on a discrimination task was used to classify invisible stimuli, providing an objective criterion of awareness. Stimulus pairs with a No-go-associated relation showed reduced and slower responding even when those stimuli were incorrectly discriminated and presumably unconscious. Due to the large set of stimuli, this effect is unlikely to be due to response mapping or action triggers. The integration of the relation of discrete stimuli is a cognitive function that is not dependent upon visual awareness, in the form of conscious identification, to occur.     

Why Liberal Neutralists Should Accept Educational Neutrality

Educational neutrality states that decisions about school curricula and instruction should be made independently of particular comprehensive doctrines. Many political philosophers of education reject this view in favor of some non-neutral alternative. Contrary to what one might expect, some prominent liberal neutralists have also rejected this view in parts of their work. This paper has two purposes. The first part of the paper concerns the relationship between liberal neutrality and educational neutrality. I examine arguments by Rawls and Nagel and argue that some of the same arguments they use to justify liberal neutrality also justify educational neutrality; thus, if we accept these arguments for liberal neutrality, we should also accept educational neutrality. The second part of the paper defends educational neutrality against objections that it is impossible and objections that it is undesirable.     

A Reliability Generalization Study of Coefficient Alpha for the UCLA Loneliness Scale

The goal of this investigation was the development of an Inconsistency scale (ICN–SF) for the Personality Assessment Inventory–Short Form (PAI–SF). In Study 1, 503 inpatient profiles were randomly assigned to a derivation or cross-validation sample. Ten correlated item pairs were identified using the derivation sample and placed on the ICN–SF. Psychometric properties of the ICN–SF total scores were comparable in the derivation and cross-validation samples. Total ICN–SF scores in both samples were significantly lower than scores obtained from computer-generated random samples. Diagnostic efficiency statistics are reported using multiple cut-off scores at various base rate estimates. ICN–SF scores greater than 8 reasonably balanced sensitivity and specificity rates. This cutoff correctly classified 92% of the random protocols and inaccurately classified 9% of the patient protocols in Study 1. In Study 2, PAI–SF scores from 627 forensic and civil inpatients produced similar results, effectively identifying cases with elevated scores on the full-form Inconsistency scale. Overall the results of both studies suggest that the ICN–SF can aid examiners in assessing for inconsistent responding.