Risk factors for addictive disorders: a discriminant analysis on 374 addicted and 513 nonpsychiatric participants

Many common risk factors have been described in addictive disorders. Little is known about factors' respective contributions to discrimination of addicted and nonaddicted participants. Two large samples were compared including 513 nonpsychiatric participants and 374 addicted participants meeting the DSM-IV criteria for eating disorders, alcohol, or substance dependence. Twenty-six risk factors were assessed by interview or self-rating scales. A discriminant analysis determined the respective weight of each risk factor. One discriminant function emerged and characterized a depressive dimension. The results suggest that the different risk factors described in addiction could be related to a depressive dimension.     

Engaged Lifestyle, Personality, and Mental Status Among Centenarians

This study assessed engaged lifestyle activities (e.g., volunteering, traveling, and public speaking) for centenarians of the Georgia Centenarian Study. A total of 285 centenarians and near-centenarians (i.e., 98 years and older) and their proxy informants participated in this study. The Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE) was assessed for all centenarians, and proxy informants reported on lifestyle activities and personality traits of the centenarians. Results suggested that participants who had volunteered, traveled, and those who had given public talks and balanced their checkbooks were more likely to show relatively high mental status scores (i.e., MMSE > 17). Personality traits were found to be moderators in the relationship between engaged lifestyle and mental status: Participants with high levels of Emotional Stability, Extraversion, Openness, and Conscientiousness and with high levels of engaged lifestyle were more likely to show relatively high mental status scores (i.e., MMSE > 17), whereas participants with low levels of Emotional Stability, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness and with low levels of engaged lifestyle were more likely to show relatively low mental status scores (i.e., MMSE < 18). The results suggest that engaged lifestyle, particularly in combination with personality traits, plays an important role in the level of cognitive functioning among oldest old adults.     

Gramsci: An Alternative Communism?

Studies in East European Thought - This is an attempt to determine the character of Antonio Gramsci's Marxism by way of a critical analysis of Luciano Pellicani'sGramsci: An Alternative...     

Establishing enduring prevention programs: Advancing the legacy of Swampscott

The recent anniversary of the 1965 Swampscott Conference provided an opportunity to reconsider the implications of that meeting for prevention research. An unfulfilled aspect of the Swampscott legacy is the relative paucity of demonstration programs that become enduring parts of their host settings. A macrolevel, systems-oriented reformulation of Albee's (1982) prevention formula is presented to help conceptualize the linkage of prevention programs to their host settings. Finally, structural considerations necessary for weaving efforts at prevention and health promotion into adaptive, enduring organizational niches are reviewed.     

Disenchantment and transcendence

The Journal of Value Inquiry -     

Safeguarding Student Records

Schools, and particularly Guidance Departments, are inundated with requests for information about both past and present students. The inquiries originate from a surprisingly wide variety of sources. Reflecting the increasing tendency in personnel work to accumulate more and more knowledge about the individual, colleges and industry particularly attempt to requisition as much information as possible about the student or potential employee. Student personnel records can be neither released wholesale nor totally locked away. Based on typological analysis of the student's cumulative record, suggested guidelines incorporating both ethical and legal considerations can be established. The recommendations contained herein should assist the custodian of the records in establishing certain necessary conditions pertaining to the release of information.     

Interrelationships of number-correct and limen scores for an amount-limit test

For an amount-limit test homogeneous as to content and varied as to difficulty it is established that an individual's number-right score and his limen score as estimated by the constant process are mathematically related. The experimental and the theoretic relationship between normal deviate and limen score are shown to be in good agreement. It is also found that the two methods of evaluating individual test performance yield equally reliable sets of scores for the procedures used. Accordingly where the assumptions basic to the relationship obtain, the more conveniently computed raw score may be considered to be as valid and reliable an index of individual test performance as the limen score. The concept of the dispersion parameter of the individual as a measure of change or error in test score found no experimental verification. Estimates of individual variability are unrelated to differences in score on equivalent forms.The writer gratefully acknowledges Lt. Colonel M. W. Richardson's invaluable counsel, Dr. H. Gulliksen's helpful suggestions, and Dr. H. H. Long's aid in administering the tests.