Some problems of genetic counseling in schizophrenic psychoses

The authors sum up the most important basic principles of diagnostics and genetics of the schizophrenic psychoses from the viewpoint of genetic counseling for the practising psychiatrist and medical geneticist. Regarding genetic counselling strategy, in addition to nosological considerations, they stress the importance of socio-cultural and social psychological factors and of the emotional atmosphere in the family, which should all be taken into account together. Because of the special situation of schizophrenic (and in general, psychiatric) patients and their families, they regard it as advisable to set up a separate psychiatric genetic counselling service.     

Attitudes to new technology in relation to social beliefs and group memberships: A preliminary investigation

Though the term “new technology” is widely used and discussed, there has been very little systematic study of attitudes to technology and their relation to other beliefs and group memberships. This article describes an initial investigation into the nature of attitudes towards new technology (n=534 undergraduates) and demonstrates that, as yet, these attitudes are only weakly structured and are not fully integrated with other social beliefs. General evaluations of the benefits of technological advance appear to be almost unrelated to beliefs about the inevitability of these advances or the desire to acquire training to deal with them. Contrary to popular expectations, evaluations of video games are unrelated to other beliefs about technology while other social beliefs are, as yet, only weakly integrated with these attitudes. This study also identifies gender differences in the assessment of potential benefits and highlights other differences attributable to academic group memberships. These finding are discussed with reference to the literature on sex-role stereotyping and group socialization processes.     

Spontaneous alternation behavior in animals: A review

Factors affecting spontaneous alternation behavior (SAB) in animals, for example, age, gender and species studied; type of apparatus and cues employed; and neuro-anatomical, neuro-chemical and motivational status of the organism, were reviewed. Despite a myriad of experiments showing interesting main effects of such variables, little research has been performed assessing the interactive affects of these factors on alternation behavior. For example, psychologists test rats in central nervous system (CNS) lesion studies, whereas psychopharmacologists tend to assess SAB in mice. Most importantly, studies have not been reported investigating the possible interactions among species, brain lesions and drugs. This is an unfortunate omission since several important alternation models include propositions relating to cholinergic and/or serotonergic coding in the hippocampus. Examination of behavioral studies revealed the primary cue for alternation among invertebrates to be body turn, whereas vertebrates rely primarily on directional and odor cues. Reference to the seeking of stimulus change remains the most compelling motivational account of why animals manifest this ubiquitious and reliable behavior pattern. This review and the unpublished studies were supported by Research Grants MH16962, MH21288, and MH36491 from the National Institute of Mental Health and the Wake Forest University Research and Publication Fund.     

Multimodal therapy in an inpatient setting

Inpatient Multimodal Therapy (imt) is a residential treatment program, lasting a maximum of 36 weeks, for patients with severe neurotic symptoms. A group of 44 chronic obsessive-compulsive patients and a group of 40 chronic phobic patients were treated in order to assess the outcome and the process of treatment and to identify prognostic factors associated with the effect. At follow-up—on average, eight months after discharge—it was found that 60% had improved, 32% had remained the same, and 8% had deteriorated, indicating that, in general, the treatment was beneficial. That these effects were long-lasting is supported by the fact that, at follow-up, 78% of all patients were no longer receiving treatment, 18% were receiving outpatient or day treatment, and 4% were receiving inpatient treatment. Phobic patients appear to have gained more from the multimodal approach than did obsessive-compulsive patients, as indicated by the fact that the severity of symptoms decreased as they improved in rational thinking, assertiveness, and arousal. By contrast, obsessive-compulsive patients relapsed more than phobic patients did. This was attributed to the fact that the former gained less from the rational-emotive training, denied problems with assertiveness, and did not practice the acquired relaxation skills. It further appeared that a favorable outcome could be induced in patients who (1) expressed relatively mild symptoms in this otherwise severe group, (2) reported relatively few additional complaints, (3) could clearly indicate interpersonal problems, and (4) did not use psychotropic drugs. These prognostic factors are so widespread that not much weight can be ascribed to them. Yet they are useful for indication ofimt until better predictors are found.     

Computing stress

This article is based on a review of recent literature on “computing stress”; that is, on the psychological stress effects of working with computer systems. Current research into the sources of computer-related stress has tended to concentrate on those employees who operate Visual Display Units (VDUs), either on a full-time professional basis as word-processor (WP) operators, data-entry clerks, secretaries, or those dealing with enquiries from the public; or employees who use the VDU irregularly as part of their other duties. A few studies have looked at specific occupation groups, such as printers (Kalimo & Lepp?nen, 1985), information technology professionals (programers and analysts), process workers, and college students (Sproull, Kiesler, & Zubrow, 1984). Generally, however, research has been carried out on office workers, more often women, carrying out administrative tasks. An attempt is made to identify those potential work-related stressors that have been isolated by these studies, and also included are criticisms of the general methodologies used in many of them. The terms “visual display unit,” “visual display terminal,” VDU, VDT, and “terminal” are used interchangeably.     

The relative contributions of rods and cones in sensory memory under photopic and scotopic conditions

Brief presentations of letter arrays were probed by bar markers within or outside the fovea after various time delays. Figural information presented to the foveal region was retained better under a photopic condition than information in the parafoveal region, but under a scotopic condition parafoveal information demonstrated superior retention. However, decay rates over time of all functions were similar, demonstrating that figural information in the rods and cones decays at similar rates.     

Induction by reinforcer schedules.

Traditional strategies for determining whether a reinforcer schedule enhances the occurrence of an activity are reviewed and critically evaluated. A basic assumption underlying these strategies is that it is possible to isolate the effect of reinforcer intermittency on schedule induction. It is concluded that this is not, in fact, possible. An alternative approach is proposed that emphasizes the inductive effects of the reinforcer schedule as a unit and the effects of particular aspects of the reinforcer schedule (e.g., interreinforcer interval, repetition of the reinforcer, reinforcer magnitude).     

Smoking and academic performance

Smokers and nonsmokers were compared on three aspects of academic achievement. Although exactly the same percentage of smokers and nonsmokers passed the first-year university examination, smokers obtained significantly higher marks. Similarly, smokers achieved significantly higher marks in their final year examinations in comparison with nonsmokers. Finally, a comparison of the tutorial essay marks of the smokers and nonsmokers again showed that smokers obtained significantly higher marks than nonsmokers. These data are consistent with the idea that ambitious students adopt smoking in the belief that it will help them study and sustain concentration.