The Search for Indigenous Psychologies: Data From Turkey and the Former USSR

On a analysé le contenu de 152 articles du Turkish Journal of Psychology et de 261 articles de la revue Soviet Psychology dans le but d'évaluer le degré d' «indigénisation>> des psychologies turque et soviétique. Il est apparu que la psychologie turque ne présentait aucune tendance à l'indigénisation vu que les théories et perspectives nord-américaines y étaient largement exploitées. Par contre, on a constaté que la psychologie soviétique était l'un des rares exemples de psychologie indigéne.
Articles in the Turkish Journal of Psychology (n = 152), and in the journal Soviet Psychology (n = 261) were content analysed to determine the degree of indigenisation in Turkish and Soviet psychology. The results indicated that there was no tendency towards indigenisation in Turkish psychology, and North American theories and perspectives were widely used. Soviet psychology was found to be one of the rare examples of an indigenous psychology.     

Cognitive Bias to Internal Sources of Information in Anxiety

Discrepancies between (a) self-reported psychosomatic symptoms and (b) actual fitness under non-stress (Study 1), as a function of trait anxiety, were examined, as well as discrepancies between (a) self-reported cognitive and somatic state anxiety and (b) objective measures of behavioural reactivity, physiological arousal, and performance under social-evaluative stress (Study 2). Results indicated that persons high in trait anxiety exaggerated distress in both conditions: They showed disproportionately greater self-reported concerns than actual problems. In contrast, those low in anxiety minimized distress (lower self-reported than actual problems). These discrepancy phenomena are explained in terms of biases in the processing of internal sources of information.     

Natural Deduction for Non-Classical Logics

We present a framework for machine implementation of families of non-classical logics with Kripke-style semantics. We decompose a logic into two interacting parts, each a natural deduction system: a base logic of labelled formulae, and a theory of labels characterizing the properties of the Kripke models. By appropriate combinations we capture both partial and complete fragments of large families of non-classical logics such as modal, relevance, and intuitionistic logics. Our approach is modular and supports uniform proofs of soundness, completeness and proof normalization. We have implemented our work in the Isabelle Logical Framework.     

Individual characteristics and career exploration in adolescence

The effects of gender, age and school grade on several career exploration dimensions measured by the Career Exploration Survey were investigated. Subjects were high school students facing an imminent career decision. Regression analyses indicated that sex and grade-level were the most significant and prevailing individual characteristics related to the adolescents' career exploration behaviours, reactions and beliefs. Implications for career exploration interventions are discussed.     

Predictive inferences take time to develop

In order to determine the time course of inferences about predictable events, predicting or control contexts were presented, followed by a target word (Exps. 1A, B, and C) or a continuation sentence (Exp. 2) that confirmed or disconfirmed the predicted event. Relative to the control condition, under the predicting condition there was facilitation in naming the confirming target words 1500 ms after the onset of the last word in the context (Exp. 1C), but not after 500 ms (Exp. 1A), and only a tendency after 1000 ms (Exp. 1B). In addition, there was facilitation in reading the post-target and final regions of the continuation sentence that confirmed the predicted event, as well as inhibition when the predicted event was disconfirmed, but no effect was observed on the target word itself (Exp. 2). It is concluded that, when the predicted event is highly constrained by the context, predictive inferences are likely to be drawn on-line, but they take time to construct. Received: 14 January 1998 / Accepted: 21 April 1998     

Neuropsychological Evaluation of Everyday Memory

The evaluation of everyday memory (EM) was reviewed and reconceptualized. EM has established new objectives of study and the development of new methods to reach these objectives . At the basic level, this approach has already produced important discoveries and the development of new principles about memory and functioning. At the clinical level, this new area of investigation has resulted in evaluating deficits of EM, which is defined as what daily life functions remain impaired after a deficit pathology has occurred. A type of evaluation has evolved that is oriented toward treatment and extremely useful in designing rehabilitation programs for individuals with alterations in memory.     

Stiff man syndrome

Our 51-year old patient developed low back pain and an increase of tonus mainly in the left limb and trunk muscles. Microscopic examination of the muscles and electronmicroscopic examination of the sural nerve and that of the gastronemic muscle did not show any specific deviation. On the basis of spontaneous activity observed during EMG examination, protracted motor activity of great amplitude when moved passively, as well as characteristic clinical symptoms and the disease process Stiff-man syndrome was diagnosed. Considering literature data, we tried applying diazepam (Seduxen and Rivotril)-presumably increasing the praesynaptic inhibition and affecting the reticular system of the brain stem-, as well as GABA medicaments (Lioresal and Depakine) increasing synaptic transport. By giving Seduxen, Rivotril and Baclofen simultaneously a lasting remission of symptoms could be reached. Applying Depakine in combination with the above medicines proved ineffective, presumably because of synergetic side effects.