An exploratory study of the relationship between diverse life events and specific personality disorders in a sample of suicide attempters

Personality disorder (PD) increases risk for suicidal behavior. Certain life events (LE) can precipitate suicidal behaviors in patients with PD. A fundamental question is whether specific combinations of LE and PD increase suicidal risk. Four hundred forty-six suicide attempters (SA) were recruited from emergency rooms. We used a healthy control group (n = 515) to identify the best cut-off point for the instrument used to diagnose PD. We used the DSM-IV version of the International Personality Disorder Questionnaire-Screening Questionnaire, the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview, and the Social Adjustment Scale to assess PD, Axis I disorders, and LE, respectively. After controlling for Axis I disorders, we found that "Death of spouse" preceded suicidal acts in those with antisocial PD (FET p = 0.024) and patients with narcissistic PD attempted suicide after being Fired at work (FET p = 0.002), among others. Our data suggest the presence of particular LE-PD associations in suicide attempters. Some LE-PD relationships appear independent of Axis I disorders in suicide attempters. This may offer a basis for specific targeted therapies or prevention programs aimed at decreasing suicidal risk.     

Co‐development of child‐mother gestures over the second and the third years

This study looks at whether there is a relationship between mother and infant gesture production. Specifically, it addresses the extent of articulation in the maternal gesture repertoire and how closely it supports the infant production of gestures. Eight Spanish mothers and their 1‐ and 2‐year‐old babies were studied during 1 year of observations. Maternal and child verbal production, gestures and actions were recorded at their homes on five occasions while performing daily routines. Results indicated that mother and child deictic gestures (pointing and instrumental) and representational gestures (symbolic and social) were very similar at each age group and did not decline across groups. Overall, deictic gestures were more frequent than representational gestures. Maternal adaptation to developmental changes is specific for gesturing but not for acting. Maternal and child speech were related positively to mother and child pointing and representational gestures, and negatively to mother and child instrumental gestures. Mother and child instrumental gestures were positively related to action production, after maternal and child speech was partialled out. Thus, language plays an important role for dyadic communicative activities (gesture–gesture relations) but not for dyadic motor activities (gesture–action relations). Finally, a comparison of the growth curves across sessions showed a closer correspondence for mother–child deictic gestures than for representational gestures. Overall, the results point to the existence of an articulated maternal gesture input that closely supports the child gesture production. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of intertrial interval, orientation, and adaptation on orientation discrimination measured with a yes-no signal detection paradigm

This paper describes a performance measure of lateral dominance, the Target Tests, which provides separate assessments of manual speed and accuracy within a relatively simple paper-and-pencil format. The Target Tests were administered to 111 normal adults, and scores were examined with respect to handedness, familial left-handedness, and sex. The tests significantly differentiated between right- and left-handers. Target scores were substantially correlated with the Harris Tests of Lateral Dominance, suggesting adequate reliability and validity. The means, standard deviations, and ranges for the preferred and nonpreferred hands for both handedness groups were nearly identical. The Target Tests provide a convenient instrument for assessing motoric lateralization of speed and accuracy in clinical and research settings.     

Physiological response and task performance in like- and cross-sex competition

The relationship between a subject's sex and his or her behavior in a competitive situation was examined. Male and female subjects completed three tasks, first by themselves and then against either a male or female competitor. A 2×2 design (sex of the subject × sex of the competitor) was thereby created. The dependent measures were the subject's performance and his or her heart rate during each task. Since the relationship between a subject's sex and competitive behavior was expected to be situationally specific, three different kinds of tasks were used: anagram, perceptual-motor, and arithmetical. Results were not consistent with predictions based on Horner's fear of success model (1968). Competition with either sex was found to increase performance level in both sexes on all three tasks. The only sex-related effect found to be consistent across tasks was that both male and female subjects had a greater increase in heart rate when competing against a male than when competing against a female. This heart rate increase was interpreted as an indicator of increased anxiety or arousal.This research was supported by a University of Pittsburgh, Faculty of Arts and Sciences research grant to the second author. The assistance of H. DeGood, L. Paul, and T. Rusiewicz in collection of the data presented here is gratefully acknowledged.     

Reading Against the Grain,Readings of Substitution: Catholic Books as Inspiration for Judaism in Early Modern Iberia

Forced conversion produced a large number of converts, many or at least some of whom sought to continue to practice their former religion. For many crypto-Jews and crypto-Muslims, polemical literature was actually a source of knowledge about their old religion—sometimes the only source. It was not unusual for Iberian New Christians, lacking access to Jewish or Islamic books, to make use of Catholic works either to gather information about Judaism and Islam or to borrow from their expressions of spirituality and piety. In this essay I explore the unintended readings and reception of polemical works among converts, in particular the Christian books of piety and devotion that persons of converso origin read and used in their own writings. In the end most of these books were included by the Inquisition and Church censors in the Index of Forbidden Books, affecting in this way the perception of these orthodox books by Catholic Church authorities. On the one hand, I am interested in how a heterodox (or Jewish or Muslim) spirituality could be constructed using Catholic books; on the other hand, in how this phenomenon had an impact on orthodox Catholics. I argue that Catholic books were sometimes condemned to the Index simply because they were read by New Christians who the Inquisition considered to be judaizers or crypto-Muslims.

     

Evaluating psychological injury in motor vehicle accidents (MVA): development and validation of a protocol for detecting pretense

In order to assess the feigning ability of the psychological injury in a motor vehicle accident (MVA), a total of 105 subjects, which never had suffered a serious MVA and lay in psychopathology, responded to the MMPI-2 in line with the standard instructions. Thereafter, subjects were instructed to feign moral damage generated by a MVA prior to being evaluated using a clinical-forensic interview a week later, and responding to the MMPI-2 another week later. The results show that 60.9% of the subjects were able to effectively feign moral damage on the MMPI-2, and 3.8% in the forensic clinical interview. The analysis of the instruments and procedures for the validation of subject responses i.e., the original validity control scales of the MMPI-2 and the analysis of feigning strategies in the forensic clinical interview, revealed no efficacy in feigning detection. Nevertheless, collectively, all the control measures and procedures were effective for the detection of feigning. Therefore, a protocol for the detection of feigning of moral damage has been proposed.     

The effects of message recipients' power before and after persuasion: a self-validation analysis

In the present research, the authors examined the effect of a message recipient's power on attitude change and introduced a new mechanism by which power can affect social judgment. In line with prior research that suggested a link between power and approach tendencies, the authors hypothesized that having power increases confidence relative to being powerless. After demonstrating this link in Experiment 1, in 4 additional studies, they examined the role of power in persuasion as a function of when power is infused into the persuasion process. On the basis of the idea that power validates whatever mental content is accessible, they hypothesized that power would have different effects on persuasion depending on when power was induced. Specifically, the authors predicted that making people feel powerful prior to a message would validate their existing views and thus reduce the perceived need to attend to subsequent information. However, it was hypothesized that inducing power after a message has been processed would validate one's recently generated thoughts and thus influence the extent to which people rely upon their thoughts in determining their attitudes.     

El lenguaje autista desde una perspectiva correlacional

Resumen

A pesar del interés reciente por las alteraciones del lenguaje en autismo infantil, es notable la carencia de investigaciones en que se analicen las correlaciones de las variables de lenguaje entre sí y con otra variables comportamentales. En este artículo se realiza tal análisis, correlacionando variables lingüísticas entre sí (L.M.E., complejidad estructural, comprensión, porcentaje de ecos y habla socializada, etc.) y con variables no lingüísticas (cociente global de desarrollo, niveles de imitación, percepción, motricidad, integración óculo-manual y cognitivo y cognitivo-verbal, P.P.O.D.). El análisis de los datos intragrupales permite identificar índices lingüísticos, de interés para guiar la evaluación clínica, porporciona una base para la valoración pronostica y permite situar las alteraciones de lenguaje en un contexto global de anomalías que afectan a la construcción de la conducta intencional, el desarrollo de los códigos simbólicos y las conductas de relación e interacción presimbólica.     

Investigating Predictors of Listening Comprehension in Third-, Seventh-, and Tenth-Grade Students: A Dominance Analysis Approach

This study rank ordered the contributive importance of several predictors of listening comprehension for third, seventh, and tenth graders. Principal components analyses revealed that a three-factor solution with fluency, reasoning, and working memory components provided the best fit across grade levels. Dominance analyses indicated that fluency and reasoning were the strongest predictors of third-grade listening comprehension. Reasoning emerged as the strongest predictor of seventh- and tenth-grade listening comprehension. These findings suggest a shift in the contributive importance of predictors to listening comprehension across development (i.e., grade levels). The implications of our findings for educators and researchers are discussed.