How (not) to evaluate the comparability of MMPI and MMPI-2 profile configurations: a reply to Humphrey and Dahlstrom

Humphrey and Dahlstrom (1995) presented a study on the comparability of MMPI/MMPI-2 (Butcher, Dahlstrom, Graham, Tellegen, & Kaemmer, 1989) profiles in which they concluded that "the bases for clinical interpretation derived from the MMPI and MMPI-2 profiles were sufficiently at variance to require different conclusions" [sic] (p. 2). In this brief critique, we identify procedural and data-analytical deficiencies that invalidate Humphrey and Dahlstrom's argument. Their blanket recommendation based on this argument, namely, that clinicians routinely plot both MMPI and MMPI-2 profiles, is unwarranted.     

On the Nature of Embarrassabllity: Shyness, Social Evaluation, and Social Skill

In this study, the correlates of embarrassability, or chronic susceptibility to embarrassment, were examined. Competing theoretical models suggest either that embarrassable people should be especially concerned about others' evaluations of them or that they should lack social skills. Further, shyness and embarrassment are typically considered to be closely related states. To test these propositions, 310 participants provided extensive self-reports of social skill, fear of negative evaluation, self-esteem, self-consciousness, and negative affectivity. Regression and factor analyses indicated that, compared to those of low embarrassability, highly embarrassable people are particularly concerned with the normative appropriateness of behavior and are more motivated to avoid rejection from others. In contrast, shyness was best predicted by low social self-confidence and low social skill. The data best support a social-evaluation model of embarrassment and argue that embarrassability is linked to the appropriateness of social behavior, and shyness to its effectiveness.     

Are All Hostility Scales Alike? Factor Structure and Covariation Among Measures of Hostility1

Few studies have examined the correlational and structural relationships between measures of hostility that may predict coronary heart disease. Using data from a population-based study (N= 2,682), we examined the factor structure among the five subscales from Siegel's (1986) Multi-dimensional Anger Inventory, the three subscales from Spielberger et al.'s (1985) anger expression scales, a Cook-Medley (Cook & Madley, 1954) hostility subscale that measures cynicism, and items measuring hostility from four scales that assess Type A behavior. Eight separate factors were identified: hostile anger expression, perceived control over the expression of one's anger, frequency of anger, ease of anger provocation, brooding, hostile outlook, cynicism, and sullenness. These results suggest that the structure of hostility measures is more complex than previous factor analyses have suggested. Our findings point to the dangers in assuming that a factor structure can be generalized beyond the data on which it is based to provide theoretical statements about psychological structure. The new scales appear to be valid because they correlate with demographic variables and indicators of social support in the expected directions.     

Behavioral Intentions: Which Ones Predict Fertility Behavior in Married Couples?1

The published literature on the relationship between behavioral intentions and fertility behavior exhibits four major problems: inconsistent and confusing use of theoretical constructs, limited use of different types of intentions, use of nonbehavioral outcomes, and failure to explore adequately the couple aspects of the intentions/behavior relationship. The study reported here addresses these problems by using a theoretical framework that characterizes the psychological/behavioral sequence leading to a planned conception, three different types of fertility intentions, a behavioral outcome variable, and data from 196 married couples with no children and 185 married couples with one child. Data analysis results in a simultaneous equation, constrained regression model which indicates that child-timing intentions are the most important predictors of proceptive behavior over a 3-1/2 year period and that childbearing intentions are next in importance; that behavioral intentions are the final common pathway through which fertility motivations, attitudes, beliefs, and desires affect behavior; that the use of proceptive behavior as an outcome variable improves the explanatory power of our models; and that the interaction of couple intentions do not demonstrate greater husband or wife influence over couple proceptive behavior but do demonstrate that disagreement has a delaying effect on the onset of that behavior.     

Spiritual journeys in aging: A buddhist view

The spiritual journey of a Buddhist devotee is a continual exploration of the truth of interdependence which Siddhartha Gautama realized to become the Buddha, “the Enlightened One.” On the morning of the enlightenment, the Buddha apprehended the truth that all things and all beings are interconnected and mutually dependent in time and space. One measure of the spiritual maturity of the Buddhist devotee is his or her appreciation for the profound responsibilities and gratitude we share for all things. To illustrate the significance of interdependence in our lives, the author turns to the wisdom contained inVital Involvement in Old Age by Erik and Joan Erikson and Helen Q. Kivnick.     

Taking an individualized approach to the assessment of self-efficacy and the prediction of alcoholic relapse

The present study reports on a clinical instrument designed for assessing self-efficacy in alcoholics. In contrast to studies that construct general measures, it was proposed that taking an individualized approach to assessment might offer an effective methodology. Thirty-four alcoholics in an outpatient, behaviorally oriented treatment program participated as subjects. During therapy, an Individualized Self-Efficacy Survey (ISS) was developed for each subject. The ISS was developed by (a) administering the Drinking Patterns Questionnaire (DPQ) to identify important problem areas (e.g., work, children, marital) and specific drinking antecedents and (b) constructing a 15-item scale using each drinker's most important cues. The utility of having clients choose their own items was supported by finding a significant relationship between problem areas identified as important on the DPQ and the areas reported as surrounding relapse. ISS ratings were reflective of efficacy changes during treatment, while posttreatment ISS scores were predictive of subsequent relapse. Situation-specific prediction of relapse was not found. The advantages of this methodology for clinical use are discussed, while general directions for future research are suggested.     

ADULTS LISTEN SELECTIVELY; INFANTS DO NOT

Abstract— Infants' auditory detection thresholds are higher than adult thresh olds. Since adults listen selectively for an expected test tone frequency, and selective listening improves their detection performance, one hypothesis about why infant thresholds are high is that infants do not listen selectively. This hypothesis was tested by obtaining listening bands from adults and from 7- to 9-month-old infants. The results replicate earlier findings that adults listen selectively but indicate that infants do not. Lack of selective listening likely contributes to infants' high thresholds. Further, the finding that infants and adults have different listening strategies has implications for infants' auditory perception in general.     

Opportunity,opportunism, and progress:Kairos in the rhetoric of technology

As the principle of timing or opportunity,kairos serves both as a powerful theme within technological discourse and as an analytical concept that explains some of the suasory force by which such discourse maintains itself and its position in our culture. This essay makes a case for a rhetoric of technology that is distinct from the rhetoric of science and illustrates the value of the classical vocabulary for understanding contemporary rhetoric. This case is made by examining images and models of technological change that underlie and justify the thematizations ofkairos that appear in so much technological discourse and by exploring the phenomenon of technological forecasting, in which the characterization and construction of moments in the present are crucial to the projection of the future. One example of forecasting is examined in detail: the Japanese Fifth Generation computer project, which illustrates the twin themes of opportunity and threat.     

Attentional effects on concurrent psychophysical discriminations: Investigations of a sample-size model

In two experiments, a concurrent discrimination paradigm was used to study the effects of visual attention on psychophysical judgments and the consistency of these effects with a sample-size model in which attention influences the variance of the internal representation used to make psychophysical judgments. Two pairs of lines were presented simultaneously—one on each side of fixation—and subjects had to indicate for each pair separately whether or not the lines had the same length. Attention was manipulated by instructing subjects to pay 100%, 75%, 50%, 25%, or 0% of their attention to the discrimination on one side, with the complementary amount of attention to the other side. In the first experiment, the relationship between attention and discrimination accuracy was consistent with the sample-size model both when attentional allocation varied from trial to trial and when it varied between blocks, and the relationship held over more widely varying attentional allocations than had previously been studied. In addition, discriminations were more accurate overall with varied than with blocked attentional allocation, suggesting that the two types of allocation do not merely differ in the degree to which attention is focused. The second experiment examined the effects of attentional allocation and stimulus variance, the latter being manipulated by randomly incrementing or decrementing line lengths. These manipulations had additive effects on total Thurstonian variance, and a version of the samplesize model gave an excellent quantitative fit to the obtained results. Besides supporting the samplesize model, the results of Experiment 2 suggest that criterion variance is at least as large as sensory variance and that criterion but not sensory variance increases with stimulus variance.     

The temporal selectivity of additive factor effects on the reaction process revealed in ERP component latencies

An experiment was conducted to relate individual components of the event-related brain potential to specific stages of information processing in a two-choice reaction time (RT) task in a group of undergraduate students. Specifically, the latency of the P300 component and the lateralized readiness potential (LRP) were studied as a function of variations in stimulus degradation and response complexity. It was hypothesized that degrading the stimulus would delay the P300 and LRP to the same extent as RT, and that increasing response complexity would affect RT but not P300 latency. The extant literature did not permit any hypothesis regarding the effect of response complexity on LRP latency. The two task variables were found to have additive effects on RT. As predicted, variations in stimulus degradation influenced the latencies of both components, whereas alterations in response complexity had no effect on P300 latency. A significant new finding was that the onset latency of the LRP remained unchanged across levels of response complexity. The overall pattern of results supports the notion of temporal selectivity of stage manipulations that is derived from discrete stage models of human information processing. Furthermore, these results refine the functional interpretation of the LRP by indicating that within the conceptual framework of a stage model the processes this component indexes succeed the start of response choice but precede the start of motor programming.