Modeling unipolar depression as a chaotic process

This study inspected the deterministic structure of unipolar depression. Two women self-monitored sadness hourly 10 times a day for 6 months. One woman had a recurrent history of unipolar depression, and the other did not. Data were analyzed by visual inspection, examination of the Fourier transforms of the time plots, and the correlation dimension. Results suggested that in addition to a strong periodic component that existed only within the depressed subject's mood time series, a low-dimensional chaotic process might have been operating. In the nondepressed control subject, no such periodicity or process could be identified. The findings support maladaptive deterministic theories of mood disorders and have implications for the assessment of unipolar depression.     

Respect for the developmentally disabled and forgoing life-sustaining treatment

A developmentally disabled person should be treated at all times as a unique individual and not as some anonymous "disabled person." The developmentally disabled should not be subjected to invasive medical treatment that is unduly burdensome or nonbeneficial, or be forced to endure a quality of life not meaningful to them as individuals. They have a right to refuse or accept treatment that a surrogate must exercise on behalf of each individual in a responsible and careful manner. Three cases and a preliminary approach to the ethical analysis of decisions to allow developmentally disabled persons to die by forgoing medical treatment are offered. The "best interests" of a developmentally disabled individual, properly understood, can serve as a useful and ethically defensible standard for determining the ethical propriety of surrogate decision making about forgoing life-sustaining medical treatment of the disabled.     

Individual differences in the responses of naïve rhesus monkeys to snakes

The authors demonstrated individual differences in inhibited behavior and withdrawal responses of laboratory-born rhesus monkeys when initially exposed to a snake. Most monkeys displayed a small significant increase in their behavioral inhibition in the presence of a snake. A few monkeys had marked responses, and some actively withdrew. Although the responses of the most extreme laboratory-born monkeys were comparable to feral-born monkeys, the responses of the laboratory-born monkeys rapidly habituated. The individual differences in the responses of na?ve monkeys likely reflect a continuum from orienting to wariness to fear. A neurobiological model is presented that addresses potential mechanisms underlying these individual differences, their relation to fear, and how they may predispose to phobia development.     

Inductive and Explanatory Irrelevance

Philosophical Studies -     

Attributions and affective reactions of family members and course of schizophrenia.

The authors tested an attribution-affect model of schizophrenic relapse attending to the role of families' positive affect (warmth) and negative affect (criticism). Coders listened to interviews of 40 family members taken from C. E. Vaughn, K. S. Synder, S. Jones, W. B. Freeman, and I. R. Falloon (1984) and rated their attributions of controllability for the symptoms and behaviors of their relatives with schizophrenia. For family members not designated as emotionally overinvolved, perceptions that their ill relatives' symptoms and behaviors were under the patients' control were related to family members' warmth and criticism and to patients' clinical outcomes. Of the affective reactions, only criticism predicted outcome. In addition, patients' use of street drugs was related to attributions, criticism, and outcome. Together these findings suggest that families' attributions and criticism are important in understanding the relationship between family factors and course of illness.     

The Microanalysis of Memory Span and Its Development in Childhood

It is not clear from the literature why, as children develop, there are important increases in memory span, the number of just-presented items that the participant can repeat in the correct serial order. To understand this, some recent results on capacity limits and processing rates were re-analyzed. We first describe results using a conventional measure of performance in immediate memory tasks that is affected by the list length (proportion correct). Next we describe results using a less conventional measure (number correct) that is unaffected by list length under circumstances in which attention to the list during its presentation is curtailed. This measure can estimate an individual's limited-capacity storage ability. Last, we examine measures of spoken response timing that do and do not change with list length. We show that unconventional measures that do not change with list length, but do change with development, are especially useful in assessing basic changes in information processing parameters, including increases in memory capacity and processing speed.     

Affording Emerging Adulthood: Parental Financial Assistance of their College-Aged Children

The purpose of this study was to examine parents’ attitudes about and patterns of providing financial assistance to their children during college, and how varying levels of parental financial support were related to children’s beliefs (e.g., perceptions of adulthood), behaviors (e.g., work hours, drinking, and drug use), and identity development. The sample consisted of 402 undergraduate students (62% women) recruited from four college sites across the United States (M age = 19.89), and one of their parents (310 mothers and 92 fathers). Using cluster analysis, results suggested four distinct approaches to parental financial involvement and found that emerging adults’ beliefs, behaviors, and identity development differed as a function of parents’ cluster membership. Discussion focuses on implications for emerging adult children whose parents endorse varying levels of financial involvement.