Cognitive dysfunction in compulsive checkers: Further explorations

Recent evidence suggests a relationship between certain memory deficits and compulsive-checking behavior. The present study explores this relationship in the context of several additional memory capacities not yet investigated. Using the Maudsley Obsessional-Compulsive Inventory and the Everyday Checking Behavior Scale four groups of Ss were identified: (1) frequent checkers, (2) occasional checkers, (3) infrequent checkers and (4) noncheckers. Consistent with previous research, a memory-for-actions task indicated a deficit among compulsive checkers. Furthermore, checking status was found to be negatively related to memory functioning as measured by the Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS) and the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ). This memory deficit was most pronounced on the Logical Memory subtest of the WMS. Checkers appear to have difficulty recalling details of meaningfully linked sequences, either presented in narrative form or engaged in personally. Although the reasons for these checking-related deficits are not clear, a complete understanding of checking phenomena will involve an appreciation of the role played by memory deficits.     

Generalization and maintenance of the reduction of self-injurious behavior maintained by two types of reinforcement

The self-injurious forehead-gouging behavior that had resulted in blindness for a profoundly retarded 27-yr-old male was successfully treated using a combination of differential reinforcement of incompatible behavior during unstructured situations and prevention of escape during compliance situations. After self-injurious behavior was reduced to a low frequency, a reduction of his daily dose of chloral hydrate was accompanied by a large increase in self-injury, but the behavior gradually returned to its previous low level. A large increase in self-injury also occurred following transfer to another living unit, but the behavior again decreased to a low frequency. Treatment gains were maintained following transfer to another residential facility with follow-up observations occurring at 1, 2, 8, 15, 22, 27 and 35 months. The multiple determination of self-injurious behavior in this one S highlights the behavioral complexity of some of these behaviors.     

Physiological and psychological effects of acute intentional hyperventilation

Research is reviewed which suggests that hyperventilation syndrome is an underdiagnosed disorder for the presentation of many patients experiencing apparent anxiety states. In a test of this hypothesis, 21 normal individuals (9 female) underwent a 2 min period of intentional hyperventilation following a 10 min baseline phase. Hyperventilation was accompanied by increased subjective anxiety and tachycardia, and indications of peripheral vasoconstriction. Following hyperventilation, Ss experienced increased levels of state anxiety and perceived autonomic arousal, as indexed by self-report instruments. These results support the hypothesis that undiagnosed hyperventilatory phenomena may be etiologically implicated in states of pathologic anxiety.     

The Ramsay Family in Virginia Woolf''s To the Lighthouse: A Study of Arrest at Stage Three of Family Development as Delineated in Solomon''s "A Developmental, Conceptual Premise for Family Therapy"

The five stages of family development and their phase-specific tasks as delineated by Michael A. Solomon in an article that appeared in this journal (1973) are given dramatic representation by Virginia Woolf in her novel To the Lighthouse (1927). The novel begins with the Ramsay family system arrested at the third stage of development; and it is only after the death of Mrs. Ramsay that the remaining family members begin to attend to the phase-specific tasks of stages four and five, and family development commences.     

The Concept of Collusion: A Combined Systemic-Psychodynamic Approach to Marital Therapy

The author presents some new theoretical aspects and therapeutic implications of the concept of Couples in Collusion, (22), first published in 1975. According to this concept, the emotional attraction in the selection of a mate is based on a fascinating, mutual, and alarming theme, shared by both partners in order to be mastered together. The partners unavowedly start colluding to compensate for former frustrations and to repress fears of intimacy. After some time of living together and in defense of repressed feelings, they may enter into an escalation of the dysfunctional interactional pattern. Experience shows that severely neurotic personalities don't necessarily start colluding, provided that their partners don't gratify regressive needs or reinforce their defenses but help to cope with the frustrations of these unfulfilled regressive wishes. Therapies based on the concept of collusion aim at the improvement of intradyadic and extradyadic boundaries and the depolarization of extreme progressive-regressive behavior. These goals can be reached by both systemic and psychodynamic techniques. The concept of collusion may serve as a guide for this therapeutic process.     

THE IMPACT OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING ON EDUCATIONAL AND PERSONNEL SELECTION IN AFRICA

Psychological testing for Education and Personnel selection is of great importance in the efforts by many African countries to ensure that suitable candidates are selected for education beyond the primary school level and for training for different employment. Major investigations directed to this need have been in the area of adapting tests already available in Western countries and determining the reliability and predictive validity of battery of tests so adapted and their tryout in African schools to determine their efficiency as tools for selection.