Tatbilder schizophrener und wahnhafter Täter

Besides the ongoing discussion on whether persons with schizophrenia have a higher prevalence of criminal offences, it is also of special interest for the prognosis in this group of offenders whether there is a causal relationship between the schizophrenic disease and the type of delinquency. For the construction of causal relationships it is important to determine a typology of offences committed by schizophrenic persons. This article deals with the problem by analyzing the offences of 133 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, schizo-affective and delusional disorders at the Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe (LWL) Center for Forensic Psychiatry in Lippstadt.     

Auditory color constancy: Calibration to reliable spectral properties across nonspeech context and targets

Brief experience with reliable spectral characteristics of a listening context can markedly alter perception of subsequent speech sounds, and parallels have been drawn between auditory compensation for listening context and visual color constancy. In order to better evaluate such an analogy, the generality of acoustic context effects for sounds with spectral-temporal compositions distinct from speech was investigated. Listeners identified nonspeech sounds—extensively edited samples produced by a French horn and a tenor saxophone—following either resynthesized speech or a short passage of music. Preceding contexts were “colored” by spectral envelope difference filters, which were created to emphasize differences between French horn and saxophone spectra. Listeners were more likely to report hearing a saxophone when the stimulus followed a context filtered to emphasize spectral characteristics of the French horn, and vice versa. Despite clear changes in apparent acoustic source, the auditory system calibrated to relatively predictable spectral characteristics of filtered context, differentially affecting perception of subsequent target nonspeech sounds. This calibration to listening context and relative indifference to acoustic sources operates much like visual color constancy, for which reliable properties of the spectrum of illumination are factored out of perception of color.     

Sources of Variance in Personality Facets: A Multiple‐Rater Twin Study of Self‐Peer,Peer‐Peer,and Self‐Self (Dis)Agreement

ABSTRACT This study considered the validity of the personality structure based on the Five‐Factor Model using both self‐ and peer reports on twins' NEO‐PI‐R facets. Separating common from specific genetic variance in self‐ and peer reports, this study examined genetic substance of different trait levels and rater‐specific perspectives relating to personality judgments. Data of 919 twin pairs were analyzed using a multiple‐rater twin model to disentangle genetic and environmental effects on domain‐level trait, facet‐specific trait, and rater‐specific variance. About two thirds of both the domain‐level trait variance and the facet‐specific trait variance was attributable to genetic factors. This suggests that the more personality is measured accurately, the better these measures reflect the genetic structure. Specific variance in self‐ and peer reports also showed modest to substantial genetic influence. This may indicate not only genetically influenced self‐rater biases but also substance components specific for self‐ and peer raters' perspectives on traits actually measured.     

Comparison of Eleven Short Versions of the Symptom Checklist 90-Revised (SCL-90-R) for Use in the Assessment of General Psychopathology

Eleven short versions of the Symptom Checklist (SCL-90-R) assessing general psychopathology, containing 5 to 53 items, were compared on the basis of data from a sample of one hundred mothers of 0-to-6-year-old children referred for treatment at a Child Psychiatric Family Day Hospital in Münster, Germany. The SCL short versions were compared with regard to internal consistency, sensitivity and specificity, ability to distinguish between subjects by a new test index (PDTS), and association with indicators of validity (SCL-90-R Global Severity Index, BDI scores). All short versions showed almost equally high internal consistency, sensitivity and specificity, and high correlations with validity indices. The PDTS test index describes a ‘good’ ability of the original SCL-90-R to differentiate between subjects, a ‘moderate’ performance for the BSI, the HSCL-25 and the SCL-27, and a ‘poor’ performance of the very short forms—according to the standards of interpreting PDTS scores. The SCL-10S is recommended for screening purposes because this scale represented the best compromise between economy and accuracy. However, for other research and clinical purposes, the use of one of the longer short versions (BSI, HSCL-25, or SCL-27) is recommended because of their superior discriminative ability.     

A Matlab function to estimate choice model parameters from paired-comparison data.

Tversky (1972) has proposed a family of models for paired-comparison data that generalize the Bradley-Terry-Luce (BTL) model and can, therefore, apply to a diversity of situations in which the BTL model is doomed to fail. In this article, we present a Matlab function that makes it easy to specify any of these general models (EBA, Pretree, or BTL) and to estimate their parameters. The program eliminates the time-consuming task of constructing the likelihood function by hand for every single model. The usage of the program is illustrated by several examples. Features of the algorithm are outlined. The purpose of this article is to facilitate the use of probabilistic choice models in the analysis of data resulting from paired comparisons.     

Positive Affectivity and Collective Efficacy as Moderators of the Relationship Between Perceived Politics and Job Satisfaction

This study explores the moderating potential of positive affectivity (PA) and perceived collective efficacy (PCE) on the relationship between 3 dimensions of politics perceptions and job satisfaction. We hypothesized that high levels of PA and PCE, in unison, would buffer the harmful effects of perceived politics on job satisfaction. Regression analyses for the 3 dimensions (i.e., general politics, go along to get along, and pay and promotion) yielded a significant finding for the PA × PCE × Go Along to Get Along 3-way interaction only. Consistent with our expectations, low PA-low PCE individuals were less satisfied with their jobs when levels of go-along-to-get-along politics increased. Contrary to our hypothesis, however, high PA-high PCE individuals reported a significant inverse relationship between perceived politics and job satisfaction. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are provided.     

Religious Participation and Network Closure Among American Adolescents

A large body of empirical studies shows that religion often serves as a factor promoting positive, healthy outcomes in the lives of American adolescents. This research note reports findings of one test of a "network closure" explanation of these religious effects. It uses the national Survey of Parents and Youth (1998–1999) data to examine the relationship between religious participation and five measures of network closure. The findings support the hypothesis that participation in American religious congregations increases network closure between the parents of youth and their children's friends, their children's friends' parents, and their children's teachers.