Rorschach content interpretation in post-traumatic stress disorders: a reply to Carr

In traumatized patients, Rorschach responses draw from a variety of sources, including the traumatic event itself, past and current experiences, and internal fantasy. As complex and highly condensed mental constructions, these responses often serve to reveal the meaning of the trauma in terms of the patient's prevailing personality conflicts. In many cases, this meaning may be hidden in the response's distortion of or elaboration on images drawn from the actual event.     

Updating Norman's "Adequate Taxonomy": intelligence and personality dimensions in natural language and in questionnaires

Research on the dimensions of personality represented in the English language has repeatedly led to the identification of five factors (Norman, 1963). An alternative classification of personality traits, based on analyses of standardized questionnaires, is provided by the NEO (Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness) model (Costa & McCrae, 1980b). In this study we examined the correspondence between these two systems in order to evaluate their comprehensiveness as models of personality. A sample of 498 men and women, participants in a longitudinal study of aging, completed an instrument containing 80 adjective pairs, which included 40 pairs proposed by Goldberg to measure the five dimensions. Neuroticism and extraversion factors from these items showed substantial correlations with corresponding NEO Inventory scales; however, analyses that included psychometric measures of intelligence suggested that the fifth factor in the Norman structure should be reconceptualized as openness to experience. Convergent correlations above .50 with spouse ratings on the NEO Inventory that were made three years earlier confirmed these relations across time, instrument, and source of data. We discuss the relations among culture, conscientiousness, openness, and intelligence, and we conclude that mental ability is a separate factor, though related to openness to experience.     

Another look at sex stereotypes and social judgments: an analysis of the social perceiver's use of subjective probabilities

Locksley, Borgida, Brekke, and Hepburn (1980) assert that subjects fall prey to the base-rate fallacy when they make stereotype-related trait judgments. They found that subjects ignored their stereotypes when trait judgments were made in the presence of trait-related behavioral information. The present article reexamines those findings with respect to two issues: (a) the use of a normative criterion in comparison with subjects' judgments and (b) the level of analysis (group vs. individual) of subjects' judgments. We conducted a replication of the Locksley et al. (1980) Study 2, and the results were examined with respect to these two issues. We found no support for the base-rate fallacy. When a Bayesian normative criterion was constructed for each subject based on the subject's own stereotype judgments and was compared with assertiveness judgments made in the presence of individuating information, there was no evidence that subjects ignored or underused their stereotypes as the base-rate fallacy predicts.     

Distinguishing child diagnostic types with early memories

The present study attempts to correct design weaknesses in earlier studies which assessed the use of early memories (EMs) in identifying psychopathology in children. A new EM scoring system, the CEMSS, was developed to provide an objective, comprehensive analysis of the reported EMs. Subjects were 64 boys, SES IV and V, 8 through 12 years old from four diagnostic groups--Delinquent, Hyperactive, Somatic Complaints, and Schizoid. Overall, the CEMSS provided an effective means to distinguish the diagnostic groups, p less than or equal to .01. The results suggest that content variables best distinguished the type of presenting psychopathology, whereas an earlier study found that structural EM variables most reliably identified the degree of psychopathology.     

Pessimistic self-preoccupation, performance deficits, and depression

Three studies are presented testing a model of the cognitive performance deficits shown in depression. The model proposes that such deficits occur as an interaction of expectancy and focus of attention variables, that is, in the presence of both low expectancy of success and high self-focus. Study 1 was a pilot study which documented that depressed undergraduates evidence poorer anagram performance, greater self-focus, and lower pretask expectancies than do nondepressed subjects. Study 2 showed that nondepressed undergraduates evidence performance deficits only when both expectancy is lowered and self-focus is increased. Study 3 suggested that depressed undergraduates' performance deficits are overcome either by lowering self-focus or by raising expectancy. Discussed are discrepancies between self-report and performance data, the relevance of these studies to the test anxiety literature, the need to integrate literature concerning the effects of depression, anxiety, and self-esteem on performance, and how the interactive roles of positive expectancy and focus of attention may be related to effective coping in a variety of situations.     

The growth of stability: postural control from a development perspective

This study compared central nervous system organizational processes underlying balance in children of three age groups: 15-31 months, 4-6 years, and 7-10 years, using a movable platform capable of antero-posterior (A-P) displacements or dorsi-plantar flexing rotations of the ankle joint. A servo system capable of linking platform rotations to A-P sway angle allowed disruption of ankle joint inputs, to test the effects of incongruent sensory inputs on response patterns. Surface electromyography was used to quantify latency and response patterns. Surface electromyography was used to quantify latency and amplitude of the gastrocnemius, hamstrings, tibialis anterior, and quadriceps muscle responses. Cinematography provided biomechanical analysis of the sway motion. Results demonstrated that while directionally specific response synergies are present in children under the age of six, structured organization of the synergies is not yet fully developed since variability in timing and amplitude relationships between proximal and distal muscles is high. Transition from immature to mature response patterns was not linear but stage-like with greatest variability in the 4- to 6- year-old children. Results from balance tests under altered sensory conditions (eyes closed and/or ankle joint inputs altered) suggested that: (a) with development a shift in controlling inputs to posture from visual dependence to more adult-like dependence on a combination of ankle joint and visual inputs occurred in the 4- to 6-year-old, and reached adult form in the 7- to 10-year-old age group. It is proposed that the age 4-6 is a transition period in the development of posture control. At this time the nervous system (a) uses visual-vestibular inputs to fine tune ankle-joint proprioception in preparation for its increased importance in posture control and (b) fine tunes the structural organization of the postural synergies themselves.     

Reflex responses of human lip muscles to mechanical stimulation during speech

The role played by reflex pathways in the production of movement has been a significant issue for motor control theorists interested in a wide variety of motor behaviors. From studies of locomotion and chewing, it appears that gains in reflex pathways can be altered so that activity in these pathways does not produce destabilizing responses during movement. In speech production, recent experimental evidence has been interpreted to suggest that autogenetic lip reflexes (perioral reflexes) are suppressed during sustained phonation or speech production. The present study was conducted to assess the effects of phonation, direction of movement, and ongoing speech production on reflex responses of lip muscles. The present results suggest, in contrast to earlier work, that this reflex pathway is not suppressed or absent because the amplitude of the observed response depends upon the activation levels of the various muscles of the lower lip and, therefore, indirectly on the nature of the gesture the subject is instructed to produce.     

Evidence for extending the circumplex model of personality trait language to self-reported moods

We show that self-ratings by 141 undergraduates on 17 items form a circumplex that closely agrees with Conte and Plutchik's (1981) circumplex of personality traits. The order of items on a circumplex, generated by self-ratings following a here-and-now instruction set, scarcely differs from that of a circumplex representing the same ratings averaged over a 2-week period. The configuration becomes more elliptical as one moves from the state-like measures (here-and-now ratings) to pure trait measures (averages), but measurement bias is shown to be the most probable cause of the distortion. Allowing for the limitations of small samples of items and raters, the findings show that the circumplex model represents a valid theoretical construct and does not arise from measurement error or from an illusory implicit personality theory.     

Passive avoidance in syndromes of disinhibition: psychopathy and extraversion

According to the physiological animal model proposed by Gorenstein and Newman (1980; see also Newman, Gorenstein, & Kelsey, 1983), psychopaths and extraverts may be characterized by a common psychological diathesis related to behavioral inhibition (see also Fowles, 1980; Gray, 1982). One aspect of this diathesis involves deficient passive avoidance learning, which has been central to explanations of "unsocialized" (e.g., Trasler, 1978) and antisocial behavior (e.g., Hare, 1970). Results from three experiments supported our prediction that psychopaths and extraverts would exhibit deficient passive avoidance relative to nonpsychopaths and introverts, respectively. In addition, the passive avoidance deficit was particularly evident in tasks that required subjects to inhibit a rewarded response in order to avoid punishment. The latter finding may be important for explaining the inconsistent results regarding passive avoidance learning in psychopaths (e.g., Chesno & Kilmann, 1975; Schmauk, 1970). Discussion of the results focuses on the importance of reward in mediating the passive avoidance deficit of "disinhibited" individuals and on the existence of an indirect relationship between psychopathy and extraversion: one that is consistent with the observed experimental parallels as well as with the more ambiguous evidence regarding a direct correlation between measures of the two syndromes.     

A factor analytic investigation of children's nighttime fear and coping responses

Checklists of children's nighttime fears and nighttime coping responses, completed by 178 8- to 13-year-old children and one of their parents, were factor analyzed. The resulting factors from each checklist were comparable for children and parents. The nighttime fear categories consisted of content around security either for one's personal life, loss, or safety or for others' safety and continued presence; imaginal-numinous concerns; and characteristics inherent in a nighttime situation. The coping categories consisted of responses related to internal self-control, social support, support from inanimate objects, prayer, and avoidance or escape either by controlling the inanimate environment or by controlling others.