Validation of health locus of control patterns in Swedish adolescents

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationships between Health Locus of Control (HLOC) questionnaire subscales (Internal, Powerful Others, Chance) and self-esteem in Swedish adolescents (N = 506). Results from traditional correlational analyses were compared with findings using an alternative method of clustering individuals according to their pattern of scores on the three HLOC subscales. One-way analysis of variance, with eight possible groupings of high and/or low scores on the three subscales, indicated that those with a combination of strong belief in internal control of health, high degree of belief that health is determined by powerful others, and low degree of belief that health is a function of chance/luck had better self-esteem than those with a quite opposite pattern, involving high belief in chance and low belief in internal control. The potential benefit to researchers and clinicians of using this method of combining the HLOC subscales, instead of the traditional correlational method, is discussed.     

Temporal and atemporal truth in intuitionistic mathematics

In section 1 we argue that the adoption of a tenseless notion of truth entails a realistic view of propositions and provability. This view, in turn, opens the way to the intelligibility of theclassical meaning of the logical constants, and consequently is incompatible with the antirealism of orthodox intuitionism. In section 2 we show how what we call the potential intuitionistic meaning of the logical constants can be defined, on the one hand, by means of the notion of atemporal provability and, on the other, by means of the operator K of epistemic logic. Intuitionistic logic, as reconstructed within this perspective, turns out to be a part of epistemic logic, so that it loses its traditional foundational role, antithetic to that of classical logic. In section 3 we uphold the view that certain consequences of the adoption of atemporal notion of truth, despite their apparent oddity, are quite acceptable from an antirealist point of view.     

Caveats on a process-tracing measure and a remedy

In process-tracing studies, a frequently used index describes whether information selection behavior is attribute — or alternativewise. The performance of this index is investigated under the assumption that subjects select information in a random fashion. The results show that the index may lead to inaccurate conclusions regarding the information-acquisition strategy of a subject. In addition, a Monte Carlo study is conducted that examines the sensitivity of the index to strategy changes. An alternative index is derived and a latent-class model is proposed for a parsimonious representation of individual differences in information acquisition.     

Relations of Age to Cognitive and Motivational Elements of Impulse Control in Boys With and Without Externalizing Behavior Problems

In a cross-sectional study of 83 unmedicated boys, 6 to 16 years of age (M = 10.6, SD = 2.1), attending public (N = 48) and therapeutic schools for behaviorally disturbed children (N = 35), we examined relations of externalizing psychopathology to age-dependent change in performance on cognitive and motivational dimensions of impulse control assessed by laboratory tasks. When we controlled for internalizing symptoms and IQ or school achievement, all children showed improving competence with increasing age on both dimensions over the age range of the sample. Children with externalizing problems performed more poorly on both dimensions at all ages than children without such problems. Comparing age-dependent competence for the two groups, a model of convergent maturation in cognitive aspects of impulse control, and a model depicting a stable deficit in motivational aspects of impulse control in those children with externalizing behavior problems, relative to those without such problems, emerged. Studies of individual growth in impulse control, together with correlates of growth, are needed to validate these observations.Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods     

Facial reactions to different emotionally relevant stimuli

Facial EMG activity was measured from the Corrugator supercilii and the Zygomatic major muscle regions while 48 subjects were exposed to pictures of angry and happy facial expressions, snakes and flowers as well as low and high preference nature scenes. The valency perspective predicted that facial reactions should be related to the intensity of the positive and the negative valency of stimuli. The mimicking behavior approach predicted that facial reactions should only be reflected as a mimicking response to the facial stimuli, whereas the evolutionary:biological perspective predicted that the most clearcut positive and negative facial reactions should be evoked by facial stimuli and by snakes. In support of the latter perspective, the present results showed that angry faces and snakes evoked the most distinct Corrugator supercilii muscle response, whereas happy faces evoked the largest Zygomatic major muscle response.     

Modeling within-subject dependencies in ordinal paired comparison data

This paper presents two probabilistic models based on the logistic and the normal distribution for the analysis of dependencies in individual paired comparison judgments. It is argued that a core assumption of latent class choice models, independence of individual decisions, may not be well-suited for the analysis of paired comparison data. Instead, the analysis and interpretation of paired comparison data may be much simplified by allowing for within-person dependencies that result from repeated evaluations of the same options in different pairs. Moreover, by relating dependencies among the individual-level responses to (in)consistencies in the judgmental process, we show that the proposed graded paired comparison models reduce to ranking models under certain conditions. Three applications are presented to illustrate the approach.This research was partially supported by NSF grant SBR-9409531. The authors are grateful to the reviewers, Alan Agresti and Herbert Hoijtink for their helpful comments on this research.     

Constrained latent class analysis: Simultaneous classification and scaling of discrete choice data

A reparameterization of a latent class model is presented to simultaneously classify and scale nominal and ordered categorical choice data. Latent class-specific probabilities are constrained to be equal to the preference probabilities from a probabilistic ideal-point or vector model that yields a graphical, multidimensional representation of the classification results. In addition, background variables can be incorporated as an aid to interpreting the latent class-specific response probabilities. The analyses of synthetic and real data sets illustrate the proposed method.The authors thank Yosiho Takane, the editor and referees for their valuable suggestions. Authors are listed in reverse alphabetical order.     

Electro-aversion therapy of chronic alcoholism

Twenty-six male patients with severe chronic alcoholism were treated with electro-aversion therapy according to two different designs. At follow-up after 12 months, 24 per cent had not had any relapse requiring admissions to hospital, 12 per cent were lost during the follow-up period, and 64 per cent had relapses. Before treatment all the patients had been admitted to hospital several times a year.

Aversion therapy without supplementary treatment is indicated mainly for patients who have intact social relationships and regular work. Treatment of advanced states of alcoholism requires supplementary treatment in the form of anxiety-relieving methods, psychosocial support and teaching the patient new and alternative habits.     

DURATION OF SCOTOPIC CONTRAST HUES

STABELL, U. & STABELL, B. Duration of scotopic contrast hues. Scand. J. Psychol. , 1971, 12, 106–112.–It is generally accepted that following intense and prolonged bleaching, regeneration of cone pigments in man takes a few minutes to reach completion. The results show that the scotopic hue may remain visible for more than one hour. Hence, it is suggested that light signals and not bleaching signals produce the scotopic contrast hues.