Alcoholism and the Rorschach

This study attempts to cross validate 20 hypotheses reported over the past three decades professing to differentiate alcoholics from non-alcoholics using the Rorschach. Comparison groups (N = 25 each) were matched for age, sex, race, income and education, and diagnosis. Each S received the Rorschach and a test to rule out “organicity”. Rorschach scoring was consensually validated and Chi squares were performed for all twenty hypotheses. Through the careful selection and matching of control and experimental groups, only two significant differences were found, both in the direction opposite to that predicted. Non-alcoholics gave 4 or more water responses significantly more often than alcoholics (p < .05) and significantly more “high CF with C” scores (p < .05).     

An event-related brain potential investigation of PTSD and PTSD symptoms in abused children

We tested 186 children ranging in age from 6 years, 10 months to 13 years, 7 months; 174 suffered either physical and/or sexual abuse, and 12 were nonabused children. Abused subjects were grouped in four different ways. The primary grouping was based on whether subjects satisfied the DSM III-R criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Secondary groupings were based upon the three symptom clusters used to make the PTSD diagnosis (arousal, avaidance, and reexperiencing). In each of these groupings three separate subgroups were formed with approximately 25 percent in the high and low symptom count subgroups and the remaining 50 percent in the middle symptom count subgroup. Subjects listened to four different intensity levels (65, 80, 95, and 102 dB) of a 1 KHz tone, pseudo-randomly ordered, while event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded. Two separate blocks were used, one with short intervals (4±1 sec) between tones and the other with longer intervals (17±2 sec). PTSD subjects presented a greater P2-N2 ERP intensity gradient (i.e., a larger increase in the P2-N2 ERP component as tone intensity increased) than did abused subjects without PTSD. Abused subjects with the highest number of reexperiencing symptoms showed a similar P2-N2 augmenting effect when compared to those with the lowest number of reexperiencing symptoms. Subjects with the highest number of arousal symptoms showed a shallower intensity gradient for the N1-P2 ERP component than did those with fewer arousal symptoms. The results are discussed in relation to previous results reported on adults with PTSD and in terms of CNS processing of stimulus intensity information.     

Sleep Deprivation and Dating Aggression Perpetration in Female College Students: The Moderating Roles of Trait Aggression,Victimization by Partner,and Alcohol Use

Dating aggression, whether it is physical or psychological, is a major social concern. The background-situational model is highly predictive of dating aggression, but it lacks consideration of biopsychosocial processes. Sleep was investigated as one such process. A sample of 108 university undergraduate women completed objective (actigraphy) and subjective measures of sleep quality as well as self-reports of dating and trait aggression. Indicators of sleep deprivation were associated with greater frequency of dating aggression perpetration. Associations were especially strong when trait aggression and victimization by the partner were higher. Contrary to hypotheses, alcohol consumption did not significantly moderate the relation between sleep and women’s aggression perpetration. Less sleep was associated with women’s more frequent aggression toward their partners, perhaps because sleep deprivation causes difficulties with emotion regulation.     

Nathan w. ackerman as a therapist and individual: An interview with donald bloch and kitty la perriere

Abstract

In June 1984 the Eastern Virginia Family Therapy Institute sponsored a two-day conference with Paul Watzlawick which is reviewed in this issue by Robert Smith with an absorbing depth of focus, and a uniquely stimulating viewpoint. The puzzle of the persistence of behavior as well as the change of behavior has long intrigued philosophers and therapists, as well as other tacticians and strategists. The work from Palo Alto which was begun by Bateson, Jackson, Haley and Weakland has been carried on by Watzlawick and Fisch and others. This excellent review gives both theoreticians and clinicians a current perspective and challenge. -I. A.     

Why does the effect of short-SOA exogenous cuing on simple RT depend on the number of display locations?

When the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between the cue and target is short (i.e., less than 200 msec) and the number of display locations is small (e.g., only two), exogenous spatial cues produce a benefit in simple response time (RT). However, several recent experiments have found significant costs in these tasks when a large number of display locations is employed (e.g., eight), even at the very short SOAs that usually produce a benefit. The present study explored the dependence of exogenous cuing on the number of display locations and found evidence that both the overall validity of the cues and the specific validity of the cue on the previous trial have strong, additive effects. When a large number of display locations is used, both of these factorswork against a benefit of exogenous cuing on simple RT, reversing the typical finding into a cost. These two effects are suggested to occur within motor and perceptual processes, respectively.     

On the spatial metric of short-SOA costs of exogenous cuing

When the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between the cue and the target is short, exogenous spatial cues usually produce a response time benefit. However, consistent with several recent studies, we have found that a short stimulus onset asynchrony is not sufficient. At least one more factor--the number of cue and target locations--also plays a role. Even more interesting, when 8 cue and target locations are used, the effect of an exogenous cue produces a cost on valid cue trials, and the spatial metric of this negative cuing effect depends on whether the cue remains visible at target onset.     

Emotional eating and Pavlovian learning: evidence for conditioned appetitive responding to negative emotional states

Appetitive learning has been demonstrated several times using neutral cues or contexts as a predictor of food intake and it has been shown that humans easily learn cued desires for foods. It has, however, never been studied whether internal cues are also capable of appetitive conditioning. In this study, we tested whether humans can learn cued eating desires to negative moods as conditioned stimuli (CS), thereby offering a potential explanation of emotional eating (EE). Female participants were randomly presented with 10 different stimuli eliciting either negative or neutral emotional states, with one of these states paired with eating chocolate. Expectancy to eat, desire to eat, salivation, and unpleasantness of experiencing negative emotions were assessed. After conditioning, participants were brought into a negative emotional state and were asked to choose between money and chocolate. Data showed differential conditioned responding on the expectancy and desire measures, but not on salivation. Specific conditioned effects were obtained for participants with a higher BMI (body mass index) on the choice task, and for participants high on EE on the unpleasantness ratings. These findings provide the first experimental evidence for the idea that negative emotions can act as conditioned stimuli, and might suggest that classical conditioning is involved in EE.