Function-altering effects of contingency-specifying stimuli

Contingengy-specifying stimuli (CSSs) can function differently than discriminative stimuli. Rather than evoking behavior due to a history of discrimination training, they alter the function of other stimuli and, therefore, the behavioral relations involving those stimuli. CSSs can alter the evocative function of discriminative stimuli, establishing operations, and conditional stimuli, as well as the efficacy of reinforcing and punishing stimuli and of stimuli that can function in second-order respondent conditioning. The concept of function-altering CSSs has implications for such areas of interest as stimulus equivalence, the terminology involving "rules" and "rule-governed behavior," and the way in which behavior analysts view the effects of such basic processes as reinforcement and punishment.     

Preliminary Steps in the Development of a Screening Instrument To Assess Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

The authors demonstrate the complexities and processes involved in constructing a screening test for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Discussion includes item development, field testing, and preliminary results.     

Toward a predictive model of suicidal ideation and behavior: some preliminary data in college students

Within a multivariate statistical design, the relationship of various interpersonal, emotional, and cognitive variables to suicidal ideation and behavior in college students was examined. A total of 158 subjects (58 males, 100 females) completed self-report measures of life stress, faulty cognitions, loneliness, depression, hopelessness, family cohesiveness, adaptive reasons for living, and suicidal ideation and behavior. The results of a multiple-regression analysis, forward-inclusion algorithm, indicated that a predictive equation consisting of loneliness, irrational beliefs, and low adaptive reasons for living best accounted for suicidal behavior scores. To determine the basic structures and power of the predictor variables under study, a factor analysis and composite regression were employed, resulting in a predictive equation consisting of three factors: Social/Emotional Alienation, Cognitive Distortions, and Deficient Adaptive Resources. Results are discussed in terms of an interactional model of suicidal behavior.     

Family planning needs and behavior of Mexican American women: a study of health care professionals and their clientele

"A random sample of Mexican American women and a sample of family planning health care professionals, both from two major southwestern cities in the United States, were compared in terms of their reports of birth control methods used, problems in obtaining family planning services, and values involved in making fertility-related decisions, within the Mexican American population.... While there were points of agreement between the two samples, discrepancies were found in reports of problems in obtaining family planning services, fertility-related values, and in the acceptability of female sterilization as a birth control method. It was concluded that family planning professionals in these service areas tend to stereotype Mexican American women, and may not yet realize that the family planning attitudes and behavior of these women are probably changing in significant ways." (SUMMARY IN SPA)     

INAUGURATING POSTCRITICAL PHILOSOPHY: A POLANYIAN MEDITATION ON CREATION AND CONVERSION IN AUGUSTINE'S CONFESSIONS

Abstract. Michael Polanyi names Augustine as inaugurates of his "postcritical"philosophy. To understand what this means by exploring creation in the Confessions will clarify complex problems in Augustine and articulate theological implications in Polanyi. Specifically, it will show why an autobiographical account of conversion ends speaking of creation; how creation can thus be understood as "personal" language; how creation can be recovered in a time preoccupied with conversion; how conversion and creation are linked with incarnation, hermeneutics, and confessional rhetoric; and it will suggest a contemporary use of creation language that connects the scientific and the religious.     

Status of perfusion scintigraphy in the diagnostic strategy in cerebrovascular disorders and space-occupying lesions

The results of an evaluation of the perfusion scintigraphy findings of 350 hospitalised neurological patients and 55 more strictly selected neurosurgical patients with cerebrovascular complaints, revealed an accuraty of 83%, a sensitivity of 89%, and a specificity of 83%. The selection of the patients had no influence on the results as a whole. Compared with contrast-medium angiography, incorrect diagnosis must be expected in 17% of the cases. This includes erroneous negative findings in 10% of the cases. Grounds for misinterpretations are suggested, and the biological and methodological limitations of the method are set forth.     

Neurochemical knowledge in electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)

The paper is concerned with an attempt to generalize and categorize current hypotheses on the biochemical basis of ECT. The hypotheses are critically evaluated with respect to the relevance of their experimental fundamentals. Thus, certain hypotheses are valid only in a qualified sense. Particular interest is focussed on those conceptions which try to correlate ECT-induced changes in synaptic receptor sensitivities (up-/down-regulation) with super- resp. subsensitivity hypotheses of psychoses. In this connection, noradrenergic and opioid systems on the one hand, and the axis hypothalamus-hypophysis on the other hand seem to play a dominant role.