Factor structure of items from the personality Adjective Check List in a sample of normal adolescents

We present the results of a principal-components analysis of the Personality Adjective Check List (PACL) at the item level, rather than at the scale level. The PACL was constructed by Strack (1987) to evaluate the personality scales proposed by Millon (1981). Data were obtained from a sample of normal adolescents. A scree test was applied to determine the number of factors to be extracted, and the retained factors were then rotated using a varimax procedure. Using the data from this second analysis, congruence coefficients were calculated by correlating the factor weights from the two analyses of men and women. Results reveal the existence in the whole sample of five unipolar personality factors, which we have called: Aggressive, Conscientious, Inhibited, Impulsive and Gregarious. These are not similar to those obtained from a sample of normal adults.     

Reward, dopamine and the control of food intake: implications for obesity

The ability to resist the urge to eat requires the proper functioning of neuronal circuits involved in top-down control to oppose the conditioned responses that predict reward from eating the food and the desire to eat the food. Imaging studies show that obese subjects might have impairments in dopaminergic pathways that regulate neuronal systems associated with reward sensitivity, conditioning and control. It is known that the neuropeptides that regulate energy balance (homeostatic processes) through the hypothalamus also modulate the activity of dopamine cells and their projections into regions involved in the rewarding processes underlying food intake. It is postulated that this could also be a mechanism by which overeating and the resultant resistance to homoeostatic signals impairs the function of circuits involved in reward sensitivity, conditioning and cognitive control.     

The relationship between history of violent and criminal behavior and recognition of facial expression of emotions in men with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder

Social psychological research underscores the relation between aggression and emotion. Specifically, regulating negative affect requires the ability to appraise restraint‐producing cues, such as facial signs of anger, fear and other emotions. Individuals diagnosed with major mental disorders are more likely to have engaged in violent behavior than mentally healthy members of the same communities. We examined whether violent and criminal behavior in men with schizophrenia is related to emotion recognition abilities. Forty‐one men with schizophrenia underwent a computerized emotion discrimination test presenting mild and extreme intensities of happy, sad, angry, fearful and neutral faces, balanced for gender and ethnicity. History of violence was assessed by the Life History of Aggression Scale and official records of arrests. Psychopathology was rated using the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale. Criminal behavior was associated with poor emotion recognition, especially for fearful and angry facial expressions. History of aggression was also associated with more severe positive symptoms and less severe negative symptoms. These findings suggest that misinterpretation of social cues such as angry and fearful expression may lead to a failure in socialization and adaptive behavior in response to emotional situation, which may result in a higher number of criminal arrests. Aggr. Behav. 32:1–8, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Police interview competencies: assessment and associated traits

The present study empirically examines the structure of police interview competencies in self‐reports of 230 police investigators suggesting five major underlying dimensions, that is, ‘Careful‐tenacious’, ‘Controlled‐non‐reactive’, ‘Dominant‐insisting’, ‘Communicative’ and ‘Benevolent’. These dimensions discriminate performance in a series of interview vignettes, grouped in terms of type of case (interviewing a suspect, a witness or a victim) and type of suspect. In addition self‐ratings on these dimensions are related to self‐estimated interview effectiveness in the same vignettes. Participants are further administered the NEO PI‐R (Costa, P. T., & McCrae, R. R. (1992). Professional manual: Revised NEO personality inventory (NEO‐PI‐R) and NEO five‐factor‐inventory (NEO‐FFI). Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources), enabling an examination of the relationship between the competence dimensions and their personality trait building blocks. The implications of this study for the development and coaching of police interview competencies are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Recognition of facial emotions in neuropsychiatric disorders

Recognition of facial emotions represents an important aspect of interpersonal communication and is governed by select neural substrates. We present data on emotion recognition in healthy young adults utilizing a novel set of color photographs of evoked universal emotions. In addition, we review the recent literature on emotion recognition in psychiatric and neurologic disorders, and studies that compare different disorders.     

Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in Sports: Neuropsychology's Contribution to a Developing Field

Mild traumatic brain injuries are common at all levels of athletic competition. Although once considered a routine part of the game, a significant amount of attention has recently been placed on these injuries at the professional, college, and high school levels. This paper reviews the epidemiology of sports-related brain injuries, the pathophysiology of the injuries, and the role of neuropsychology in this newly emerging area. Issues related to the adequacy of neuropsychological test instruments and approaches are discussed in light of future directions for research.     

A conditional theory of trying

What I shall do in this paper is to propose an analysis of ‘Agent P tries to A’ in terms of a subjunctive conditional, that avoids some of the problems that beset most alternative accounts of trying, which I call ‘referential views’. They are so-named because on these alternative accounts, ‘P tries to A’ entails that there is a trying to A by P, and therefore the expression ‘P’s trying to A’ can occur in the subject of a sentence and be used to refer to a particular, namely an act or event of trying. A conditional account such as mine avoids having to answer questions about those alleged particulars, for example their location and their causal relation to physical actions, or alternatively their identity to physical actions. In brief, the analysis I propose eschews any need to quantify over any sort of trying particulars. I both clarify the proposal and deal with five possible objections to it: (1) metaphysically impossible actions: (2) cases of finking and reverse-cycle finking; (3) the empirical emptiness of preventers and blockers; (4) proximate intentions and trying; and (5) alleged explanatory loss.     

Culturally adapting an evidence-based parenting intervention for Latino immigrants: the need to integrate fidelity and cultural relevance

Latinos constitute the largest ethnic minority group in the United States. However, the cultural adaptation and dissemination of evidence-based parenting interventions among Latino populations continues to be scarce despite extensive research that demonstrates the long-term positive effects of these interventions. The purpose of this article is threefold: (1) justify the importance of cultural adaptation research as a key strategy to disseminate efficacious interventions among Latinos, (2) describe the initial steps of a program of prevention research with Latino immigrants aimed at culturally adapting an evidence-based intervention informed by parent management training principles, and (3) discuss implications for advancing cultural adaptation prevention practice and research, based on the initial feasibility and cultural acceptability findings of the current investigation.