How should we revise diagnostic criteria for substance use disorders in the DSM-V?

This article reviews literature on the validity and performance characteristics of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) diagnostic criteria for substance use disorders (SUDs) and recommends changes in these criteria that should be considered for the next edition of the DSM (DSM-V). Substantial data indicate that DSM-IV substance abuse and substance dependence are not distinct categories and that SUD criteria are best modeled as reflecting a unidimensional continuum of substance-problem severity. The conceptually and empirically problematic substance abuse diagnosis should be abandoned in the DSM-V, with substance dependence defined by a single set of criteria. Data also indicate that various individual SUD criteria should be revised, dropped, or considered for inclusion in the DSM-V. The DSM-V should provide a framework that allows the integration of categorical and dimensional approaches to diagnosis. Important areas for further research are noted.     

Clinical practice as natural laboratory for psychotherapy research: a guide to case-based time-series analysis

Both researchers and practitioners need to know more about how laboratory treatment protocols translate to real-world practice settings and how clinical innovations can be systematically tested and communicated to a skeptical scientific community. The single-case time-series study is well suited to opening a productive discourse between practice and laboratory. The appeal of case-based time-series studies, with multiple observations both before and after treatment, is that they enrich our design palette by providing the discipline another way to expand its empirical reach to practice settings and its subject matter to the contingencies of individual change. This article is a user's guide to conducting empirically respectable case-based time-series studies in a clinical practice or laboratory setting.     

Personality and organizational culture as determinants of influence

How can individuals attain influence in organizations? Prior research has identified structural determinants of influence, such as formal authority and position in a social network. However, indirect evidence suggests that influence might also stem from personal characteristics. The authors tested whether influence can stem from the fit between the person and his or her organization (P-O fit). Consistent with expectations, extraverts attained more influence in a team-oriented organization, whereas conscientious individuals attained more influence in an organization in which individuals worked alone on technical tasks. Further, these effects held up after controlling for formal authority, job performance, and demographic characteristics, such as gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. The multiple ways in which individuals can gain influence are discussed.     

Scaling and Testing Multiplicative Combinations in the Expectancy–Value Model of Attitudes

This article examines the multiplicative combination of belief strength by outcome evaluation in the expectancy–value model of attitudes. Because linear transformation of a belief strength measure results in a nonlinear transformation of its product with outcome evaluation, use of unipolar or bipolar scoring must be empirically justified. Also, the claim that the Belief × Evaluation product fails to explain significant variance in attitudes is found to be baseless. In regression analyses, the main effect of belief strength takes account of the outcome's valence, and the main effect of outcome evaluation incorporates the outcome's perceived likelihood. Simulated data showed that multiplication adds substantially to the prediction of attitudes only when belief and evaluation measures cover the full range of potential scores.     

Sorting between dimensions: conditions of cognitive flexibility in preschoolers

The Dimensional Change Card Sorting task frequently is used to measure extradimensional shifting abilities in preschool children. In two studies, we investigated what makes this extradimensional shifting task difficult. In Study 1 with 61 2- to 4-year-olds, we showed that extradimensional shifts from one dimension to another are more difficult than reversal shifts within a dimension (even with irrelevant variation on a second dimension). Study 2 with 77 3- and 4-year-olds further confirmed this finding using a computerized paradigm and showed that sorting instructions are critical for 3-year-olds' difficulties with extradimensional shifts. This finding is taken to suggest that 3-year-olds have particular problems with spontaneously classifying one object in two different ways.     

Two routes for activation in the priming of categorical coordinates

The authors operationalized category priming as participants' recognition facilitation of nonstudied, low semantically similar exemplars by studied exemplars in a category. The existing literature either does not examine the effect of studied exemplars on nonstudied exemplars in a category or fails to show an appreciable amount of category priming. In 2 experiments, the authors demonstrated a unique process to account for the category priming effect and distinguish it from the semantic priming effect, facilitation of semantically similar exemplars, in the context of a category. In Experiment 1A, the authors used a multidimensional scaling technique to examine participants' internal structure of different categories. In Experiment 1B, the authors used a lexical decision task that used these internal structures to show that semantic encoding of category exemplars causes activation of existing category knowledge in memory. Consequently, participants easily recognized nonstudied, low semantically similar exemplars in a category. However, recognition facilitation between high semantically similar exemplars did not require category knowledge activation.     

Motivation and engagement in music and sport: testing a multidimensional framework in diverse performance settings

The present study assessed the application of a multidimensional model of motivation and engagement (the Motivation and Engagement Wheel) and its accompanying instrumentation (the Motivation and Engagement Scale) to the music and sport domains. Participants were 463 young classical musicians (N=224) and sportspeople (N=239). In both music and sport samples, the data confirmed the good fit of the four hypothesized higher-order dimensions and their 11 first-order dimensions: adaptive cognitions (self-efficacy, valuing, mastery orientation), adaptive behaviors (planning, task management, persistence), impeding/maladaptive cognitions (uncertain control, anxiety, failure avoidance), and maladaptive behaviors (self-handicapping, disengagement). Multigroup tests of factor invariance showed that in terms of underlying motivational constructs and the composition of and relationships among these constructs, key subsamples are not substantially different. Moreover-and of particular relevance to issues around the generalizability of the framework-the factor structure for music and sport samples was predominantly invariant.