Psychopathy and malingering of psychiatric disorder in criminal defendants

Because the use of deception is an important clinical characteristic of psychopathy, there is intuitive appeal to the idea that psychopathy and malingering are associated. There is, however, very little research showing that psychopaths are more likely to malinger. We classified a sample of criminal defendants as high, moderate, or low in psychopathy, based on PCL-R scores, and compared their scores on indices typically used to detect malingering on the MMPI-2, the PAI and the SIRS. The high psychopathy group scored significantly higher on the MMPI-2 F and F-K; the PAI NIM, and the SIRS, but not the MMPI-2 Fb, F(p), or the PAI RDF or Mal, lending some support for the DSM-IV recommendation that malingering should be considered whenever there is a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder. Logistic regression analysis (LGA) revealed that Factor I but not Factor II of the PCL-R significantly discriminated malingerers from nonmalingerers with 75% correct classification. However, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis revealed that psychopathy ratings had poor sensitivity and specificity in the detection of malingering. Calculation of the percentages of those exceeding accepted cut-offs on each of the malingering measures revealed that a high percentage of severe psychopaths did not attempt to feign psychiatric disorder. The results suggest that psychopathy is not a clinically useful indictor of malingering. The results are discussed in terms of confirmatory bias and the impact such a bias could have on the evaluation of criminal defendants.     

The longitudinal relation between personality disorder symptoms and depression in adolescence: the mediating role of interpersonal stress

The relation between personality disorder (PD) symptoms, depression, and interpersonal stress were examined over 6 months in a sample of 143 adolescents from a low-income urban high school. Both self report questionnaires in the full sample and structured interviews in a subset of 54 girls indicated the following: PD symptoms predicted greater depressive symptoms and interpersonal stress over time; PD symptoms were highly stable; depressive symptoms did not predict change in PD symptoms over time. Moreover, an integrative model was supported, wherein the route by which PD symptoms led to greater depression was via the generation of interpersonal stress. These results suggest that adolescents' PD symptoms play a destructive role in the construction of interpersonal circumstances during a key period for depression onset.     

Infant behavioral responses to infant-directed singing and other maternal interactions

Seventy, 6-9-month-old infants were videotaped during six interactions: mother sings assigned song, "stranger" sings assigned song, mother sings song of choice, mother reads book, mother plays with toy, and mother and infant listen to recorded music. Infant-directed (ID) singing conditions elicited moderately positive cognitive behavior, low levels of positive physical behavior and minimal amounts of vocal behaviors, mostly negative. Across all conditions, cognitive scores remained positive at low to moderate levels. Physical responses were most positive during book and toy, most negative during recorded music, and differed by gender, especially during ID singing. Vocally, infants responded positively to toy, and 8-month-old infants vocalized more than younger infants, particularly during ID singing conditions. ID singing appears just as effective as book reading or toy play in sustaining infant attention and far more effective than listening to recorded music, while interactions involving objects may provide opportunity for shared attention.     

Novel figurative phrases and idioms: phrase characteristics over multiple presentations

In a series of three studies, characteristics of novel figurative phrases were compared with those of established idioms. Studies 1 and 2 found that certain correlations were found to be strong and in one direction for familiar idioms and comparably strong but in the opposite direction for novel figurative phrases, with the correlations for less familiar idioms usually falling partway between these extremes. Study 2 also noted that written or auditory presentation had minimal effects on characteristic ratings. In Study 3 the correlations among characteristics stayed relatively constant for familiar idioms after one, three, or six presentations, but for the novel figurative phrases, after multiple presentations the correlations changed in the direction of the established idioms.     

IQ on the rise: the Flynn effect in rural Kenyan children

Abstract - Multiple studies have documented significant IQ gains over time, a phenomenon labeled the Flynn effect. Data from 20 industrialized nations show massive IQ gains over time, most notably in culturally reduced tests like the Raven's Progressive Matrices. To our knowledge, however, this is the first study to document the Flynn effect in a rural area of a developing country. Data for this project were collected during two large studies in Embu, Kenya, in 1984 and 1998. Results strongly support a Flynn effect over this 14-year period, with the most significant gains found in Raven's matrices. Previously hypothesized explanations (e.g., improved nutrition; increased environmental complexity; and family, parental, school, and methodological factors) for the Flynn effect are evaluated for their relevance in this community, and other potential factors are reviewed. The hypotheses that resonate best with our findings are those related to parents' literacy, family structure, and children's nutrition and health.     

Semantics and semantic errors: implicit access to semantic information from words and nonwords in deep dyslexia

In this paper we describe dissociations of implicit versus explicit access to semantic information in a patient with deep dyslexia. This acquired reading disorder is characterized by the production of morphological (e.g., SLEEP read as SLEEPING) and semantic errors (e.g., HEART read as BLOOD) and consequently provides a potential window into the operation of both aspects of the language system. The deep dyslexic patient in this study (JO) demonstrated implicit semantic access to items in a number of tasks despite the fact that she was unable to correctly read these items aloud. The findings from this study are consistent with a model of lexical deficits that distinguishes between explicit and implicit access to lexical representations on the basis of inhibitory processes.     

How Parents Still Help Emerging Adults Get Their Homework Done: The Role of Self-Regulation as a Mediator in the Relation Between Parent–Child Relationship Quality and School Engagement

Although parents are increasingly involved in their college students’ academic lives, scholars have yet to investigate parents’ role in their college students’ school engagement. We hypothesized that college students’ self-regulation would mediate the relation between parent–child relationship quality and school engagement. For the 790 undergraduates who completed questionnaires online, self-regulation mediated the relation between mother–child relationship quality and school engagement for men, and an indirect effect was found for the relation between father–child relationship quality and school engagement by way of self-regulation. Therefore, parents continue to matter in promoting their college students’ academic success.     

Predicting environmental learning from spatial abilities: An indirect route

Relationships among spatial abilities, as assessed by a battery of psychometric tests and experimental tasks, and environmental learning, as assessed by a series of macrospatial tasks, were examined in two studies using confirmatory factor analysis with directional paths. The initial study indicated the utility of a five-factor model, one (general spatial ability) derived from psychometric tests, two (spatial-sequential memory and spatial perspective-taking latency) from experimental tasks, and two (topological knowledge and Euclidean direction knowledge) from measures of environmental learning. The best fitting path model further indicated that the spatial-sequential memory factor mediated the relationship between general spatial ability and topological knowledge, and that perspective-taking latency mediated the relationship between general spatial ability and Euclidean direction knowledge. The second study confirmed the five-factor path model using a different participant sample and environmental setting. The only failure to replicate involved the path between perspective-taking latency in the lab and Euclidean direction knowledge in the environment. Results indicate that the relationship between basic spatial abilities and environmental learning is significantly mediated by cognitive processes that can be assessed using laboratory tasks.