Position uncertainty and the perception of apparent movement

Two experiments compared the perception of apparent movement when the second of two successive stimuli always appeared in the same position and when it varied randomly between two spatial positions. The results of both experiments showed that foreknowledge of the position of the second stimulus does not facilitate the perception of apparent movement. Experiment 2 also clearly showed that the space-time relationships of Korte’s third law of apparent movement does not depend on foreknowledge of the position of the second stimulus. These findings imply that apparent movement in real time occurs after the second stimulus has been registered by the visual system. It suggests that apparent movement involves a delayed decision mechanism that stores the first stimulus, the interstimulus temporal interval, and the second stimulus, and then impletes a motion compatible with the stimulus information.     

Depression combined with somatic symptomatology among adolescent females who report concerns regarding maternal achievement

Recent research suggests that many females who mature during periods of great change in women's roles develop, beginning at adolescence, depressive symptomatology combined with such somatic problems as headache, dyspnea, insomnia, disordered eating, and preference for thinness. In this study of possible psychological mechanisms underlying the apparently paradoxical development of such symptomatology during periods of increased opportunity for women, 20% of females attending a suburban high school reported concerns regarding the limited achievements of their mothers and the limitations being female had placed upon their mothers. Compared to other female students, these respondents exhibited a greater correlation between depressive and somatic symptomatology and a higher prevalence of depression combined with somatic symptomatology. Prevalence of combined symptomatology was particularly high among respondents who also reported paternal biases against females and among those who indicated concerns regarding the limitations that being female had placed upon themselves.     

A process-oriented approach for averting confounds resulting from general performance deficiencies in schizophrenia

The most pervasive and least well-addressed problem in cognitive studies of schizophrenia is the propensity of schizophrenia patients to show inferior performance on a variety of cognitive tasks. Consequently, apparent specific cognitive abnormalities may actually reflect the interaction of task discriminating power with generalized deficit. L. J. Chapman and J. P. Chapman (1973a) suggested psychometric approaches for eliminating such artifactual group differences. Unfortunately, their solution neglects important issues of process specification and does not provide a viable strategy for process-oriented investigators. Psychometric remediation of artifactual Group x Task interactions inevitably confounds the processes being measured, resulting in theoretically ambiguous findings. Moreover, evidence that changes in measurement reliability can both increase and decrease group discrimination challenges a basic underlying assumption of the Chapmans' matching solution. This article presents a process-oriented approach to solving this problem in schizophrenia research.     

Jung's views on causes and treatments of schizophrenia in light of current trends in cognitive neuroscience and psychotherapy research I. Aetiology and phenomenology

Jung's writings on schizophrenia are almost completely ignored or forgotten today. The purpose of this paper, along with a follow‐up article, is to review the primary themes found in Jung's writings on schizophrenia, and to assess the validity of his theories about the disorder in light of our current knowledge base in the fields of psychopathology, cognitive neuroscience and psychotherapy research. In this article, five themes related to the aetiology and phenomenology of schizophrenia from Jung's writings are discussed:1) abaissement du niveau mental; 2) the complex; 3) mandala imagery; 4) constellation of archetypes and 5) psychological versus toxic aetiology. Reviews of the above areas suggest three conclusions. First, in many ways, Jung's ideas on schizophrenia anticipated much current thinking and data about the disorder. Second, with the recent (re)convergence of psychological and biological approaches to understanding and treating schizophrenia, the pioneering ideas of Jung regarding the importance of both factors and their interaction remain a useful and rich, but still underutilized resource. Finally, a more concerted effort to understand and evaluate the validity of Jung's concepts in terms of evidence from neuroscience could lead both to important advances in analytical psychology and to developments in therapeutic approaches that would extend beyond the treatment of schizophrenia.     

Diagnosis of Personality Disorders: A Case Study

In this article, I report a case highlighting diagnostic uncertainty about psychopathology on both Axes I and II. It concerns in part the problem of comorbidity in relation to diagnostic classification of Axis II personality disorders. After commenting on these uncertainties in relation to categorical and dimensional models, I also consider a psychoanalytic explanation to illustrate an example in which a theoretical model informs diagnostic interviewing. I emphasize how the clinical information that unfolds from an interview based on this theoretical model generates inferences about psychopathology that extend clinical understanding beyond the formal diagnostic assessment of Axes I and II disorders and assessment by self-report.     

Book Review

H. R. Beech. Changing Man's Behavior. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1969, 282 pages, $1.95. Reviewed by Leonard Ullmann     

Linking Biomechanical Workload and Organizational Practices to Burnout and Satisfaction

We found support for several hypotheses linking work practices to employee outcomes: reducing biomechanical workload is associated with decreased burnout via perceptions that job demands are less threatening; lower demands are associated with higher job satisfaction primarily through decreases in burnout; employers who include employees in decision making processes have employees with lower levels of burnout and higher satisfaction; and having a disability management program is associated with having employees who report less job-related burnout. This study demonstrates the importance of programs that increase perceived organizational support and the importance of job design strategies that take into account physical workload.     

Depression Mixed with Anxiety,Somatization, and Disordered Eating: Relationship with Gender-Role-Related Limitations Experienced by Females

In several previous studies, females who reported that they felt limited by responses to their gender, or viewed their mothers as having been limited in this way, exhibited higher prevalence compared to other females or to males of depression accompanied by anxiety, somatic symptoms such as headaches, disordered eating, and poor body image/preference for thinness (“anxious somatic depression”), but not higher prevalence of depression unaccompanied by these other symptoms (“pure depression”). In this study of high school students, females whose mothers scored high on a scale measuring their feelings of having been limited by traditional gender roles reported much higher prevalence than other females of anxious somatic depression, but not higher prevalence of pure depression. Mothers' reports of depression were not related to daughters' anxious somatic depression.