Ego development and the ethics of care and justice: the relations among them revisited

This study examined the links among ego development and the ethics of care and justice in 144 Norwegian men and women, 15 to 48 years old, taking into consideration age, sex, education, and verbal intelligence. As expected, the relationship between Loevinger's model of ego development and care-based moral reasoning as measured with Skoe's Ethic of Care Interview (ECI) was significantly stronger than the one between ego development and justice as measured with Rest's Defining Issues Test (DIT). Both ethics correlated significantly with verbal ability. Analyses showed that beyond its overlap with verbal intelligence, the variance shared between the ECI and ego development was substantial. By contrast, when verbal intelligence was controlled, the DIT was not significantly related to ego development or to the care ethic.     

Experiences of longing in Norwegian and Swedish 4- and 5-year-old children

Longing can be defined as a blend of the primary emotions of happiness and sadness. These primary emotions are experienced very early by children, and the meanings of the words happiness and sadness are also known by children early in their verbal development. To find out at what age children are able to understand and use the more developed concept of longing, the authors interviewed 74 preschoolers (4- and 5-year-olds) in Norway and Sweden about their experiences of longing. Chi-square analyses showed age and sex differences in knowledge of the concept, and some differences between categories of longing were also significant. Results showed that young children's ability to understand and use the concept of longing appears to be limited and that girls seem to mature earlier in this respect than boys do.     

Lower region: a new cue for figure-ground assignment

Figure-ground assignment is an important visual process; humans recognize, attend to, and act on figures, not backgrounds. There are many visual cues for figure-ground assignment. A new cue to figure-ground assignment, called lower region, is presented: Regions in the lower portion of a stimulus array appear more figurelike than regions in the upper portion of the display. This phenomenon was explored, and it was demonstrated that the lower-region preference is not influenced by contrast, eye movements, or voluntary spatial attention. It was found that the lower region is defined relative to the stimulus display, linking the lower-region preference to pictorial depth perception cues. The results are discussed in terms of the environmental regularities that this new figure-ground cue may reflect.     

Relationship between the rorschach and the MMPI-2 in a Swedish population: a replication study of the effects of first-factor related test-interaction styles

A sizeable amount of research literature has failed to demonstrate a stable relationship between self-report and the Rorschach (Exner, 1993). However, principal component first-factor related test-interaction style has been shown to moderate convergence. In this study 78 psychiatric patients completed the Rorschach and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2; Hathaway & McKinley, 1989). Practically no correlation was evident between the MMPI-2 and the Rorschach, measuring similar constructs, in all patients. Patients with similar test-interaction styles demonstrated positive intermethod correlations between both conceptually related and conceptually not directly related test indexes. The same scales were negatively correlated in patients with discordant test-interaction styles, and this difference between test-interaction style groups was significant. It is suggested that first-factor related test-interaction style moderates convergence. It is further suggested that test-interaction style moderates convergence between both conceptually related and conceptually not directly related measures of distress or psychopathology.     

When rejection stings: how self-esteem constrains relationship-enhancement processes

Three experiments examined how needs for acceptance might constrain low versus high self-esteem people's capacity to protect their relationships in the face of difficulties. The authors led participants to believe that their partner perceived a problem in their relationship. They then measured perceptions of the partner's acceptance, partner enhancement, and closeness. Low but not high self-esteem participants read too much into problems, seeing them as a sign that their partner's affections and commitment might be waning. They then derogated their partner and reduced closeness. Being less sensitive to rejection, however, high self-esteem participants affirmed their partner in the face of threat. Ironically, chronic needs for acceptance may result in low self-esteem people seeing signs of rejection where none exist, needlessly weakening attachments.     

Inter-rater and test-retest reliability of the Revised Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines

The baseline inter-rater reliability, test-retest reliability, follow-up inter-rater reliability, and follow-up longitudinal reliability (interrater reliability between generations of raters) of borderline symptoms and the diagnosis of borderline personality disorder (BPD) were assessed using the Revised Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines (DIB-R). Excellent kappa s (> .75) were found in each of these reliability substudies for the diagnosis of BPD itself. Excellent kappa s were also found in each of the three inter-rater reliability substudies for the vast majority of borderline symptoms assessed by the DIB-R. Test-retest reliability for these symptoms was somewhat lower but still very good. More specifically, one-third of the BPD symptoms assessed had a kappa in the excellent range and the remaining two-thirds had a kappa in the fair-good range (.57-.73). The dimensional reliability of BPD symptom areas was somewhat higher than for categorical measures of the subsyndromal phenomenology of BPD. More specifically, all five dimensional measures of borderline psychopathology had intraclass correlation coefficients in the excellent range for all four reliability substudies. Taken together, the results of this study suggest that both the borderline diagnosis and the symptoms of BPD can be diagnosed reliably when using the DIB-R. They also suggest that excellent reliability, once achieved, can be maintained over time for both the syndromal and subsyndromal phenomenology of BPD.     

Dependency,impulsivity, and self-harm: traits hypothesized to underlie the association between cluster B personality and substance use disorders

Cluster B personality disorders (PDs) (i.e., antisocial, borderline, histrionic, and narcissistic) typically show a high degree of comorbidity with substance use disorders (SUDs). Previous research suggests that the broad-based personality domains of Disinhibition and Negative Temperament/Neuroticism may be common factors to both types of disorders. Using a two-phase process (i.e., screening and follow-up), this study examined three lower-order personality traits (i.e., dependency, impulsivity, and self-harm) that fall within the Disinhibition and Neuroticism domains. The study evaluated the hypotheses that these traits (a) are related both to cluster B PDs and to SUDs; and (b) underlie the association between the two types of disorders. Results indicate that impulsivity and self-harm play a significant role in cluster B PDs and SUDs, as well as in their association with each other. However, dependency was not associated with either type of disorder. These results indicate that sets of individual traits can be of significant utility in understanding the comorbidity between PDs and SUDs.     

Sleep-dependent hippocampal slow activity correlates with waking memory performance in humans

The positive effect of postlearning sleep on memory consolidation as well as the relationship between sleep-related memory processes and the hippocampal formation are increasingly clarified topics in neurobiology. However, the possibility of a stable relationship between waking mnemonic performance and sleep-dependent hippocampal electric activity is unexplored. Here we report a correlative analysis between sleep-dependent parahippocampal-hippocampal (pHip-Hip) electric activity recorded by foramen ovale (FO) electrodes and different types of memory performances in epileptic patients. Psychological testing was performed days or weeks before electrophysiological recordings. The relative spectral power of the slow activity (below 1.25 Hz) during deep non-REM (NREM) sleep at the right pHip-Hip region correlated positively with the visual memory performance according to Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test (ROCFT). Along the posterior-anterior direction of the hippocampal formation a linear increasing of correlations was observed. The relative power of the activity below 1.25 Hz at the left pHip-Hip during phasic REM sleep correlated positively with verbal learning performance and mnemonic retention values according to ROCFT. It is concluded that the pHip-Hip structures' capacity of producing high amplitude and synchronized slow (< 1 Hz) oscillation during deep NREM sleep is related to the functional power of these structures. We hypothesize that the asymmetric (side-specific) propagation of ponto-geniculo-occipital (PGO) activity to the pHip-Hip region is related to the memory correlates of phasic REM sleep.     

Psychiatric patient- and informant-reported personality: predicting concurrent and future behavior

The authors investigated the criterion and incremental validity of personality reports from psychiatric patients and knowledgeable informants in predicting patient substance use, social and risky behaviors, and psychological distress. Patient and informant reports of patient personality and behavior were collected from an adult psychiatric sample (N = 94). Hierarchical regressions indicated that patient reports of personality accounted for significant variance in both concurrent (17%-42%) and future behavior assessed 1 year later (17%-40%). Informant reports contributed significantly to the prediction of several behaviors and most strongly to social behaviors. Behaviors were predicted equally well by self-reports and informant reports in prospective as in concurrent regressions. Thus, both patient and informant reports of personality contribute importantly to prediction of behavior, and predictive ability is stable across time.     

Incremental exercise in dynamic visual acuity

As research is limited the purpose of this study was to investigate dynamic visual acuity while cycling at different exercise loads. Accuracy of dynamic visual acuity scores of 20 college-age participants was analyzed by a repeated-measures analysis of variance which indicated improved dynamic visual acuity during cycling as the intensity of exercise increased. A retention test conducted two days after testing yielded evidence of trainability of dynamic visual acuity. In the discussion findings were compared to other visual functions associated with exercise.