Measuring abuse stress and negative cognitive appraisals in child sexual abuse: Validity data on two new scales

The validity of two measures assessing degree of stress associated with child sexual abuse was examined in a sample of 48 girls who had been sexually abused. The Checklist of Sexual Abuse and Related Stressors (C-SARS) assessed negative life events that were part of or were related to the abuse, and the Negative Appraisals of Sexual Abuse Scale (NASAS) assessed negative cognitive appraisals of threat, harm, or loss associated with the abuse. Total scores for victim reports of both stressful events and negative appraisals were positively and significantly related to two other measures of abuse severity: therapist ratings of abuse stress and the number of types of sexual abuse reported. Stressful event scores were also related to aggressive behavior problems, sexual concerns, and total symptom scores on the Child Behavior Checklist. Negative cognitive appraisal scores were related to victims' self-reports of depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress symptoms, and to parent reports of child depression and total symptoms. Regression analyses indicated that there were significant effects of negative appraisals on internalizing symptoms when controlling for the level of stressful events experienced. The results suggest that negative life events and negative appraisals associated with sexual abuse are valid constructs that help account for variability in mental health outcomes among child victims. The implications of these results and future research directions in examining variable outcomes among sexual abuse victims are discussed.     

Some Thoughts on Language Use in Therapy

Drawing on the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein and his own experience as a therapist and educator/trainer, the author describes some of the issues involved in helping therapists to find their way out of various muddles and mazes that are deeply embedded in language.     

Spatial and ordinal components of form perception and literacy

We suppose that the visual nervous system possesses compensatory rectifying mechanisms by means of which it achieves “constancy” of visual recognition despite variation in physical appearance of the stimulus object. Using geometric rotations, reflections, and other transformations of text as the physical variation, we studied the recognizability of the texts and the influence that practice in reading one type of transformation exerted on the recognition of others. The mathematical structure of the training set was used as a clue to the perceptual mechanisms mediating transfer, isolating perceptual functions involving a geometric transformation and an ordinal operator. The main feature of the theory is its emphasis upon a dialogue or interaction between ongoing problem-solving processes in visual rectification and the sample being recognized. The theory developed is contrasted with other theories of pattern recognition in which concepts such as stimulus generalization, tuned detectors, and preprocessing play major roles. A relation of this theory to problems encountered among disabled readers (“dyslexics”) is also brought out.     

Some variables affecting rate of key pecking during response-independent procedures (autoshaping)

Rate of key pecking by pigeons subjected to response-independent procedures in which a stimulus on the response key preceded food presentation was investigated in eight experiments. Color and shape of the stimulus, duration of the stimulus, probability of food following the stimulus, duration of the intertrial interval, and duration of food presentation were varied separately and in combination. All variables studied, except color and shape of the stimulus, had a reliable effect on pecking rate, but some variables had stronger effects than others. Rapid key pecking may be obtained with a variety of response-independent procedures, as well as by response-dependent reinforcement. The results of experiments in which food is both dependent on key pecking and correlated with stimulus conditions are not representative of simple operant effects. Key pecking is an ideal response for studying the simultaneous operation of response-reinforcer and stimulus-reinforcer effects.     

Discriminability and criterion differences between extraverts and introverts during vigilance

In a signal detection task introverts were better able than extraverts to distinguish between the signal and noise distribution (p < .001) and also set a higher criterion point for their responses (p < .01). The results show that superior vigilance in introverts reported by other investigators is due to two processes.     

FOCLAB: A language for computer-controlled psychology research

The FOCLAB system, a dialect of FOCAL, provides complete real-time experiment control and data acquisition capabilities in the area of experimental psychology. The language provides digital and analog input/output, graphics (including alphanumerics) on a refresh CRT, and a powerful set of time measurement operations. With these facilities FOCAL may be used in cognitive and operant, as well as psychophysiological research. FOCLAB will operate with either PDP-8 or PDP-12 systems, and can control most of the currently existing lab interface options for these computers. The system will operate on 8K core-only machines, as well as under OS/8.     

Adolescent Nonsmokers,Triers, and Regular Smokers' Estimates of Cigarette Smoking Prevalence: When Do Overestimations Occur and by Whom?1

The present study tested three assumptions often made by smoking prevention researchers and practitioners regarding the nature and causes of smoking prevalence estimates. Specifically, it is often assumed that (a) adolescent prevalence estimates of all levels of smoking are inflated, (b) youths at different stages of smoking onset all overestimate smoking prevalence, and (c) the predictors of these estimates are the same for youths at different stages of smoking onset. Measures of smoking behavior based on self-reports using a bogus pipeline procedure, estimates of cigarette smoking prevalence (trying behavior and weekly use), and reports of smoking in significant others were obtained by the same youths when they were in eighth and ninth grades. Results indicated that, taken over all youths, estimates of trying cigarettes were accurate, whereas estimates of weekly use were inflated. When responders were defined by their stage of smoking onset, either as a nonsmoker, trier, or regular smoker, analyses revealed that triers were accurate regarding prevalence estimates of trying, whereas non-smokers made gross underestimations and regular smokers made overestimations of trying. All groups of youths overestimated prevalence of weekly smoking. Analyses of variance revealed that both youths' smoking status and interpersonal smoking environment additively predicted prevalence estimates, and estimates of smoking prevalence were relatively higher in youths who began to smoke, or increased their levels of smoking, within the next year. Thus, previous assumptions were partially confirmed. Future research and prevention programming should focus more on regular smoking as the focus of normative smoking distortion effects and correction efforts.     

A controlled trial of cognitive-behavioural and behavioural treatment of anorexia nervosa

This study was undertaken to investigate whether a cognitive-behavioural treatment procedure was superior to a standard behavioural treatment, in the outpatient therapy of patients with anorexia nervosa. The two treatments were also compared with a control treatment procedure consisting of routine outpatient management. Each group consisted of eight subjects. All the groups showed some improvement, but the findings did not provide support for the prediction that cognitive-behavioural treatment, designed specifically to manipulate both attitudes and behaviour, was superior to the other types of treatment. The implications of the findings are considered.     

Completeness and conservative extension results for some boolean relevant logics

This paper presents completeness and conservative extension results for the boolean extensions of the relevant logic T of Ticket Entailment, and for the contractionless relevant logics TW and RW. Some surprising results are shown for adding the sentential constant t to these boolean relevant logics; specifically, the boolean extensions with t are conservative of the boolean extensions without t, but not of the original logics with t. The special treatment required for the semantic normality of T is also shown along the way.