Suicide in the Israeli army

The present study was an attempt to analyze the problem of suicide in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Suicide is increasing among populations aged 18-21, which in Israel is the age when most young people are called up for a 3-year period of compulsory military service. The service may have a catalytic effect on suicide. but on the other hand may serve as a control mechanism reducing suicide. The study used data for the period 1974-1985, and examined suicide in combat and noncombat units by duration of service and by preservice psychiatric, medical, and motivational data. The suicide groups were also compared with a matched sample of nonsuicide groups along the relevant variables. The findings seem to be consistent with some established theoretical perspectives of situational stress, social support, and status incompatibility, and seem to bear practical implications for the reduction of suicide.     

Systematic 24-hr behavioral observations of sleep and wakefulness in a skilled-care nursing facility

Sleep patterns of aged, infirm, demented, chronically institutionalized residents of a skilled-care nursing facility were studied. The purpose of this naturalistic study was to describe sleep and wakefulness (S/W) within the limits afforded by brief behavioral observations and to examine homeostasis and diurnal rhythmicity of S/W as a function of psychoactive drug intake. Observers noted S/W every 15 min, 24 hr a day for 10 days in 24 Ss. Results indicated substantial individual variation in daytime hours. Daily and weekly variation within Ss was minimal. Sleep was least likely near sunset. Ss on psychoactive drugs showed dampened diurnal variation in S/W rhythms. In Ss not on such drugs, there was a suggestion of homeostasis of S/W between sleep during the morning and evening hours. Results are discussed methodologically (viability of approach), theoretically (age-related change in sleep), and practically (potential treatments).     

Four Systems Anxiety Questionnaire (FSAQ): a self-report measure of somatic, cognitive, behavioral, and feeling components

This article presents the development of a 60-item self-report known as the Four Systems Anxiety Questionnaire (FSAQ). The FSAQ assesses anxiety on four components: somatic, cognitive, behavioral, and feeling. The FSAQ was given to 218 first-year university students, 54 anxiety patients attending clinical psychology departments, and 14 agoraphobic patients pre- and postpsychological treatment. Results reveal satisfactory reliability and validity levels. In addition, we proved that the FSAQ is sensitive to change following psychological treatment.     

Does symptomatic schizophrenia exist?

The question if there are "symptomatic schizophrenias" has been discussed since the 20s. Schizophrenic psychoses caused be definable and well known brain diseases are presented. All schizophrenic symptoms and syndromes, the first rank symptoms (K. Schneider) too, occur in somatically founded psychoses. The group of paroxysmal transition syndromes in the sense of aura prolongata (continua) and the episodic schizophrenic psychoses in psychomotor epilepsy may be a model for the schizophrenia research. Vital threatening, so-called pernicious catatonic schizophrenias are found on the basis of infectious brain diseases, sometimes only diagnosed in autopsy. Beside acute and reversible symptomatic schizophrenic psychoses there are, even if rarely, recurrent and chronic courses of symptomatic schizophrenias. That certain conditions for the developing of symptomatic schizophrenias are rarely realised, could be an explanation for their rarity. Some findings indicate that the limbic system is significant for symptomatic (and idiopathic) schizophrenic psychoses and the pre- and postpsychotic basic stages determined by dynamic and cognitive basic symptoms, which are phenomenologically very similar to aura symptoms released by stereoelectroencephalographic depth recordings (Wieser). The characteristic features of marked fluctuation, discontinuity and insteadiness of the cognitive thought, perception, psychomotor and cenesthetic phenomena do not speak against an organic brain disorder provided that the traditional process hypothesis is abandoned in favor of a neurobiochemic disorder, fluctuating on its part depending on endogenous as well as psychic-reactive factors.     

Identification of letters in the predesignated target paradigm: a word superiority effect for the common word the

The size of the perceptual unit used in reading was addressed using the predesignated target paradigm. Sixteen subjects viewed the following stimuli in random order: the words tee, the, tie, and toe; the nonwords eet, eht, eit, and eot; and the letters e, h, i, and o. Subjects fixated on the location of the center letter and identified the letter as e, h, i, or o, alternatives which were known to them at the onset. A word superiority effect was obtained for the common word the but not for the less common words tee, tie, and toe. The word superiority effect was attributable to bias rather than discriminability: Subjects exhibited a bias to perceive the words in this experiment as the (i.e., there was a bias to perceive h in the t e stimulus presentations). These results suggest that the common word the is processed in reading units that are larger than the letter, and that the system is biased to perceive common rather than uncommon words in data-limited conditions.     

Dentists' voice control: effects on children's disruptive and affective behavior

Voice control, a punishment technique based on loud commands, has been used widely in pediatric dentistry. This study examined whether (a) loudness is a necessary component of the technique, (b) voice control actually reduces children's disruptive behavior, and (c) after treatment, children's negative affect increases. Subjects were forty 3 1/2- to 7-year-olds who posed potential behavior problems and who were scheduled for cavity restoration. Children were assigned randomly to either loud- or normal-voice groups. Children who were assigned to either group but who were not disruptive formed a nonexperimental control group. Prior to and after treatment, children reported their feelings using the Self-Assessment Mannequin. Disruptive behavior was scored using the Behavior Profile Rating Scale. Results indicated that, following loud, but not normal voice commands, children reduced their disruptive behavior (p less than .004) and self-reported lower arousal (p less than .09) and greater pleasure (p less than .10). Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Spatial contingency and the McCollough effect

On the basis of a conditioning analysis of the orientation-contingent color aftereffect (McCollough effect, ME), orientation stimuli become associated with simultaneously presented chromatic stimuli. This account suggests that decreasing the contingency between the grid orientation and color should decrease the strength of the aftereffect. Results of previous research indicate that decreasing the temporal contingency (by presenting homogeneous chromatic stimuli between presentations of chromatic grids) does not decrease the ME. However, it has been suggested that the appropriate contingency-degradation procedure would involve decreasing spatial (rather than temporal) contingency. That is, the illusion should be attenuated by extending the color beyond the confines of the grid. Contrary to this hypothesis, the results of the present experiments provide no evidence that decreasing the spatial contingency between grid and color decreases the ME; rather, the aftereffect is increased by such a manipulation.     

Construction of a multidimensional scale of job satisfaction

A comprehensive, multidimensional scale measuring job satisfaction was constructed for use in a major project concerned with personnel recruitment and retention of health professionals. 11 dimensions relating to opinions of immediate supervisors, physical working conditions, satisfaction with coworkers and with pay, aspects related to promotion and work motivation, are identified. These dimensions are shown to distinguish among health professionals on sex and between locations and different occupations. The scale also has high internal validity, producing a multiple R of .78 with over-all job satisfaction.     

Expectancy models of alcohol use

The primary goal of the present article is to compare expectancy models with competing attitude models of alcohol use. First, several methodological issues in expectancy research were addressed, to more adequately compare the theoretical models. Study 1 examined the effect of possible self-report biases on associations among expectancy constructs and alcohol use. In Studies 2 and 3, the basic distinction between general factors of positive and negative alcohol expectancies was investigated in both cross-sectional and prospective models. Alternative predictions that were based on competing expectancy and attitude theories were evaluated primarily in Study 3. Results from these studies supported the validity of the expectancy constructs and the proposed distinctions among expectancy and attitude constructs-in terms of strong discriminant validity, absence of self-report bias, and differential prediction of alcohol use. Furthermore, the findings favored certain expectancy models over alternative attitude models of alcohol use, reaffirming the usefulness of the expectancy framework.     

Typicality effects in artificial categories: is there a hemisphere difference?

In category classification tasks, typicality effects are usually found: accuracy and reaction time depend upon distance from a prototype. In this study, subjects learned either verbal or nonverbal dot pattern categories, followed by a lateralized classification task. Comparable typicality effects were found in both reaction time and accuracy across visual fields for both verbal and nonverbal categories. Both hemispheres appeared to use a similarity-to-prototype matching strategy in classification. This indicates that merely having a verbal label does not differentiate classification in the two hemispheres.