Nonsuicidal physically self-damaging acts in adolescents

To determine the frequency and correlates of nonsuicidal physically self-damaging acts in 12–14 year olds, a two stage epidemiologic survey with a self-administered questionnaire (N=3283) followed by a psychiatric interview of a subsample of the adolescents and their parents (N=444) was used. Prevalence estimates of interview validated nonsuicidal physically self-damaging acts were 2.46% in males and 2.79% in females. Significant relationships were found between nonsuicidal physically self-damaging acts and suicidal ideation, major depression and undesirable life events. Data suggest that physically self-damaging acts occur at substantial rates during early adolescence. The strong correlation between nonsuicidal self-destructive acts and both suicidal ideation and major depression clarifies prior conflicting reports in the literature and suggests that a history of self-damaging acts should be taken into consideration when evaluating for possible depression and suicide risk.     

Distractor clustering enhances detection speed and accuracy during selective listening

The effects of distractor clustering on target detection were examined in two experiments in which subjects attended to binaural tone bursts of one frequency while ignoring distracting tones of two competing frequencies. The subjects pressed a button in response to occasional target tones of longer duration (Experiment 1) or increased loudness (Experiment 2). In evenly spaced conditions, attended and distractor frequencies differed by 6 and 12 semitones, respectively (e.g., 2096-Hz targets vs. 1482- and 1048-Hz distractors). In clustered conditions, distractor frequencies were grouped; attended tones differed from the distractors by 6 and 7 semitones, respectively (e.g., 2096-Hz targets vs. 1482- and 1400-Hz distractors). The tones were presented in randomized sequences at fixed or random stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs). In both experiments, clustering of the unattended frequencies improved the detectability of targets and speeded target reaction times, Similar effects were found at fixed and variable SO As. Results from the analysis of stimulus sequence suggest that clustering improved performance primarily by reducing the interference caused by distractors that immediately preceded the target.     

The mormon health traditions: An evolving view of modern medicine

The Mormon church has long been seen as an unusual group in relation to its health practices. But its health traditions and practices go much further than the ban on tobacco, coffee, and alcohol for which it is so well known. Church teachings and influences pervade the entire Mormon existence. This paper briefly discusses these traditions, first by examining their roots in the teachings of its first two prophet/presidents, Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. Then, how these ideas have evolved into the church's current thought is examined; and finally, the church's responses to many modern-day health care issues are presented.The author wishes to thank Dr. John King at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, for his assistance and encouragement.     

Social context and perceived task difficulty as mediators of depressive self-evaluation

This study examined two separate, but potentially interactive, influences on depressive self-evaluation: social context and perceptions of task difficulty. First, it was hypothesized that, if negative self-evaluations of depressed individuals are motivated by a desire to elicit attention and sympathy from others, depressed subjects should evaluate themselves more negatively than nondepressed subjects in a public setting, but not when they make self-evaluative judgments in private. Second, it was hypothesized that negative self-evaluation results from a bias to perceive tasks as being intrinsically easy, i.e., if a task is easy, a given score would be evaluated more poorly than if the task were difficult. It was found that the self-evaluations of depressed subjects were influenced by the social context, but not always in a negative direction. Depressed subjects did not differ from nondepressed subjects when performance evaluations were made in private. In a public condition, depressed subjects evaluated themselves more negatively than nondepressed subjects following an easy task, but evaluated themselves more positively following a difficult task. Depressed subjects did not evidence a bias to perceive tasks as being intrinsically easy. Depressed subjects did rate the tasks to be more difficult for themselves than they thought they would be for others and this expectancy was predictive of negative self-evaluation. These results were discussed in terms of alternative self-presentation motives and theories of social cognition. Self-evaluation often involves social comparison and researchers need to attend to the potentially complex interactions among social and cognitive processes.I would like to thank Deborah Davis and Paul Westerholm for their help in data collection, Ruth Maki for her statistical expertise, and the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments. Portions of this paper were presented at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, New Orleans, 1989.     

Sex Roles, Interpersonal Control, and Depression: Who Can Get Their Way?

This study is one of a series of investigations examining the contribution of sex roles to the development of depression within a learned helplessness framework. Utilizing 143 pairs of undergraduate female participants, the present study explored subjects′ abilities to gain and maintain control in an interpersonal context. Interpersonal control was operationalized as successful persuasion in a two-person discussion task, wherein one participant had hidden instructions to be maximally persuasive in discussing a questionnaire about social behavior. The results indicated that less successful persuasion was associated with increases in depressed mood. Furthermore, women with high masculinity and low femininity were able to gain interpersonal control regardless of the sex role of their partner. The results also suggested that high femininity is associated both with giving up control in interpersonal tasks and with increases in depressed mood when one is faced with the task of exerting interpersonal control. The findings were interpreted in terms of the importance of sex role characteristics in learned helplessness and depression.     

“That man’s father is my father’s son”: The roles of structure,strategy, and working memory in solving convoluted verbal problems

Normative data (N=896) collected on solutions to the traditional reasoning problem “Brothers and sisters have I none,/That man’s father is my father’s son” was the platform for a set of experiments to investigate the roles of problem structure, subject strategy, and working memory in error making in a class of verbal problems. The normative data revealed that the modal, but incorrect response to the brothers and sisters problem was “himself,” whereas the correct response of “son” was given by only 17% of subjects for the traditional version above, rising to 40% for a reordered novel version. This problem’s structure, identified as adouble-modifier structure, was found to produce similar response patterns across a range of verbal problems. Results from (1) syntactical structure manipulations (e.g., “My father’s son is the father of that man”), and (2) efforts to teach subjects to use a linear strategy (a sequence of steps), interpreted within a framework of Just and Carpenter’s (1992) capacity theory of comprehension, suggested that working memory overload varies across within-structure modifications and subjects. Further-more, this overload may be compounded by subjects’ choices of strategy.     

The gender role journey measure: Scale development and psychometric evaluation

The Gender Role Journey concept was developed to help women and men explore their gender role changes and transitions. A 34-item Gender Role Journey Measure (GRJM) was conceptualized and developed through empirical methods. The construct validity of the five phases of the gender role journey is assessed. The GRJM and the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ) were given to a sample of women and men (N=878). The sample was predominantly Caucasian from a mixed ethnic background. Principle factor analysis indicated three meaningful factors: Acceptance of Traditional Gender Roles; Gender Role Ambivalence, Confusion, Anger, and Fear; and Personal-Professional Activism. Moderately high test-retest and internal consistency reliabilities were found for each of the factors. Gender differences and gender by PAQ interactions were found for all three of the factors of the GRJM. Implications for future research, teaching, and workshops are suggested.This article was presented at the 99th convention of the American Psychological Association, San Francisco, California, August 1991. It was supported by a grant from the Research Foundation of the University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut.     

The Use of Psychoendocrine Strategies in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder1

An overview is presented of a pilot psychoendocrine study of PTSD inpatients in comparison with several subgroups of schizophrenic and affective disorder patients. Using a hormonal profile including Cortisol, norepinephrine, epinephrine, testosterone, and thyroxine, it was found that the mean values for the PTSD group were at or near the extreme end of the range for every hormone measured, i.e., relatively low for Cortisol and high for the remaining hormones. The possible clinical meaning of these findings is considered in the light of prior psychoendocrine research on chronic stress. The hormonal alterations in PTSD appear to be persistent and suggest the possibility of being linked largely to traits or character structure, perhaps particularly to cognitive variables related to defense and coping mechanisms, as reviewed in detail for each hormonal system. There appears to be a potential for a fruitful union between the traumatic stress and psychoendocrine fields and some future strategies for developing and strengthening such a union are suggested.     

A dilemma for internal realism

Conclusion Given my dilemma, then, we should think twice before following Putnam away from metaphysical realism. Internal realism can offer only a false sense of philosophical security. And now we may doubt that it can offer even that.     

The Holocaust and Its Effects on Survivors: An Overview

The Nazi Holocaust has had continuing and widely reverberating consequences not only for the Jewish survivors but for the world at large. These consequences are detailed, first through a personal account of an Auschwitz survivor, and then through a discussion of the adaptive measures of concentration camp inmates and the long-term psychiatric and psychological effects on survivors and their families. The Survivor or Concentration Camp Syndrome and its relationship to the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is described. Indirect effects of the Holocaust have been manifested in various ways, particularly through various levels of psychologic denial displayed by Holocaust criminals and (at least during the early postwar period) by the German public. The Holocaust has had profound effects on the ways the Jewish people regard themselves and are seen by others. Finally, the Holocaust can be seen as offering a kind of paradigmatic signature to the worldview of the end of the 20th century, emphasizing the persistence of evil and the limitations of the idea of progress.