Examination of the screening properties of the personality diagnostic questionnaire 4+ (PDQ-4+) in a prison population

There is a high prevalence of personality disorder in most prison populations. Many pass through the system undiagnosed. A screening instrument would improve identification. This study examined the screening properties of the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4+ (PDQ-4+) in prisoners convicted of violent and sexual offenses. A sample of British prisoners completed the self-report PDQ-4+ and were interviewed using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II disorders. When used to generate a total score, the PDQ-4+ had an acceptable overall accuracy as measured by the area under the Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) curve. The PDQ-4+ appears to have the properties suitable for use as a screening instrument, particularly when screening for the presence or absence of personality disorder rather than for individual personality disorder categories. A graph is presented from which choices of cut-off score for different combinations of sensitivity and specificity can be made. A cut off total score of 25 or above yielded near optimal sensitivity and specificity. The suggested cut off score for this population is lower than that previously suggested.     

The Identity Development of Urban Minority Young Men in Single‐Mother Households

This phenomenological study explored the gender and career identity development of 13 urban minority young men, with an emphasis on the potential impact of father absence and single‐mother parenting. Six themes were identified: (a) emotional intelligence and maternal appreciation and internalization, (b) consequent assumption of a parentified role, (c) nontraditional perception of masculinity, (d) experienced paternal void, (e) resilience, and (f) the limitations and aspirations in career pathways. Implications for practice and research are discussed.     

The role of explicit and implicit standards in visual speed discrimination

Five experiments were designed to investigate visual speed discrimination. Variations of the method of constant stimuli were used to obtain speed discrimination thresholds in experiments 1, 2, 4, and 5, while the method of single stimuli was used in experiment 3. The observers' thresholds were significantly influenced by the choice of psychophysical method and by changes in the standard speed. The observers' judgments were unaffected, however, by changes in the magnitude of random variations in stimulus duration, reinforcing the conclusions of Lappin et al (1975 Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 1 383 394). When an implicit standard was used, the observers produced relatively low discrimination thresholds (7.0% of the standard speed), verifying the results of McKee (1981 Vision Research 21 491-500). When an explicit standard was used in a 2AFC variant of the method of constant stimuli, however, the observers' discrimination thresholds increased by 74% (to 12.2%), resembling the high thresholds obtained by Mandriota et al (1962 Science 138 437-438). A subsequent signal-detection analysis revealed that the observers' actual sensitivities to differences in speed were in fact equivalent for both psychophysical methods. The formation of an implicit standard in the method of single stimuli allows human observers to make judgments of speed that are as precise as those obtained when explicit standards are available.     

The influence of partial‐match cues on event‐based prospective memory

In event‐based prospective memory tasks people form an intention to respond when an environmental cue signals that conditions are appropriate to fulfil an intended activity. In the ongoing activity the authors embedded partial‐match cues that only partially, but not completely, satisfied the conditions required to make a prospective response. The consequence of encountering these partial‐match cues was to increase responses to appropriate prospective memory cues encountered later. This outcome occurred both with semantic and orthographic cues, but only the former led to longer processing latencies of the partial‐match cues. This asymmetry suggests that partial‐match cues may not need to be processed consciously in order to benefit event‐based prospective memory. A parametric manipulation of the number of partial‐match cues resulted in numerically but not statistically better prospective memory. Consequently, partial‐match cues may function as overt reminders of the intention to respond or they may serve to engage participants in self‐initiated remindings of the intention.     

Imaginary Worlds in Middle Childhood: A Qualitative Study of Two Pairs of Coordinated Paracosms

Imagining alternatives to actual experiences is an important part of everyday life that can take many forms. One manifestation in middle childhood is the creation of elaborate imaginary worlds, called paracosms. Retrospective reports of adults indicate that having a childhood paracosm is more commonly reported in individuals acknowledged for being highly creative. In this study, we interviewed four children aged 10 to 12 years with interconnected paracosms about the details of their imagined worlds. Our findings indicated that paracosms served as a platform for social activity with friends, a way to explore real world interests (e.g., geography, language), and a vehicle for engaging in creative pursuits (e.g., drawing, storytelling).     

The auditory-evoked N2 and P3 components in the stop-signal task: indices of inhibition, response-conflict or error-detection?

The N2 and P3 components have been separately associated with response inhibition in the stop-signal task, and more recently, the N2 has been implicated in the detection of response-conflict. To isolate response inhibition activity from early sensory processing, the present study compared processing of the stop-signal with that of a task-irrelevant tone, which subjects were instructed to ignore. Stop-signals elicited a larger N2 on failed-stop trials and a larger P3 on successful-stop trials, relative to ignore-signal trials, likely reflecting activity related to failed and successful stopping, respectively. ERPs between fast and slow reaction-time (RT) groups were also examined as it was hypothesised that greater inhibitory activation to stop faster responses would manifest in the component reflecting this process. Successful-stop P3 showed the anticipated effect (globally larger amplitude in the fast than slow RT group), supporting its association with the stopping of an ongoing response. In contrast, N2 was larger in the slow than fast RT group, and in contrast to the predictions of the response-conflict hypothesis, successful-stop N2 and the response-locked error-negativity (Ne) differed in scalp distribution. These findings indicate that the successful-stop N2 may be better explained as a deliberate form of response control or selection, which the slow RT group employed as a means of increasing the likelihood of a successful-stop. Finally, a comparison of stimulus and response-locked ERPs revealed that the failed-stop N2 and P3 appeared to reflect error-related activity, best observed in the response-locked Ne and error-positivity (Pe). Together these findings indicate that the successful-stop N2 and P3 reflect functionally distinct aspects of response control that are dependent upon performance strategies, while failed-stop N2 and P3 reflect error-related activity.     

Pursuit of comfort and pursuit of harmony: culture, relationships, and social support seeking

This research examined whether people from collectivistic cultures are less likely to seek social support than are people from individualistic cultures because they are more cautious about potentially disturbing their social network. Study 1 found that Asian Americans from a more collectivistic culture sought social support less and found support seeking to be less effective than European Americans from a more individualistic culture. Study 2 found that European Americans' willingness to seek support was unaffected by relationship priming, whereas Asian Americans were willing to seek support less when the relationship primed was closer to the self. Study 3 replicated the results of Study 2 and found that the tendency to seek support and expect social support to be helpful as related to concerns about relationships. These findings underscore the importance of culturally divergent relationship patterns in understanding social support transactions.     

Postpartum feeding attitudes, maternal depression, and breastfeeding in Barbados

Maternal feeding attitudes, maternal moods and infant feeding practices during the first 6 months postpartum were assessed in 226 healthy, well-nourished Barbadian mother-infant dyads. Factor analysis of the feeding attitudes questionnaire resulted in six independent factors. The belief that breastfeeding was better than bottle-feeding was associated with higher family income, more information seeking behavior and older maternal age at the time of her first pregnancy. Women who believed that breastfeeding was better at 7 weeks postpartum were also more likely to breastfeed at concurrent and later ages, up to 6 months postpartum. This belief was also associated with less maternal depression at 7 weeks and 6 months. The association between feeding attitudes and actual feeding practices was significant even after correcting for maternal moods and other background variables. Conversely, after controlling for feeding attitudes, maternal mood at 7 weeks was still significantly associated with infant feeding practices at 6 months. Thus, feeding attitudes and maternal moods were closely linked, but each contributed independently and uniquely to different aspects of breastfeeding, especially at 6 months. These findings suggest that early intervention addressing maternal feeding attitudes, may improve the extent of breastfeeding and the health of children in this setting.     

The role of sensorimotor impairments in dyslexia: a multiple case study of dyslexic children

This study attempts to investigate the role of sensorimotor impairments in the reading disability that characterizes dyslexia. Twenty-three children with dyslexia were compared to 22 control children, matched for age and non-verbal intelligence, on tasks assessing literacy as well as phonological, visual, auditory and motor abilities. The dyslexic group as a whole were significantly impaired on phonological, but not sensorimotor, tasks. Analysis of individual data suggests that the most common impairments were on phonological and visual stress tasks and the vast majority of dyslexics had one of these two impairments. Furthermore, phonological skill was able to account for variation in literacy skill, to the exclusion of all sensorimotor factors, while neither auditory nor motor skill predicted any variance in phonological skill. Visual stress seems to account for a small proportion of dyslexics, independently of the commonly reported phonological deficit. However, there is little evidence for a causal role of auditory, motor or other visual impairments.