Substance use and violent behavior in adolescence

The relation between substance use and violent behavior in adolescence is reviewed, and each of five competing models of this relation is examined. I begin by presenting background material on adolescent substance use and adolescent violence. I then describe five different models that have been proposed to explain the association between substance use and violent behavior. Next, I review the adolescent literature concerning substance use and violence, noting methodological weaknesses that have plagued this research. I conclude with an evaluation of the five models and suggestions for future research.     

Signal-processing software for teaching and research in psychoacoustics under UNIX and X-Windows

A package of software is described that generates, analyzes, stores, and displays sampled waveforms. The package is designed for use under UNIX and includes C source code, UNIX manual pages, and tutorial documents. The programs interact via UNIX pipes using an ASCII-text data format, which enables the user to view the data in numerical form as well as through the use of plotting programs. Among many other functions, the programs can do the following: efficiently generate linearphase FIR filters with arbitrary transfer functions; generate impulse responses for rectangular rooms of specified dimensions; convolve waveforms with each other; perform Fourier transformation and inverse Fourier transformation; filter waveforms in the Fourier domain; filter waveforms according to the peripheral frequency selectivity of the human auditory system; cross-correlate waveforms; autocorrelate waveforms; synthesize complex waveforms, including vowel sounds and white noise. The software can read and write a variety of commonly used waveform file formats. The data can be plotted on an X-Window display using thegnuplot software, which has been included in the package. The complete software package is available via anonymous ftp from ftp.ihr.mrc.ac.uk in ~ftp/pub/johncu/wave.tar.Z     

The gap effect for eye and hand movements

A temporal gap between fixation point offset and stimulus onset typically yields shorter saccadic latencies to the stimulus than if the fixation stimulus remained on. Several researchers have explored the extent to which this gap also reduces latencies of other responses but have failed to find a gap effect isolated from general warning effects. Experiment 1, however, showed a robust gap effect for aimed hand movements (which required determination of a precise spatial location), regardless of whether the hand moved alone or was accompanied by a saccadic eye movement. Experiment 2 replicated this aimed hand gap effect and also showed a smaller effect for choice manual keypress responses (which required determination of the direction of response only). Experiment 3 showed no gap effect for simple manual keypress responses (which required no spatial determination). The results are consistent with an interpretation of the gap effect in terms of facilitation of spatially oriented responses.     

Chronic sorrow: A content analysis of parental differences

Sixty-eight mothers and 64 fathers of children with a neural tube defect responded to a questionnaire about chronic sorrow. Mothers reported a mood state change in very intense category from more pessimistic at time of diagnosis to more optimistic at current time. Fathers, although indicating a mood change in the very intense category to more optimistic, also had more pessimistic responses. Parental similarities and differences were also reported in both times and events that triggered the sorrow response. Categories across times and events were primarily related to health care, school/development concerns and social significance. Clinical and research implications of these findings are discussed.     

Prevalence of traumatic brain injury in an inpatient psychiatric population

This study investigated the prevalence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in an inpatient psychiatric population. We hypothesized increased prevalence of TBI relative to the general population due to a variety of risk factors observed in psychiatric patients. One hundred (mean age = 34) psychiatric inpatients completed the revised Head Injury Questionnaire. Chart review of 17 subjects reporting injuries established whether injuries were documented in medical records. Sixty-eight percent of this psychiatric population reported one or more injuries in which they were unconscious or dazed. This number is higher than the prevalence in the general population. Injuries were generally of mild to moderate severity; multiple injuries were common. Chart review of 17 subjects reporting TBI indicated that histories of TBI had not been noted in the medical record. Finally, 63% of TBI subjects reported that their injury predated the onset of their psychiatric symptoms. These results suggest a possible role of TBI in psychiatric symptomatology and have implications for psychiatric treatment in this population.     

The outlook of the Tekhne Iatrike and the medical act to the third millenium

Medicine is arriving at a new millenium. One of its most urgent tasks is to reconcile social health demands with a renewed medical paradigm capable of including them. This challenge requires a reexamination of the definition of medicine. This work takes up the original greek definition of medicine (Tekhne Iatrike) and the Medical Act according to P. Lain Entrago, and analyzes Heidegger's interpretation of Tekhne. It points out the two main ways in which current medical practice is sustained: the Instrumental Medical Act (IMA), which organizes medical production, and the Productive Medical Act (PMA), which motivates it. An overwhelmed Medical Act, fighting but incapable of optimizing an insufficient medical production, is observed. This medical act is searching for foundations: an hegemonic IMA, associated disciplines and a new medical hierarchy.     

Touch dominates haptic estimates of discordant visual-haptic size

Observers (72 college students) estimated the size of plastic squares that they held in their fingers and simultaneously viewed through a reducing lens that halved the squares’ visual size. The squares were grasped from below through a cloth that prevented direct sight of the hand. Each estimate was a match selected later, either haptically or visually, from a set of comparison squares. Vision dominated the visual estimates and touch dominated the haptic estimates, whether or not the observers knew in advance which type of estimate they would be asked to make. Neither modality inherently dominates perceived size.     

The making of the group therapist: The role of experiential learning

The purpose of this paper is to review the necessary components of a comprehensive group therapy program. The balancing between the didactic and the experiential portions, and an analysis of the selection criteria, along with the rationale for a particular sequencing of elements in the curriculum, are discussed. A line between supervision and personal therapy is drawn. The author describes the milieu necessary for a successful training program to evolve and makes suggestions for improvements. The various experiential aspects of training are presented and critically evaluated. The training situation is examined from the point of view of the faculty, the trainee and the patients involved. The author marshalls evidence indicating that personal group psychotherapy in a patient group is the preferred form for most trainees for the experiential part of the program. The paper concludes that the sharing and cohesiveness of training philosophies and methods by the faculty is a prerequisite to the success of any training program.