Adolescents' parent and peer relationships

High school seniors (N = 89) from a suburban private high school were administered a comprehensive questionnaire to determine differences between adolescents who rated the quality of their parent and peer relationships as high or low. Adolescents with high parent and high peer relationship scores had more friends, greater family togetherness, lower levels of depression and drug use, and a higher grade point average.     

Violence and touch deprivation in adolescents

The increasing incidence of violence among children and adolescents highlights the importance of identifying at-risk profiles as well as assessing interventions for preventing violence. Empirical research has suggested behavioral, central nervous system, and neurotransmitter/neurohormone dysregulation in violent individuals, including (1) an underaroused central nervous system characterized by right frontal electroencephalogram (EEG) hypoactivation, and (2) a neurotransmitter/neurohormone profile of lower norepinephrine, serotonin, and cortisol, and elevated dopamine and testosterone. The literature also suggests a disproportionate incidence of physical abuse and neglect or the lack of positive physical contact in violent individuals. In the studies we have conducted to date, there has been a relatively high incidence of anger and aggression in high school samples, even those that were relatively advantaged, as well as high levels of depression (one standard deviation above the mean), suggesting significant disturbance in these youth. Adolescents with these profiles also had less optimal relationships with their families, used illicit drugs more frequently, had inferior academic performance, and had higher depression scores. In our cross-cultural comparisons, preschoolers and adolescents were less physically affectionate and more aggressive in the United States versus France. Further, the U.S. youth received less physical affection as preschoolers, and as adolescents they engaged in more self-stimulating behaviors, perhaps to compensate for receiving less physical affection from their parents and peers. This supports the notion that less physical affection (or more physical neglect) can contribute to greater aggression. Massage therapy has been effective with violent adolescents, perhaps because the physical stimulation reduced their dopamine levels and increased their serotonin levels. Their aggressive behavior decreased and their empathetic behavior increased. These preliminary data need to be replicated in a larger sample with a more comprehensive set of measures in the context of identifying a diagnostic profile.     

Interobserver agreement, intraobserver reliability, and the Rorschach Comprehensive System

Interrater agreement and reliability for the Rorschach have recently come under increasing scrutiny. This is the second report examining methods of Comprehensive System reliability using principles derived from observational methodology and applied behavioral analysis. This study examined a previous nonpatient sample of 20 protocols (N = 412 responses) and also examined a new clinical sample of 20 protocols (N = 374 responses) diagnosed with Research Diagnostic Criteria. Reliability was analyzed at multiple levels of Comprehensive System data, including response-level individual codes and coding decisions and ratios, percentages, and derivations from the Structural Summary. With a number of exceptions, most Comprehensive System codes, coding decisions, and summary scores yield acceptable, and in many instances excellent, levels of reliability. Limitations arising from the nature of Rorschach data and Comprehensive System coding criteria are discussed.     

Falsification of matching theory's account of single-alternative responding: Herrnstein's k varies with sucrose concentration

Eight rats pressed levers for varying concentrations of sucrose in water under eight variable-interval schedules that specified a wide range of reinforcement rate. Herrnstein's (1970) hyperbolic equation described the relation between reinforcement and responding well. Although the y asymptote, k, of the hyperbola appeared roughly constant over conditions that approximated conditions used by Heyman and Monaghan (1994), k varied when lower concentration solutions were included. Advances in matching theory that reflect asymmetries between response alternatives and insensitive responding were incorporated into Herrnstein's equation. After fitting the modified equation to the data, Herrnstein's k also increased. The results suggest that variation in k can be detected under a sufficiently wide range of reinforcer magnitudes, and they also suggest that matching theory's account of response strength is false. The results support qualitative predictions made by linear system theory.     

Are self-enhancing cognitions associated with healthy or unhealthy biological profiles?

Self-enhancement is variously portrayed as a positive illusion that can foster health and longevity or as defensive neuroticism that can have physiological-neuroendocrine costs. In a laboratory stress-challenge paradigm, the authors found that high self-enhancers had lower cardiovascular responses to stress, more rapid cardiovascular recovery, and lower baseline cortisol levels, consistent with the positive illusions predictions and counter to the predictions of the defensive neuroticism position. A second set of analyses, replicating the "illusory mental health paradigm" (J. Shedler, M. Mayman, & M. Manis, 1993), also did not support the defensive neuroticism hypothesis. The association between self-enhancement and cortisol was mediated by psychological resources; analyses of the cardiovascular results provided no definitive mediational pathway. Discussion centers on the potential stress-buffering effects of self-enhancing beliefs.     

Portrait of the self-enhancer: well adjusted and well liked or maladjusted and friendless?

Research has variously portrayed self-enhancement as an indicator of narcissistic defensiveness or as a concomitant of mental health. To address this controversy, the present study used multiple measures of self-enhancement along with multiple measures and judges of mental health, comprehensively assessing their relationship. The results indicated that self-enhancement is positively associated with multiple indicators of mental health and with a more favorable impact on others. Discussion centers on a reconciliation of discrepant portraits of the self-enhancer.     

Autism,early narcissistic injury and self‐organization: a role for the image of the mother’s eyes?

Holland elucidated the new paradigm of self-organization in complex adaptive systems. This paradigm holds for all living systems, including the personality. In conjunction with the theory of archetypes, self-organization suggests two radical hypotheses, one about early development, the other about the origins of autism. Autism is associated with several medical conditions, with genetic markers, and with infant visual deprivation. However none of these factors is either necessary or sufficient to cause autism. It is hypothesized that each of these factors increases the likelihood of a primary psychological deficit: failure to acquire, or retain, the image of the mother's eyes. This hypothesis was initially derived from analytic work with patients who have early narcissistic injury and with patients who have mild autistic traits. Both diagnoses may arise from the same initial disturbance: Symington argued that autism is an extreme form of infantile narcissism. Indirect evidence for the image-of-the-eyes hypotheses comes from the evolution of primates, from infant-mother observations, from observations of infant vision, and from experiments on vision in other vertebrates. Byrd recently confirmed that the incidence of autism is increasing dramatically. The image-of-the-eyes hypotheses suggest that this increase may be linked to increased use of non-maternal childcare for young infants.     

Functional analysis and treatment of elopement for a child with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

We conducted a functional analysis of elopement in an outdoor setting for a child with a diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. A subsequent treatment consisting of noncontingent attention and time-out was demonstrated to be effective in eliminating elopement. Modifications of functional analysis procedures associated with the occurrence of elopement in a natural setting are demonstrated.     

Using stimulus equivalence‐based instruction to teach young children their caregivers' contact information

Stimulus equivalence‐based instruction (EBI) was used to teach young children of typical development three 4‐member equivalence classes containing contact information from three caregivers (e.g., mother, father, and grandmother). Each class comprised the caregiver's (a) photograph, (b) printed name, (c) printed phone number, and (d) printed name of employer. A pretest‐train‐posttest‐maintenance design with a nontreatment control group comparison was used. Pretests and posttests assessed the degree to which class‐consistent responding occurred across both visual–visual matching tasks and intraverbals. Intraverbal responding was also probed with a novel instructor. Overall, EBI participants scored significantly higher during the posttests than the control participants across both the derived relations and intraverbal tests. These differences maintained 2 weeks later. Thus, responding generalized to (a) a different topography (i.e., intraverbal), (b) auditory versions of the stimuli, and (c) in the presence of a novel instructor. How such procedures may benefit lost children are discussed.