Identity management strategies in Northern Ireland

Social identity theory suggests that individuals and groups use different identity management strategies to cope with threatened identities. In October 1998, the authors developed 5 identity management strategy scales for use in the changing political context of Northern Ireland and investigated the relationship of perceptions of stability and legitimacy, as well as in-group identification, to those strategies. Participants were 209 students of the University of Ulster and the Belfast Institute. The results supported the factor structure of the identity management strategy scales. Perceptions of stability and legitimacy and in-group identification were, however, correlated with some strategies only. That finding may indicate that some identity management strategies are related to psychological constructs not covered by social identity theory.     

Working memory span and the role of proactive interference.

The authors investigated the possibility that working memory span tasks are influenced by interference and that interference contributes to the correlation between span and other measures. Younger and older adults received the span task either in the standard format or one designed to reduce the impact of interference with no impact on capacity demands. Participants then read and recalled a short prose passage. Reducing the amount of interference in the span task raised span scores, replicating previous results (C. P. May, L. Hasher, & M. J. Kane, 1999). The same interference-reducing manipulations that raised span substantially altered the relation between span and prose recall. These results suggest that span is influenced by interference, that age differences in span may be due to differences in the ability to overcome interference rather than to differences in capacity, and that interference plays an important role in the relation between span and other tasks.     

A computerized test of speed of language comprehension unconfounded by literacy

A computerized version of the Silly Sentences task developed for use with children is found to be equivalent to the pencil‐and‐paper version from the SCOLP test with UK undergraduates, and is usable by a sample of young UK children. Because the sentences are presented aloud instead of being written, the computerized test is not affected by literacy skills. Translated into Kiswahili, the task was used in Tanzanian schools, despite the absence of an electricity supply and a very different cultural background. The decision latencies had a test–retest reliability of 0.69 over 5 months, and were independent of age and baseline decision speed. The task appears appropriate for longitudinal studies, including those in developing countries. Given its simplicity and the correlations with the original SCOLP version of the task, it may also be useful in studies on literate adults. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An application of item response theory to the DSM-III-R criteria for borderline personality disorder

This paper summarizes results from analyses of the DSM criteria for borderline personality disorder (BPD) using models from item response theory (IRT). The study sample consisted of 353 participants, the majority of whom were psychiatric patients. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that a one-factor model provided the best fit to the data. All the DSM BPD criteria had moderate or higher item discrimination parameters, indicating that all items contributed meaningful information in assessing BPD. Item information functions revealed that the BPD criteria as a whole were useful for capturing BPD traits in the moderately severe to severe range, but that they performed less well in the less severe range. The general conclusion is that the criteria do represent a coherent syndrome and that further research on the informational value of the individual criteria would be useful.     

Evaluating the Meta-Slope: Is there a Slippery Slope Argument against Slippery Slope Arguments?

Slippery slope arguments (SSAs) have often been viewed as inherently weak arguments, to be classified together with traditional fallacies of reasoning and argumentation such as circular arguments and arguments from ignorance. Over the last two decades several philosophers have taken a kinder view, often providing historical examples of the kind of gradual change on which slippery slope arguments rely. Against this background, Enoch (2001, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 21(4), 629–647) presented a novel argument against SSA use that itself invokes a slippery slope. Specifically, he argued that the very reasons that can make SSAs strong arguments mean that we should be poor at abiding by the distinction between good and bad SSAs, making SSAs inherently undesirable. We argue that Enoch’s meta-level SSA fails on both conceptual and empirical grounds.     

Assessing the Quality of the Parent–Child Relationship: Validity and Reliability of the Child–Parent Relationship Test (ChiP-C)

The ChiP-C is a clinically oriented questionnaire for assessing the quality of the child-parent relationship according to the child’s subjective appraisal. The ChiP-C is based on family systems theory and a cumulative vulnerability model. The questionnaire consists of 36 items representing three resource scales, five risk scales, and one additional scale. This article presents the theoretical framework and main psychometric properties of the ChiP-C. A school-based sample of 1,377 youth (ages 10–20; M = 14.4) and a clinic-referred consecutive sample of 197 patients (ages 10–18, M = 14.0) were surveyed. Construct validity was determined by confirmatory factor analyses. The mean of the internal consistencies was 0.79. Systematic correlations between the ChiP-C scales and the German EMBU confirmed the convergent and discriminant validity of the ChiP-C. Moreover, all ChiP-C scales were shown to be significantly correlated with psychopathological symptoms as measured by parent and youth questionnaires. The ChiP-C can be considered an economical screening instrument for a reliable and valid assessment of strengths and disturbances of the child-parent relationship according to the child’s subjective appraisal.