Preliminary Steps in the Development of a Screening Instrument To Assess Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

The authors demonstrate the complexities and processes involved in constructing a screening test for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Discussion includes item development, field testing, and preliminary results.     

Toward a predictive model of suicidal ideation and behavior: some preliminary data in college students

Within a multivariate statistical design, the relationship of various interpersonal, emotional, and cognitive variables to suicidal ideation and behavior in college students was examined. A total of 158 subjects (58 males, 100 females) completed self-report measures of life stress, faulty cognitions, loneliness, depression, hopelessness, family cohesiveness, adaptive reasons for living, and suicidal ideation and behavior. The results of a multiple-regression analysis, forward-inclusion algorithm, indicated that a predictive equation consisting of loneliness, irrational beliefs, and low adaptive reasons for living best accounted for suicidal behavior scores. To determine the basic structures and power of the predictor variables under study, a factor analysis and composite regression were employed, resulting in a predictive equation consisting of three factors: Social/Emotional Alienation, Cognitive Distortions, and Deficient Adaptive Resources. Results are discussed in terms of an interactional model of suicidal behavior.     

Counseling Centers and Accountability: Immovable Objects,Irresistible Forces

The concept of accountability has been resisted by some college and university counseling center personnel. Typical arguments about accountability are discussed, and a further endorsement of the value of developing accountability systems in counseling centers is provided.     

THE CREATIONISTS

Abstract. As the crusade to outlaw the teaching of evolution changed to a battle for equal time for creationism, the ideological defenses of that doctrine also shifted from primarily biblical to more scientific grounds. This essay describes the historical development of "scientific creationism" from a variety of late–nineteenth– and early–twentieth–century creationist reactions to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, through the Scopes trial and the 1960s revival of creationism, to the current spread of strict creationism around the world.     

Clinical trial of contemnol tablets (lithium retard Spofa)

A report on the clinical testing of the lithium-retard medicament Contemnol (Spofa). It details the way lithium-retard treatment is objectively and subjectively superior to the earlier and still current general lithium treatment.