The Dimensions of Stress Scale: Psychometric Properties1

Although cognitive appraisal, situational properties, and attributions are important parts of the stress process, few multidimensional measures are available to examine these constructs simultaneously. This paper investigates the properties of the Dimensions of Stress Scale (DSS). The DSS is a brief self-report questionnaire designed to assess appraisals of personal relevance (salience) and control; stressor properties (novelty, duration, and predictability); and self-attributions (causality). The items were derived theoretically, using the cognitive-phenomenological model of stress and the stress literature. Empirical support for the six dimensions (scales) was generated first on a sample of elderly individuals (n= 269) and then replicated on an independent sample of younger individuals (n= 162). In both investigations, the factor structure of five of the scales was shown to approximate a simple structure. Evidence of internal consistency and content validity was also provided. The scales’ construct validity was supported by their relationships with stressor type (e. g., physical health problems, relationships, work, finances, individuals with indeterminate Western Blots, and caregivers of patients with Alzheimer's disease), coping, and depressed mood. The DSS should be useful in examining stressful experiences.     

Story telling in families with children: A therapeutic approach to learning problems

Story telling can be used as an original method to restructure families with children. It actively involves parents in communicating with children in their own language, helping the family to switch from a rational language to an emotional/imaginary one, circumventing resistances and permitting its members to resume a natural path in parent-child communication. This paper illustrates how stories can be used in family interaction for treating problems of family origin. Selected stories were given to parents and children for them to read-listen/make comments/dramatize during the phase of family treatment which dealt specifically with learning problems. Three family cases in which story telling was useful in solving children's disabilities through promoting changes in the family structure and creating or enlightening parental functions of orientation and guidance are analyzed.This work was done at CERF, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and received the Margarita Ravioli Award from the Asociacion Argentina de Psiquiatria Infantil for the best paper in mental health and education, Buenos Aires, September, 1987. We wish to acknowledge psychologists Helen Lamuraglia, Julia Koremblit, and Susana Sola for their therapeutic cooperation with the family cases P and F respectively. We especially thank Harry Aponte, Alberto Gonzalez, and Helen Lamuraglia for their support, comments, and review of the paper, which enriched our scope and discussion.     

U-shaped backward contour masking during stroboscopic motion.

Two stationary and spatially separated visual stimuli, presented briefly and successively in time, are known to produce stroboscopic motion whose vividness is a U-shaped function of the stimulus onset asynchrony. Contour masking is also known to occur under such stimulus conditions. The findings show that the contour masking is confined to only the first stimulus and that it, like metacontrast, is a backward U-shaped function of the stimulus onset asynchrony. A simple model, based on known psychophysical and neurophysiological properties, is proposed to explain these results.     

Multiple theoretical approaches to supervision: choices in family therapy training

The supervision techniques used in structural, strategic, family-of-origin, and experiential family therapy training are discussed and compared, with emphasis on the isomorphism between supervision and therapy in each school. The usefulness of each supervisory model is related to supervisees' needs at different levels of training. Recommendations are made about the sequence of family therapy training, including the utility of eclectic versus purist family therapy training programs for trainees at different levels of experience.     

From Performance to Decision Processes in 33 Years: A History ofOrganizational Behavior and Human Decision Processesunder James C. Naylor

For the past 33 years,Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processeshas thrived under a single editor. That editor, James C. Naylor, is retiring from his long stewardship. This article chronicles the course of the journal under Jim's direction and marks some of the accomplishments and changes over the past three decades that go to his credit.     

Anxious personality and functional efficiency of the insular-opercular network: A graph-analytic approach to resting-state fMRI

The brain is an intricate network, not only structurally but also functionally. On the functional level, connectivity in the brain is organized in separable yet interacting networks that support information processing by maintaining a ready state, even in the absence of external stimulation. It has been hypothesized that an insular-opercular network underlies the processing of emotionally salient information and that individual differences in functional connectivity within this network correspond to individual differences in trait anxiety. Here, we tested this relationship by applying graph analysis to multiple regions of interests delineating the insular-opercular network to estimate the characteristic path length that quantifies the overall information exchange efficiency within a given network. We found that people scoring high on the anxiety-related temperament-dimension harm avoidance had decreased insular-opercular network efficiency in the resting state, as indicated by a higher characteristic path length. Furthermore, people scoring high on harm avoidance showed generally reduced functional connectivity between brain regions; the relationship between harm avoidance and insular-opercular network efficiency remained significant when controlling for mean connectivity within this network. No such results were found for other resting-state networks. The results provide insights into how personality is organized in the human brain and point toward clinically relevant endophenotypes for affective and mood disorders.     

Applying Continuity Theory to Older Adult Friendships

Continuity theory provides a rationalization for understanding older adult friendships. Older adults do not have to anticipate disengagement but can exercise their choice to actively participate in establishing and maintaining friendship structures. The role of friend is one a person can choose to maintain. Friendships are dynamic and progress on a continuum with beginnings, periods of endurance and change, and endings. Continuity theory provides ways to understand why particular people have developed and adapted distinct friendship and social support networks. This insight provides social service professionals, gerontologists, and family members ways to enable older adults to remain in their communities longer and maintain support stability.