Inattentive and noninattentive ADHD children: Do they constitute a unitary group?

Teacher-rated ADHD and normal control children were administered a continuous performance test (CPT), and were then further subdivided based upon the presence or absence of objectively assessed attentional deficits. In addition, children were assessed using several measures of cognitive and behavioral functioning. Attentional deficits were signficantly more prevalent among the ADHD group, but about half of the ADHD children showed no evidence of objectively assessed attentional dysfunction. Further group analyses indicated that ADHD children with objectively assessed attentional dysfunction appeared cognitively impaired, while ADHD children without objective evidence of attentional dysfunction had more conduct problems. CPT inattention was not related to the presence of cognitive impairments or conduct problems in the control group. These data must be considered preliminary because teacher ratings were the only source of diagnosis and a single measure of inattention was used. However, they suggest that two subtypes of ADHD children can be identified, one characterized by inattention and learning problems, and the other by conduct problems.The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Sister Hildegard Kogler and the St. Francis DeSales School, and the parents and children who participated in this study.     

Cues, consequences and therapeutic talk: effects of social context and coping statements on pain

The present study examined the effects of two types of coping statements on tolerance of experimentally-induced pain when the Ss either thought the experimenter knew or did not know their statements. When Ss thought no one knew their statements, no therapeutic effects were shown. When Ss knew the experimenter knew the statements, the Ss tolerated the pain longer and showed specific effects depending on the specific type of coping statement used. The implications of this study for distinguishing informational, self-instructional and social-motivation effects in therapy are discussed.     

Interest in entering helping activities and self-disclosure to three targets on the Jourard self-disclosure scale.

Jourard's 40-item Self-disclosure Questionnaire was administered to 50 students in a training and selection program for a quasi-counseling position and 52 randomly selected students. Subjects indicated past disclosures to three target persons, parents, best friend, and stranger. Results indicated: highest disclosures were reported to best friends, lowest to strangers; subjects interested in the quasi-counseling position reported more disclosure than subjects not interested in this position; females reported more disclosure than males only to strangers.     

Emotions and cardiac contractility as reflected in ballistocardiographic recordings

Thirty-four patients with documented ischemic heart disease were followed with nine or more ballistocardiograms recorded at different occasions during a period exceeding two years. In a doubleblind procedure the reactions to life situations were explored in relation to the average rate of maximal cardiac force development as reflected from the slope of the IJ segment of the ballistocardiogram. A similar procedure was used in the analysis of emotional reactions in relation to IJ slope during stress interviews of six other patients with ischemic heart disease. Passive behavior and feelings of being defeated corresponded to low rate of cardiac force development, whereas happiness or aggressive responses to frustrations corresponded to a high rate of cardiac force development.     

Separation anxiety and the inhibition of aggression in preschool children

The anxiety, aggression, and affiliation responses of 10 high- and 10 low-separation-anxious 3-year-old children were observed under a control and a frustrating condition to test the hypothesis that separation anxiety is associated with the inhibition of aggression. High-separation-anxious Ss manifested significantly less (p < .01) increased aggression to frustration than did low-separation-anxious Ss; there were no group differences in state anxiety arousal or affiliation responses. The results were discussed in terms of the concept of anxiety as a drive having both cue and response-enhancing functions.This study was funded by a college research grant from the New York State College of Human Ecology at Cornell University. Special thanks are due to James Cox, Lisa Fremont, and Sharon McNulty for their help in carrying out this study and to the staffs and children of the Ithaca preschool programs who made this research possible.