The relationship of impairment to personality disorder severity among individuals with specific axis I disorders: results from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions

The present study examined one dimensional approach to personality disorders (PDs) in a large (n = 43,093), nationally representative sample of the U.S. population. Respondents were classified in four personality severity categories (no PD, subthreshold PD, simple PD, complex PD). Linear regression analyses were conducted to examine mental disability by PD severity for major DSM-IV substance use, mood and anxiety disorders. Significant increases in disability were observed between no PD and simple PD and between simple PD and complex PD for each Axis I disorder except drug dependence, but few differences in disability were found between no PD and subthreshold PD. This study found support for the clinical utility of the dimensional classification of PD severity with regard to the distinction between simple and complex PD and for a combined no PD-subthreshold PD level of severity. Future planned analyses will address the clinical utility of the classification prospectively, with a full battery of all Axis II PDs.     

Structural priming: a critical review

Repetition is a central phenomenon of behavior, and researchers have made extensive use of it to illuminate psychological functioning. In the language sciences, a ubiquitous form of such repetition is structural priming, a tendency to repeat or better process a current sentence because of its structural similarity to a previously experienced ("prime") sentence (J. K. Bock, 1986). The recent explosion of research in structural priming has made it the dominant means of investigating the processes involved in the production (and increasingly, comprehension) of complex expressions such as sentences. This review considers its implications for the representation of syntax and the mechanisms of production and comprehension and their relationship. It then addresses the potential functions of structural priming, before turning to its implications for first language acquisition, bilingualism, and aphasia. The authors close with theoretical and empirical recommendations for future investigations.     

The Role of Perceived Social Support and Stress in the Type A Cognition-Symptom Relationship

The two main objectives of this research were to determine whether Type A cognitions are related to a broader range of symptoms than has traditionally been studied and to determine possible mediating variables. Past research and theory suggest that Type A individuals not only experience but also generate stress and interpersonal conflict (i.e., in keeping with a psychosocial vulnerability model). This psychosocial vulnerability may put Type A individuals at greater risk of experiencing a wide array of physical and psychological symptoms well beyond coronary heart disease (CHD), the health outcome typically investigated. Stress, interpersonal and non-interpersonal in nature, and perceived social support, were explored as possible mediators in the Type A cognition-symptoms relationship using structural equation modelling (SEM) in a university sample. Non-interpersonal stress and interpersonal stress mediated both the Type A cognition-psychological symptoms relationship and the Type A cognition-physical symptoms relationship. However, perceived social support only mediated the Type A cognition-psychological symptoms relationship. Results indicate that Type A individuals may experience psychosocial vulnerability, particularly reporting stress, which may put them at risk for the experience of negative health outcomes. Implications for cognitive therapy are discussed.

Buddhism and cognitivism: A postmodern appraisal

Cognitivism, presently the major paradigm of psychology, presents a scientific account of mental life. Buddhism also presents an account of mental life, but one which is integral with its wider ethical and transcendental concerns. The postmodern appraisal of science provides a framework within which these two accounts may be compared without inheriting many of the assumed oppositions between science and religion. It is concluded that cognitivism and Buddhism will have complementary roles in the development of a more pluralist psychological science. In this development it will be necessary to address what values are implicit in science.     

On the Right Track: Client Experience of Narrative Therapy

This article presents an ethnographic research on eight families' experience of narrative therapy and discusses six major themes found in the interviews including externalizing conversation, developing the alternate story, personal agency, reflecting/consulting teams, building a wider audience, and the helpful and unhelpful aspects of the therapy. The findings and the notation that families found the therapy to be very effective are also included.     

The difficult mountain: enriched composition in adjective–noun phrases

When readers need to go beyond the straightforward compositional meaning of a sentence (i.e., when enriched composition is required), costly additional processing is the norm. However, this conclusion is based entirely on research that has looked at enriched composition between two phrases or within the verb phrase (e.g., the verb and its complement in . . . started the book . . .) where there is a discrepancy between the semantic expectations of the verb and the semantics of the noun. We carried out an eye-tracking experiment investigating enriched composition within a single noun phrase, as in the difficult mountain. As compared with adjective–noun phrases that allow a straightforward compositional interpretation (the difficult exercise), the coerced phrases were more difficult to process. These results indicate that coercion effects can be found in the absence of a typing violation and within a single noun phrase.     

Search Strategies in Syntactic Reanalysis

We first consider the nature of syntactic reanalysis, paying particular attention to questions about whether and how it differs from the construction of an initial analysis, such as whether it is encapsulated or whether alternatives are considered in parallel or not. We then outline different strategies that the processor may use in reanalysis, and review the relevant evidence. We show that our experimental evidence is compatible with an encapsulated serial search strategy.