Gender differences and the Defense Mechanism Test: A comparative study of adolescents in psychiatric care and healthy controls

The aim of this paper was to study gender differences in the percept-genetic method Defense Mechanism Test (DMT) among a group of 60 adolescent subjects. Three subgroups were used: patients with psychotic disorders (Axis 1); borderline personality disorder (Axis 2) according to the DSM-IV classification system, and a non-patient group. The test protocols were scored with respect to 124 DMT variables and analyzed by means of the multivariate projection method Partial Least Squares (PLS) in latent structures. The overall results showed considerable gender differences in the whole group as well as in the subgroups. The most striking finding was that girls compared to boys were characterized by the perceptual defense identification with the opposite sex, which means that they perceived male gestalts instead of females in the stimulus picture. When both gender and diagnostic group membership were considered simultaneously, the influence of diagnostic group membership seemed to be stronger than gender even if there was an interaction between diagnoses and gender. It was concluded that gender must be considered when the DMT is used on adolescent populations.     

No vigilance deficit found in either young schizophrenic or ADHD subjects

Vigilance deficits have been found in both schizophrenic and ADHD subjects. The two patient groups have never been directly compared on any vigilance measure, however. In the present study 20 early-onset schizophrenics were compared to 20 ADHD adolescents on a Degraded Stimulus Continuous Performance Test (DS-CPT). A comparison group of 30 normal adolescents was also included. Results showed no significant differences between the three groups on any of the DS-CPT measures. Different hypotheses are put forth to explain the findings, among them that the task may be insensitive to identifying sustained attention deficits in adolescent populations.     

Evidence of observer reliability for the Fagan Test of Infant Intelligence (FTII)

To obtain estimates of observer reliability, the Fagan Test of Infant Intelligence (FTII) apparatus was modified to allow the infants' performance to be videotaped. Based upon results of 25 infants scored once during time of testing and again 2 years later using the videotape version, interobserver and intraobserver reliabilities obtained for percent novelty preference (test rounds), total number of looks (familiarization and test rounds), and mean fixation (familiarization and test rounds) were mostly very high for each round (M r = .92, SD = .04). The videotaped infants' scores did not differ significantly from those of a comparable sample of infants who were tested using an unmodified apparatus.     

认识检验之旅——中国古代认识真理性检验标准思想探析

中国古代关于认识真理性检验标准的思想可以大致归纳为四种主要观点。先秦及汉代的唯物主义思想家已经有了把感觉经验和行为效果作为检验认识真理性标准的思想;古代唯心主义思想家则坚持无客观标准论,他们要么直接坚持主观标准论,要么认为根本无是非标准可言;宋、明、清时期的一些唯物主义哲学家提出并坚持以客观事物或事实作为检验认识真理性的标准;与此不同,王廷相、王夫之、颜元等人则提出“行”标准说,这种颇具光辉的哲学思想,使中国古代关于认识真理性检验标准思想的探讨大大前进了一步。     

Differentiating anxious,aggressive, and socially competent preschool children: validation of the Social Competence and Behavior Evaluation-30 (parent version)

The present study examined the factor structure, internal consistency, and construct validity of the parent version of the Social Competence and Behavior Evaluation-30 for preschoolers (SCBE-30; LaFreniere, P. J. (1990). Social competence and behavior evaluation-30. Unpublished measure.), an adaptation of the validated teacher version of the same measure (LaFreniere & Dumas, Psychol. Asses. 8 (1996) 369). The parent version of the SCBE-30 is a 30-item Likert rating scale questionnaire designed to assess patterns of anxiety/withdrawal, anger/aggression, and social competence. Principal components analysis was used to identify the factor structure of the parent version of the SCBE-30 (N = 218 preschool children). To assess construct validity, a compliance task was utilized to determine whether children identified as high on anxiety/withdrawal, anger/aggression, or social competence with the parent version of the SCBE-30 (n = 20 for each group) could be distinguished behaviorally on several observational variables. Principal components analysis identified three factors accounting for 44% of the variance. Ten items positively loaded onto each factor and matched conceptual expectations. A between-subjects MANOVA demonstrated significant group differences in observed child behaviors including compliance, noncompliance, subtypes of noncompliance, and aversive behavior. Results of the current study suggested that the parent version of the SCBE-30 demonstrated both internal consistency and construct validity, and findings paralleled many of the results from LaFreniere and Dumas' validation of the teacher version of the SCBE-30.     

Approaches to Cognitive Remediation of Neuropsychological Deficits in Schizophrenia: A Review and Meta-Analysis

A review and critique of the literature pertaining to the use of cognitive remediation techniques in patients with schizophrenia is presented. The review is organized into three sections, according to the neuropsychological deficit targeted for remediation: 1) executive-function, 2) attention, and 3) memory. With regards to executive-function, despite an initial report suggesting that Wisconsin Card Sorting Test performance cannot be remediated, subsequent studies suggest that performance can be improved on a variety of dependent measures including perseverative errors, categories achieved, and conceptual level responses. These observations were confirmed by a meta-analytic investigation that revealed large mean effects sizes (d ₊ = 0.96) for these studies. Effect sizes were homogenous across discrepant remediation strategies and dependent measures. With regards to attention, serial scanning can be improved with instruction and reinforcement, whereas there is mixed evidence suggesting that practice-based attention drills can improve performance on measures of sustained attention in schizophrenia. With regards to memory, relatively simple semantic and affective elaborate encoding strategies elevates verbal list-learning memory in patients with schizophrenia to levels consistent with controls. A similar encoding procedure, combined with vigilance training, produces substantial improvement in social cue recognition. Avenues for future research are discussed.     

"Oh Those Crazy Cards Again": A History of the Debate on the Nazi Rorschachs, 1946–2001

This essay provides a critical history of the debate on the Rorschach Inkblot Tests administered to 22 leading figures of the Third Reich who were imprisoned in Nuremberg in 1945–1946. This debate occurred in two stages. The question at the heart of the first stage was whether the Nazi leaders were sane or psychopaths. Despite a strong disagreement concerning the use of these diagnostic labels, there was a surprisingly broad agreement on the actual substance of the discrepant diagnoses. Divisions of opinion, however, arose from political dissension in two areas: the nature of liberal democracies and authoritarian regimes, and the possibility of trust in any political leadership. The second stage was marked by an ideology of convergence aimed at establishing a consensual "scientific truth" on the Nazi Rorschachs. Thus, the politics of the second phase were motivated by interests and ambitions internal to the field of Rorschach expertise, rather than by extraneous political anxieties.     

Changes in ego development in the wake of September 11

In a longitudinal study using the Washington University Sentence Completion Test (WUSCT), we examined changes in ego development in response to the events of September 11, 2001. A sample of 24 individuals responded to the WUSCT in both the summer and fall of 2001, before and after the events of September 11. A significant decrease in mean ego level was found following September 11, as well as more equivocal support for an increase in variability in responses to the WUSCT.     

Hispanic and non-Hispanic children's performance on PASS cognitive processes and achievement

Hispanics have become the largest minority group in the United States. Hispanic children typically come from working class homes with parents who have limited English language skills and educational training. This presents challenges to psychologists who assess these children using traditional IQ tests because of the considerable verbal and academic (e.g., quantitative) content. Some researchers have suggested that intelligence conceptualized on the basis of psychological processes may have utility for assessment of children from culturally and linguistically diverse populations because verbal and quantitative skills are not included. This study examined Hispanic children's performance on the Cognitive Assessment System (CAS; [Naglieri, J.A., and Das, J.P. (1997). Cognitive Assessment System. Itasca, IL: Riverside.]) which is based on the Planning, Attention, Simultaneous, and Successive (PASS) theory of intelligence. The scores of Hispanic (N = 244) and White (N = 1956) children on the four PASS processes were obtained and the respective correlations between PASS and achievement compared. Three complementary sampling methodologies and data analysis strategies were chosen to compare the Ethnic groups. Sample size was maximized using nationally representative groups and demographic group differences were minimized using smaller matched samples. Small differences between Hispanic and non-Hispanic children were found when ability was measured with tests of basic PASS processes. In addition, the correlation between the PASS constructs and achievement were substantial for both Hispanic and non-Hispanic children and were not significantly different between the groups.     

Implicit–Explicit Relations

ABSTRACT— Mental process and mental experience are not the same thing. The former is the operation of the mind; the latter is the subjective life that emerges from that operation. In social evaluation, implicit and explicit attitudes express this distinction. Although it is clear that they are not the same, how they differ is not. Across content domains, implicit and explicit attitude measures show substantial variability in the strength of correspondence, ranging from near zero to strongly positive. Variation in controllability, intentionality, awareness, or efficiency is thought to differentiate implicit and explicit attitudes. Dual-process theories and empirical evidence for moderating influences of implicit–explicit attitude relations provide a framework for comprehending relations between the operation and the experience of the mind.