The Relation Between Sluggish Cognitive Tempo and DSM-IV ADHD

To test the relation between sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) and DSM-IV ADHD symptoms, parent and teacher ratings of the 18 DSM-IV ADHD items and five potential SCT items were obtained in a community sample of 8-18 year-old twins that was overselected for ADHD and learning disabilities (n = 296). Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that a three-factor model provided the best fit to the data for both parent and teacher ratings. DSM-IV inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity symptoms loaded on two factors consistent with the DSM-IV model, and five SCT symptoms loaded primarily on a third factor. The SCT and inattention factors were highly correlated, whereas SCT and hyperactivity-impulsivity were weakly related. Both raters indicated that children meeting symptom criteria for the combined and inattentive subtypes exhibited significantly more SCT symptoms than those meeting symptom criteria for hyperactive-impulsive type and the comparison group without ADHD. Children meeting symptom criteria for the inattentive type exhibited significantly more SCT symptoms than those meeting criteria for the combined type, based on teacher ratings. These results suggest that SCT is an internally consistent construct that is significantly associated with DSM-IV inattention.     

中国近现代社会创造性人物早期的家庭环境与父母教养方式

从家庭环境量表(FES-CV)与父母养育方式评价量表(EMBU)的基本维度,对30位中国近现代社会创造性人物的早期家庭环境与父母教养方式的特点进行考察。结果表明,(1)这些家庭在控制性、组织性、亲密度、独立性、道德宗教观等维度上的平均得分较高,而在矛盾性上的平均得分较低;其家庭环境特点主要表现在家庭的价值观和人际关系、家庭秩序性与家庭活跃性三个方面。(2)上述家庭总体上表现出"严父慈母"的传统教养方式;其父母教养方式主要表现在严厉性与慈爱性两个方面。(3)聚类分析显示,家庭环境可分为低控传统型家庭与高控传统型家庭两类,父母教养方式可分为严厉型教养方式与温暖型教养方式两类。     

Gender,Race, and Speech Style Stereotypes

Considerable research has shown that people have stereotypical beliefs about the speech and communication style of women and men. There is less research about stereotypes of Black people's speech, and none that jointly or comparably investigates communication stereotypes as a function of both gender and race. In this study, White college students (n = 111) rated a fictional character's speech on 36 pairs of words characteristic of communication style (e.g., emotional–unemotional) and also generated dialogue for the character. Targets' race and sex were varied. Results showed that beliefs about speech style were stronger for race than gender. Black speakers, both women and men, were rated as more direct and emotional, and less socially appropriate and playful, than White speakers. The dialogue generated by participants for Black speakers was less grammatical and more profane than for White speakers. Gender effects were consistent with earlier research but suggest a weakening of stereotypes; women's speech was seen as somewhat less direct and more emotional than men's speech. Beliefs about speech and communication style are important because they may function not only to describe what is but to prescribe what should be in social interaction.     

In Search of a Conceptualization of Multiple Sclerosis: A Historical Perspective

A thorough understanding of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is necessary to offer individuals informed options for treatment and planning. To assist in this quest, the following historical analysis examined how MS has been conceived from the 14th century through the early 20th century. Primary sources were consulted whenever possible, and many of the original archival materials were accessed by the first author (MB) during an on-site visit to the Rare Book Room of the New York Academy of Medicine. There is a striking similarity between how MS symptoms have presented throughout history compared with the 21st century. Sensorimotor and cognitive sequelae have been observed in patients since the 1800s. Cognitive symptoms were acknowledged in the 1800s, but disregarded in the early 1900s and were not given recognition again until the latter part of the 20th century. If conceptualizations of MS are inaccurate, patients will not be served well. In contrast to the shared symptomatology across time, early conceptualizations of etiology and treatment choices differed dramatically from today, a genuine reflection of the times in which they were created.     

Cognitive change and enhanced coping: missing mediational links in cognitive behavior therapy with anxiety-disordered children

In this review, we examine the recent cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) outcome literature with anxiety-disordered children and, specifically, explore the status of cognitive change and increased coping ability as (1) specific treatment effects, and (2) possible mediators of the efficacy of CBT. In the past decade, the number of controlled CBT studies with clinically diagnosed anxiety-disordered children has increased substantially. CBT aims to restructure distorted or maladaptive cognitions and teach the anxious child to effectively use diverse coping strategies. Our review shows that in recent CBT research with anxiety-disordered children the use of domain-specific measures like cognitive and coping measures is, unfortunately, not common practice. Furthermore, only one study examined the issue of treatment mediation. Generally, recent CBT research has not been designed to test mediational issues and does not clarify whether cognitive change and enhanced coping—the presumed central components of CBT—are in fact responsible for its efficacy. Implications for the direction of future CBT research with anxiety-disordered children are discussed.     

初中学生心理健康状况及其影响因素

本研究对441名初中学生进行问卷调查,结果发现：1．有7．5％的初中学生存在明显的心理健康问题。2．初中学生心理健康存在性别与年级的差异。女生比男生,初三、初二学生比初一学生有更多的心理健康问题。3．日常生活压力是影响初中学生心理健康的重要因素。4．解决问题、求助两种应付方式对学生的心理健康有积极作用,而自责、幻想、忍耐、合理化等应付方式则会危害心理健康。     

Histrionic Personality Disorder, Physical Attractiveness, and Social Adjustment

Histrionic personality disorder (HPD) is the only DSM-IV personality disorder (PD) explicitly linked to a person's physical appearance. This study examined the HPD–attractiveness link in a mixed-sex sample of college students. Consistent with expectations, HPD women were rated higher in attractiveness than women with other PDs or no PD. However, a parallel HPD–attractiveness link was not found in men. Subsequent analyses indicated that, relative to less attractive HPD women, more attractive HPD women (a) had a more varied and supportive social network, (b) exhibited more negative behaviors in important relationships, and (c) showed greater use of immature defenses, and less reliance on image-distorting, self-sacrificing, and mature defenses. Similar attractiveness–defense relationships were found in HPD men, but parallel results did not emerge for men in the other two domains. Implications of these findings are discussed, and suggestions for future studies are offered.     

The Face of Truth

I attempt to explain Plato's choice of dialogue through an analysis of what he regarded as the conditions of knowledge acquisition. I see the main contribution of the paper in exposing the way in which time and pain are, for Plato, conditions of knowledge acquisition. Plato endorsed the "learning through suffering," or pathei mathos , convention, central to Greek drama, and did so not through theory but through the praxis some of the dialogues employ. This addition of experiential components to the more cognitively oriented definitions of knowledge that Socrates uses complicates what these works may say about human knowledge. I analyze these tensions and the bearing they may have on the question of Plato's choice of dialogue, that is, on his rhetoric in practice. The requirements for actual persuasion, as Plato specifies them in the Seventh Letter, , are only partially met by the fictional scenes of argumentation and knowledge conveying that Plato presents. However, such scenes permit transcending some of the limitations of written, systematic, nonpersonal discourse. The presentation of such interactions to a real reader through dialogue turns into a mode of writing that is closer to meeting the demands of actual communication of knowledge – at least knowledge regarding what Plato envisaged as being the highest sort of epistemic communication     

Estimating multiple classification latent class models

This paper presents a new class of models for persons-by-items data. The essential new feature of this class is the representation of the persons: every person is represented by its membership tomultiple latent classes, each of which belongs to onelatent classification. The models can be considered as a formalization of the hypothesis that the responses come about in a process that involves the application of a number ofmental operations. Two algorithms for maximum likelihood (ML) and maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimation are described. They both make use of the tractability of the complete data likelihood to maximize the observed data likelihood. Properties of the MAP estimators (i.e., uniqueness and goodness-of-recovery) and the existence of asymptotic standard errors were examined in a simulation study. Then, one of these models is applied to the responses to a set of fraction addition problems. Finally, the models are compared to some related models in the literature.Thanks are to Paul De Boeck for creating the intellectually stimulating atmosphere in which this class of models came about, Iven van Mechelen for theone-sided idea, Kikumi Tatsuoka for the use of her data, and Theodoor Bouw for running part of the simulation study.     

Comparison of Scoring Criteria for Clock Drawing Test

This study compared clock drawings by 42 medically hospitalized patients with a mean age of 51.9 (SD = 10.1) years, using four sets of published scoring criteria to determine comparability of classification and to assess validity by comparison to other measures of cognitive functioning. We found impairment in 20 of 42 cases using the criteria of Mendez et al. (1992); 11 of 42 cases by Sunderland et al. (1989); 9 of 42 cases with Freedman et al. (1994); and 8 of 42 cases according to Rouleau et al. (1992). Kappa coefficients of impairment status between sets of scoring criteria ranged from .41 to .86. Pearson correlations of raw scores between schemes ranged from .72 to .94. All except Sunderland et al. were significantly correlated with the Standardized Mini-Mental State Examination. All correlated significantly with the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale–Revised Block Design; however, only Mendez et al. correlated significantly with the Neurobehavioral Cognitive Status Examination. On the basis of these results and our experience, we recommend using the Freedman scoring scheme.