Chronic pain,compensation and clinical knowledge

The nosological status of the putative clinical entity of compensation neurosis and the relationship of chronic pain complaints to compensation are explored. It is concluded that, using the traditional criteria of diagnostic validity, there is no support for the view that a specific type of psychiatric disorder related to compensation or litigation can be demonstrated. Although it has been generally considered that chronic pain complaints reflect an underlying disease state, recent evidence has shown that in the medico-legal setting the nature of the compensation system and the level of available benefits have a marked influence on both the rate of chronic pain complaints and the duration of pain related work incapacity.     

主题统觉测验中国修订版(TAT-R,C)的编制与常模

主题统觉测验是一种与罗夏测验齐名的人格投射技术。但由于原版测验图片不适用中国被试,而且操作复杂,评分缺乏客观性,信度、效度不理想,更无标准化常模,所以在临床实践难以推广,在国内尚未系统研究。 为改进原版测验缺陷,首先修订了新的适合中国文化模式的工具,把原有的无结构投射法修改为联想—选择法投射,使修订版测验简单、易行。并且经研究验证,修订版(TAT-R,C)测验具有一定的信度效度,并建立了标准化常模。     

Validity of the Fear Survey Schedule in phobia research: A laboratory test

The Fear Survey Schedule III, developed by Wolpe and Lang (1969, 1977), is used frequently to classify subjects as phobic or nonphobic. Subjects selected for their intense-fear scores on blood, fire, bat, and snake items did not significantly differ from no-fear subjects on an objective behavioral assessment test. Analyses of subject verbal reports suggest several possibilities for the inability to discriminate between fearful and nonfearful subjects. Researchers are cautioned about the use of the Fear Survey Schedule for selecting phobic subjects without supporting evidence.     

MMCPC在中学生中的应用

为了解 MMCPC在中国中学生中是否适用 ,本研究选取了浙江省1 870名中学生进行测试 ,检验 MMCPC的信度和效度。结果显示 ,MMCPC在中国中学生群体中有较好的信度和一定效度。     

On Legal Order: Some Criticism of the Received View

The author discusses a number of topics related to the concept of legal order and the structure of legal orders. In particular, the following theses are challenged: (1) legal orders are sets of rules; (2) the criterion of membership to such sets is validity; (3) legal orders are dynamic sets; (4) legal orders are provided with a hierarchical configuration; (5) legal orders are coherent and consistent sets.     

Validity of Adolescents' Report of Maternal Age

Examined the validity of adolescents' reports of their mother's age. Most research on the validity of self-report focuses on personal behaviors such as alcohol and substance use, or response bias due to social desirability. Few studies investigate the validity of adolescents reporting of nonsensitive information. Data from 80 mother–adolescent pairs were collected. The sample included 9th graders from four high school English classes, equal numbers of males and females, and 15% African Americans. The correlation between mothers' reports and youths' reports of mother's age was .99, and 95% of the youth were within a year of their mother's correct age. No race or gender differences were found. These results allow researchers to examine adolescent outcomes for youth born to teen mothers without the expense of also collecting data from their mothers. Results also suggest that adolescents' self-reports of other nonsensitive familial data may also be valid.     

Referees, editors, and publication practices: Improving the reliability and usefulness of the peer review system

The documented low levels of reliability of the peer review process present a serious challenge to editors who must often base their publication decisions on conflicting referee recommendations. The purpose of this article is to discuss this process and examine ways to produce a more reliable and useful peer review system. The author is a Senior Research Scientist & Biostatistician, Child Study Center and Department of Psychiatry in the Yale University School of Medicine. Note: The main points of this report were presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Baltimore, Maryland, on February 9, 1996.     

Clinical Frequencies Recording System: Standardizing staff observations by event recording

Certain aspects of staff performance and resident behavior are less adequately assessed by standardized time sampling procedures than by complete recording of the incidence of specified events. An approach to gathering such data through systematizing the observations of clinical staff — the Clinical Frequencies Recording System — is described. Scores from the Clinical Frequencies System reflect the rate per opportunity with which individual behaviors are performed, with computer summarization providing higher-level behavioral indexes for research and evaluation purposes. Staff training and system implementation are discussed, and reliability and validity data from a system employed on two different treatment units over a period of several years are presented.The research reported in this article was supported, in part, by Public Health Service Grants MH-15553 and MH-25464 from the National Institute of Mental Health.Presented at the 87th Annual Meetings of the American Psychological Association, New York City, September 1979, as part of a symposium on New assessment systems for residential treatment, management, research, and evaluation.     

Traits,states, situations,and uncertainty

The shift of paradigm from psychodynamic therapy to behavior modification has changed the views of assessment and challenged traditional broad trait concepts. Behavioral assessment has used narrow, situation-specific trait tests, state self-report tests given in situations, and behavioral observations and performance ratings. Comparison of these types of measures are reported from a study of fear reactions in three situations. Narrow trait measures are generally more predictive of behavior than broad trait measures. State measures are even more predictive when given just before the performance. But only a sampling of such state measures can be used to define a trait because of the lower reliability of states. It is argued that behavior in situations is only predictable when an adequate number of behavioral samples is used.     

ON THE INABILITY OF INTERVAL TIME SAMPLING TO REFLECT FREQUENCY OF OCCURRENCE DATA1

Interval time sampling yields the result, percentage of intervals scored. It is rudimentary to note that this measure per se does not constitute a response dimension. It is a useful behavioral measure, therefore, only to the extent that it accurately reflects the nature and degree of the fundamental dimensions from which it is drawn i.e., frequency and duration. The correspondence between scored intervals and response duration is fairly well understood (Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1975, 8 , 463–469; 1977, 10 , 325–332). This study determined the correspondence between scored intervals and response frequency. Eleven, 30-minute experimental sessions that differed along the variables of frequency of occurrence and time per response (the average length of a response per session) were computer simulated. In the first group of four sessions, the frequencies were 45, 100, 150, and 300; in these sessions, all responses ranged from one to three seconds. In the second group of four sessions, the frequencies were 31, 61, 101, and 152; in these sessions, all responses ranged from three to nine seconds. In the last group of three sessions, the frequencies were 25, 34, and 50; here, all responses ranged from nine to 27 seconds. The response distribution within the above ranges was rectangular, with each whole second represented once. The responses were selected by a random number generator, and on each trial every number in the distribution had an equal probability of occurrence. These provisions produced a linear pattern of responding. The time per response in the three groups of sessions were 2, 6, and 18 seconds. For all sessions, event recordings were made and analyzed. The analysis consisted of using partial interval time sampling to determine the percentage of intervals scored; this total was subdivided into intervals containing (1) single responses, (2) multiple responses, (3) continuing responses, and (4) response initiations or terminations. The analysis was performed when the length of the observation interval was 5, 10, 20, 30, 60, and 120 seconds. An additional session drawn from a study that contained real-life data was subjected to this same analysis. The most significant results were derived by finding the ratio of scored intervals containing single responses to the total intervals scored. If every scored interval contained a single response, this ratio would equal 1.0; if no scored interval contained a single response, the ratio would be 0.0. It can be seen that this ratio is an objective expression of the validity of interval time sampling as a measure of response frequency. Of 66 data points (11 sessions × six observation lengths per session), only five were equal to or greater than 0.80. These five points were all found in just two sessions (f = 45, 100). A validity index of less than 0.50 was observed in 49 of the 66 points. Also, the validity index increased, peaked, and then decreased within sessions as the length of the observation interval was increased. The results from the real-life session were in close agreement with those obtained from the simulations. The importance of these and previous findings lies in the demonstration that changes in scored intervals need not represent true behavior change. The data indicate that there are many combinations of behavioral frequency and duration where interval time sampling cannot produce valid measurement results.