Personal warmth and psychological health at midlife

Personal warmth, arguably a strong trait in the makeup of psychological health, seems to fade in conceptual importance at midlife. In contrast, ideas of interiority and androgyny appear to gain conceptual importance at midlife. The present study sought to rebalance these foci by determining the predictive power of personal warmth for psychological health of men and women at age 50: first, by developing separate California Psychological Inventory (CPI) scales to assess personal warmth; next, by joining these warmth scales with the 20 standard CPI scales to predict psychological health. Without the personal warmth scale, the standard CPI scales do not significantly predict psychological health for men; for women, the standard scales do. For both genders, the personal warmth scales add significantly to the predictability of psychological health. The results point to an amendment of current theoretical formulations of interiority and androgyny to better understand optimal psychological development in men and women at midlife.     

How Much Jungian Theory Is There in My Practice?

This non-clinical paper consists of the author's subjective and personal value judgements on theory and practice. He discusses nine topics: I) What is analysis and why do people seek therapy? 2) Dangers of reification and hypostatizing: reinforcement of narcissistic defences and schizoid unrelatedness. 3) The problems of archetypal psychology and amplification. 4) The cultural and political aspects of the unconscious psyche, and the value of studying the philosophical background to the psychodynamic approach. 5) Criticism of the classical Jungian over-emphasis of the intrapsychic at the expense of the interpersonal. 6) Psychosomatic healing through experience and interpretation of psychosomatic identity in the transference/countertrans-ference; idea of the ‘animating body’. 7) Dangers of theoretical hndamentalism and crusading among Jungian schools: envy and intolerance. 8) The need for the analyst to have enough good objects. 9) An acknowledgement of theoretical influences other than Jung on the author's practice; although Jung's ideas facilitate a personal pluralism - the spirit of Jung.     

A comparison of trichotillomania and obsessive-compulsive disorder

The validity of conceptualizing trichotillomania (TCM) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) as separate and distinct diagnoses was examined in a study of 20 patients with each disorder. A comparison of demographic, psychometric, and clinical features between the two groups revealed a number of statistically significant differences. Patients meeting the criteria for OCD scored higher on measures of psychiatric symptomatology including ratings of obsessions and compulsions, depression, interpersonal sensitivity, general anxiety, phobic anxiety, and psychoticism. Patients meeting the criteria for TCM reported an earlier age at onset than those with OCD. Stressors associated with onset were also significantly different between groups. These results support the validity of conceptualizing TCM and OCD as differing behavioral disorders.Portions of this paper were presented at the annual meeting of the Anxiety Disorders Association of America (March 1992) in Dallas, TX, and at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association (May 1992) in Washington, DC.     

Reported prevalence of attentional difficulties in a general sample of college students

The present study investigated the self-reported prevalence of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)symptoms in 770 college students using the Adult Rating Scale and the Wender Utah Rating Scale. Psychometric properties of these scales were explored. The study also investigated the performance of students with ADHD symptoms, relative to students without ADHD symptoms, on a battery of neuropsychological tasks. Results revealed that 7 and 8% of the students reported significant symptoms (i.e., 1.5 SD above the mean) on the Adult Rating Scale and the Wender Utah Rating scale, respectively, and 2.5% reported significant symptoms on both the Adult Rating Scale and the Wender Utah Rating Scale. Using more stringent criteria (two standard deviations), fewer (i.e, 4, 3.8%, and 0.5%) subjects reported significant symptoms associated with ADHD. Between-group differences were found on one of the neuropsychological tasks. The construct validity of the rating scales was supported. Limitations and implications for future research are advanced.Presented at the International Neuropsychological Society's Sixteenth European Conference, Angers, France, June 1994, and the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, Los Angeles, CA, August 1994.     

Teacher-control versus student-control over choice of task and reinforcement for students with severe behavior problems

Increasing self-control for students with severe disabilities is an important step toward normalization. The classroom is one setting in which opportunities for self-control can be created. The effects of teacher-control versus student-control over academic task and reinforcement selection were evaluated for three 11-to 13-year-old males with severe behavior problems. Under student-control conditions students were able to select rewards and tasks from lists generated by the teacher; in the teacher-control conditions, the teacher selected rewards and tasks but attempted to make similar selections to those made by the students. An alternating treatments design was implemented. In Phase 1, task completion was the target behavior; in Phase 2 task accuracy was the target behavior. Task performance improved when the student, rather than the teacher, had control over task assignments and choice of reinforcement. While either student control of reinforcement or student control of task assignment resulted in higher performance than did teacher-control, the most effective instructional situation was the two procedures combined. This effect was apparent even when students and teachers selected the same tasks and the same reinforcers. Implications for increasing student-control over some classroom decisions are discussed.deceased.