Depression and Contributors to Vocational Satisfaction in Roman Catholic Secular Clergy

A nationally selected, random sample of Roman Catholic secular (i.e., diocesan) priests was examined using the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression scale and an instrument developed for this study to assess contributors to priests' vocational satisfaction. In addition, a self-report inventory gathered information regarding participants' demographics as well as four categories of predictor variables (i.e., overall level of vocational satisfaction, social support, spiritual activities, physical environment). The study yielded a response rate of 45%. Secular clergy reported rates of depression approximately seven times greater than are found in the general population, and also indicated that the recent sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic church had negatively affected their mood. Priests' engagement in sacramental activities contributed greatly to their vocational satisfaction, and low levels of vocational satisfaction were found to be most predictive of depression. Factors comprising priests' vocational satisfaction were External Manifestations (e.g., preaching, teaching), Internal Manifestations (e.g., prayer life, affirmation of God's call), and Social Manifestations (e.g., relationships with parishioners, appreciation from others).     

Processing coordinated structures: incrementality and connectedness

We recorded participants' eye movements while they read sentences containing verb-phrase coordination. Results showed evidence of immediate processing disruption when a reflexive pronoun embedded in the conjoined verb phrase mismatched the sentence subject. We argue that this result is incompatible with models of human parsing that employ only bottom-up parsing procedures, even when flexible constituency is employed. Models need to incorporate a mechanism similar to the adjoining operation in Tree-Adjoining Grammar, in which one structure is inserted into another.     

Model theory of deduction: a unified computational approach

One of the most debated questions in psychology and cognitive science is the nature and the functioning of the mental processes involved in deductive reasoning. However, all existing theories refer to a specific deductive domain, like syllogistic, propositional or relational reasoning.
Our goal is to unify the main types of deductive reasoning into a single set of basic procedures. In particular, we bring together the microtheories developed from a mental models perspective in a single theory, for which we provide a formal foundation. We validate the theory through a computational model (UNICORE) which allows fine-grained predictions of subjects' performance in different reasoning domains.
The performance of the model is tested against the performance of experimental subjects—as reported in the relevant literature—in the three areas of syllogistic, relational and propositional reasoning. The computational model proves to be a satisfactory artificial subject, reproducing both correct and erroneous performance of the human subjects. Moreover, we introduce a developmental trend in the program, in order to simulate the performance of subjects of different ages, ranging from children (3–6) to adolescents (8–12) to adults (>21). The simulation model performs similarly to the subjects of different ages.
Our conclusion is that the validity of the mental model approach is confirmed for the deductive reasoning domain, and that it is possible to devise a unique mechanism able to deal with the specific subareas. The proposed computational model (UNICORE) represents such a unifying structure.     

Interaction of sex and sex role in response to violations of preferred seating arrangements

Previous studies have indicated that men respond negatively to face-to-face invasion by strangers; females respond negatively to side-by-side invasion by strangers. In the first of two studies, men and women with an androgynous or traditional sex role were subjected to a face-to-face invasion by a same-sexed stranger. Men with a traditional sex role and women with an androgynous sex role felt more crowded (p<.05) than androgynous men and traditional women. Perceptions of crowding in these two groups were also accompanied by performance decrements as a result of the face-to-face invasion. In the second study, androgynous and traditional men and women were subjected to a side-by-side invasion. Women with a traditional sex role felt more crowded than all other groups (p<.05). There were no differences in perceptions of crowding among the other groups of subjects. Performance decrements were found only in women with a traditional orientation.     

Rational cognitive therapy with public offenders

In addressing the issue of how offenders may help themselves face the world in prison and outside, this article outlines how the principles of rational emotive therapy as outlined by Ellis and Maultsby can be simplified for use with this population in order to provide them a method for understanding and alleviating unhelpful emotional reactions. An example is provided to illustrate how a rational self-analysis model can be taught as written homework in individual or group sessions. Using the RSA model, offenders are taught to review and better understand the meanings of irrational words and how they upset themselves. Overall, our experience has been that offenders of many persuasions can be taught to be more rational and logical—an essential foundation for successful rehabilitation. This article is reproduced with permission in a slightly modified form from an earlier article authored by Smith and Lombardo “Rational Cognitive Therapy: An Executive Summary” that appeared inThe Correctional Psychologist, 27, 1995, pp. 2–5.     

Explanations of success and derailment in upper-level management positions

Using an inventory based on findings from several qualitative studies, this investigation developed eight dimensions distinguishing successful senior managers from those who had derailed. Results showed that bosses' ratings of 86 successful senior managers on the eight dimensions were significantly higher than those of 83 who had derailed, providing empirical support for many of the earlier qualitative findings. Comparing the successful managers to the derailed suggests dimensions otherwise overlooked which are important to consider when assessing managerial talent.     

Relationship of type A behavior pattern in smokers to carbon monoxide exposure and smoking topography

Stress-related physiological factors have been proposed to mediate the Type A behavior pattern (TABP) and coronary heart disease (CHD). However, collateral behavioral factors, such as the exaggerated consummatory response patterns of Type As, may also be involved. Study 1 examined this hypothesis by comparing exposure to cigarette smoke in 42 graduate and undergraduate student smokers assessed for the TABP. After controlling for smoking rate and Federal Trade Commission cigarette carbon monoxide yield, Type As' alveolar carbon monoxide (COa) levels were higher than Type Bs', and Jenkins Activity Survey scores were correlated with COa. To determine the source of this difference, we measured smoking topography in 10 Type As and 10 Type Bs in Study 2. Type As and Type Bs did not differ in number of puffs taken or puff volume, but Type As' inhalation duration was 70% longer than Type Bs'. These results suggest that consummatory behaviors of Type As may help account for the Type A-CHD relationship for smokers. Due to increased smoke exposure, Type A smokers may also be at greater risk for cancer and lung disease than Type B smokers.     

Psychometric properties of the life events checklist

The Life Events Checklist (LEC), a measure of exposure to potentially traumatic events, was developed at the National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) concurrently with the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) to facilitate the diagnosis of PTSD. Although the CAPS is recognized as the gold standard in PTSD symptom assessment, the psychometric soundness of the LEC has never been formally evaluated. The studies reported here describe the performance of the LEC in two samples: college undergraduates and combat veterans. The LEC exhibited adequate temporal stability, good convergence with an established measure of trauma history -- the Traumatic Life Events Questionnaire (TLEQ) -- and was comparable to the TLEQ in associations with variables known to be correlated with traumatic exposure in a sample of undergraduates. In a clinical sample of combat veterans, the LEC was significantly correlated, in the predicted directions, with measures of psychological distress and was strongly associated with PTSD symptoms.     

Learning first-pass structural attachment preferences with dynamic grammars and recursive neural networks

One of the central problems in the study of human language processing is ambiguity resolution: how do people resolve the extremely pervasive ambiguity of the language they encounter? One possible answer to this question is suggested by experience-based models, which claim that people typically resolve ambiguities in a way which has been successful in the past. In order to determine the course of action that has been "successful in the past" when faced with some ambiguity, it is necessary to generalize over past experience. In this paper, we will present a computational experience-based model, which learns to generalize over linguistic experience from exposure to syntactic structures in a corpus. The model is a hybrid system, which uses symbolic grammars to build and represent syntactic structures, and neural networks to rank these structures on the basis of its experience. We use a dynamic grammar, which provides a very tight correspondence between grammatical derivations and incremental processing, and recursive neural networks, which are able to deal with the complex hierarchical structures produced by the grammar. We demonstrate that the model reproduces a number of the structural preferences found in the experimental psycholinguistics literature, and also performs well on unrestricted text.     

Sex-role stereotyping and patterns of self-disclosure

Students enrolled in psychology courses completed a Bem Sex-Role Inventory and a self-disclosure scale. A three way ANOVA (sex by sex role by target of disclosure) was used to determine if androgynous subjects differed from stereotyped by not conforming to standard sex differences in: (a) pattern of targets disclosed to; (b) amount of intimate disclosure. Results indicated: (a) androgynous females reported a peers first profile, typical of males; (b) androgynous males reported more disclosure than stereotyped males, especially on intimate topics; (c) androgynous females reported more nonintimate discussions with their fathers; and (d) androgynous males reported the highest level of intimate disclosures to father. Sex role is a better predictor of reported self-disclosure than is sex.The order of the authors' names was randomly determined: Both contributed equally. Correspondence should be sent to either author at the following address: Department of Psychology, State University of New York, College at Cortland, Cortland, New York 13045.