The Psychosocial Vulnerability Model of Hostility as a Predictor of Coronary Heart Disease in Low-income African Americans

The current study examined social support and stress as mediators of the hostility—coronary heart disease (CHD) relationship as suggested by the psychosocial vulnerability model in a sample of low-income African Americans. Among 95 CHD patients and 30 healthy controls, hostility was negatively correlated with social support, but was not related to minor stress. CHD patients endorsed higher levels of hostility; however, the relationship between hostility and CHD status was diminished once stress and social support were included in the model. This study lends partial support for the psychosocial vulnerability model of hostility in African Americans, but suggests that the relationship between hostility and stress may be impacted by socioeconomic status.     

Emphasis on Experimental Procedure,Sex of Subjects and the Biasing Effects of Experimental Hypotheses

For a set of 20 male graduate student Es, the experimental hypotheses held were significant partial determinants of the responses Ss produced for Es. This effect of Es' hypotheses was more marked among Es made more conscious of their experimental procedure when collecting data from female Ss. Male Ss were found to be less susceptible than female Ss to the biasing effects of Es' hypotheses. Unexpected was the finding that for a minority of Es (15%) the data they obtained from their Ss were significantly opposite to the data they expected to obtain.     

Validation of the Beck Depression Inventory-II in a low-income African American sample of medical outpatients

The psychometric properties of the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) are well established with primarily Caucasian samples. However, little is known about its reliability and validity with minority groups. This study evaluated the psychometric properties of the BDI-II in a sample of low-income African American medical outpatients (N=220). Reliability was demonstrated with high internal consistency (.90) and good item-total intercorrelations. Criterion-related validity was demonstrated. A confirmatory factor analysis supported a hierarchical factor structure in which the BDI-II reflected 2 first-order factors (Cognitive and Somatic) that in turn reflected a second-order factor (Depression). These results are consistent with previous findings and thus support the use of the BDI-II in assessing depressive symptoms for African American patients in a medical setting.     

Aha! experiences leave a mark: facilitated recall of insight solutions

The present study investigates a possible memory advantage for solutions that were reached through insightful problem solving. We hypothesized that insight solutions (with Aha! experience) would be remembered better than noninsight solutions (without Aha! experience). 34 video clips of magic tricks were presented to 50 participants as a novel problem-solving task, asking them to find out how the trick was achieved. Upon discovering the solution, participants had to indicate whether they had experienced insight during the solving process. After a delay of 14 days, a recall of solutions was conducted. Overall, 55 % of previously solved tricks were recalled correctly. Comparing insight and noninsight solutions, 64.4 % of all insight solutions were recalled correctly, whereas only 52.4 % of all noninsight solutions were recalled correctly. We interpret this finding as a facilitating effect of previous insight experiences on the recall of solutions.     

Treatment with medications affecting dopaminergic and serotonergic mechanisms: effects on fluency and anxiety in persons who stutter

Medications with dopamine antagonist properties, such as haloperidol, and those with serotonin reuptake inhibitor properties, such as clomipramine, have been shown to improve fluency. To examine the degree to which each of these two pharmacological mechanisms might independently affect fluency, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, paroxetine, and a selective dopamine (D-2) antagonist, pimozide, were evaluated. Both types of medications also affect mood and anxiety, factors that could influence fluency levels. Therefore, we also evaluated the medications’ effects on generalized and speech-related anxiety and the relationships between changes in anxiety and changes in fluency in 11 subjects with a history of developmental stuttering. The randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled crossover study that was designed had to be terminated prior to completion due to severe side effects following withdrawal from paroxetine. Even with a reduced sample size (n = 6), significant improvement in percent fluent speaking time (p = 0.02) was found using a telephone task between baseline and pimozide (n = 6), with average duration of dysfluencies significantly shorter (p = 0.04) but no significant difference in the estimated number of dysfluencies per minute. This significant improvement was associated with non-significant increases in generalized anxiety, but non-significant decreases in speech-related anxiety. No significant differences were found in fluency between baseline and paroxetine (n = 5). These preliminary results suggest that fluency improvement is more likely to be mediated by dopaminergic rather than serotonergic mechanisms. Due to its side effects, however, pimozide may be considered a risk for treatment of stuttering.

Educational objectives: As a result of reading this paper the reader will describe and explain: (1) how medications may affect fluency and the rationale for selecting medications for treatment trials; (2) the interrelationship between fluency and anxiety; and (3) factors important in developing clinical trials using medications.     

Changes in Experimental Hypotheses as Determinants of Experimental Results

Two experiments are reported in which changes in Es' (N = 11) experimental hypotheses led to changes in the data they obtained from their Ss-(N = 87). Monitoring of Es' experimental procedure sometimes led to an increase, sometimes to a decrease in the effects of Es' expectancies. For both experiments male. Es significantly exerted the expected biasing effects upon both their male and female Ss. Female Es similarly influenced their female Ss but obtained data from their male Ss significantly opposite to the direction of their hypotheses.