The WISC-III: A reality check

Although the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition (WISC-III) is arguably the best instrument currently available for assessing students' intelligence, its use will present practitioners, especially school psychologists, with some unique challenges. Recent research suggests that significant reductions in special education students' WISC-III Verbal, Performance, and Full Scale IQ scores will be found, compared with their previous WISC-R results. This finding will have a profound impact on special education placement decisions. Specifically, students who were previously found eligible for learning disability programs may now no longer evidence the significant discrepancies necessary in order to receive continued services. Conversely, students earlier identified as “slow learners” may now be eligible to receive services for those classified under the category of educably mentally handicapped. In addition, the notion that the WISC-III may underestimate the ability of certain populations of students requires further exploration. This article will address these issues as well as implications for practitioners presently administering the WISC-III.     

Expectation and autokinesis

The reported direction of autokinesis for naive observers is not biased by gaze deviations of 22.5 deg of arc. However, instructions to expect either “inward” or “outward” movement produce reports of autokinetic movement that are progressively biased in the expected direction. Instructions to expect “more” or “less” movement resulted in a decrease in the reported duration of apparent movement for the “less” group but no change for the “more” group. Response bias is not considered to play a role in these results. The results are discussed in terms of fixational bias and selective attention mechanisms of autokinesis.     

Relative spatial expansion and contraction within the Müller-Lyer and Judd illusions

The shaft portions of Müller-Lyer (M-L) figures, one-ended M-L figures, Judd figures, and their respective control (tails-up) figures were divided by subjects into eight equal-appearing intervals by means of successive bisections. For most of the control stimuli the length of the left half of the shaft tended to be overestimated relative to the length of the right side. For the tails-out version of the M-L figure, there was relative overestimation of segments of the shaft adjacent to the tails, while for the tails-in version there was relative underestimation of these segments. These results indicate that the distortion of perceived length in the M-L illusion is not distributed evenly along the shaft. For the one-ended M-L figures the apparent overestimations and underestimations extended further along the shaft than for the standard figures. For the Judd figure perceived length varied systematically along the length of the shaft from underestimation near the tails-in end of the figure to overestimation near the tails-out end. These results are contradictory to the hypothesis that the M-L illusion results from inappropriate size scaling produced through the operation of size-constancy mechanisms, since this conjecture would predict uniform expansion or contraction. The results are compared with findings that localization responses are accurate for M-L figures but biased for one-ended M-L figures and Judd figures.     

Psychiatry, religious conversion, and medical ethics.

The interface between religion, psychiatry, and ethics is often a locus for considerable controversy. This article focuses on the response of American psychiatry to religious nonconformism, and to religious conversion generally. At issue is the societal pressure against unpopular religious movements. The author argues for an ethic that conserves the freedom of religious conscience, and that guards against inquisitions in the guise of medical expertise and nosology.     

TIME RELATIONS OF OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE REACTIONS TO D-AMPHETAMINE AND PENTOBARBITONE

Successive measurements of pulse rate, blood pressure, objective and subjective reaction speed, and six mood variables were made on 12 healthy subjects during 135 min. periods following the intake of either 15 mg d-amphetamine, 200 mg Pentobarbitone, or a placebo. It was shown that (1) the two drugs had essentially opposite effects on all objective and most subjective variables; (2) after d-amphetamine subjective effects appeared earlier and reached their maximum more rapidly than objective effects; (3) both types of reaction were less pronounced after Pentobarbitone than after d-amphetamine under the present dose conditions; and that (4) after Pentobarbitone maximum objective effects were attained at an earlier point in time.     

Crimes of obedience: "groupthink" at abu ghraib

Clear evidence of authorization at the highest levels belies administration statements to the effect that the torture at Abu Ghraib was an aberration and simply unauthorized actions by rogue soldiers. The administration reflected a "group mind," demonstrating many qualities of "groupthink." Whatever was necessary, including torture and violation of the Geneva accords, the system in effect authorized, because of the perceived danger to the system and the desperate requirement to get the information out of "them" by whatever means necessary, information that could save lives. The sanctioned violence demonstrated the qualities identified by Kelman and Hamilton (1989) in their study of the Mylai massacre as characteristic of sanctioned massacres: authorization, routinization, and dehumanization. It would seem that officials and participants exhibited all of these characteristics in the decision to conduct extreme interrogation on the "unlawful combatants" imprisoned at Abu Ghraib.     

Predictors of the change in self-stigma following a single session of group counseling

One of the major obstacles to seeking psychological help is the stigma associated with counseling and therapy. Self-stigma, the fear of losing self-respect or self-esteem as a result of seeking help, is an important factor in the help-seeking process. In the present study, college students meeting a clinical cutoff for psychological symptoms participated in 1 session of group counseling that either contained therapist self-disclosure or did not. In general, participants reported significantly less self-stigma following the session. Working alliance-bond and session depth significantly predicted the change in self-stigma. Furthermore, self-stigma (as well as bond, depth, psychological symptoms, and being female) predicted the intention to seek help following the session. Self-stigma and session depth also predicted interest in continuing with counseling. The therapist self-disclosure condition, however, had no effect on the change in self-stigma, intentions to seek help, or interest in continuing with group counseling.