School desegregation: The social science role.

Discusses the social science statement supporting the 1954 Brown vs Board of Education US Supreme Court decision. It is contended that the statement was based on well-meaning rhetoric rather than solid research. All that the statement said, in effect, was that because the minority child was now in a classroom with Whites, he or she would no longer have the status of an outcast or a pariah. The "lateral transmission of values" hypothesis contained in a desegregation report by J. S. Coleman et al (1966) predicted that through classroom contact with their White peers, minority pupils would experience a personality change by absorbing the achievement-related values of the Whites. Social science thinking 10 yrs later, when desegregation began to be implemented, was more sophisticated but still unsupported by necessary research. It is concluded that no real evidence has been found for the lateral transmission hypotheses and that research and development as well as systems engineering in the social sciences are needed if some of the social problems in the US, including successful implementation of school desegregation, are to be eventually solved. (49 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Measuring alcohol-related protective behavioral strategies among college students: Further examination of the Protective Behavioral Strategies Scale.

Heavy drinking among college students has been recognized as a public health problem on American college campuses (e.g., R. Hingson, T. Heeren, M. Winter, & H. Wechsler, 2005). Recently, protective behavioral strategies, or cognitive-behavioral strategies that can be implemented when using alcohol to reduce consumption and resulting negative consequences, have been shown to be associated with less alcohol use and fewer alcohol-related problems (e.g., S. L. Benton et al., 2004; M. P. Martens et al., 2005). The purpose of the present study was to conduct additional psychometric work on a measure designed to assess the use of such strategies: the Protective Behavioral Strategies Scale (PBSS; M. P. Martens et al., 2005). Data were collected on 505 undergraduate students from 2 universities who reported having consumed alcohol at least once in the past 30 days. Results of a confirmatory factor analysis supported the hypothesized 3-factor version of the PBSS, and scores on each subscale were correlated in the expected direction with both alcohol use and alcohol-related problems. Thus, the PBSS appears to be reliable and valid for use among college student drinkers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The repressed memory controversy.

Replies to comments by K. R. Byrd, D. H. Gleaves, S. N. Gold et al, K. A. Olio, and R. G. Peterson (see PA, Vol 81:37643; 37658; 37659; 37686; and 37687, respectively) on E. F. Loftus's (see record 1993-37888-001) questions in relation to patients' recovery of repressed memories of sexual abuse in psychotherapy. Loftus maintains that she is not denying the existence of child sexual abuse. She raises concerns about 1 class of "memories": those that emerge in adulthood after extensive "memory work." Memory work is defined as age regression, body memory interpretation, suggestive questioning, guided visualization, sexualized dream interpretation, aggressive sodium amytal interviews, misleading bibliotherapy, and other suspect techniques. Loftus addresses how common repression is, the symptoms of child sexual abuse, and the possibility of implanting memories of abuse. Suggestions are offered as to what therapists should do as an alternative to memory work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relation of early socialization experiences to aggression in middle childhood.

A follow-up study (7 years after) on the Ss in the original investigation on patterns of child rearing (Sears et al., 1957). Parental attitude towards child rearing and attitudes towards aggression when S was 5 were related to patterns of aggressive behavior and attitudes toward agression expressed by Ss at age 12. The manner of expressing aggression was seen to be a function of sex of the child and specific familial attitudes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Toxicology and pharmacology of the chemical warfare agent sulfur mustard

There have been reports of chemical attacks in which sulfur mustard might have been used (a) on Iranian soldiers and civilians during the Gulf War in 1984 and 1985 and (b) in an Iraqi chemical attack on the Iranian-occupied village of Halbja in 1988, resulting in many civilian casualties. Heavy use of chemical warfare in Afghanistan by the Soviet military is a recent innovation in military tactics that has been highly successful and may ensure further use of chemical agents in future military conflicts and terrorist attacks as a profitable adjunct to conventional military arms. Mustard is a poisonous chemical agent that exerts a local action on the eyes, skin, and respiratory tissue, with subsequent systemic action on the nervous, cardiac, and digestive systems in humans and laboratory animals, causing lacrimation, malaise, anorexia, salivation, respiratory distress, vomiting, hyperexcitability, and cardiac distress. Under extreme circumstances, dependent upon the dose and length of exposure to the agent, necrosis of the skin and mucous membranes of the respiratory system, bronchitis, bronchopneumonia, intestinal lesions, hemoconcentration, leucopenia, convulsions with systemic distress, and death occur. Severe mustard poisoning in humans is associated with systemic injury, which is manifested as headache, epigastric distresses, anorexia, diarrhea, and cachexia and is usually observed at mustard doses of 1000 mg/min/m3 with damage to hematopoietic tissues and progressive leucopenia. Sulfur mustard is a cell poison that causes disruption and impairment of a variety of cellular activities that are dependent upon a very specific integral relationship. These cytotoxic effects are manifested in widespread metabolic disturbances whose variable characteristics are observed in enzymatic deficiencies, vesicant action, abnormal mitotic activity and cell division, bone marrow disruption, disturbances in hematopoietic activity, and systemic poisoning. Indeed, mustard gas readily combines with various components of the cell such as amino acids, amines, and proteins. Although evidence of an association between lung cancer and mustard gas encountered on the battlefields of World War I is at best suggestive if not problematical (Case and Lea, 1955; Beebe, 1960; Norman, 1975), the epidemiological data accumulated from the poison gas factories in Japan (Yamada et al., 1953; Wada et al., 1968; Inada et al., 1978; Shigenobu, 1980; Nishimoto et al., 1983; Hirono et al., 1984; Takuoka et al., 1986), in Germany (Weiss, 1958; Hellmann, 1970a; Weiss and Weiss, 1975; Klehr, 1984) and in England (Manning et al., 1981; Easton et al., 1988) are substantial (International Agency for Research on Cancer, 1975). Unfortunately, attempts to seek confirmatory and substantial evidence in laboratory animals such as mice (Boyland and Horning, 1949; Heston, 1950; Heston, 1953a; McNamara et al., 1975) and rats (Griffin et al., 1951; McNamara et al., 1975; Sasser et al., 1996) have not been consistent. Sulfur mustard has been shown to be mutagenic in a variety of different species using many different laboratory techniques from fruit flies, microorganisms and mammalian cell cultures (Fox and Scott, 1980). Evidence is slowly accumulating from human data (Hellmann, 1970a; Lohs, 1975; Wulf et al., 1985). Evidence for the teratogenicity of mustard has been negative in assessment of fetotoxicity and adverse effects of mustard on the reproductive potential of both human and animal studies. Indeed, investigations of women adversely affected by mustard are minimal because most of the studies have been performed on former men employees of poison gas factories and have been negative or questionable. We have recently emphasized the need to assess the affect of a suspected teratogen on maternal toxicity in laboratory animals before any conclusions can be made.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED)     

Child care for the 21st century: An overview and commentary.

Contends that the problem of alternative child care in modern society touches on social, cultural, religious, and political attitudes and ideals. In considering proposed solutions, scientists and social policy makers are realizing that providing alternative child care for individual families produces complex repercussions in nearly all spheres of social, economic, and political life. Views are explored on the issue of child care as presented by E. Zigler and P. Ennis; S. Scarr et al; and A. R. Pence (see PA, Vol 76:36300; 36294; and 36288). Prominent psychological trends in the debate on child care, including the decline of the "main effect mentality," the "education vs care" controversy, and the resurgence of the early experience debate are noted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The measure of stage of readiness to change: Some psychometric considerations.

Previous research in the smoking cessation literature has shown that the key component of the transtheoretical model of change, the stage of readiness to change, is a valid independent measure (C. C. DiClemente & J. O. Prochaska, 1985; C. C. DiClemente et al., 1991; W. F. Velicer, J. S. Rossi, J. O. Prochaska, & C. C. DiClemente, 1996). Recently, however, other health service researchers (e.g., A. J. Farkas et al., 1996b) have begun to question the utility of this model; especially its predictive validity (e.g., A. J. Farkas et al., 1996a). However, no research to date has examined the reliability and stability of the stage of readiness to change measure. In this study, the longitudinal measurement of stage of readiness to change was treated as a quasi-simplex model (K. G. J?reskog, 1970). Estimates of the stability and reliability for 261 female smokers in a general community sample were obtained. Results indicate that the stage of change measure has desirable psychometric properties. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The validity and appropriateness of methods, analyses, and conclusions in Rind et al. (1998): A rebuttal of victimological critique from Ondersma et al. (2001) and Dallam et al. (2001).

The authors respond to 2 victimological critiques of their 1998 meta-analysis on child sexual abuse (CSA). S. J. Dallam et al. (see record 2001-05308-002) (2001) claimed that B. Rind, P. Tromovitch, and R. Bauserman (see record 1998-04232-002) (1998) committed numerous methodological and statistical errors, and often miscoded and misinterpreted data. The authors show all these claims to be invalid. To the contrary, they demonstrate frequent bias in Dallam et al.'s criticisms. S. J. Ondersma et al. (see record 2001-05308-001) (2001) claimed that Rind et al.'s study is part of a backlash against psychotherapists, that its suggestions regarding CSA definitions were extrascientific, and that the moral standard is needed to understand CSA scientifically. The authors show their suggestions to have been scientific and argue that it is Ondersma et al.'s issue-framing and moral standard that are extrascientific. This reply supports the original methods, analyses, recommendations, and conclusions of Rind et al. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

CFTR: domains, structure, and function

Mutations in the gene encoding the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) cause cystic fibrosis (CF) (Collins, 1992). Over 500 naturally occurring mutations have been identified in CF gene which are located in all of the domains of the protein (Kerem et al., 1990; Mercier et al., 1993; Ghanem et al., 1994; Fanen et al., 1992; Ferec et al., 1992; Cutting et al., 1990). Early studies by several investigators characterized CFTR as a chloride channel (Anderson et al.; 1991b,c; Bear et al., 1991). The complex secondary structure of the protein suggested that CFTR might possess other functions in addition to being a chloride channel. Studies have established that the CFTR functions not only as a chloride channel but is indeed a regulator of sodium channels (Stutts et al., 1995), outwardly rectifying chloride channels (ORCC) (Gray et al., 1989; Garber et al., 1992; Egan et al., 1992; Hwang et al., 1989; Schwiebert et al., 1995) and also the transport of ATP (Schwiebert et al., 1995; Reisin et al., 1994). This mini-review deals with the studies which elucidate the functions of the various domains of CFTR, namely the transmembrane domains, TMD1 and TMD2, the two cytoplasmic nucleotide binding domains, NBD1 and NBD2, and the regulatory, R, domain.     

Effectiveness of A and B therapists with schizophrenics and neurotics: A referral study.

A basic assumption in the therapist A-B variable literature has been that A therapists are more effective with schizophrenic patients and that B therapists are more effective with neurotic patients. This has not been adequately demonstrated among experienced, practicing therapists since the original work of J. C. Whitehorn and B. J. Betz (1954, 1957, 1960) and D. McNair et al (1962). The current study attempted such a demonstration. Assuming a close relationship between a therapist's effectiveness and his/her reputation among professional colleagues, the study asked each of 60 psychologists to "refer" each of 6 case vignettes (2 schizophrenic, 2 neurotic, and 2 "other") to the colleague he/she believed would be most effective with that case. 41 Ss (20 As and 21 Bs, as determined by the Schiffman et al A-B scale reported by D. E. Kemp and J. H. Stephens, 1972) completed the task. A therapists received more schizophrenic than neurotic referrals, whereas B therapists received more neurotic than schizophrenic referrals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Race--Social, Biological, or Lemonade?

Comments on an article by R. L. Sternberg, E. L. Grigorenko, and K. K. Kidd (see record 2005-00117-006) and another article by H. Tang, T. Quertermous, B. Rodriguez, S. L. Kardia, X. Zhu, X., A. Brown, et al. (2005). On the day that I read Sternberg, Grigorenko, and Kidd's (January 2005) article on race, an article from the American Journal of Human Genetics (Tang et al., 2005) also crossed my desk. As part of their research, the latter authors compared the results of a cluster analysis of people using many genetic markers with the respondent's self-identified race/ethnicity: "Of 3,636 subjects of varying race/ethnicity, only 5 (0.14%) showed genetic cluster membership different from their self-identified race/ethnicity" (Tang et al., 2005, p. 268). I would very much like to hear a response to this finding from Sternberg et al. (2005), who maintained that "race is a socially constructed concept, not a biological one" (p. 49), that reifies those physical correlates of ancient population dispersions "as deriving from some imagined natural grouping of people that does not in fact exist, except in our heads" (p. 51). My take is that if we psychologists could use genetics (or any other biological variables) to distinguish those with schizophrenia from those with bipolar disorder with an error rate even a hundredfold greater than that of Tang et al. (2005), we would announce--and do it with no small fanfare--that there are valid, biological differences between the two disorders. I suspect that much of the difficulty in discussing this issue stems from a tendency to treat "social" and "biological" (or "genetic" and "environmental") phenomena as mutually exclusive. Placing a complicated construct like race into a discrete "social" or "biological" box makes as much sense as asking whether lemonade is (a) lemon juice, (b) water, or (c) sugar. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Temporal Encoding in Fear Conditioning Revealed Through Associative Reflex Facilitation.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 118(3) of Behavioral Neuroscience (see record 2007-16851-001). The article contained several errors. On page 396, second paragraph, the sentence beginning on line 6 should read as follows: "Having a stable baseline is critical for studies of reflex facilitation because the experimental designs invariably entail repetitive CR testing, if only to achieve reasonable statistical power (see Choi et al., 2001b; Lindquist & Brown, 2004)." On page 400, the first heading should read as follows: "Comparison of New and Old Reflex Facilitation Procedures". On page 400, the first sentence under the abovementioned heading should read as follows: "We decided not to use the original measure of reflex facilitation, developed by J. S. Brown et al. (1951), because it suffers from severe interpretational limitations, elaborated in detail elsewhere (Choi et al., 2001b; Leaton & Cranney, 1990; Lindquist & Brown, 2004)."] Temporal encoding in Pavlovian fear conditioning was examined through conditional facilitation of the short-latency (Rl) component of the rat eyeblink reflex. Rats were fear-conditioned to a tone conditional stimulus (CS) with either a 3- or 9-s interstimulus interval (ISI) between CS onset and the onset of the grid-shock unconditional stimulus (US). Rl facilitation was tested over 2 days, in counterbalanced order, at a latency of 3 s and 9 s from CS onset. CS-produced Rl facilitation, the conditional response (CR), was 3-4 times larger when the test latency equaled the conditioning ISI. These results, coupled with the known neurophysiology of Rl facilitation, suggest that this CR could disclose differences in the time course of CS-generated output from the amygdala when driven by cortical versus subcortical CS-CR pathways. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

L'évaluation des relations parents-enfants.

Parents have an influence on the evolution of their child and his/her successes in school, sports or music. Their support by example is critical. Some of their behaviours can also have a negative impact. Research aiming at better defining parents/child relations and their influence on the successes and the well-being of the child is needed. To this end, the use of a questionnaire is profitable. But there are few valid tools available in French. The existing tools do not focus on the evaluation of essential dimensions of child development. To palliate this deficiency, this article aims at validating the QéRPE (Questionnaire d'évaluation des relations parents/enfant), the French translation of the EMBU (Egna Minnen Betr?ffende Uppfostran, Perris et al., 1980). It underscores the level of support, overprotection and reject felt by the child by his parents. It is applied here in a relation parents/sport. The factor pattern (exploratory and confirmatory analysis) and the internal consistency of the QéRPE have been tested, and an external validation has been made. Results show that the psychometrics quality of the QéRPE is very acceptable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comments on "Smooth-pursuit eye movements: A comparison of two measurement techniques" by Lindsey, Holzman, Haberman, and Yasillo.

D. T. Lindsey et al (1978) reported that the qualitative comparability of smooth-pursuit eye movement recordings derived from EOG and infrared reflection techniques is high. When Ss were examined who displayed what P. S. Holzman et al (1978) have labeled in their schizophrenic patients a "Type II" tracking dysfunction, there was poor correspondence between the 2 methods, indicating that the spikes evident in Type II tracking do not stem from movement of the eyes. (5 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Child-Related Disagreements, Verbal Aggression, and Children's Internalizing and Externalizing Behavior Problems.

Dual-income parents (N = 122 couples) with an oldest child 18-60 months of age completed the Child-Rearing Disagreements Scale (E. N. Jouriles et al., 1991), the Child Behavior Checklist (T. M. Achenbach & L. A. Rescorla, 2000), and the Verbal Aggression subscale of the Conflicts and Problem-Solving Scale (P. K. Kerig, 1996). Replicating the results of E. N. Jouriles et al. (1991) and extending these findings to daughters and fathers, the authors found links between child-related disagreements and parental ratings of child behavior problems in this low-risk sample. There were no links between fathers' reports of verbal aggression and child behavior problems. Among mothers, however, use of verbal aggression mediated the link between child-related disagreements and ratings of sons' internalizing problems. Verbal aggression did not moderate the link between child-related disagreements and child behavior problems for either mothers or for fathers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A physical comparison of chromosome III in six strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

We have tested the clones used in the European Yeast Chromosome III Sequencing Programme for possible artefacts that might have been introduced during cloning or passage through Escherichia coli. Southern analysis was performed to compare the BamHI, EcoRI, HindIII and PstI restriction pattern for each clone with that of the corresponding locus on chromosome III in the parental yeast strain. In addition, further enzymes were used to compare the restriction maps of most clones with the map predicted by the nucleotide sequence (Oliver et al., 1992). Only four of 506 6-bp restriction sites predicted by the sequence were not observed experimentally. No significant cloning artefacts appear to disrupt the published sequence of chromosome III. The restriction patterns of six yeast strains have also been compared. In addition to two previously identified sites of Ty integration on chromosome III (Warmington et al., 1986; Stucka et al., 1989; Newlon et al., 1991), a new polymorphic site involving Ty retrotransposition (the Far Right-Arm transposition Hot-Spot, FRAHS) has been identified close to CRY1. On the basis of simple restriction polymorphisms, the strains S288C, AB972 and W303-1b are closely related, while XJ24-24a and J178 are more distant relatives of S288C. A polyploid distillery yeast is heterozygous for many polymorphisms, particularly on the right arm of the chromosome.     

"Self-management of diabetes mellitus: A critical review": Erratum.

Reports an error in the original article by T. A. Goodall and W. K. Halford (Health Psychology, 1991, Vol 10[1], 1–8). On Page 2, the citation to Johnson et al (1986) should be deleted from the following statement: "However, most studies (e.g., Carney, Schechter, & Davis 1983; Christenson et al., 1983; Johnson, Silverstein, Rosenbloom, Carter, & Cunningham, 1986) have operationalized self-management as a single global index of compliance to treatment.' The Johnson et al study used a series of summary measures. (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1991-25029-001.) Reviews the determinants of effective self-management and the methods of promoting better self-management. Demographic variables have been thought to affect self-management, but evidence suggests they have little impact. The important determinants of self-management are transient situational factors such as psychological stress and social support. Interventions to promote better self-management have reported initial improvements in blood glucose control, but the long-term effects are unclear. Self-management has been inadequately assessed and attempts to improve self-management have relied excessively on providing information… (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The structure of the acto-myosin subfragment 1 complex: results of searches using data from electron microscopy and x-ray crystallography

Surmises of how myosin subfragment 1 (S1) interacts with actin filaments in muscle contraction rest upon knowing the relative arrangement of the two proteins. Although there exist crystallographic structures for both S1 and actin, as well as electron microscopy data for the acto-S1 complex (AS1), modeling of this arrangement has so far only been done "by eye." Here we report fitted AS1 structures obtained using a quantitative method that is both more objective and makes more complete use of the data. Using undistorted crystallographic results, the best-fit AS1 structure shows significant differences from that obtained by visual fitting. The best fit is produced using the F-actin model of Holmes et al. [Holmes, K. C., Popp, D., Gebhard, W. & Kabsch, W. (1990) Nature (London) 347, 44-49]. S1 residues at the AS1 interface are now found at a higher radius as well as being translated axially and rotated azimuthally. Fits using S1 plus loops missing from the crystal structure were achieved using a homology search method to predict loop structures. These improved fits favor an arrangement in which the loop at the 50- to 20-kDa domain junction of S1 is located near the N terminus of actin. Rigid-body movements of the lower 50-kDa domain, which further improve the fit, produce closure of the large 50-kDa domain cleft and bring conserved residues in the lower 50-kDa domain into an apparently appropriate orientation for close interaction with actin. This finding supports the idea that binding of ATP to AS1 at the end of the ATPase cycle disrupts the actin binding site by changing the conformation of the 50-kDa cleft of S1.     

In Response to "Hypnotic Enhancement of Cognitive-Behavioral Interventions for Pain: An Analogue Treatment Study".

Comments that the article by Milling, Levine, and Meunier (2003; see record 2003-05896-014) regarding hypnotic analgesia overlooked important relevant research, including at least one study that challenges their conclusions. Milling and colleagues stated that they know of only three studies that compared the pain-reducing effects of cognitivebehavioral interventions with those that added the element of hypnosis. They further pointed out that they must examine whether their findings, "based on the analogue treatment of experimental pain, apply to the treatment of clinical pain" (Milling et al., 2003, p. 412). However, other researchers (Faymonville et al., 1995) have already compared the analgesic effects of a hypnotic and a nonhypnotic relaxation intervention in patients undergoing plastic surgery. The present author further asserts that the work of Faymonville et al., may actually be superior to the work of Milling and colleagues. It is also commented that there have also been other clinical studies in the medical literature and their omission from the article's literature review was "disappointing." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hotline Evaluation: Its Impact on the Agency.

Informed consent and the use of pseudocallers for evaluating hotline operators' functioning have become controversial issues in the recent psychological literature (Baizerman, 1976a, 1976b; Genthner, 1974, 1976). Winett, Martorano, and Keenan (1977) recently offered their opinions concerning informed consent and the use of pseudocallers. They referred to a study they conducted in which five hotline operators were evaluated over a 4-month period in a single agency. Operators were asked to make a judgment as to whether each call they received while on duty was pseudo. Winett et al. concluded that because their study employed fully informed consent and an opportunity to compare identified with unidentified pseudocalls, informed consent in this type of research should be used to "preserve the integrity of the service and is probably of benefit to the agency and its potential clients". Although there are good and reasonable reasons for adhering to fully informed consent in psychological research, the problem has another dimension. Because of proximity, we had an opportunity to interview four of the five operators in the Winett et al. (1977) study. In the interviews, we found that three of the operators treated calls they thought were pseudo less seriously. They justified their behavior, claiming that the pseudocallers were often transparent, and they resented the actor's apparent pretension. Winett, Martorano, and Keenan corroborated this finding, that when an operator thought the call was pseudo he or she did not try as hard. This finding coupled with the fact that Winett et al. found that the operators misidentified 36 calls as pseudo suggests that informed consent may not be the best approach for the hotline consumer. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)