Psychological Screening Inventory as a predictor of college student adjustment.

Scores on the Psychological Screening Inventory (PSI) collected from 1,815 college freshmen during orientation were used to predict need for counseling and type of presenting problem. The study also attempted to extend the use of the PSI by assessing its relationship to certain counseling process-outcome variables and students' social adjustment on campus. Results show the PSI was effective in discriminating seekers of counseling, presenting-problem category, and some process-outcome variables. Moderate success was obtained in discriminating behavioral ratings of favorable and unfavorable social adjustment, the Expression scale proving useful for this purpose. Frequent sex differences were observed for PSI predictiveness of both counseling-related variables and social adjustment ratings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Career development status as a predictor of career intervention outcomes.

Relates career status measures (the Career Decision Scale, the Vocational Identity Scale, and the Career Maturity Inventory), goals for participating in career intervention, and ego strength (Barron Ego-Strength Scale) to 6 outcomes of the administration of the Self-Directed Search (SDS). Outcomes include satisfaction with the SDS, satisfaction with posttest career choice, congruence of expressed and measured interests, and 3 self-reported behavioral indices. 48 male and 64 female undergraduates served as Ss. Stepwise regressions indicated that outcomes for males could not be predicted as effectively as those for females. The Career Decision Scale, the Vocational Identity Scale, and ratings on the goal of obtaining training information were the best predictors. Most change occurred for females high on vocational identity; most satisfaction with the SDS and job choice was attained by those low in indecision on the Career Decision Scale. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Domain-appropriateness of maternal discipline as a predictor of adolescents' positive and negative outcomes.

The purpose of the current study was to examine adolescents' perceptions of the appropriateness of maternal discipline across social domains and how domain-appropriateness was related to adolescents' prosocial and antisocial behaviors via adolescents' personal prosocial values. A total of 133 adolescents (54% girls; mean age = 16.23 years, SD = 1.27) completed questionnaires in their classrooms at school. Results suggest that adolescents perceived mothers as responding differently to their misbehavior and perceived different maternal discipline as appropriate as a function of the domain into which the misbehavior fit. Findings also suggest that domain-appropriateness of maternal discipline was related to adolescent outcomes (directly, and indirectly via personal values), suggesting the importance of domain-appropriate maternal discipline during adolescence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Unique and common mechanisms of change across cognitive and dynamic psychotherapies.

The goal of this article was to examine theoretically important mechanisms of change in psychotherapy outcome across different types of treatment. Specifically, the role of gains in self-understanding, acquisition of compensatory skills, and improvements in views of the self were examined. A pooled study database collected at the University of Pennsylvania Center for Psychotherapy Research, which includes studies conducted from 1995 to 2002 evaluating the efficacy of cognitive and psychodynamic therapies for a variety of disorders, was used. Patient samples included major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, borderline personality disorder, and adolescent anxiety disorders. A common assessment battery of mechanism and outcome measures was given at treatment intake, termination, and 6-month follow-up for all 184 patients. Improvements in self-understanding, compensatory skills, and views of the self were all associated with symptom change across the diverse psychotherapies. Changes in self-understanding and compensatory skills across treatment were predictive of follow-up symptom course. Changes in self-understanding demonstrated specificity of change to dynamic psychotherapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluating the outcomes of psychotherapies: The Personality Health Index.

This paper introduces two related measures that can be used to evaluate, describe, and track changes in personality functioning. Both are derived from the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure (SWAP-200). The first measure is the Personality Health Index (PHI) that offers an assessment of personality functioning that may be applied to the study of outcome in any treatment purporting to affect overall psychological health, such as long-term psychodynamic therapy and psychoanalysis. Preliminary studies suggest robust construct validity for the PHI. The second measure, RADIO, uses the item content of the SWAP-200 to categorize personality functioning into five domains: Reality testing and thought process, Affect regulation and tolerance, Defensive organization, Identity integration, and Object relations. Referred to by the acronym RADIO, this measure provides a picture of personality health across major dimensions of personality functioning. Applying these measures to the well-studied case of “Mrs. C” illustrates their potential clinical, educational and research utility. Both the PHI, a global measure, and the RADIO, a more specific measure, demonstrate changes in her functioning from early to late periods in her psychoanalysis. The paper elaborates the wider application of the PHI and RADIO in clinical and research contexts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perfectionism as a predictor of positive and negative psychological outcomes: Examining a mediation model in younger and older adults.

The relations between general perfectionistic tendencies as measured by R. 0. Frost, P. Marten, C. Lahart, and R. Rosenblate's (1990) Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (MPS), stress, and psychological outcome were assessed among a sample of younger (M?=?20.00 years;n?=?270) and older adults (M?=?46.99 years; n?=?256). Results of conducting a series of path analyses examining a mediation model indicated that the influence of perfectionism on a measure of positive psychological outcome (viz., life satisfaction) was fully mediated by stress. In contrast, the influence of perfectionism on measures of negative psychological outcome (viz., negative mood and worry) were only partially mediated by stress. These pathanalytic findings were consistent across both age groups. Implications of the present findings for future research and intervention in working with perfectionistic clients are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Validity of the Goal Instability scale (modified) as a predictor of adjustment in retirement-age adults.

The validity of the Goal Instability scale as a predictor of adjustment among a retirement-aged population of industrial workers was investigated. A two-part study was conducted (a) to establish the norms and internal reliability of a modified version of the scale with this age group and (b) to examine the predictive validity of the scale within a hierarchical model. Although questions remain, results generally support the validity of the Goal Instability scale as a predictor of adjustment with older adult and retired workers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Analytic strategies for understanding affective (in)stability and other dynamic processes in psychopathology.

The dynamics of psychopathological symptoms as a topic of research has been neglected for some time, likely because of the inability of cross-sectional and retrospective reports to uncover the ebb and flow of symptoms. Data gathered with the experience sampling method (ESM) enable researchers to study symptom variability and instability over time as well as the dynamic interplay between the environment, personal experiences, and psychopathological symptoms. ESM data can illuminate these dynamic processes, if time is both considered and integrated into (a) the research question itself, (b) the assessment or sampling method, and (c) the data analytic strategy. The authors highlight the complexity of assessing affective instability and unstable interpersonal relationships and explore sampling and analytic methods. Finally, they propose guidelines for future investigations. For the assessment of affective instability, the authors endorse the use of time-contingent recordings and of instability indices that address temporal dependency. For the assessment of unstable interpersonal relationships, they advocate the use of event-contingent recordings and separate analyses within and across dyads. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conservatism as a predictor of humor preferences.

Of a sample of 139 high school students, humor preference profiles were compared for 30 Ss scoring highest on the Conservatism Scale, and 30 Ss scoring lowest. As predicted, high-conservative Ss tended to prefer "safe," formal types of humor, e.g., puns, while low conservatives (liberals) expressed greater appreciation of transparently "libidinal" types of humor, e.g., sick and sexual. Results were interpreted as indicating the importance of individual differences in the extent to which it is necessary for appetitive content to be disguised by the structural aspects of the joke medium before humorous affect is evoked. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

SVIB as a predictor of job satisfaction.

A study was made of 185 graduates of professional curricula to test the hypothesis that job satisfaction in a certain occupation is related to congruent or appropriate interests in that occupation. Occupations represented were medicine, law, dentistry, mechanical engineering, accounting, and journalism. Ss were contacted by mail and asked to fill out 3 job satisfaction blanks and the SVIB. 12th grade SVIB scores were also available for each S. Only 1 of 56 relationships between interests and job satisfaction scores was significantly different from 0. The lack of relationships was true for both earlier and current testing of interests and for all 3 job satisfaction blanks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

AVA as a predictor of occupational hierarchy.

High and low status male groups in industry were used to determine whether AVA can distinguish the 2. A Fisher 2-group discriminant analysis was applied to the data as well as a simple procedure using an AVA analyst. "Both methods proved to be highly successful… confirm existence of differences in temperament characteristics of personnel in higher and lower echelons… confirm power and efficiency of AVA in measuring these differences." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Student-college congruency as a predictor of satisfaction.

Tested hypotheses about person-environment congruency, consistency, and differentiation from J. L. Holland's (1973) theory of careers. Ss were 1,878 undergraduates from 1 college and 1 university who had been given the Self-Directed Search before their freshman year followed by a satisfaction questionnaire 1 or 3 yrs later. 2 analyses were conducted. The 1st was a 3-factor multiple analysis of variance with school, sex, and congruency level as the independent variables. The 2nd was a 4-factor multiple analysis of variance with school, sex, consistency, and differentiation as independent variables. 3 college satisfaction measures were the dependent variables. Statistically significant main effects (p     

Justice as a dynamic construct: Effects of individual trajectories on distal work outcomes.

Despite an amassing organizational justice literature, few studies have directly addressed the temporal patterning of justice judgments and the effects that changes in these perceptions have on important work outcomes. Drawing from Gestalt characteristics theory (Ariely & Carmon, 2000, 2003), we examine the concept of justice trajectories (i.e., levels and trends of individual fairness perceptions over time) and offer empirical evidence to highlight the value of considering fairness within a dynamic context. Participants included 523 working adults who completed surveys about their work experiences on 4 occasions over the course of 1 year. Results indicate that justice trends explained additional variance in distal work outcomes (job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intentions) after controlling for end-state levels of justice, demonstrating the cumulative effects of justice over time. Findings also reveal that change in procedural justice perceptions affected distal work outcomes more strongly than any other justice dimension. Implications for theory and future investigations of justice as a dynamic construct are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impact of Cluster C personality disorders on outcomes of contrasting brief psychotherapies for depression.

Twenty-seven of 114 depressed clients, stratified for severity of depression, obtained a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd ed.; DSM-III; American Psychiatric Association, 1980) diagnosis of Cluster C personality disorder, that is, avoidant, obsessive-compulsive or dependent personality disorder (PD clients), whereas the remaining 87 did not (non-personality-disorder [NPD] clients). All clients completed either 8 or 16 sessions of cognitive-behavioral (CB) or psychodynamic-interpersonal (PI) psychotherapy. On most measures, PD clients began with more severe symptomatology than NPD clients. Among those who received PI therapy, PD clients maintained this difference posttreatment and at 1-year follow-up. Among those who received CB therapy, posttreatment differences between PD and NPD groups were not significant. Treatment length did not influence outcome for PD clients. PD clients whose depression was also relatively severe showed significantly less improvement after treatment than either PD clients with less severe depression or NPD clients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Payment history as a predictor of credit risk.

A numerical scoring system to predict credit payment was developed from the payment records of customers of a large Los Angeles department store. The following types of items were used: number of payments of less than amount due, number of payments missed completely, number of collection notices previously sent, etc. Results showed good (rbi = .71) ability to discriminate between potentially good accounts and those likely to require special collection efforts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perspective taking as a predictor of marital adjustment.

Recently, theorists have argued that positive personality dispositions may facilitate the maintenance of satisfying personal relationships. On a sample of 159 couples (married an average of 23.8 years) it was hypothesized that perspective taking, defined as the cognitive tendency to put oneself in another person's place, would be positively predictive of marital adjustment. Three dimensions of perspective taking were measured. A general measure assessed self perspective taking in general social interaction. A second instrument assessed the perspective taking of the self, and the third assessed the perspective taking of another within the marriage relationship. Results indicated that for both husbands and wives, all 3 dimensions of perspective taking were predictive of marital adjustment. Wives had significantly higher scores than did husbands on all 3 perspective-taking scales. The results are discussed within the context of a model of relational competence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual discrimination as a predictor of achievement in reading and arithmetic.

Just prior to their entry into kindergarten, approximately 150 children were given a perceptual discrimination task using letterlike forms and their transformations. During the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades, Ss were tested with a battery of tasks, including the arithmetic and reading portions of the Wide Range Achievement Test. The magnitude of the relation to subsequent achievement in reading differed for different transformations, depending on the difficulty of a transformation. More easily discriminated transformations were associated with higher correlations. The patterns of relation were similar for reading and arithmetic, suggesting that the perceptual discrimination test measured nonperceptual abilities related to early scholastic achievement. (6 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive match as a predictor of psychotherapy outcome.

63 cognitively matched or unmatched patient–therapist pairs were followed in a double-blind methodology utilizing the Interpersonal Discrimination Test (IDT) as a measure of cognitive match between each pair. Premature termination occurred for 60% of the unmatched pairs and for 24% of the matched pairs. The Global Assessment Scale indicated a significantly faster rate of improvement for the remaining matched pairs at the 12-wk mark. Unmatched pairs eventually reached similar endpoints with final termination outcome measures being unable to distinguish between the 2 groups. Findings demonstrate the ability of the cognitive-match methodology, and specifically the ability of the IDT, to predict higher rates of early and dissatisfied terminations when patients and therapists are unmatched in cognitive structure. Findings confirm an earlier finding by J. E. Carr (1970) of greater improvement after 12 wks of treatment for matched vs mismatched patient–therapist pairs. (11 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)