The mental health arena.

If C. A. Kiesler's (1977) comparative analysis of the training of psychologists vs psychiatrists proves to be true after closer inspection, this analysis can document that doctoral-level psychologists have as much (or more) training as psychiatrists yet receive considerably less income. The reasons that psychiatrists dominate mental health settings are reviewed, and it is argued that the mythical nature of the public's collective approaches to physicians should be exposed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The inheritance of mental ability.

Arguments "from introspection, from biology, and from neurology" concerning the problem of individual differences in mental ability are cited. The specific independent abilities theory of Thorndike, the single general factor theory of Spearman, and the 2 factors of general and specific abilities are discussed. "In controversies about the facts of mental heredity most critics have tended to assume that the two causal agencies commonly discussed—heredity and environment—are not merely antithetical but mutually exclusive… . In point of fact, with a few rare exceptions, like eye color or serological differences in the blood, every observable characteristic that geneticists have studied has proved to be the product of the joint action of both heredity and environment. There are, in short, no such things as hereditary characters; there are only hereditary tendencies." It is to be regreted that so little progress has been made by psychologists in applying modern genetic methods to fundamental study in the nature-nurture area. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The nature of mental abilities.

Presents a theory that organizes mental abilities into four levels—composite tasks, subtasks, information-processing components, and information-processing metacomponents. Composite tasks can be decomposed into subtasks, and subtasks into components. Metacomponents control the use of components in composite tasks and subtasks. The article describes each of these levels of mental abilities, poses the fundamental theoretical questions relevant at each level, and proposes answers to these questions. The role of factors in the theory is described and is shown to be quite different from the role of factors in traditional theories of mental abilities. Full understanding of mental abilities requires understanding of all four levels. (46 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The myth of mental illness.

"My aim in this essay is to raise the question 'Is there such a thing as mental illness?' and to argue that there is not." Major sections are: Mental Illness as a Sign of Brain Disease; Mental Illness as a Name for Problems in Living; The Role of Ethics in Psychiatry; Choice, Responsibility, and Psychiatry; and Conclusions. Mental illness "is a myth, whose function it is to disguise and thus render more palatable the bitter pill of moral conflicts in human relations." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The body image barrier concept.

"A check was made on whether the Rorschach Barrier score of 54 patients with external psychosomatic disorders were greater than those of 29 patients with internal psychosomatic disorders. Statistical analysis showed no evidence of difference in the distribution of Barrier scores in the two groups. The potentialities of the Barrier approach cannot be truly assessed until ambiguities in the theory are clarified and until the scale is improved as a measuring instrument." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The economics of mental health care.

Attempts to assist psychologists involved in policy discussions regarding the economics of mental health care by summarizing important sources of information on the characteristics and trends of psychological service providers and the cost of such services. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Psychologist in community mental health.

It is "our belief that the field of community mental health is a challenging and stimulating field for research oriented psychologists. We feel strongly that the identity of the psychologist may be best maintained through a scientist-professional model." Recommendations are made for the future training of psychologists in this field. The individual psychologist "must be assisted by adequate post-doctoral interdisciplinary training in a university setting." Major sections are: Maintenance of an Identity, Scientist and Professional, and Training the Scientist-Professional. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A computational analysis of mental image generation: Evidence from functional dissociations in split-brain patients.

Recent efforts to build computer simulation models of mental imagery have suggested that imagery is not a unitary phenomenon. Rather, such efforts have led to a modular analysis of the image-generation process, with separate modules that can activate visual memories, inspect parts of imaged patterns, and arrange separate parts into a composite image. This idea was supported by the finding of functional dissociations between the kinds of imagery tasks that could be performed in the left and right cerebral hemispheres of 2 patients (a 19-yr-old male and a 32-yr-old female) who had previously undergone surgical transection of their corpus callosa. The left hemisphere in both Ss could inspect imaged patterns and could generate single and multipart images. In contrast, although the right hemisphere could inspect imaged patterns and could generate images of overall shape, it had difficulty in generating multipart images. Results suggest a deficit in the module that arranges parts into a composite. The observed pattern of deficits and abilities implied that this module is not used in language, visual perception, or drawing. Findings also suggest that the basis for this deficit is not a difficulty in simply remembering visual details or engaging in sequential processing. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The cerebellum contributes to mental skills.

The cerebellum is known to play a role in simple associative motor learning in animals. It has recently been suggested that the cerebellum might also contribute to cognitive abilities in humans, particularly those located primarily in frontal cortex. Therefore 5 patients with either cerebellar lesions or atrophy were compared with 10 controls on a range of intellectual and learning abilities. The patients were impaired on two tests of associative learning, but not on many other types of memory test. There was, however, a generalized tendency toward poorer performance by the patients. The results nevertheless indicate that the cerebellum contributes to a particular type of mental skill, although whether this is related to frontal lobe functions remains to be determined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The science of infanticide and mental illness.

Women who murder their children have been the subject of intensive media and public scrutiny. Reactions have varied from horror at the cruelty of the act to sympathy for the perpetrator, based on the belief that the mother must have been severely mentally disordered or at least suffering from a diminished mental capacity at the time of the offense. As a result, the English and American legal systems have adopted very different legal responses to this crime. Underlying these legal positions are assumptions about the effect of childbirth on mental status and the relation of mental status to the legal criteria necessary to meet a legal defense (e.g., insanity) or necessary to justify charging the offender with a lesser crime. This article critically considers the scientific knowledge on infanticide and mental illness to determine the appropriateness of these assumptions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The epidemiology and prevention of mental retardation.

Argues that biomedical and sociogenic causations of mental retardation generally act in combination rather than as 2 distinct etiologies. It is maintained that a general prevention model for mental retardation demands an encompassing review of social, environmental, and biological risk factors. Primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention are described. It is posited that primary prevention efforts need to be aimed at large target populations that are at highest risk for having mentally retarded children and that these efforts must include counseling about secondary and tertiary prevention services as well. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The illusion of mental health.

Argues that researchers' reliance on "objective" mental health scales and disregard for clinical judgment has led to many mistaken conclusions. Specifically, standard mental health scales appear unable to distinguish between genuine mental health and the facade or illusion of mental health created by psychological defenses. Evidence is presented indicating that (1) many people who look healthy on standard and mental health scales are not psychologically healthy and (2) illusory mental health (based on defensive denial of distress) has psychological costs and may be a risk factor for medical illness. Clinical judges could distinguish genuine from illusory mental health, whereas "objective" mental health scales could not. The findings call into question the conclusions of many previous studies that rest on standard mental health scales. They suggest new ways of understanding how psychological factors may influence health. Finally, they suggest that clinical methods (which researchers often malign) may have an important role to play in meaningful mental health research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The psychologist and the small mental hospital.

A brief questionnaire was sent to the directors of the 82 hospitals belonging to the National Association of Private Psychiatric Hospitals. Replies were received from 49 or 60% of the sample of which 47 could be used for tabulation. "Only two hospitals say they do not use psychological tests; four more use them occasionally; one does not say; and the other 40, or 85% of our sample, gives an unqualified 'yes.' All those hospitals giving tests even occasionally, indicate the Rorschach as routine. All but two also list the Wechsler in this way." "Only 14 of the hospitals employ full-time psychologists. 23 more employ part-time psychologists." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The multisensory image and emotion in poetry.

The manner in which multisensory aspects of complex linguistic imagery cohere was examined. A total of 377 participants brought to mind a meaningful, vivid, mental image and then constructed a prose paragraph and a poem about the image. Those aspects of sensory imagery and expressed emotions that cohere in forming the linguistic units were identified. Visual images are most likely to be the trigger that accesses information about a specific episode, with tactile and auditory images next in order of importance. Correlational analysis using the categories of sensory imagery and emotion found that romantic/sensual/sexual emotions were strongly linked to olfactory and taste sensory images. Embarrassment was significantly correlated with tactile imagery, while tactile imagery showed a negative relationship with love/family/friendship. It was concluded that mental imagery is a pervasive form of subjective experience that structures and creates order, with powerful mnemonic and hypermnesic potential. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The image of women in psychology textbooks.

In an analysis of the content of ten recently published textbooks in psychology, the author concludes that most textbooks contain the implication that psychologists are male by using language and illustrations reinforcing this suggestion, and by citing women authors less frequently than their number and eminence would suggest. Experiments and studies reported in psychology textbooks frequently fail to indicate sex of subjects or, alternatively, are based on male samples. The results of such studies are then frequently generalized to both sexes. The image of psychology as presented in textbooks is biased, therefore, toward the study of male behaviour by male psychologists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Statement on mental illness and mental retardation.

The statement made on behalf of the American Psychological Association is in support of Senate Bills 755 and 756 developed by Congress in response to President Kennedy's message on mental illness and mental retardation. "The psychologist is vitually concerned with the problems of mental disorders and of mental retardation. He is especially interested in research, and in the provision of services to people through the organized agencies of society, such as the public schools, community mental health centers, hospitals, institutions for the retarded, and rehabilitation agencies of many kinds." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship between mental rotation and representational momentum.

Two experiments explored a possible relationship between mental rotation and representational momentum, a task in which participants were asked to remember an object's position following a sequence of images implying motion. Typically, participants misremember the position as distorted forward along the implied trajectory. If representational momentum relies on mental imagery, the magnitude of memory distortion in a representational momentum task should be positively correlated with the rate of mental rotation. As predicted, faster mental rotation rates and larger memory distortions for object position were observed for rotational axes aligned with the viewers' coordinate system. In addition, participants with slower mental rotation rates produced smaller memory distortions in the implied-event task. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Consumer Reports mental health survey.

Provides an overview of the 1995 Consumer Reports survey of the effectiveness of psychotherapy. Specific issues addressed include the study's goals; the findings for mental health professionals, family doctors, and self-help groups; and methodological strengths and weaknesses related to external validity, sampling, controls, self-reports, and time frame. The data show that, free of the artificial constraints of controlled studies in the real world, a population of consumers can often benefit from psychological intervention services. Real relief can be found at the hands of professional mental health providers. M. Kotkin et al reaffirm their independence from M. E. P. Seligman (see record 1996-13324-001) regarding the interpretation of the data. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Managed mental health care: The client's perspective.

Changes in psychotherapy services have been the focus of controversy between psychologists and the managed-care industry, yet too seldom have client preferences been directly heard in that debate. This study investigated consumer attitudes about the central elements of psychotherapy service delivery by 3 participant groups: self-pay clients, managed-care clients, and adults without therapy experience. Important differences of opinion were found among participant groups, yet results revealed that all 5 elements investigated were considered essential. Autonomy in treatment decision-making was ranked most important, followed by choice of therapist, copayment amount, limits to confidentiality, and ease of access to care. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)