Gestalt therapy: Some aspects of self-support, independence and responsibility.

Administered tests devised to measure self-concept, expressed value system, and fantasy production (e.g., Leary Interpersonal Check List and TAT) to 7 college students before and after Gestalt awareness training and to 7 Ss who received no treatment. Experimental Ss showed increased positive self-concepts, but their personal values remained unaffected, and their fantasy productions reflected significantly less independence, self-support, and responsibility. Results are interpreted in 2 ways: (1) Training may affect individuals beneficially on only a superficial and mutable level of personality—self concept—while personal values remain unaltered; fantasy production may even contraindicate training. (2) Training may have the desired effect on all levels, but insufficient time prevented Ss from moving beyond the "impasse," the crucial time when resistance sets in and people "prevent" themselves from using their resources. (47 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social support as an individual difference variable: Its stability, origins, and relational aspects.

Investigated the stability of social support indices, the relation between these indices and measures of parental bonding, and the relation between the indices and ratings of social behavior. In Exp I, 76 undergraduates responded to a social support questionnaire (SSQ) several times at 5- and 36-mo follow-ups. Exp II partially replicated Exp I with 251 Ss, and it investigated the relation between the SSQ and a parental bonding instrument. In Exp III, 160 Ss rated videotapes of persons with different levels of social support and scored them with regard to indices of personal effectiveness. The studies demonstrate that social support levels are stable over periods up to 3 yrs. They also showed that Ss high in social support reported having received more parental care (affection, interest, empathy) than did those low in social support. High social support Ss were judged by observers to be more competent leaders and problem solvers than were low-support Ss. Female Ss were judged to be more considerate and friendly than male Ss. Results suggest the value of conceptualizing social support as an individual difference variable as well as an environmental provision. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychiatric aspects of temporal arteritis: a case report and review of the literature

Temporal arteritis may present with atypical manifestations that can hamper its diagnosis. We report a case presenting with predominantly psychiatric symptoms including psychotic features and affective symptoms both on a background of cognitive impairment. Such clear-cut psychotic symptoms have not been described previously in the literature. Corticosteroid treatment was followed by full remission of psychotic and affective symptoms; treatment with antipsychotic medication was unnecessary. Temporal arteritis should be considered in the differential diagnosis of psychosis and affective disorder in the elderly. The erythrocyte sedimentation rate is a valuable parameter in the assessment of old-age psychiatry patients presenting both with functional and neurologic disorders.     

Gastroparesis: review of the aspects related to its concept, etiopathogeny and clinical handling]

BACKGROUND: Percutaneous closed needle biopsy of musculoskeletal neoplasms has gained in popularity. However, it remains controversial whether or not to resect the needle tract for fear of a local recurrence. A single published case report exists, noting the lone tract recurrence of an extremity skeletal osteosarcoma. METHODS: We report on three additional individuals who demonstrated that tract local recurrences may occur after a closed needle biopsy for nonosteosarcoma, nonextremity sarcomas. For perspective, the world literature is reviewed to identify tract recurrences for other malignancies and the results of needle biopsy in musculoskeletal neoplasms. RESULTS: Eighty-nine percent of needle tract local recurrences occur when carcinomas are subjected to biopsy, as reported in the literature. Forty-seven cases since 1950 are described representing essentially all tumor types. The nature of musculoskeletal neoplasms makes closed biopsy more difficult than for softer, more homogeneous, and easier to access neoplasms. CONCLUSIONS: Local recurrences of sarcoma may occur in closed needle biopsy tracts. Strong consideration should be given to open biopsy and tract resection.     

Some aspects of the relationship between body weight and sexual behaviour with particular reference to massive obesity and anorexia nervosa

There is some evidence for the existence of a precise weight/fat threshold for puberty. Following puberty, body weight and shape take on important new psycho-social significances for both males and females. Adolescent females usually strive to reduce their 'fatness' even it is not excessive from a biological standpoint. Super-obesity and anorexia nervosa are two human disorders of weight and fatness, more common in women, and importantly related to disturbances of sexual behavior, metabolic, social and experiential. These latter aspects sometimes at least reflect the presence of several factors which have contributed to the development of the disorders. Anorexia nervosa in particular reflects the adaptive psychosocial needs of the person concerned. Attention to this aspect during treatment will often allow the patient to tolerate the major weight gain required for recovery, thereby at the same time providing a paradigm for aspects of the pubertal process which can then be studied. The results of some such investigations together with related studies of the super-obese are reported here.     

Helping the suicidal client: Some aspects of assessment and treatment.

All manifestations of suicidal intent need to be taken seriously by the clinician, who must make an assessment of the level of suicidal risk and implement an active suicide prevention plan when risk is judged to be substantial. Suicidal behavior is more difficult to predict in schizophrenic compared with depressed people; factors correlated with increased risk of suicide in both contexts are elaborated. Hospitalization is indicated when acute suicidal risk is assessed to be high; its length is ideally limited to the period of acute risk, which may be as short as several days. During hospitalization, there should be active intervention to change real-life conditions, such as lack of social support, which may be central to the person's motivation to commit suicide. Antipsychotic medication may be introduced and the person helped to continue with it as an outpatient. For those at lesser levels of acute risk, outpatient treatment is seen as appropriate and effective. An important feature of such a plan is the involvement of the person's family and associates. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adolescent growth, development, and psychosocial aspects of sports participation: an overview

This chapter examines sports participation in the context of adolescent growth and development. Because the nature of sports participation is highly organized and competitive, it is imperative that parents, coaches, physicians, and other clinicians remember that they may be placing increased pressures on the adolescent to perform and practice. The authors review the impact of physical growth and psychosocial development and also describe how substance abuse, depression, and aggressive behavior may or may not be influenced by sports participation.     

Rhymes and reasons: Some aspects of the child's appreciation of poetic form.

Investigated 18 1st and 3rd graders' appreciation of rhyme, rhythm, and alliteration in poetry. Several measures were used to assess each child's appreciation of the poetic devices. Even 1st graders exhibited some appreciation of rhyme and rhythm in poetry. These Ss displayed an ability to attend to these poetic devices as measured by a detection task, 2 concept learning tasks, and a production task. Moreover, they also expressed preferences for poetry samples containing these devices. However, such was not the case for alliteration. First graders experienced difficulty in attending to alliteration, and neither 1st nor 3rd graders displayed any tendency to prefer poems with alliteration. The results of a posttest questionnaire indicated that only a few children showed any understanding of how the devices function in poetry. It is concluded that although 1st graders have some rudimentary appreciation of rhyme and rhythm in poetry, the ability to understand how such devices function in poetry is a much later development. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Old-age deficits in the sense of smell as gauged by thresholds, magnitude matching, and odor identification.

Twenty elderly subjects (70–90 years old) and 20 young control subjects (18–24 years old) underwent three kinds of olfactory testing: absolute thresholds to three odorants (d-limonene, iso-amyl butyrate, benzaldehyde), magnitude matching of these odorants to salt tastes, and odor identification of 30 common substances. For all three odorants elderly subjects' mean threshold significantly exceeded that of the young by about nine-fold for d-limonene, about three-fold for benzaldehyde, and about two-fold for iso-amyl butyrate. These threshold differences predict approximate concentration differences necessary to arouse the same estimated odor strength above the threshold for the elderly and the young. Young subjects also scored better than the elderly in odor identification, even when subjects were given four alternatives from which to select the correct label. Unimpaired olfactory functioning is uncommon in the elderly; correlational tests show that as a group the young have better olfactory ability and show more interindividual uniformity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Discrimination of acoustic communication signals by grasshoppers (Chorthippus biguttulus): Temporal resolution, temporal integration, and the impact of intrinsic noise.

A characteristic feature of hearing systems is their ability to resolve both fast and subtle amplitude modulations of acoustic signals. This applies also to grasshoppers, which for mate identification rely mainly on the characteristic temporal patterns of their communication signals. Usually the signals arriving at a receiver are contaminated by various kinds of noise. In addition to extrinsic noise, intrinsic noise caused by stochastic processes within the nervous system contributes to making signal recognition a difficult task. The authors asked to what degree intrinsic noise affects temporal resolution and, particularly, the discrimination of similar acoustic signals. This study aims at exploring the neuronal basis for sexual selection, which depends on exploiting subtle differences between basically similar signals. Applying a metric, by which the similarities of spike trains can be assessed, the authors investigated how well the communication signals of different individuals of the same species could be discriminated and correctly classified based on the responses of auditory neurons. This spike train metric yields clues to the optimal temporal resolution with which spike trains should be evaluated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Need for social approval as a predictor of the strategic and outcome aspects of bargaining behaviour in asymmetric power situations: An interactionist approach.

Investigated the effects of need for social approval (NAP) on the outcome (Exp. I) and strategic (Exp. II) aspects of bargaining in 2 mixed-motive nonconstant sum games. An interactionist approach was adopted in that (a) the possible attenuating effects of a contextual variable (differential bargaining power) were examined; and (b) face-to-face open communication was permitted. Exp. I, with 64 male and female undergraduates, shows that low-NAP Ss obtained higher final outcomes than high-NAP Ss only when the former were in the low-power position. Results of Exp. II, with 32 male Ss, support the following conclusions: (a) in the high power position, high-NAP Ss (as opposed to low-NAP Ss) adopt a softer initial bid strategy, exhibit a higher overall level of offers, and reach agreements that yielded them a smaller dyadic profit difference; and (b) in the low-power position, personality differences in NAP do not, as predicted, have a significant effect on strategies employed or final outcomes attained. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Scientific creativity as constrained stochastic behavior: The integration of product, person, and process perspectives.

Psychologists have primarily investigated scientific creativity from 2 contrasting in vitro perspectives: correlational studies of the creative person and experimental studies of the creative process. Here the same phenomenon is scrutinized using a 3rd, in vivo perspective, namely, the actual creative products that emerge from individual scientific careers and communities of creative scientists. This behavioral analysis supports the inference that scientific creativity constitutes a form of constrained stochastic behavior. That is, it can be accurately modeled as a quasi-random combinatorial process. Key findings from both correlational and experimental research traditions corroborate this conclusion. The author closes the article by arguing that all 3 perspectives--regarding the product, person, and process--must be integrated into a unified view of scientific creativity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Harm, offense, and nuisance: Some first steps in the establishment of an ethics of treatment.

Discusses ethical issues involved in the involuntary treatment of individuals who either have not consented to treatment or who are unable to rationally give their consent. J. Feinberg's summary of 7 traditional justifications for coercion is reviewed and related to therapeutic intervention efforts, based on the view that some degree of coercion is inevitable in society and that no right is absolutely given. Several court decisions involving 1st Amendment rights are discussed and their implications for the state's right to assign individuals to involuntary therapy or hospitalization are considered. In order to restrict or delimit the state's activities and/or prosecutions against individuals who are labeled "nuisances," the therapist should refuse to administer treatment in all cases not involved with the principle of "private harm"-when failure to limit the freedom of an individual will result in harm to that person (e.g., the prevention of suicide). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fragmentation in focus: History, integration, and the project of evaluation.

This paper discusses the fragmentation of psychology and proposals for unification hitherto proffered. It is argued that unity will not be achieved until competing ideas regarding morality, ontology, epistemology, and so forth are critically examined and evaluated. Ideas that pass theoretical muster and that cohere with human moral interests will provide a theoretical starting point for unification efforts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attachment hypothesis of REM sleep: Toward an integration of psychoanalysis, neuroscience, and evolutionary psychology and the implications for psychopathology research.

In this article the authors propose, on the basis of a review of the evolutionary and neuropsychological study of REM sleep, that REM sleep functions to promote attachment and that in the mature state it may promote sexual pair bonding and serve related compensatory functions. The attachment hypothesis is consistent with known psychobiologic correlates of REM sleep, with classical psychoanalytic theory regarding dreams, and with evidence from research on attachment. The authors argue that this hypothesis leads to a new understanding of the role of repression and the dream work, and has broad implications for psychopathology research. They argue that although many in the cognitive and neural sciences have largely dismissed S. Freud's (1900/1953) theorizing on dreams, there is important complementarity when it is evaluated through the lens of the attachment hypothesis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory, amnesia, and the issue of recovered memory: neurobiological aspects

The main thesis of this article is that the debate about the credibility of "recovered memories"--reports by adults of recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse and trauma that were allegedly repressed for many years--can be usefully informed by considering the biological and behavioral facts and ideas about how memory works. Accordingly, the first section of this review describes current facts and ideas about the neurobiology and neuropsychology of memory and amnesia, including what parts of the brain are important for memory, distinctions between different memory systems in the brain, and the phenomena of infantile amnesia and source amnesia. The second section takes into account the information about the biological and behavioral bases of memory and addresses two questions about memory that have become a focus of debate in the recovered memory controversy, that is, whether memories for traumatic events change over time, and whether memories can be created for traumatic events that did not actually happen.