C. R. (Rick) Snyder (1944-2006).

This is an obituary for Charles Richard "Rick" Snyder. Before C. R. Snyder, hope was a concept elusive to many clinicians and clients, clinical and social psychologists often spoke at rather than to one another, and there was a limited collaborative spirit between the clinical and social subfields. As a result of his scholarship, mentorship, and generous spirit, hope is more accessible, the social-clinical interface is a vibrant area of study, and psychology is a more civil profession. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Edward E. (Ted) Cureton (1902–1992): Obituary.

Reports the death of Edward E. Cureton, who was a productive contributor to the literature of psychometrics, particularly in the areas of reliability, validity, and factor analysis. A diplomate in industrial psychology, Cureton was a fellow of Divisions 2 (Teaching), 5 (Evaluation and Measurement), 14 (Industrial), and 15 (Educational) of the American Psychological Association (APA) and was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He also served as president of the Psychometric Society and of APA's Division 5, and was one of the founders of the Southeastern Psychological Association. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The molluscicidal activity of Apodytes dimidiata E. Meyer ex Arn (Icacinaceae), Gardenia thunbergia L.f. (Rubiaceae) and Warburgia salutaris (Bertol. F.) Chiov. (Cannelaceae), three South African plants

Mollusciciding is still considered the most important means of control of schistosomiasis where the volume of water per caput is small. In rural communities the cost of synthetic molluscicides and/or chemotherapy prohibits their use. Plant molluscicides, applied as crude aqueous suspensions are the source of cheap, effective and environmentally acceptable alternatives. Further, infected communities are likely to accept the use of local indigenous plants, particularly if they have more than one local application, since they are familiar with their properties and growth characteristics. In this study the activity of crude aqueous suspensions of six South African plants were assessed. Suspensions of leaf material were bioassayed for activity using Bulinus africanus. Probit analysis was used to calculate LD50 and LD90 values. Three species would receive priority for further investigations of extract stability and toxicology, i.e. comprehensive evaluation. For this purpose species were ranked on toxicity as aqueous suspensions, the highest toxicity level previously recorded in the literature, and on their cultivation potential. Ranks for each plant were summed and Gardenia thunbergia, Apodytes dimidiata, and Warburgia salutaris had the lowest cumulative rankings (i.e. the highest molluscicidal activity and greatest cultivation potential).     

R. B. Masterton (1932–1996): Obituary.

Memorializes R. B. Masterton for his contributions to the field of psychology. Masterton had a reverence for C. Darwin and believed the value of Darwin's research lay in the necessity of the essential correctness of natural selection as a unifying conceptualization of the life process. Masterton believed that behavior, in turn, is a principle determinant of the survival of the organism and of its participation in the evolution of its species. Thus, neurophysiology, neuroanatomy, behavior, and evolution are all part of the same process. Masterton elucidated this process with respect to the auditory sensory system. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adolescent (in)vulnerability.

Three groups of Ss were asked to judge the probability that they and several target others (a friend, an acquaintance, a parent, a child) would experience various risks. Ss were middle-class adults, their teenage children, and high-risk adolescents from treatment homes. All three groups saw themselves as facing somewhat less risk than the target others. However, this perception of relative invulnerability was no more pronounced for adolescents than for adults. Indeed, the parents were viewed as less vulnerable than their teenage children by both the adults and those teens. These results are consistent with others showing small differences in the cognitive decision-making processes of adolescents and adults. Underestimating teens' competence can mean misdiagnosing the sources of their risk behaviors, denying them deserved freedoms, and failing to provide needed assistance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

B. F. Skinner (1904–1990): Obituary.

Marks the death of B. F. Skinner (1904–1990). Eight days before his death on August 18, 1990, Skinner received the American Psychological Association's Award for Outstanding Lifetime Contribution to Psychology. His contribution was his demonstration that behavior could be studied as self-sufficient rather than as a reflection of inner mental events. The goal of Skinner's science was the control, prediction, and interpretation of behavior. While his work carried profound implications for the psychology of the 1940s, few adopted his approach until the early 1950s. His work on verbal behavior (1957) has only recently stimulated any serious research or application. Skinner always viewed his own work as the product of environmental contingencies, and not the result of a creative mind. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anaclitic (sociotropic) and introjective (autonomous) dimensions.

The distinction between the anaclitic and introjective configuration of personality and psychopathology has potential to inform therapeutic practice. Anaclitic patients, concerned primarily with obtaining and maintaining close and nurturing interpersonal relations, respond differently to brief and longterm treatment, in comparison to their introjective counterparts, who are mainly concerned with securing a positive sense of self. This article reviews research on the therapeutic responses of anaclitic and introjective patients in three settings: (a) in intensive, inpatient psychoanalytically oriented treatment; (b) in psychoanalysis as compared to long-term supportive-expressive therapy; and (c) in manualized brief treatments for depression. Findings indicate that anaclitic patients improve more in long-term supportive expressive therapy than in psychoanalysis. The reverse occurs with introjective patients, who also did particularly poorly in brief manualized treatment for depression. Therapists should take into account the tendency of anaclitic and introjective patients to receive and react differently to different therapeutic situations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

James F. T. Bugental (1915-2008).

James F. T. Bugental died peacefully at age 92 at his Petaluma, California, home on September 18, 2008. Jim was a leading psychotherapist and a founding father, with Abraham Maslow and others, of humanistic psychology, or the "third force" (in contrast to psychoanalysis and behaviorism). Jim was also the creator, along with Rollo May, of existential-humanistic psychotherapy. Jim was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on Christmas Day in 1915. Jim earned his doctorate in 1948 from Ohio State University, where he was influenced by Victor Raimy and George Kelly. After a brief time on the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) faculty in psychology, Jim resigned in 1953 to found the first group practice of psychotherapy, Psychological Service Associates, with Alvin Lasko. With Abraham Maslow and others, Jim was a cofounder of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology (JHP) and the Association for Humanistic Psychology in 1961. Jim also wrote many books on the topic of psychotherapy during his lifetime. Jim was a great and bold spirit--his many writings and teachings are cherished today widely, and the field of psychology is much richer for his efforts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

J. E. Keith Smith (1928-2002).

This obituary reviews the life and work of J. E. Keith Smith (1928-2002). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ogden R. Lindsley Jr. (1922-2004).

Obituary for Ogden R. Lindsley Jr. (1922-2004). On October 10, 2004, we lost a giant in the field of behavior analysis. The full impact of his contributions to both basic and applied science will undoubtedly unfold in the coming years. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Martin D. S. Braine (1926–1996): Obituary.

Memorializes Martin D. S. Braine, whose research on child language acquisition and on both child and adult thinking and reasoning had a major influence on modern cognitive psychology. Addressing meaning as well as position, Braine argued that children start acquiring language by learning narrow-scope positional formulas that map components of meaning to positions in the utterance. These proposals were critical in starting discussions of the possible universality of the pivot-grammar stage and of the role of syntax, semantics,and pragmatics in children's early grammar and were pivotal to the rise of approaches in which cognitive development in language acquisition is stressed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ascocotyle (A.) nunezae n. sp. (Digenea: Heterophyidae) from Yucatan, Mexico

Inoculation of soil with bacteria (a Gram-negative rod [PD2] and a 4-membered consortium [DC1]) accelerated mineralisation of phenanthrene and pyrene (but not naphthalene) added individually to a pristine sand and a pristine organic soil. The half-life of naphthalene was 3.5 days in both soils whether inoculated or non-inoculated. However, the half-life of phenanthrene decreased from 86 days in non-inoculated sand soil and 80 days in the non-inoculated organic soil to 3.6 days in the sand and 3.1 days in organic soil when inoculated with PD2, and to 6.6 days in the sand and 8.7 days in the organic soil when inoculated with DC1. Phenanthrene mineralisation ceased after 23 days in DC1-inoculated soil and was 71.3 +/- 3.6% (sand) and 63.3 +/- 2.8% (organic). This compared with 96.8 +/- 3.8% (sand) 102.8 +/- 2.5% (organic) after 8 days in PD2-inoculated soil. Inoculation with DC1 (but not PD2) also accelerated mineralisation of pyrene, where the half-life decreased from 155 days to 18 days in the sand soil, and from 216 days to 33 days in organic soil.     

T.D.F. (time-dose-fractioned irradiation) and tolerance to low flow and low fractioned irradiation (author''s transl)

A surgically treated material comprising 18 patinets with heart failure from aortic insufficiency during acute endocarditis has been reviewed. At the time of operation the mean duration of heart failure was 3 weeks and duration of endocarditis 9 weeks. Blood culture was positive in half of the patients, 39% had predisposing valve disease, 14 (78%) had a preoperative heart catheterization. The peroperatively measured regurgitation averaged 55%. All 18 patients had an artifical valve implanted, and the mean observation time for 13 long-term survivors was 3 1/3 years. There were 3 postoperative and 2 late deaths. A long-term survival rate of 73% strongly supports early surgical treatment in patients with aortic insufficiency and heart failure during acute endocarditis.     

The O.R.T. (the Object Relations Technique): A reintroduction.

The purpose of my writing this essay is to familiarize readers with an interesting projective device called the O.R.T. (the Object Relations Technique), which has been described by James Grotstein as “an innovative and unique descendent of the heritage of projective testing on one hand and of projective aspects of psychoanalytic clinical technique on the other (1993, pp. 1).” It is an objectified (operationalized) method for the assessment of an individual’s actual, underlying models for relationship that has been employed primarily as a clinical therapeutic tool. Its history is as interesting as the technique itself. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)