Louis LaForce McQuitty (1910–1986).

Louis McQuitty was born in Curran, Illinois, on January 29, 1910. He died on October 8, 1986, in Florida. McQuitty earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Florida (Gainesville) and his master's and doctoral degrees at the University of Toronto, in 1933, 1934, and 1937, respectively. The title of his PhD dissertation, "An Approach to the Measurement of Individual Differences in Personality," forecast his creative exploration of quantitative methods during the remainder of his life. These explorations of innovative analytic methods are the subject of many articles and his posthumous book: Pattern-Analytic Clustering: Theory, Methods, Research, and Configural Findings, (1987). Added to his many other activities were roles in the American Psychological Association. He served on the Council of Representatives, 1960-1962; Board of Professional Affairs, 1960-1962; and Education and Training Board, 1965-1968. He also served as president of Division 5, 1964-1965. In 1960-1961, Lou was president of the Michigan Psychological Association. The innovative, challenging contributions that McQuitty made to the area of methodology remain to be assimilated and evaluated. He sought to produce quantitative methods to support a scientific rather than an intuitive approach to the study of personality. Whatever form the incorporation takes, he should receive credit for his pioneering contributions and for the perseverance he showed in his self-chosen assignment, to which he was so deeply committed. With Lou's death, psychology has lost a strong contributor and valued colleague. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inappropriate helping behavior and its impact on the identified patient.

Presents an integrative approach to understanding and treating inappropriate helping relationships that can be applied both to the professional field (known as "helping syndrome") and to the marital and family environment ("contributors"). Examples illustrate typical colluding behaviors related to alcoholism, depression, and psychosomatic disorders. Psychodynamic perspectives are reviewed to describe the helper's personality and his/her underlying shortcomings. However, perspectives that focus solely on the individual are viewed as limited and incomplete. Systems theory contributes communicational and interpersonal knowledge. A resultant synthesis is proposed as an alternative. Situational, interactional, and intrapersonal influences on helping behavior are integrated within a transtheoretical framework. A questionnaire is included to facilitate exploration on maladaptive helping behavior. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Where the 'Stars' are: The 25 most cited psychologists in Canada": Corrections.

Reports an error in "Where the "stars" are: The 25 most cited psychologists in Canada (1972–1976)" by Norman S. Endler (Canadian Psychological Review, 1979[Jan], Vol 20[1], 12-21). Several corrections should be noted. The corrections are as follows: 1) in Table 1, the subheadings "1975 1974 1973 1972" were improperly aligned with the columns, and Kimura's 1976 citation rank should have been 3 instead of 2; 2) in Table 2, the number 1 calling attention to footnote 1 was omitted from the title; 3) in Table 3, an additional heading "Citations" should have appeared over the columns "1975 1974 1973 1972" on the same line as "Publications;" 4) in Table 3, the probability levels should have read '*p 1980-01842-001) and Endler et al's 1978 American Psychologist article (Vol. 33, pages 1064-1082). CPR also extends apologies to Professors Endler, Melzack and Tulving for typographical errors in the spelling of their names as follows: on the front cover, Professor Endler's middle initial should have been listed as S; on page 16, in the last paragraph, in the left hand column, Melzack's name was misspelled; on page 19, in the second paragraph in the right column, Tulving's name was misspelled. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1980-28686-001.) The Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) for 1972-1976 was used as a data source for citation counts, which reflect scholarly impact, and publication counts reflecting productivity, for the 25 most cited psychologists ("stars") for 1972-1976. These 25 "stars" are located primarily at Ontario Universities and McGill and received their graduate training primarily at McGill, Yale, Harvard or the big 10 mid-western universities. Their major research areas appear to be cognitive processes, memory and verbal learning, personality theory and assessment, social processes and physiological psychology. Most of them are in their 40s or 50s, five of them are past presidents of CPA, three of them are currently departmental chairmen, and two are former departmental chairmen. Despite the limitations of the SSCI citation count, it appears to be the best single indicator of research quality and scholarly impact on the field of academic psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Obituary: Daniel J. Levinson (1920–1994).

Memoralizes the life of D. Levinson as the originator of the theory of individual life structure. His dissertation on the measurement of ethnocentrism was followed by his book, The Authoritarian Personality which was the most widely acclaimed social science work of its time. Levinson follwowed up his authoritarian studies with further research on personality, shifting his attention to the role of personality and organizational contexts. During the final era of Levinson's academic career he made a radical change in research direction to the study of the adult portion of the life cycle. His Seasons of a Man's Life became the scholarly anchor of a new preoccupation in western societies with problems of creative work and creative loving after youth. Immediately following this publication, he began a companion study of women documented in The Seasons of a Woman's Life (in press). Despite Levinson's wide range of interests and his influence, there is a consistent focus to his work: that of "person-in-world." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Social Relations Model test of Sullivan's anxiety hypothesis.

Interpersonal relationships and mutual influence are important aspects of both personality and behavior. However, empirical tests of mutual influence in anxiety have not occurred because of difficulties in design and assessment. In this report, we present a study of two training groups of graduate students and a study of an outpatient psychotherapy group. In both studies relationship-specific variance was significant and accounted for a substantial proportion of the systematic variance. In the training groups, there were also significant individual differences in experienced anxiety. These studies support the importance of relationships in anxiety but not Sullivan's hypothesis of the exclusive interpersonal nature of anxiety (Sullivan, 1964). The results address Endler and Magnusson's (1976a, 1976b) interactional approach to anxiety by assessing dynamic interaction rather than mechanistic interaction. In addition, these studies extend the use of the Social Relations Model to a new area, anxiety, and demonstrate its use in separating relationship-specific adjustments in anxiety from individual differences in anxiety. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Research strategies toward a conception of positive mental health.

Problem areas in the field of science for a concept of mental health and the question of how research may be brought to advance our understanding of optimal human functioning are considered. Major sections are: Some Conceptual Difficulties with "Mental Health," The Frontal Assault, The Multiple Criterion Approach, Fundamental Research in Personality, and Systems Theory as a Frame of Reference. "The systems framework as a way of thinking ties mental health to our most general conceptions of personality in a schema that permits or, better, requires elaboration by research… . Mental health… is complex and not easily schematized." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Education for research in psychology.

A report of a seminar held at Estes Park, Colorado, July 28-August 22, 1958, sponsored by the Education and Training Board of the American Psychological Association. The purpose of the seminar was "to provide information which would aid institutions giving graduate degrees in psychology in examining and improving their programs for training research men." Major sections are: (a) How Research Gets Done; (b) Formal Aspects of Graduate Training (Statistics, Other Tool Subjects, Breadth of Scholarship, Role of Theory in Research, Standardization), (c) Development of the Individual (Selection, Motivation, Apprenticeship); (d) Summing Up. Research is "learned by doing and taught mainly by contagion. Research must first be going on if there is to be research training… . Apprenticeship is, we believe, the most important part of education for research in psychology; the professor who hires a graduate student as a research assistant takes on the primary teaching responsibility for that student, a responsibility which both he and his department must recognize." Opposition is expressed to standardizing training programs for research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Max Weber's disease. Research on the disease and therapeutic management at the turn of the century

This article on the German economist and sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920) continues our pathographic and psychohistoric studies on the interrelations between his life, his illness, and his work on "Protestantic Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism". In a former paper (Frommer u. Frommer, 1993) we focussed on Weber's definition of modern society as an "iron cage" determined by Western rationalism. His theory, which shows that this cultural background demands a great amount of role conformity from the individual, converges with current psychopathological approaches on the personality of depressed patients. In the second article we report on results of our research on further personal documents, and some medical certificates by Weber's physicians. These documents demonstrate the diagnosis of a severe depression in a narcisstic and hypernomic personality.     

From the editor.

The author discusses his mixed emotions regarding the end of his second term as Editor of Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice. He expresses appreciation to colleagues and shares his perceptions of the exceptional vigor and preciousness of this publication. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A "contingent-item" method for constructing a short personality questionnaire.

A brief, face-valid personality test was devised to be used as a limited range screening mode to locate general problem areas and the degree to which an individual is operating under "stress" in his daily life. The test uses a novel double-question method in which the 2nd question elaborates the answer to the 1st and is contingent upon it. This format is intended to encourage candidness on the part of the respondent and to enhance the power of the individual item. Criterion analyses and reliability indicate that the test and/or item form may prove useful in personality assessment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A revised psychoanalytic conception of schizophrenia: An interdisciplinary update.

The psychoanalytic conception and treatment of schizophrenia is in need of fundamental revision because of (a) refinements in nosology which have separated out the borderline and affective disorders with which it had formerly been confused; (b) the development of newer psychoanalytic schools; and (c) the impact of various aspects of neurobiological research, the putative outcome of which seems to confirm that many, if not most, schizophrenics begin with a hereditary and/or congenital vulnerability to life and are disadvantaged in how they experience life, not only emotionally, but also neuroperceptually, neurocognitively, and neurobehaviorally. This contribution seeks to put schizophrenia and psychoanalysis in an interdisciplinary perspective by assigning the concept of disorders of psychical meaningfulness to the neurotic portion of the schizophrenic personality and of psychical meaninglessness to the psychotic portion of the personality. Whereas all psychoanalytic schools traditionally employ models that address meaningfulness, I suggest the employment of a newer model to deal with schizophrenia as a "disorder of self-regulation" (of meaninglessness), the latter being the neurobiological contribution. To the former I should like also to append the concept of a "disorder of interactional regulation" as its interpersonal complement in the sense of psychosocial, object relations, and systems theory interactions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Similarity and complementarity with the A-B scale in verbal conditioning.

Attempted to test the A-B "complementarity" hypothesis. It was predicted that dyadic groups composed of dissimilar A-B pairs would perform better than dyadic groups composed of similar pairs. 40 male undergraduates and 4 male senior-class Es were studied in a verbal conditioning task because of its long-established acceptance as a technique for the testing of interactional personality and therapy variables. In that paradigm, however, a "similarity" hypothesis has been suggested as a possible explanation of "therapeutic effectiveness." A-type Ss conditioned significantly better than B-type Ss regardless of any other factor. Bs decreased their use of the reinforced response class over trials to a degree that was almost significant. The present findings, although not supporting an interactional explanation, support studies that have shown A types to be more facile and active verbally, and to be more sensitive to social cues, than Bs. (15 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reported anxiousness and two types of stimulus incongruity.

Investigated the the effects of 2 kinds of stimulus incongruity (surprise and nonconfirmation) on reported anxiety. Surprise incongruity involves receiving an unexpected stimulus, and nonconfirmation incongruity involves not receiving an expected stimulus. Reported anxiety was measured by a form of N. S. Endler, J. M. Hunt, and A. J. Rosenstein's (see 38:2) Stimulus Response (S-R) Inventory of Anxiousness. 4 groups of 10 female undergraduates, each, (equated for initial anxiousness) were subjected to 1 of 4 levels of surprise incongruity (high, moderate, low, control) and to 1 of 2 levels of nonconfirmation incongruity (high, 0). All groups were tested in a "listening to a tape" situation. Mean reported anxiety was greater for the high- than for the low-surprise incongruity groups (p     

Review of Motivation and personality.

Reviews the book, Motivation and personality by A. H. Maslow (1954). As indicated in the preface, "this book was started during the years 1935-1936 and was intended to be a systematic psychology of the older type." Thirteen of the eighteen chapters appeared as separate articles although the author did have an over-all plan into which these separates did fit. There have been only slight changes in the chapters in the preparation of this publication because the author felt that his thinking has "stood up very well." The opening chapter has as its thesis the importance of taking into account the scientist as well as the science, and is followed by a second chapter with a related theme. The third chapter, titled "Holistic-Dynamic Theory in the Study of Personality" is described by the author as being "already somewhat dated." The fourth chapter is titled "Preface to Motivation Theory" and presents some vital concepts such as treating the individual as a whole. In the following chapter, "A Theory of Human Motivation," the author makes the point that "The organism is dominated and its behavior organized by unsatisfied needs." This chapter is followed by one in which the author re-evaluates the instinct theory. Subsequent chapters discuss love and self-actualization. The reviewer reports that overall, the general style of the book as a whole is pleasant in its personal quality and sincerity. It is easy to see how as individual articles, the sections could have been interesting points of departure for discussion, but the assembling of these does not result in an integrated approach nor the "systematic psychology" which the author mentions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Identification with paternal attributes and its relationship to the son's personality and drug use.

The purpose of this study was to examine the main and interactional effects of paternal identification on a son's personality and drug use. An Identification Index of degree of father–son personality similarity was generated by comparing the independent responses of 228 father–son dyads to a set of personality scales reflecting major dimensions of personality functioning. Results indicated that identification by itself was not highly correlated with the son's personality and drug use. However, identification as an interactional variable (in a statistical sense) combined with paternal traits to have an effect on the son's personality. More specifically, youngsters who identified with fathers who have positive traits were more likely to possess these traits themselves. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Correction to Schut et al. (2005).

Reports an error in "Therapist Interpretation, Patient-Therapist Interpersonal Process, and Outcome in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy for Avoidant Personality Disorder" by Alexander J. Schut, Louis G. Castonguay, Kelly M. Flanagan, Alissa S. Yamasaki, Jacques P. Barber, Jamie D. Bedics and Tracey L. Smith (Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 2005 Win, Vol 42(4), 494-511). The correct legend for Figure 1 on page 500 should read as follows: Figure 1. The SASB circumplex model, cluster version, interpersonal surfaces. Adapted from Benjamin (1993), Interpersonal diagnosis and treatment of personality disorders. New York: Guilford Press, copyright Guilford Press, and from: Benjamin (1987), Use of the SASB dimensional model to develop treatment plans for personality disorders, I: Narcissism. Journal of Personality Disorders, 1, 43-70, copyright Guilford Press. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2006-03309-008.) The authors examined the link between interpretive techniques, the therapeutic relationship, and outcome in psychodynamic psychotherapy. Two independent teams of judges each coded one early session from patients diagnosed with avoidant personality disorder. Results revealed (a) an inverse association between concentration of interpretation and favorable patient outcome; (b) that small amounts of disaffiliative patient-therapist transactions before, during, and after interpretations were reliably or meaningfully associated with negative patient change; and (c) concentration of interpretation was positively associated with disaffiliative therapy process before and during interpretation and negatively associated with affiliative patient responses to interpretation. The results suggest that therapists who persisted with interpretations had more hostile interactions with patients and had patients who reacted with less warmth than therapists who used interpretations more judiciously. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

2003 Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in the Application of Psychology.

Presents the 2003 American Psychological Foundation's Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in the Application of Psychology, which was presented to Charles D. Spielberger. A biography of Spielberger is provided, along with a selected bibliography and the text of the award citation: "For his contributions to theory and research on stress, anxiety, anger, depression, and curiosity, and the effects of these emotional states and personality traits on learning, academic performance, and cardiovascular disorders. Charles Spielberger has developed measures for assessing emotions, personality, and occupational stress that are widely used around the world. His professional achievements include diplomate status in clinical and assessment psychology and recognition as a Distinguished Practitioner of the National Academies of Practice. His numerous leadership roles include serving as president of the International Association of Applied Psychology, the Society for Personality Assessment, the Stress and Anxiety Research Society, the 100th president of the American Psychological Association, and as chair of the National Council of Scientific Society Presidents." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of amount of possession of the trait of hostility on accuracy of perception of hostility in others.

Some theories of personality hold that an individual's perception of others is influenced by his own personality characteristics; more specifically, that a trait of low social value will be projected more into others, and that insight into the possession of these characteristics reduces this distortion. These 2 hypotheses were tested by having a group of college students rate each other (including themselves) on degree of friendliness or hostility. Agreement with group rating about self yielded the insight score. In general, the hypotheses were supported; the "friendly" Ss were most accurate in their perception of others, and insight was positively associated with accurate perception. From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4HL16M. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)