Concurrent validity of the internalizing and externalizing profile patterns of the Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist.

Explored the concurrent validity of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), using 163 6–11 yr old consecutive referrals to a child psychiatry outpatient department. Ss were administered a battery of psychological tests aimed at measuring cognitive (short form of the WISC—R and the Wide Range Achievement Test), personality (the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale for Children and a measure of egocentrism), and social functioning (Piers-Harris Self-Concept Scale and a measure of coping). Using the computerized classification of the CBCL, Ss in the optimal range and those with mixed profiles and high and low scores were determined. Parent and teacher ratings of pathology and competence were also obtained. Results indicate that CBCL internalizers were favored on a number of measures of adaptation when compared with CBCL externalizers, which is consistent with a wider literature on internalizing–externalizing syndrome types indicating that internalizers are generally more competent than are externalizers. (11 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Discriminating externalizing from internalizing emotionally disturbed children with the Ottawa School Behaviour Checklist.

Examined the Ottawa School Behaviour Checklist responses of 73 latency-aged (mean age = 10 yrs) emotionally disturbed children to determine whether the checklist is equally effective in detecting children who experience various types of emotional difficulties. Results indicate that Ss using externalizing methods of coping scored higher than internalizing Ss. High scores are supposed to indicate more severe disturbance. Internalizing and externalizing styles were determined by independent psychiatric assessment. Discriminate function analyses were used to isolate those items that distinguished both externalizers from internalizers and psychotic from nonpsychotic Ss. Results indicate that the Ottawa School Behaviour Checklist item pool is more effective in screening emotionally disturbed troublesome children than in detecting equally disturbed troubled children. (French summary) (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Externalization in perceptual defense.

2 group of Ss (male undergraduate psychology students) were selected on the degree to which they tend to externalize or internalize responsibility for actions (as measured by a specially developed scale). Ss were asked to respond to tachistoscopically presented stimulus words, shown under varying conditions of illumination and under 2 experimental conditions (defined by instructions identifying the words as having been abstracted from one of 2 kinds of conversations: an impersonal source, participating in research on patterns of language; vs. sailor, delinquents, and college failures). Differential reactivity was noted only when the set was for obscenity, violence, and failure; under these conditions, externalizers showed greater group mean consistency in threshold for disagreeable words, i.e., they neither reacted with sensitization (low) or inhibition (high) thresholds; not so with internalizers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Facial expressions of emotion and psychopathology in adolescent boys.

On the basis of the widespread belief that emotions underpin psychological adjustment, the authors tested 3 predicted relations between externalizing problems and anger, internalizing problems and fear and sadness, and the absence of externalizing problems and social–moral emotion (embarrassment). Seventy adolescent boys were classified into 1 of 4 comparison groups on the basis of teacher reports using a behavior problem checklist: internalizers, externalizers, mixed (both internalizers and externalizers), and nondisordered boys. The authors coded the facial expressions of emotion shown by the boys during a structured social interaction. Results supported the 3 hypotheses: (a) Externalizing adolescents showed increased facial expressions of anger, (b) on 1 measure internalizing adolescents showed increased facial expressions of fear, and (c) the absence of externalizing problems (or nondisordered classification) was related to increased displays of embarrassment. Discussion focused on the relations of these findings to hypotheses concerning the role of impulse control in antisocial behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A new look at vigilance and defense.

2 hypotheses were tested: (a) "Threatening tachistocopic stimuli are recognized at thresholds both higher and lower than thresholds for matched control words. The extent of deviation is related to degree of anxiety induced by the threat"; and (b) "When the associated anxiety is removed, then threshold deviations diminish. The degree of reduction is related to the decrease in anxiety." 22 adults of mixed sexes served as Ss. 2 matched lists of words were presented in an anagram-solving exercise. One list was constructed to produce failure. When all words were presented tachistoscopically for a second time, it was found that anxiety aroused by the failure correlated significantly with the absolute difference between recognition thresholds for failure and control words. This relationship persisted even after the artificial nature of the anxiety had been explained. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Response to cutaneous pain in mental hospital patients.

Conducted an experiment to determine how warmth detection thresholds (WDTs), pain thresholds (PTs), and pain tolerance thresholds (PTOs) to radiant heat differed between groups of process schizophrenics (G2), reactive schizophrenics (G3), nonschizophrenic (G4), and normal (G1) S groups. 15 males from each of these categories served as Ss. The manipulated independent variable was skin temperature. The dependent variables were verbal reports of WDT, PT, PTO, and pupillary response. G1 and G3 Ss had significantly lower mean PTs and PTOs than G2 Ss. Significantly fewer G2 and G3 Ss than G1 and G4 Ss reported PT and PTO. The mean pupillary responses of G2 Ss were significantly smaller than those of G1 and G3 Ss at WDT, PT, and PTO. It is concluded that (a) chronic institutionalized psychiatric patients display weaker reactions to potentially harmful stimuli, and (b) a dissociation between autonomic and verbal responses may occur in process schizophrenics at higher than moderate levels of noxious stimulation. (43 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive controls and aggression in children: The concept of cognitive–affective balance.

160 6–15 yr old psychiatric patients (97 males, 63 females) were assigned to high- or low-aggression groups on the basis of their performance on the Miniature Situations Test. The majority of Ss were diagnosed as having attention deficit, conduct, and anxiety disorders; the remaining Ss were diagnosed as having borderline or psychotic disorders. The groups (along with age and sex variables) were compared with 2 tests of the leveling/sharpening cognitive control—one presenting nonaggressive stimuli and the other stimuli that aroused aggressive fantasies/affects. High-aggression Ss showed more cognitive sharpening when managing aggressive stimuli and more leveling with nonaggressive stimuli. A significant interaction with sex was also observed. Findings support the concept of cognitive–affective balance (i.e., the unique manner in which personalities coordinate and meet both the requirements of external stimuli/tasks and those of fantasies/affects). Results are discussed in terms of aggression as a personality characteristic and whether psychosexual identity and sex are syntonic. The concept of cognitive–affective balance is related to other models addressing the relationship between cognition and personality/emotions. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An experimental and theoretical analysis of perceptual defense.

"An experiment was presented that attempted to test the behavior theory model. In one group of Ss the response strengths for 10 word responses were increased by manipulating the frequency and recency of prior occurrence of these words. A second group of Ss received comparable recency and frequency experience with these 10 words, but here the experimental arrangement was such as to permit the assumption that these words would also become conditioned stimuli for anxiety. It was predicted that the variables of frequency and recency of prior exposure would lower the perceptual recognition thresholds for the experienced words, but this reduction in thresholds would be less in the second group due to the anxiety conditioned to these words. The results of the experiment confirmed these predictions." 29 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Time perception and conflict arousal in schizophrenia.

The hypothesis that schizophrenics would exhibit greater distortion in estimation of duration time for stimuli relevant to their major conflicts than for other stimuli was investigated. 3 groups, each with 16 Ss who were homogeneous with respect to experiencing primary conflicts with either aggression, sex, or dependency, were formed. A factorial Latin square design was used in which Ss estimated stimuli durations following the tachistoscopic presentation at 4 exposure times of 4 pictorial stimuli, 1 of which represented their major conflict area. Results demonstrated that greatest distortions occurred for conflict pictures at the .001 level. Distortion elicitation of the aggression stimulus was greater than other stimuli at .001 for the combined schizophrenics, an effect not found with normal control Ss. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Approach and avoidance responses of the hysterical personality to sexual stimuli.

Administered a paired-associates learning task and a visual recognition task to 32 female hysterical personalities and 32 nonhysterical personalities. Both tasks included neutral and sexual material. 1/2 the Ss in each group performed under sexually "seductive" conditions, the other 1/2 under neutral conditions. Results showed that (1) hysterics learned sexual material quickly under neutral conditions but relatively slowly under sexual conditions; (2) hysterics had a relatively low visual recognition threshold for sexual words under neutral conditions and a relatively high threshold under sexual conditions; and (3) these threshold differences were maximized when sexual stimuli referred to the self. It was concluded that the characteristic behavior of the hysteric was consistent with an approach-avoidance conflict involving sexual motives and behavior. (19 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The affiliation motive and perceptual sensitivity to faces.

An attempt was made to predict from imaginative measures of the affiliation motive the frequency with which S selects human faces from similar but nonhuman figures in a perceptual task. The Ss were 93 male undergraduates who responded to pictures with imaginative stories scored for n Affiliation. A month later they were introduced to the perceptual task which required that they state which of 4 figures flashed on a screen was clearest, all stimuli being below the recognition threshold. On each trial 1 of the 4 stimuli was a face and the others were similar but affiliation-neutral. Ss high in n Affiliation recognized faces significantly more frequently than those low in n Affiliation. Thus, the predicted relationship between motivation and the perceptual selection of motive-relevant stimuli was supported. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Locus of control and social desirability.

Hypothesized that there would be a negative correlation between the Edward's Social Desirability Scale and Rotter's Internal-External Control Scale. 102 army mental health clinic outpatients, 218 army stockade prisoners, 99 alcoholic inpatients, and 48 new careers participants were administered both tests. All correlations were negative, ranging from -.7 to -.29, and were significant at the .025 level or greater. It is suggested that since internalizers feel that they have some control over reinforcements, they may try to influence the dispensers of these reinforcers by behaving in socially acceptable ways, while externalizers, who feel they have no control over reinforcements, may not be so motivated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Thermal thresholds of the rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta).

Measured thresholds to warming and cooling stimuli presented on the shaved skin of the inner thigh of 2 young male rhesus monkeys by the conditioned suppression method after the skin had been preadapted to 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 38, and 40. C temperatures. Thresholds to warming stimuli decreased from .14 to .02. C, while thresholds to cooling stimuli increased from .05 to .28. C as the adapting temperature was increased from 28 to 40. C. In comparison to human thresholds, the Ss were more sensitive to changes in stimulator temperature at all adapting temperatures except to cooling at a 40. C adapting temperature. Data suggest that the Ss were able to discriminate between warming and cooling stimuli and that they responded to a change in sensation at the extreme adapting temperatures rather than to the quality of the sensation-warm or cool. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interhemispheric interaction when both hemispheres have access to the same stimulus information.

Right-handed Ss identified consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) nonsense syllables presented tachistoscopically. The CVC on each trial was presented to the left visual field-right hemisphere (LVF-RH), to the right visual field-left hemisphere (RVF-LH), or the same CVC was presented to both visual fields ( bilateral presentation). When recognition was incorrect, the pattern of errors was qualitatively different on LVF-RH and RVF-LH trials, suggesting that each cerebral hemisphere has its own preferred mode of processing the CVC stimuli. The qualitative pattern of errors on bilateral trials was identical to that obtained on LVF-RH trials. The bilateral results are described well by a model that assumes the mode of processing characteristic of the RH dominates on bilateral trials but is applied to both the LVF-RH and RVF-LH stimuli. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The social and academic competence of children vulnerable to schizophrenia and other behavior pathologies.

Presents the rationale behind and the initial findings from a research project investigating the competence of children vulnerable to psychopathology. 4 target groups were studied: (a) children with schizophrenic mothers, (b) children with internalizing mothers, (c) externalizing children, and (d) internalizing children. R. Achenbach's internalizing-externalizing classification system was used. Each of the 120 target children (mean age = 10) was placed in an experimental trial with 120 matched and 116 randomly-selected controls. Judgments of social and intellectual competence were made by peers and teachers in 113 classrooms in 37 elementary schools. Results are presented for each sex separately at the trial and target-group levels. Overall, externalizers were judged least competent, followed in order of increasing competence by children of schizophrenic mothers, internalizers, childern of internalizing mothers, and controls. (16 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Empirical test of the "levels" hypothesis with five projective techniques.

Tested the "levels" hypothesis that there is an inverse relationship between the degree of stimulus structure in a test and the level of personality impulse-control system being tapped by the test, for 20 normal and 20 psychiatric Ss. As predicted, an inverse relationship between pathology and stimulus structure over 5 tests (from low-high structure Draw-a-Person, Rorschach, TAT, Rotter Incomplete Sentence Blank, and Bender-Gestalt) was found for normals. Contrary to hypothesis, no such relationship appeared for psychiatric Ss. Other hypotheses that psychiatric Ss manifest more projection and more pathology than normals, and that there is a significant correlation between pathology and projection for every test for each group were confirmed. A new theory of projection of pathology as a function of the stimulus structure of tests is proposed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

School-based service utilization among urban children with early onset educational and mental health problems: The squeaky wheel phenomenon.

Although elementary schools provide an opportunity for early identification and treatment of academic and psychological problems, relatively little is known about the types of symptoms being addressed in schools. Latent profile analysis on data from 678 urban first graders yielded 3 classes of children: nonsymptomatic (NS), internalizers and average performers (IAP), and externalizers and low performers (ELP), with different combinations of symptoms. Survival analyses conducted on the children's use of services (in Grades 1-9) indicated that students in the ELP class received mental health and special education services faster than those in the NS class, whereas IAP children were no more likely than NS children to receive services. Findings suggest that staff may be more sensitive to early educational and externalizing problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship between levels of arousal and responsiveness among schizophrenic and normal subjects.

Hypothesized that tonic arousal level, as measured by the basal skin resistance level, would be an important parameter influencing psychophysiological responsiveness to discrete stimuli. 32 schizophrenic Ss and 32 normal Ss were divided into subgroups on the basis of their resting skin resistance levels. Ss were then given 30 mild, discrete auditory stimuli, and their psychogalvanic responsiveness was assessed. The parameter of tonic arousal level accounted for the majority of variability, while psychiatric status was a negligible factor. In general, Ss manifesting high tonic arousal responded more rapidly, with more GSRs to discrete tone stimuli, with more nonspecific GSRs, and with greater amplitude of change than did Ss with low tonic arousal. Results of other studies are discussed within the framework of these findings, and it is suggested that controlling for this parameter may serve to reduce heterogenity of results in future research. (46 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of cross-modal recognition in infant pigtail monkeys (Macaca nemestrina).

Examined the development of cross-modal recognition in 48 infant pigtail monkeys in 2 studies by using an adaptation of the visual preference technique. Ss were first familiarized orally with pacifiers of 1 of 2 shapes and were then tested on corresponding visual stimuli. In a cross-sectional experiment (Exp I), Ss under 200 days postconception at test (approximately 4 postnatal weeks) showed a visual preference for the orally familiar stimuli, which provided evidence for cross-modal recognition. Ss over 200 days postconception at test showed a visual preference for 1 of the test stimuli, which made their data uninterpretable with respect to cross-modal abilities. In a longitudinal experiment (Exp II), Ss were tested once when they were younger than 200 days postconception and once when they were older. When young, they showed a visual preference for the orally familiar stimuli. When older, they showed a visual preference for the same test stimuli found for the cross-sectional Ss. Results are discussed relative to human infant cross-modal data obtained by similar procedures. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Integration of visual patterns in schizophrenics.

In an earlier study (see record 1979-26172-001), the present authors found poor prognosis schizophrenics deficient in integrating sentences into a single idea. The present study explored their ability to integrate in a less complex task that used visual patterns. 60 male psychiatric inpatients (schizophrenic or nonpsychotic) and 15 controls (mean age, approximately 32 yrs) completed the Shipley-Institute of Living Scale. They were then presented a series of letterlike forms that were transformations of each other. After initial presentation, Ss were given an incidental recognition test. All Ss remembered the stimuli in an integrated fashion. This demonstrates that schizophrenics are capable of the complex organization of disparate stimuli even when that organization is not specifically required. It is suggested that abstraction of the basic meaning of simple visual stimuli is intact in schizophrenics, but that processing of complex event information in either verbal or visual stimuli is deficient in poor prognosis schizophrenics. (49 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)