A Solution to the Mental Health Problem?

Discusses other solutions to the mental health problem other than increasing the number of psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers. At the author's state supported adult outpatient clinic, they have modified the operation of their clinic to make an approach to this problem by utilizing a resource group of those who are already in a position to foster the psychological health of others, such as ministers, physicians, and teachers. The authors discuss the implementation of this philosophy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Are there still indications for cerclage in 1995?

AIM: In order to assess their undertook a retrospective study in their department over a 4 year period: from January 1991 to December 1994. METHOD: the study concerned 129 patients who were treated by cerclage. This procedure was performed prophylactically in the great majority of them (97), while it was carried out as an emergency in 32 (25%). RESULTS: the authors drew a distinction between two groups (prophylactic and emergency suture) when analyzing the various results: complications due to suture, mean age of pregnancy at delivery, threatened premature labor, mean length of prolongation obtained. These personal data formed the basis of a review of the literature, in order to specify the indications for suture adopted by various authors at the present time. CONCLUSION: the authors found themselves to be in agreement with data from the literature, considering a history of at least two obstetric accidents (late abortions) and/or the existence of a severe uterine malformation to be the principal indication for prophylactic suture. "Emergency" suture should be performed whenever there is a serious threat of early premature labor in the presence of cervical changes such that suture offers the only chance of prolonging the pregnancy.     

Are Deicing Salts Necessary to Promote Scaling in Concrete?

The main purpose of the present study is to investigate the role of the material parameters such as permeability, thermal diffusivity, and pore size distribution on the mechanical behavior of cementitious structures submitted to frost action, such as surface scaling. An experimental device, in which a cement paste specimen is exposed to freezing-thawing cycles under a thermal gradient, has been developed. The experimental results show that under high thermal gradient (up to 1.5°C/mm), skin damage can occur without a saline layer in contact with the frozen surface. This can be explained and quantified in the framework of poromechanics. The model is based on the coupling between liquid-ice crystal thermodynamic equilibrium, liquid water transport, thermal conduction, and elastic properties of the different phases that form the saturated porous material. It eventually predicts that a less permeable sample is more susceptible to damage by surface defacement, which explains the observed experimental result.     

Deceptive packaging: Are the deceivers being deceived?

To investigate the effects of deceptive packaging, sample packages of potato chips containing various amounts were distributed to consumers who purchased a regular pack of the same brand. The only difference between the sample and the purchased pack was in terms of quantity of chips with the sample packs having various deficits. Preference data were obtained via a follow-up interview. The analyses of the questionnaire data indicated that: (a) consumers did not perceive weight differences between packs, (b) all indices of consumer preference favored the free pack when the two were of equal weight, and (c) all indices showed a marked decrease in preference for the experimental pack as the contents of the experimental packs were decreased. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Are there "autistic-like" features in congenitally blind children?

Reduced levels of serum albumin concentration, a routine blood test, within the "normal" range have been reported to be associated with mortality risk. The literature is reviewed, with a focus on cohort studies meeting specified criteria, and findings are summarized. In studies of many populations, comprising healthy subjects and patients with acute or chronic illness, serum albumin concentration is inversely related to mortality risk in a graded manner over its entire range; the estimated increase in the odds of death ranges from 24% to 56% for each 2.5 g/l decrement in serum albumin concentration. The association predicts overall and cause-specific mortality including cardiovascular mortality. It is likely that albumin concentration is a highly sensitive indicator of preclinical disease and disease severity. A direct protective effect of the albumin molecule is suggested by the persistence of the association after adjustment for other known risk factors and preexisting illness, and after exclusion of early mortality. Although biologically plausible, there is no direct evidence for this hypothesis. Serum albumin concentration is an independent predictor of mortality risk and could be useful in the quantification of risk in a broad range of clinical and research settings.     

Patterns of adolescents' participation in organized activities: Are sports best when combined with other activities?

Although many adolescents participate in sports and other types of organized activities, little extant research explores how youth development outcomes may vary for youth involved in different combinations of activities. The present study uses the Child Development Supplement of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, a large, nationally representative sample, to compare activity patterns of adolescents ages 10–18 years (n = 1,711). A cluster analytic technique revealed 5 activity clusters: sports-focused, sports plus other activities, primarily school-based activities, primarily religious youth groups, and low activity involvement. Activity patterns were examined in conjunction with 5 categories of youth development outcomes, including competence (e.g., academic ability), confidence (e.g., self-concept of ability), connections (e.g., talking with friends), character (e.g., externalizing behavior problems), and caring (e.g., prosocial behavior). Results showed that those who participated only in sports had more positive outcomes compared with those who had little or no involvement in organized activities, but less positive outcomes compared with those who participated in sports plus other activities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Forced-choice: Are forensic interviewers asking the right questions?

In spite of exhortations to the contrary, forensic interviewers typically ask forced-choice questions, especially yes/ no and multiple-choice. In this study, older (4.8–5.1 yrs) and younger (3.2–4.4 yrs) preschoolers' responses to yes/ no and multiple choice questions were compared. For yes/no questions, half were correctly answered by "yes" and half by 'no." For 2-option multiple-choice questions, the first option was correct for a third of them, the second option was correct for another third, and neither option was correct for the remainder. Both older and younger preschoolers demonstrated a response bias toward saying "yes" to yes/no questions; they did not exhibit response biases for multiple-choice questions, choosing the two given options equivalently often. When neither option was correct, they more frequently said "I don't know", especially younger preschoolers. "I don't know" was almost never given in response to yes/ no questions. Furthermore, instructions allowing "I don't know" had no effect. These results have implications for forensic interviews; they suggest that responses to yes/ no questions are more unreliable and information from them more suspect than responses to multiple-choice questions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Young and older emotional faces: Are there age group differences in expression identification and memory?

Studies have found that older compared with young adults are less able to identify facial expressions and have worse memory for negative than for positive faces, but those studies have used only young faces. Studies finding that both age groups are more accurate at recognizing faces of their own than other ages have used mostly neutral faces. Thus, age differences in processing faces may not extend to older faces, and preferential memory for own age faces may not extend to emotional faces. To investigate these possibilities, young and older participants viewed young and older faces presented either with happy, angry, or neutral expressions; participants identified the expressions displayed and then completed a surprise face recognition task. Older compared with young participants were less able to identify expressions of angry young and older faces and (based on participants’ categorizations) remembered angry faces less well than happy faces. There was no evidence of an own age bias in memory, but self-reported frequency of contact with young and older adults and awareness of own emotions played a role in expression identification of and memory for young and older faces. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Are we there yet? Stasis and progress in forensic psychology.

Progress in forensic psychology has been rapid in some areas and nonexistent in others. By contrasting technological and conceptual scientific progress in three areas--the legal disposition of mentally ill offenders, risk appraisal, and theories of individual differences in antisocial behaviour--I attempt to identify some determinants of progress. Conceptual progress appears to depend even more heavily than technological progress on developments in the more advanced sciences, supporting the idea that consilience plays a vital heuristic role in psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Are there cognitive subtypes in adult attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder?

There has been increasing knowledge of the treatment, diagnosis, and demographics of adults with residual attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, less is known about the neuropsychological functioning in adults with residual ADHD. In comparing the clinical neuropsychological test performance of a group of adult clinic patients with residual ADHD (N = 30) with that of normal controls (N = 10), we found the patients performed worse on the Trail Making Test, a visual continuous performance test, and the "Brown-Peterson" Auditory Consonant Trigrams Test, but not on any other neuropsychological measures. This pattern indicated a deficit in the area of executive control type functioning, a functional deficit that could be linked to dysregulation of frontal lobe brain systems. Of equal interest was that patients diagnosed with ADHD/hyperactive impulsive type (ADHD+) and patients diagnosed with ADHD/inattentive type (ADHD-) had different types of executive system deficits. ADHD+ was associated with relative deficiency on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. ADHD- was associated with relative deficiency on the "Brown-Peterson" Auditory Consonant Trigrams Test, a measure of working memory, as well as less olfactory identification on a smell identification test. The data are discussed in terms of recent localization theories of frontal lobe function. The preliminary data suggest that the different cognitive weaknesses of ADD subtypes may be linked to dysregulation of separate frontal brain regions and/or neurotransmitter systems.     

Are exaggerated health complaints continuous or categorical? A taxometric analysis of the Health Problem Overstatement Scale.

A taxometric analysis of 3 factor scales extracted from the Health Problem Overstatement (HPO) scale of the Psychological Screening Inventory (PSI; R. I. Lanyon, 1970, 1978) was performed on the data from 1,240 forensic and psychiatric patients. Mean above minus below a cut, maximum covariance, and latent-mode factor analyses produced results indicative of dimensional latent structure for the exaggerated health complaints construct. The outcome of this and several other recent taxometric investigations indicates that across 3 different domains of feigning (i.e., psychiatric symptoms, memory problems, and health complaints), the overall feigning construct is ordered continuously along 1 or more dimensions rather than partitioned into discrete categories of malingerers and nonmalingerers. These findings call for more research on the extent to which the different domains of feigning share 1 or more dimensions in common. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Therapists' attributions for client premature termination: Are they self-serving?

We conducted two studies of therapist responses to client premature termination from psychotherapy. In Study 1, we surveyed therapists' attributions for client premature termination from therapy using an open response format. Results suggested that therapists showed a self-serving pattern in their attributions (i.e., attributed causality to the client or environment) when considering their own clients compared to when they considered the premature terminations of clients in general. Study 2 was a vignette study in which therapists responded to one of two client presentations that varied relationship to client (your client vs. other's client). Using the attributional categories derived from Study 1, therapists rated the likelihood that each attribution caused the client's premature termination. Again, patterns across groups indicated that therapists are self-serving in their attributions for client premature termination. In addition, differences were found across gender and theoretical orientation; larger effects were found for men compared to women, and psychoanalytic therapists compared to cognitive–behavioral. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivation and dietary self-care in adults with diabetes: Are self-efficacy and autonomous self-regulation complementary or competing constructs?

This study examined constructs drawn from social-cognitive theory (A. Bandura, 1986) and self-determination theory (E. L. Deci & R. M. Ryan, 1985, 1991) in relation to dietary self-care and life satisfaction among 638 individuals with diabetes. A motivational model of diabetes dietary self-care was proposed, which postulates direct links between self-efficacy/autonomous self-regulation, and adherence/ life satisfaction. Structural equation modeling showed that both self-efficacy and autonomous self-regulation were associated with adherence (βs?=?.54 and .21, respectively) and with life satisfaction (βs?=?.15 and .34, respectively). Constraint analyses confirmed that self-efficacy was significantly more associated with adherence, whereas autonomous self-regulation was significantly more associated with life satisfaction. According to the model, interventions for dietary self-care and life satisfaction should focus on increasing self-efficacy and autonomous self-regulation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Feeling "holier than thou": Are self-serving assessments produced by errors in self- or social prediction?

People typically believe they are more likely to engage in selfless, kind, and generous behaviors than their peers, a result that is both logically and statistically suspect. However, this oft-documented tendency presents an important ambiguity. Do people feel "holier than thou" because they harbor overly cynical views of their peers (but accurate impressions of themselves) or overly charitable views of themselves (and accurate impressions of their peers)? Four studies suggested it was the latter. Participants consistently overestimated the likelihood that they would act in generous or selfless ways, whereas their predictions of others were considerably more accurate. Two final studies suggest this divergence in accuracy arises, in part, because people are unwilling to consult population base rates when predicting their own behavior but use this diagnostic information more readily when predicting others'. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Case History: Are Lectures and Discussion Methods Mutually Exclusive?

This report concerns the conduct of a one-semester course bearing the title, History and Systems of Psychology, at Southwestern at Memphis in the fall terms of 1954, '55, '56, and '57. Due to discouraging results when the course was presented in a seminar format, the author incorporated a discussion method in lessons presented. Role playing and reversing the order of topic presentation (i.e., beginning with contemporary theory and working backwards in history) were teaching methods also utilized. The author notes that the mean grade went up about a full point following the 1954 session and has remained at that level. Comprehensive examinations convey the general impression that their writers are better able to deal with theory in general as well as with the contents of this course in particular. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Are they really that happy? Exploring scale recalibration in estimates of well-being.

Objective: The authors addressed a lingering concern in research on hedonic adaptation to adverse circumstances. This research typically relies on self-report measures of well-being, which are subjective and depend on the standards that people use in making judgments. The authors employed a novel method to test for, and rule out, such scale recalibration in self-reports of well-being. Design: The authors asked patients with chronic illness (either lung disease or diabetes) and nonpatients to evaluate quality of life (QoL) for the patients' disease. In addition, the authors also asked them to rank and rate the aversiveness of a diverse set of adverse circumstances, allowing examination of both the numerical ratings and ordering among items. Main Outcome Measures: The authors compared patients' and nonpatients' ratings and rankings for the patients' disease and other conditions. Results and Conclusion: The authors found that patients not only assigned higher numerical QoL ratings to their own disease than did nonpatients but also ranked it higher among the broad set of conditions. These results suggest that scale recalibration cannot account for discrepant QoL ratings between patients and nonpatients. More generally, this study presents a new approach for measuring well-being that is not subject to the problem of scale recalibration. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Are memberships in race, ethnicity, and gender categories merely surface characteristics?

Comments on Deep-level diversity and leadership (see record 2010-24768-017) by Kristen M. Klein and Mo Wang. In the special issue on Diversity and Leadership (April 2010), the authors made a strong case for the importance of diversity in workplace leadership, rejected premature declarations that workplace discrimination is obsolete, and called for leadership theories that acknowledge and promote the value of diversity. We suggest that researchers could better predict and increase leader effectiveness by explicitly addressing deep-level characteristics in theory and practice. By promoting surface-level diversity in leadership opportunities and deep-level similarities in leadership training, it is conceivable that organizations could counter adverse impact in leader selection while also improving organizational outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Leadership selection in social dilemmas—Not all prefer it: The moderating effect of social value orientation.

The present study investigated the effect of social value orientation and group efficiency on contribution behavior and preferences for a variety of leader types in a situation where personal and collective interests were at odds (i.e., a public goods dilemma). Participants were asked to imagine that they were participating in a public goods dilemma, and their social value orientation (i.e., preexisting differences in evaluating outcomes between oneself and others) was assessed. The results revealed that people concerned with issues such as fairness and efficiency (i.e., pro-socials) more often contributed their own endowment, and, under circumstances of group failure, they exhibited a stronger preference for a leader than people who were mainly concerned with their personal self-interest (i.e., pro-selfs). Moreover, pro-socials also exhibited a stronger preference for responsible and efficient leaders than pro-selfs. The results are discussed in terms of leadership and social value orientation theories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting patients' responses to psychotherapy: Are some more predictable than others?

Patient profiling predicts improvement across psychotherapy sessions on the basis of intake clinical characteristics. Patients completed questionnaires before their 1st session and at other points during treatment. After using hierarchical linear modeling to calculate expected courses of improvement, 1/2 of the sample was divided into 1 of 2 groups: those whose treatment responses across sessions matched or exceeded their expected courses (75% of the sample) and those whose responses failed to match expectations. A discriminant function analysis indicated that the groups could be differentiated on the basis of intake characteristics; that is, patients with higher discriminant scores were more likely than those with low discriminant scores to have responded to psychotherapy as predicted. Successful cross-validation of the predictor weights was performed with the other 1/2 of the sample. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)