Risk, responsibility, and structure: A conceptual framework for initiating group counseling and psychotherapy.

Presents a developmental framework for initiating group counseling and psychotherapy. On the basis of existing evidence, client risk, responsibility, and group structure are postulated as basic ingredients affecting early group development. The primary thesis is that client exposure to levels of personal risk and responsibility most conducive to group development can be regulated by group structure. The theoretical and practical implications of these observations are discussed. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Treatment of individuals in family businesses.

Reports on conflicts typical of persons involved in family businesses, including differing expectations, communication problems, confusion of roles, and inability to shift roles. Suggestions for therapeutic treatment include clarifying the lines of communication and the philosophy of corporate culture, developing techniques of handling tensions and decisions, and working out strategies of succession. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Paradigms and moral judgments: Improper conduct is not disease.

Considers that, despite the contrary claims of G. M. Crocetti, H. R. Spiro, P. V. Lemkau, and I. Siassi (see PA, Vol. 49:Issue 2), current investigations support the conclusion that the general public rejects the urgings of professionals to look upon norm violators as the victims of disease. Furthermore, there is little, if any, evidence to contradict previous conclusions that a high negative social value is declared on those labeled "mentally ill." Attempted refutations of these conclusions and of the implications girding these conclusions appear to be derived from an unrecognized submission to the disease paradigm, an overworked and no longer appropriate guide to the study of deviant behavior. (16 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Empirical tests for feature selection based on a psychological theory of character recognition

It is argued that machine algorithms based on feature detection promise the greatest chance for success in the recognition of isolated, unconstrained handprinted characters. In order to match human performance, the features used cannot be chosen in an arbitrary manner; they must have some psychological significance. A theory of characters based on functional attributes is reviewed, and three psychophysical tests are described for determining the psychological validity of any postulated attribute. The first test indicates if a particular attribute is involved in a particular letter, and the second and third tests investigate the commonality of an attribute among different letters.     

Cognitive strategies, experimenter modeling, and expectation in the attenuation of pain.

Obtained verbal reports of pain from 120 female undergraduates during a base-level pretest and also during a posttest conducted under 1 of several experimental treatments. The pain stimulus was a heavy weight applied to a finger for 2 min. During the posttest, Ss who had been asked to utilize cognitive strategies for reducing pain (i.e., to imagine pleasant events or to imagine the finger as insensitive) showed a reduction in pain as compared to uninstructed control Ss. Ss led to expect a reduction in pain, but not provided with cognitive strategies, also showed reduced pain during the posttest compared to controls, but the reduction was smaller than for Ss using cognitive strategies. An E modeling procedure, used with half of the Ss under each experimental treatment, was effective in reducing verbal reports of pain only for Ss with high pretest levels who were asked to imagine pleasant events. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

LPM bremsstrahlung and pair production probabilities in lead and water

At very high energies in dense media, the bremsstrahlung and pair production probabilities are suppressed by the Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal (LPM) effect. The corrected integral probability functions for bremsstrahlung by electrons of energy 0.1–10⁵ TeV and for pair production by photons of energy 10-10⁵ TeV are tabulated for lead and water.     

A Quantitative Model for the Ventricular Response During Atrial Fibrillation

We review the principal statistical properties of the RR interval sequence during atrial fibrillation. A simple quantitative electrophysiologic model is presented which successfully accounts for these statistical features. In this model the atrioventricular junction (AVJ) is treated as a single cell equivalent characterized by a refractory period and spontaneous rate of phase 4 depolarization. The atria are presumed to bombard the AVJ with impulses that arrive randomly in time; each impulse induces a partial depolarization of the AVJ equivalent cell. We show that other models for the ventricular response during atrial fibrillation (e. g., concealed conduction models) do not adequately account for the salient statistical features of the RR interval sequence. The present model may be utilized to characterize a sequence of RR intervals recorded from a given individual in terms of the numerical magnitudes of the model's four parameters: the mean rate at which atrial impulses bombard the AVJ, the relative amplitude of the impulses, the relative rate of spontaneous phase 4 depolarization of the AVJ equivalent cell, and the refractory period of the AVJ equivalent cell. Such a characterization may be useful in studying mechanisms of drug action and interaction, as well as potentially offering a quantitative means for optimizing pharmacologic manangement of chronic atrial fibrillation.     

The social construction of truth.

Examines the American Psychological Association (APA) Memories of Childhood Abuse report, which contains the opposing view points of 2 subgroups of the working group that produced the report, the clinicians and the researchers. The author views the Final Report of the working group as an exercise in alternative methods of truth making. In the development of his analysis, the author explains his choice of the term "truth-making" rather than "truth finding." The process of constructing truths and the possibility of resolving contrary claims to truth is discussed. The author's remarks are intended as a scaffold for an understanding of why the clinicians and the researchers could find little common ground. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)