Social contract and social integration in adolescent development.

Administered a questionnaire to 89 Ss from 2 high schools during the spring of their sophomore and senior years, when their mean ages were 16 yrs 1 mo and 18 yrs 1 mo, respectively. Composites measured social contract with independence; implicit social contract, societal norms, and expectations; and explicit social contracts and rules. Composites and single items measured social integration with role commitment, accepting the belief in the American dream that hard work leads to social success, belief that hard work produces personal satisfaction and success, perceptions of being treated unfairly, self-blame, and feelings of hopelessness. Results of the cross-lagged panel correlations generally support the hypothesis that students respond to implicit social contracts through role commitment, which is further expressed by a belief in the American dream for social fulfillment, while responding to the perception of explicit social contrasts by not believing in the benefits of the American dream for personal fulfillment. Results support the theory of moral development held by R. A. Dienstbier et al (see record 1981-29601-001). (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On mood variation and memory: Reply to Isen (1985), Ellis (1985), and Mayer and Bower (1985).

Responds to comments by A. M. Isen (see record 1986-13663-001); H. C. Ellis (see record 1986-13654-001); and J. D. Mayer and G. M. Bower (see record 1986-13675-001) on the present authors' (see record 1986-03061-001) findings that (a) depressed college students showed no overall deficit in recall performance and (b) depressed students failed to show selective recall for mood-congruent (negative) events in a story. Issues considered included performance deficits in depression, selectivity effects in memory, the possibility that affective traits rather than mood states were assessed, and potential reactions to the mood questionnaires. Evidence is presented that the Beck Depression Inventory is not a mild mood-induction procedure. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Tight glycemic control in critical care--the leading role of insulin sensitivity and patient variability: a review and model-based analysis

Tight glycemic control (TGC) has emerged as a major research focus in critical care due to its potential to simultaneously reduce both mortality and costs. However, repeating initial successful TGC trials that reduced mortality and other outcomes has proven difficult with more failures than successes. Hence, there has been growing debate over the necessity of TGC, its goals, the risk of severe hypoglycemia, and target cohorts.This paper provides a review of TGC via new analyses of data from several clinical trials, including SPRINT, Glucontrol and a recent NICU study. It thus provides both a review of the problem and major background factors driving it, as well as a novel model-based analysis designed to examine these dynamics from a new perspective. Using these clinical results and analysis, the goal is to develop new insights that shed greater light on the leading factors that make TGC difficult and inconsistent, as well as the requirements they thus impose on the design and implementation of TGC protocols.A model-based analysis of insulin sensitivity using data from three different critical care units, comprising over 75,000 h of clinical data, is used to analyse variability in metabolic dynamics using a clinically validated model-based insulin sensitivity metric (S_I). Variation in S_I provides a new interpretation and explanation for the variable results seen (across cohorts and studies) in applying TGC. In particular, significant intra- and inter-patient variability in insulin resistance (1/S_I) is seen be a major confounder that makes TGC difficult over diverse cohorts, yielding variable results over many published studies and protocols. Further factors that exacerbate this variability in glycemic outcome are found to include measurement frequency and whether a protocol is blind to carbohydrate administration.     

Genetics, the Big Five, and the tendency to be self-employed.

We applied multivariate genetics techniques to a sample of 3,412 monozygotic and dizygotic twins from the United Kingdom and 1,300 monozygotic and dizygotic twins from the United States to examine whether genetic factors account for part of the covariance between the Big Five personality characteristics and the tendency to be an entrepreneur. We found that common genes influenced the phenotypic correlations between only Extraversion and Openness to Experience and the tendency to be an entrepreneur. Although the phenotypic correlations between the personality characteristics and the tendency to be an entrepreneur were small in size, genetic factors accounted for most of them. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Refining behavioral dysregulation in borderline personality disorder using a sample of women with anorexia nervosa.

One of the primary facets of borderline personality disorder (BPD) is behavioral dysregulation, a wide array of behaviors that are difficult to control and harmful to the individual. The purpose of this study was to explore the association between BPD and a variety of dysregulated behaviors, some of which have received little empirical attention. Using a large sample of individuals diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, 41 individuals diagnosed with BPD were compared to the rest of the sample on the presence of dysregulated behaviors using logistic regression analyses. Anorexia nervosa subtypes, age, and other Cluster B personality disorders were used as covariates. Results support an association between BPD and alcohol misuse, hitting someone/breaking things, provoking fights/arguments, self-injury, overdosing, street drug use, binge-eating, impulsive spending, shoplifting/stealing, and risky sexual behaviors. Differences between dichotomous and continuous measures of BPD yielded somewhat different results. Information on co-occurring anorexia nervosa and BPD was generated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Near-death experiences: Out of body and out of mind?

Comments on the original article, Implications of near-death experiences for a post-materialist psychology, by B. Greyson (see record 2010-03251-005). Greyson (2010) has argued that complex consciousness (i.e., near-death experiences, or NDEs) under conditions such as cardiac arrest and general anesthesia challenge “materialist reductionism” and require a revised psychology anchored in 21st-century quantum physics that includes consciousness in its conceptual formulation. Unfortunately, Greyson fails to specify how quantum mechanics or a holistic approach can (a) enlighten our understanding of NDEs and (b) pave a foundation for a “new scientific conceptualization of the interface between mind and brain (Greyson, 2010, p. 43).” We agree with Greyson that NDEs are fascinating phenomena, and we further recognize that quantum mechanics undergirds chemistry, and so surely plays some as-yet- undefined role in mental processes. However, we sharply disagree that it is necessary to “expand models of the mind” on the basis of quantum mechanics “before we can progress in our understanding of consciousness and the brain (Greyson, 2010, p. 43).” We do not wish to duel with Greyson regarding if and when the brain is “completely disabled” during NDEs, but instead argue that the future is bright for understanding NDEs in terms of the everyday workings of the brain, and suggest important avenues of inquiry. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Viewing another person's eye movements improves identification of pulmonary nodules in chest x-ray inspection.

Double reading of chest x-rays is often used to ensure that fewer abnormalities are missed, but very little is known about how the search behavior of others affects observer performance. A series of experiments investigated whether radiographers benefit from knowing where another person looked for pulmonary nodules, and whether the expertise of the model providing the search behavior was a contributing factor. Experiment 1 compared the diagnostic performance of novice and experienced radiographers examining chest x-rays and found that both groups performed better when shown the search behavior of either a novice radiographer or an expert radiologist. Experiment 2 established that benefits in performance only arose when the eye movements shown were related to the search for nodules; however, only the novices' diagnostic performance consistently improved when shown the expert's search behavior. Experiment 3 reexamined the contribution of task, image, and the expertise of the model underlying this benefit. Consistent with Experiment 1, novice radiographers were better at identifying nodules when shown either a na?ve's search behavior or an expert radiologist's search behavior, but they demonstrated no improvement when shown a na?ve model not searching for nodules. Our results suggest that although the benefits of this form of attentional guidance may be short-lived, novices can scaffold their decisions based on the search behavior of others. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The stability of working memory: Do previous tasks influence complex span?

Schmeichel (2007) reported that performing an initial task before completing a working memory span task can lower span scores and suggested that the effect was due to depleted cognitive resources. We showed that the detrimental effect of prior tasks depends on a match between the stimuli used in the span task and the preceding task. A task requiring participants to ignore words reduced performance on a subsequent word-based verbal span task but not on an arrow-based spatial span task. Ignoring arrows had the opposite pattern of effects: reducing performance on the spatial span task but not on the word-based span task. Finally, we showed that antisaccade, a nonverbal task that taxes domain-general processes implicated in working memory, did not influence subsequent performance of either a verbal or a spatial span task. Together these results suggest that while span is sensitive to prior tasks, that sensitivity does not stem from depleted resources. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prelase stabilization of the polarization state and frequency of a Q-switched, diode-pumped, Nd:YAG laser

We present an experimental investigation of the energy statistics of the linear polarization components of pulses from a Nd:YAG laser that is repetitively Q-switched with an acousto-optic modulator. Varying the modulator-induced diffraction losses leads to changes in the pulse polarization state and the energy statistics of the polarization components. For conventional Q-switching there is no laser oscillation during the low-Q intervals, and we find that the orthogonal components of the pulses can display large relative energy fluctuations even though the total pulse energy is quite stable. In the prelase mode, a weak continuous-wave background seeds the Q-switched pulses and results in the emission of highly linearly polarized, single-longitudinal-mode pulses with small relative energy fluctuations.