Reasons for staying alive when you are thinking of killing yourself: The Reasons for Living Inventory.

65 adults generated 72 distinct reasons for not committing suicide; these were reduced to 48 by factor analyses performed on 2 additional samples, and the items were arranged into the Reasons for Living Inventory (RFL), which requires a rating of how important each reason would be for living if suicide were contemplated. In addition, factor analyses indicated 6 primary reasons for living: Survival and Coping Beliefs, Responsibility to Family, Child-Related Concerns, Fear of Suicide, Fear of Social Disapproval, and Moral Objections. The RFL was then given to 2 additional samples, 197 Seattle shoppers (mean age 36 yrs) and 175 psychiatric inpatients (mean age 31 yrs). Both samples were divided into several suicidal (ideators and parasuicides) and nonsuicidal groups. Separate multivariate ANOVAs indicated that the RFL differentiated suicidal from nonsuicidal Ss in both samples. In the shopping-center sample, the Fear of Suicide scale further differentiated between previous ideators and previous parasuicides. In the clinical sample, the Child-Related Concerns scales differentiated between current suicide ideators and current parasuicides. In both samples, the Survival and Coping, the Responsibility to Family, and the Child-Related Concerns scales were most useful in differentiating the groups. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of conceptual level and structure on initial interview behavior.

Assessed the impact of the conceptual level matching model within a counseling situation. A 2–3 randomized block design was used to compare the effects of matching counselee conceptual level (CL) to counselor-offered degree of structure in a 40-min initial interview analogue. Two treatment levels of counselor structure (low and high) were crossed with 2 blocks of undergraduates (24 low-CLs and 24 high-CLs) and 2 interviewers. It was predicted that matched persons (low CL, high structure; high CL, low structure) would respond better than mismatched persons (low CL, low structure; high CL, high structure). The high-CL matching predictions recieved a significant degree of support in expressions of self-awareness and satisfaction. The low-CL matching predictions received a significant degree of support in the areas of satisfaction and ratings of counselor helpfulness. Use of different behavioral outcomes and a flexible counseling style are stressed. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How children learn to listen: The effects of modeling feedback styles on children's performance in referential communication.

48 kindergartners and 48 2nd graders participated as listeners in a referential communication task with an adult speaker. Ss were presented with sets of 4 pictures and asked to choose the referent on the basis of a speaker's message. The messages were either adequate or ambiguous, describing 2 of the 4 possible referents. Ss were instructed to ask questions if they needed more information. Prior to these trials, Ss were exposed to 1 of 3 modeling conditions in which they viewed an adult listener responding to ambiguous messages by asking either general questions, specific questions, or specific questions accompanied by an explanation of the underlying strategy. A 4th group received no modeling. Although each of the modeling groups was successful in increasing the frequency of the modeled question, older Ss benefited more from modeling than younger children. Age differences suggested that the effectiveness of modeling interacted with children's existing cognitive abilities. Auxiliary evidence pointed to the role of information processing in children's abilities to deal with ambiguous communications as listeners. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting substance abuse among youth with, or at high risk for, HIV.

This article describes data from 4,111 males and 4,085 females participating in 10 HIV/AIDS service demonstration projects. The sample was diverse in age, gender, ethnicity, HIV status, and risk for HIV transmission. Logistic regression was used to determine the attributes that best predict substance abuse. Males who were younger, HIV positive; homeless; involved in the criminal justice system; had a sexually transmitted disease (STD); engaged in survival sex; and participated in risky sex with men, women, and drug injectors were most likely to have a substance abuse history. For females, the same predictors were significant, with the exception of having an STD. Odds ratios as high as 6 to 1 were associated with the predictors. Information about sexual and other risk factors also was highly predictive of substance abuse issues among youth. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The importance of frameworks for directing empirical questions: Reply to Goodie and Fantino (2000).

A. S. Goodie and E. Fantino (see record 2000-16324-004) make two main criticisms of the predictions of M. C. Lovett and C. D. Schunn's (see record 1999-05245-001) RCCL model. (RCCL is pronounced 'ReCyCLe;" it stands for Represent the task, Construct a set of action strategies, Choose from among those strategies according to success rate, Learn new success rates.) In both cases, the authors believe the criticisms reflect a failure to appreciate the difference between broad frameworks and specific mathematical/computational models. In this article, the value of a broad framework, such as RCCL, in directing new empirical analyses and guiding theoretical development is shown. In particular, RCCL expands on existing work to reveal how variability and change in mental representations influence base-rate sensitivity. The authors also address several other issues raised by A. S. Goodie and E. Fantino (2000) and show that qualitative shifts in individuals' choice behavior are present in their original data—a key prediction of RCCL that does not appear in previous accounts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Convergence of two systems for assessing specific traits of personality disorder.

Two samples of normal-range individuals (N?=?237) completed the Schedule for Nonadaptive and Adaptive Personality (L. A. Clark, 1993a) and the Dimensional Assessment of Personality Pathology—Basic Questionnaire (W. J. Livesley & D. Jackson, in press), each of which assesses traits relevant to personality disorder. Convergence between the 2 instruments was examined at both the level of broad factors and the level of specific scales that had been matched previously on a conceptual basis (L. A. Clark & W. J. Livesley, 1994). Four of 5 higher order factors resembled dimensions of the 5-factor approach to personality, and a strong convergent and discriminant pattern was found between matched scales of the 2 instruments. Moreover, considerable specific trait variance remained after nonspecific (higher order) variance was accounted for. The results are interpreted as supporting a replicable structure of maladaptive personality traits at both levels of the hierarchy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive functioning in young "social drinkers": Is there impairment to detect?

Literature on the cognitive effects of nonexcessive alcohol use suggests that relatively high-quantity-per-occasion use may be related to subsequent decreases in sober-state abstracting skills in adults, but provides no clear prediction for youth. The need to identify persistent alcohol-intake effects on cognition is particularly acute for the period of adolescence and young adulthood because even slight damage may impair developmentally significant skills. We examine the relation between multiple measures of neuropsychological status and both continuous and categorical measures of alcohol-use patterns in an age- and sex-stratified sample of 1,308 18-, 21-, and 24-year-olds. The results of correlational and hierarchical regression analyses suggest that cognitive performance bears little direct relation to drinking behaviors in young nonclinical males and females. Although the data provide no strong support for the hypothesis of a causal relationship between alcohol use and cognitive functioning, there is a slight suggestion that frequent high-quantity consumption may become a salient parameter of use as subjects age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fear of success and locus of control in young women.

Administered Rotter's Internal-External Control Scale and M. Horner's incomplete story lead designed to evoke achievement anxieties to 108 female undergraduates. The motive to avoid success was significantly positively associated with external control scores. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Characterizing image quality in a scanning laser ophthalmoscope with differing pinholes and induced scattered light

We quantify the effects on scanning laser ophthalmoscope image quality of controlled amounts of scattered light, confocal pinhole diameter, and age. Optical volumes through the optic nerve head were recorded for a range of pinhole sizes in 12 subjects (19-64 years). The usefulness of various overall metrics in quantifying the changes in fundus image quality is assessed. For registered and averaged images, we calculated signal-to-noise ratio, entropy, and acutance. Entropy was best able to distinguish differing image quality. The optimum confocal pinhole diameter was found to be 50 microm (on the retina), providing improved axial resolution and image quality under all conditions.