Attributions and relapse in opiate addicts.

Investigated whether attributions of opiate addicts would predict both their ability to abstain from future use and their reactions to abstinence violations. Measures of generalized beliefs about responsibility for positive and negative outcomes and specific attributions about relapse episodes were elicited from 80 addicts at the time of admission for inpatient detoxification and treatment. Addicts who at admission attributed to themselves greater responsibility for negative outcomes and who attributed relapse episodes to more personally controllable factors were subsequently (at 6-mo follow-up) more likely either to be completely abstinent or to contain the effects of temporary lapses into opiate use. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An intercomparison of bio-optical techniques for detecting dominant phytoplankton size class from satellite remote sensing

Satellite remote sensing of ocean colour is the only method currently available for synoptically measuring wide-area properties of ocean ecosystems, such as phytoplankton chlorophyll biomass. Recently, a variety of bio-optical and ecological methods have been established that use satellite data to identify and differentiate between either phytoplankton functional types (PFTs) or phytoplankton size classes (PSCs). In this study, several of these techniques were evaluated against in situ observations to determine their ability to detect dominant phytoplankton size classes (micro-, nano- and picoplankton). The techniques are applied to a 10-year ocean-colour data series from the SeaWiFS satellite sensor and compared with in situ data (6504 samples) from a variety of locations in the global ocean. Results show that spectral-response, ecological and abundance-based approaches can all perform with similar accuracy. Detection of microplankton and picoplankton were generally better than detection of nanoplankton. Abundance-based approaches were shown to provide better spatial retrieval of PSCs. Individual model performance varied according to PSC, input satellite data sources and in situ validation data types. Uncertainty in the comparison procedure and data sources was considered. Improved availability of in situ observations would aid ongoing research in this field.     

Chemicals on the menu for EPMA's General Assembly

The European Commission continues with its efforts to introduce expensive new legislation that could have a profound effect on the PM industry, but there are some faint signs that its members may be thinking again…     

"Attribution and expressed emotion in the relatives of patients with schizophrenia": Correction to Brewin, MacCarthy, Duda, and Vaughn (1991).

Reports an error in "Attribution and expressed emotion in the relatives of patients with schizophrenia" by Chris R. Brewin, Brigid MacCarthy, Karin Duda and Christine E. Vaughn (Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1991[Nov], Vol 100[4], 546-554). An incorrect sentence was published. The sentence that ends the fourth paragraph on p. 547 ought to read: A more recent onset of illness would be expected to produce more unstable attributions, and more disturbed behavior (particularly involving violence toward the relative) would be expected to produce attributions that were more internal and personal to the patient but more external and uncontrollable as regards the relative. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1992-12907-001.) Indexes of expressed emotion (EE) in 58 relatives of patients with schizophrenia were related to those relatives' spontaneously expressed causal beliefs about the illness and about related symptoms and behaviors. Relatives made attributions predominantly to factors external, universal, and uncontrollable from their own perspective, and to factors internal, universal, and uncontrollable from the patient's perspective. Low-EE relatives were similar in their attributions to emotionally overinvolved relatives. Compared with these 2 groups, critical and/or hostile relatives made more attributions to factors personal to and controllable by the patient. Subsequent analyses suggested that hostile relatives were further characterized by making more attributions to factors internal to the patient and by making attributions with fewer causal elements. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Water quality management: A regional perspective— The severn-trent area

The management of water quality in U.K. rivers is going through a period of major change due to the proposed reorganization of the water industry and to the increasing demands on river resources and the imposition of stricter environmental standards. Changes to the river classification scheme and effluent consent conditions are discussed. A brief summary is given of some of the quality problems that are of particular concern in the Severn-Trent area. The impact on quality of river regulation including in-river purification lakes is described. Catchment models have been developed to assist with the management of river resources. These and other river quality modelling techniques are reviewed.     

Cognition and social adversity in the depressed elderly.

This study investigated the cognitive patterns and social circumstances of the depressed elderly. Compared to elderly nondepressed controls, the depressed elderly reported more negative thoughts, hopelessness, and dysfunctional attitudes. Although severe life events were more common in the depressed group, social adversity was unrelated to scores on these cognitive measures. Furthermore, when compared with findings using younger adults, our results suggest that the age of the depressed person has little effect on cognitions in general, with the possible exception of automatic thoughts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Repressive coping and the directed forgetting of emotional material.

Using a directed forgetting task, the authors tested in 2 experiments the hypothesis that repressors would be superior to controls in forgetting negative experimental material. Consistent with previous studies, there was an overall directed forgetting effect, with significantly more to-be-remembered material recalled than to-be-forgotten (TBF) material. In both experiments, repressors forgot more negatively valenced words in the TBF set than did nonrepressors, suggesting that repressors have an enhanced capability for using retrieval inhibition. The data offer preliminary support for a cognitive account of repressors' deficits in recalling negative autobiographical memories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recall of early experience and the repressive coping style.

Investigated recall of early experience and the repressive coping style by testing hypotheses concerning restricted access to negative childhood memories and eliciting accounts of quality of parenting received. Ss were 37 undergraduate women (aged 18–38 yrs). Repressors free recalled fewer negative childhood memories than nonrepressors, and the age of 1st negative memory for repressors was older both in free recall and cued recall. Repressors also took longer to retrieve negative childhood memories but not positive memories. Repressors' accounts of their childhoods were more likely to be characterized by paternal antipathy and indifference, and they were less likely to report an emotionally or physically close relationship with their fathers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)