Continual association as a function of level of creativity and type of verbal stimulus.

Continual word association was studied as a function of Remote Associates Test (RAT) performance, form class, associative hierarchy, and Thorndike-Lorge word frequency. Ss were selected as high creative (HC), low creative (LC), and medium creative (MC) on the basis of their RAT scores. It was found that HC Ss give the greatest number of associations and maintain a relatively higher speed of association throughout a 2-min. period. More responses were elicited by nouns than adjectives, flat hierarchy words than steep, and high frequency words than low. The S and stimulus variable did not interact. Relevance to an associative theory of creative thinking is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interaction between birth complications and early maternal rejection in predisposing individuals to adult violence: specificity to serious, early-onset violence

OBJECTIVE: The authors previously reported that birth complications interact with early maternal rejection in predisposing individuals to violence at age 18 years. This study extended the follow-up period for violent offending from 18 years to 34 years, thus increasing the sample of violent offenders threefold and allowing more detailed analyses on onset and type of violence, the form of maternal rejection, and the effect of maternal mental illness. METHOD: Complications in the births of 4,269 males in Denmark, maternal rejection of these individuals before the age of 1 year, and their histories of criminal offenses at age 34 years were assessed. RESULTS: The biosocial interaction previously observed held for violent but not nonviolent crime, was specific to more serious forms of violence and not threats of violence, held for early-onset but not late-onset violence, and was not accounted for by psychiatric illness in the mothers. Being reared in a public care institution in the first year of life and the mother's attempt to abort the fetus were the key aspects of maternal rejection that interacted with birth complications in predisposing a subject to violence. CONCLUSIONS: These findings 1) indicate that the mechanisms underlying early-onset, serious violence differ from those for less serious, late-onset violence, 2) implicate very early factors in the development of violence, 3) highlight the potential importance of integrating psychosocial with biological factors in understanding and preventing violence, and 4) suggest that interventions to reduce birth complications and maternal rejection may help reduce violence.     

The stability of inhibited/uninhibited temperament from ages 3 to 11 years in Mauritian children

Stability of inhibited/uninhibited temperament was assessed using 1,795 Mauritian children tested at ages 3, 8, and 11 years. Children were divided into uninhibited, middle, and inhibited groups at each age based on social behavior. Results indicated that, relative to uninhibited children (1) those inhibited at age 3 obtained larger inhibition scores at age 8 (p < .0001), (2) those inhibited at age 8 obtained larger inhibition scores at age 11 (p < .002), and (3) those remaining inhibited from ages 3 to 8 obtained larger inhibition scores at age 11 (p < .002). Relative to children who changed classification from ages 3 to 8, those remaining inhibited obtained larger inhibition scores (p < .05) and those remaining uninhibited obtained smaller inhibition scores (p < .015) at age 11. Inhibition scores tended to be higher in females by age 11. Results remained regardless of ethnicity. The results provide some support that inhibited/uninhibited temperament remains stable from ages 3 to 8 and may continue to age 11. The results suggest cross-cultural generalizability of these findings with implications regarding the development of anxiety disorders in the Mauritian population.     

Distortions in the gradient of stimulus generalization related to cortical brain damage and schizophrenia.

Measurement of the gradient of stimulus generalization (GSG) of 60 schizophrenics (S group), 60 medical control patients (C group), and 60 patients with cortical brain damage (O group), by means of an apparatus consisting of a panel of 11 lamps placed in an arc around the subject, showed: "(1) The GSG for both the C and S groups is considerably more elevated than that of the control group (O group). (2) The differences between the S and C groups, while in the main in the predicted direction, are not conclusive. (3) Damage to the cortex of the dominant hemisphere results in considerably more diminution of the elevation of the GSG than damage to the cortex of the non-dominant hemisphere. (4) The number of EST's received by patients in the S group was found to vary inversely with the degree of SG responsivity; but in view of the limitations of the data, no conclusions were drawn." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Schizophrenia in high-risk subjects: Prognostic maternal characteristics.

A Danish prospective, longitudinal study of 207 children (average age 15 yrs) at high risk for schizophrenia (they have schizophrenic mothers), begun in 1962, involved assessment of mothers on a number of variables. In 1972 it was found that 17 of the children of these mothers became schizophrenic. The present study sought to identify predictors of schizophrenia among antecedent maternal variables. The mothers (15 Ss) of the children who became schizophrenic (a) had psychosis precipitated by childbirth and (b) exhibited instability in their relations with men as well as antisocial behaviors. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Creativity and the need for novelty.

An experiment designed to demonstrate the reinforcing properties of associative novelty for creative Ss. 60 undergraduates were separated into high (HC) and low (LC) creativity groups on the basis of their scores on the Remote Associates Test. Ss were then presented with a series of pairs of words (each pair containing a noun and a nonnoun) and asked to choose the word they preferred. The choice of a noun was followed by a novel association to that noun. Nonnoun choices were followed by common associations. The HC group significantly increased and the LC group significantly decreased the frequency of their noun choices over the series of pairs. The results support the need for novelty hypothesis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Learning theory approach to the deterrence of criminal recidivism.

Data on punishment and criminal arrests in a total birth cohort of men in Denmark (N?=?28,879) were used to test the following hypotheses derived from learning theory: (a) the imposition of sanctions reduces rates of subsequent criminal arrest; (b) the more severe the sanction received for an arrest, the lower the rate of recidivism; (c) different types of sanctions have similar effects on recidivism; (d) the higher the proportion of sanctions received for past arrests, the lower the rates of future arrest; (e) continuous sanctions reduce arrest rates more than intermittent sanctions; and (f) discontinuation of punishment results in recovery of criminal arrests. Results support the above hypotheses, except Hypothesis b; our results suggest that sanctions have similar effects on recidivism regardless of their severity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the politics of psychological constructs: Stop the bandwagon, I want to get off.

Since the inception of the "new" era of feminist scholarship, several constructs have achieved prominence and popularity as explanations of women's behavior. These include fear of success, androgyny, and the notion of a different voice vis-à-vis moral development. It is argued that such popularity is more a political than an intellectual event. Furthermore, the case is made that genre of concepts deters rather than advances the goals of feminist psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The latent structure of schizotypy: I. Premorbid indicators of a taxon of individuals at risk for schizophrenia-spectrum disorders.

A taxometric analysis (R. R. Golden & P. E. Meehl, 1979) was conducted to test the hypotheses that liability for schizophrenia-spectrum disorders is dichotomously distributed and that this liability can be detected premorbidly with behavioral indicators analogous to many of the criteria for schizotypal personality disorder. Behaviors were assessed in 207 offspring of schizophrenic mothers and 104 matched offspring of normal parents in 1962, when participants' mean age was 15 years. Diagnoses on the basis of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd ed., rev.; American Psychiatric Association, 1987) were made in 1986–1989, when participants were nearly through the risk period for developing schizophrenia. The aggregation of indicators was consistent with a bimodal latent liability distribution. Membership in the schizotypal class was a sensitive and specific predictor of the emergence of schizophrenia-spectrum disorders in adulthood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gentic risk for schizophrenia, birthweight, and cerebral ventricular enlargement.

Recent work by Silverton, Finello, Mednick, and F. Schulsinger (1985) indicates a relation between low birthweight and cerebral ventricular enlargement, as assessed in adulthood, in a group of subjects at risk for schizophrenia. In the present study, we examined the role of low birthweight in ventricular enlargement and tested the hypothesis that low birth weight interacts with a genetic predisposition for schizophrenia in its association with enlarged ventricles. This study reports on 34 subjects of the Danish high-risk-for-schizophrenia prospective study. Birthweight, paternal schizophrenia spectrum disorder (PSSD), and an interaction term for these two variables were analyzed in a regression with ventricle-to-brain ratio (VBR) as the dependent variable. As in Silverton et al. (1985), birthweight significantly contributed to the variance in VBR. Although PSSD did not significantly contribute to the variance in VBR, there was a significant interaction effect of birthweight and PSSD on VBR. Results were discussed in terms of a diathesis-stress model of schizophrenia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)