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Center For Psychology Studies Newsletter - Spring 1997, Nova Southeastern University

Center for Psychological Studies Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Individual Differences In Response To Novelty, Amphetamine-Induced Activity And Drug Discrimination In Rats, Rick A. Bevins, J. E. Klebaur, M. T. Bardo

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Rats mere pre-tested in several individual difference screens - novelty-induced activity, novelty-induced place preference, novel-object interaction, and amphetamine-induced activity. Rats that were more sensitive to the locomotor effects of amphetamine were more active in an inescapable novel environment and displayed a greater preference for a novel environment. All animals were then trained to discriminate amphetamine (1 mg/kg) from saline in a two-bar discrimination procedure using food-maintained responding. After acquisition of the discrimination (mean =37 trials), two amphetamine generalization tests (0.0625,0.125,0.25,0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 mg/kg) were conducted. In the second generalization test, rats that were more sensitive to the activating effect …

Converging Evidence For One-Trial Context Fear Conditioning With An Immediate Shock: Importance Of Shock Potency, Rick A. Bevins, Janice E. Mcphee, Anthony S. Rauhut, John J.B. Ayres

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

In a sample of 208 Holtzman-descended albino rats, we found evidence with 4 measures of conditioning (freezing, defecation, side crossing, and nose crossing) that a single 2-s, 1.0-mA immediate shock could condition fear to a context (Experiments 1, 2, and 4). When we reduced the shock intensity to 0.5 mA, we obtained a complete immediate-shock conditioning deficit according to all measures in Experiment 3 and to all but the defecation measure in Experiment 4. Results suggest two conclusions: (a) Differences in shock potency between laboratories may help explain discrepant findings about whether immediate shock supports contextual conditioning; (b) theories of …

Influence Of Information Related To Child Physical Abuse On Professional Ratings Of Adjustment And Prognosis, Virginia M. Deroma, David J. Hansen, Amy C. Tishelman, Peter D'Amico

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The study investigates the influence of access to information of a history of physical maltreatment on the evaluative responding of social service and clinical psychology professionals. Written vignettes were used in a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design to manipulate the: (a) presence/absence of abuse history; (b) presence/absence of behavior problems; and (c) gender of the child. Professionals rated children presented in 12 case vignettes along five treatment-related dimensions: (a) overall adjustment; (b) predicted 6 month temporal stability of behavior; (c) likelihood of treatment referral; (d) expected home intervention success; and (e) expected school intervention success. Four dimensions related …

Assessment Of Nonverbal Cognitive Processes In Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Jacqueline J. Head

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

This study reviewed the literature on ADHD/ADD including a survey of the disorder, current clinical interventions and, diagnostic techniques. Data was collected comparing three groups of children (control, ADHD, ADD) on a newly developed nonverbal assessment test, the Leiter-R. The findings show that the Leiter-R resulted in significant differences in scores between the control group and the ADHD and ADD groups on twelve of the twenty subtests. This demonstrates the efficacy of the Leiter-R as an assessment tool for ADHD and ADD. Based on these findings the following tentative recommendations were proposed to assist children with ADHD and ADD. Children …

The Family Situation Of Street Youth In Latin America: A Cross-National Review , Marcela Raffaelli

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

One of the greatest social welfare challenges confronting Latin American nations is the growing number of children and adolescents seeking their survival on city streets. The presence of these apparently abandoned youngsters is not new (see Felsman, 1989; Peralta, 1992), but the number of street youths has been increasing steadily in recent years (Connolly, 1994; Durning, 1992). Although the exact numbers are disputed, most experts agree that millions of children and adolescents work and sometimes live on city streets in the developing countries of Latin America (UNICEF, 1989). In the face of what at times appears to be an insurmountable …

Attorneys' And Judges' Needs For Continuing Legal Education On Mental Disability Law: Findings From A Survey, Douglas Mossman Md, Marshall B. Kapp Jd, Mph

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Attorneys leave law school with limited knowledge and skills
concerning the issues that arise in mental disability law. Yet
psychiatrists and psychologists are appearing with increasing
frequency as witnesses in the nation's courts, and more attorneys
and judges can therefore expect to have to deal with testimony from
mental health professionals. To our knowledge, this article is the
first published assessment of practicing attorneys' and judges'
needs for continuing legal education (CLE) on mental disability
issues.

The 267 Dayton-area attorneys and 41 southwestern Ohio judges
who responded to our mailed survey said that one-seventh of their
cases raise issues related …

Childhood Physical Or Sexual Abuse As A Possible Indicator Of Subsequent Adult Anxiety Disorders, Lynn Merry Cornwell

Graduate Research Papers

In recent years, there has been a growing acceptance that childhood physical and sexual abuse lead to higher rates of psychiatric morbidity in adulthood. Childhood abuse experiences have been reported to be highly prevalent among patients with anxiety disorders. Similarly, childhood incest victims have been found to suffer from a significantly higher rate of anxiety disorders in adulthood especially agoraphobia, than a non-victimized, matched comparison group. Epidemiology studies also support a relationship between childhood abuse and the subsequent development of anxiety disorders. Two separate community surveys found that childhood sexual victimization predicted the later onset of agoraphobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and …

An Analysis Of Critical Thinking At A Liberal Arts College, Amy Goebel

Honors Theses, 1963-2015

This study investigated the differences among first-year, sophomore, junior, and senior college students in critical thinking skills and dispositions as measured by the California Critical Thinking Skills Test and the California Critical Thinking dispositions Inventory. Tests were administered to college students from a small, private institution in a rural area of the Midwest enrolled in general education courses with a majority being first-year and senior students. Consistent with the hypothesis, critical thinking skills and dispositions differed significantly between first-year, sophomore, junior, and senior students. Scores on the two tests were significantly correlated with each other, and scores on the skills …

Managing Depression In General Practice In Pakistan: Do We Need To Re-Invent The Wheel?, Hashim Reza, Murad M. Khan

Department of Psychiatry

No abstract provided.

The Law And Psychiatry Wars, 1960-1980, Sheldon Gelman

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

The chapter of the book excerpted below examines litigation developments from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. In law no less than in psychiatry, professional judgments produced anomalous results and professional processes worked in unexpected ways when it came to medications. These departures advanced a public mental health vision that was functionally the same as psychiatrists', even if couched in utterly different and more legalistic terms. Psychiatrists hailed medications as a medical revolution; lawyers by and large ignored the drugs. Yet, both professions reached the same general conclusions about what should be done.Commentators at the time saw an emerging …

Authoritarianism And American Students' Attitudes About The Gulf War, 1990–1996, Richard M. Doty, Bill E. Peterson, Markus Kemmelmeier

Psychology: Faculty Publications

Studies with several different groups of students over the period from October 1990 to spring 1996 show a consistent set of relationships between right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and aggressive support for U.S. policy during the Persian Gulf crisis and Gulf War Before the war, high-RWA scorers endorsed more aggressive responses (including the use of nuclear weapons) to hypothetical Iraqi actions. After the war, they expressed relatively more gloating and less regret and, in retrospect, endorsed more aggressive hypothetical U.S. policies. Overall, their opinions tended to be low in complexity, high in certainty, and brief.

Authoritarianism And Gender Roles: Toward A Psychological Analysis Of Hegemonic Relationships, Lauren Duncan, Bill E. Peterson, David G. Winter

Psychology: Faculty Publications

The authors examined the relationship between authoritarianism and gender-role identity, attitudes, and behaviors. Using Altemeyer's Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) Scale, they found that high scores on authoritarianism were related to traditional gender-role identity and attitudes, rating political events concerning women as less important, and rating feminists and women as having relatively more power and influence in society. Authoritarianism was also related to the expression of anti-abortion views in essays and using arguments based on conventional morality, submission to authority, and punitiveness toward women seeking abortions. Finally, high scores on authoritarianism were related to participating in pro-life rallies and not participating in …

The P System: A Scheme For Organizing Pavlovian Procedures, Jose E. Burgos, Rick A. Bevins

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The present paper introduces the P system as a scheme for organizing Pavlovian procedures in an orderly and comprehensive manner. The system is defined by three temporal variables and three restrictions on their possible values. It can be used to define all standard temporal variables—namely, stimulus duration, interstimulus interval, trace interval, and intertrial interval—as well as variables C and T of scalar expectancy theory. The system also permits the definition of new independent variables through combinations of the basic temporal parameters. We exemplify this possibility by defining two ratios of temporal intervals. These ratios lead to a space where traditional …

Autobiographical Misremembering: John Dean Is Not Alone, Robert F. Belli, Howard Schuman, Benita Jackson

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Survey respondents were asked to provide knowledge responses to public events and names that occurred as long ago as the 1930s and as recently as the 1980s. Respondents made errors that reflect the use of semantic and lexical memory systems, and reconstructive processes based on a semantic theme. Errors, as well as correct responses, are affected by whether the events originally occurred during the transition phase (early teens to mid-twenties). Responses indicate that events that occur during the transition phase are remembered better than events that occur during other life phases (in contradiction to the differential sampling hypothesis), but that …

Psychiatric Outcomes In Low Birthweight Children At Age Six: Relation To Neonatal Cranial Ultrasound Abnormalities, Agnes H. Whitaker, Ronan Van Rossem, Judy F. Feldman, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Jennifer A. Pinto-Martin, Carolyn Torre, David Shaffer, Nigel Paneth

Publications and Research

Examined the relation of neonatal cranial ultrasonography abnormalities to later psychiatric disorder in 564 low birth weight children (aged 5.2–8.7 yrs). Psychiatric diagnoses were assessed by means of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children–Parent version, and detailed information was collected on other predictors and outcomes. Results show that 454 Ss had no cranial abnormalities, 78 had germinal matrix hemorrhage (GMH) and/or intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH), and 32 had a parenchymal lesion (PL) or ventricular enlargement (VE). 22% of the Ss had at least 1 psychiatric disorder, the most common being attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Isolated GMH/IVH did not increase …

Two Treatment Approaches For Young Children With Autism : Common Ground?, Jodi Suzanne Bronson

Graduate Research Papers

Students with autism display extreme difficulties with communication skills, social interactions, and often engage in restrictive and repetitive patterns of behavior (DSM-IV, 1994 ). As a result of these behaviors, and the often comorbid mental retardation, students with autism have many complex educational needs.

This paper will provide a complete literature review of the historic development of autism, possible etiologies of autism, and current diagnostic criteria. In addition, specifically the literature regarding one current behavioral approach to intervention, the Lovaas Method, and one method of antecedent controlled intervention, the TEACCH model will be reviewed. Additionally, research on other successful interventions …

A Comprehensive Review Of Treatment Options For Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Kristin Vanderah

Graduate Research Papers

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), a disorder affecting between 3 and 5 percent of school-age children, manifests as a combination of three core skill deficits: inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. The deficits have been found to present children with many difficulties in both home and school settings. Thus, comprehensive treatment for individuals with ADHD is of paramount importance to their development and their academic and social experiences. The content of this paper is comprised of a review of the recent research that has been published regarding the three major theoretical orientations of ADHD interventions (pharmacological, behavioral, and multimodal treatment). All of …

Minor Physical Anomalies: Modifiers Of Environmental Risk For Psychopathology, Daniel S. Pine, David Shaffer, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Mark Davies

Publications and Research

Tested the hypothesis that minor physical anomalies (MPAs) modify an adolescent's vulnerability to environmental risk factors for psychopathology. 118 male 17-yr-olds who had been evaluated as 7-year-olds received a comprehensive neuropsychiatric evaluation. The evaluation included standardized assessments of environmental risk factors for psychiatric impairment, neurological signs, IQ, MPAs, and psychiatric impairment. The relationship between psychiatric status and environmental risk was examined as a function of the MPA profile. There was a significant interaction between MPAs and environmental risk in predicting psychiatric status. Environmental risk was more predictive of psychiatric impairment at age 17 in Ss with high scores on the …

Peer Relations Of Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Joan Elizabeth Licari

Graduate Research Papers

This paper's main focus is on the peer relations of children with ADHD. Many interventions are used with children who have ADHD. One of the most widely used intervention is medication. The drug that is most associated with ADHD is methylphenidate or Ritalin. Medication, which can reduce some problematic behaviors associated with ADHD, has not been found to be very beneficial in peer relations.

Children who have ADHD are at risk for later psychopathology (mental disorders), among other problems, and thus early interventions are critical to reduce the onset of later pathologies.

This paper is intended to provide an overview …

The Effect On Feeding And Wheel Running Behaviours Of Housing Rats In Pairs, Roison M. O'Connor

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The effects on feeding of moving animals from individual- to pair-housing were explored in the present three experiments. Wheel access is known to result in a temporary suppression of feeding. The move to pair-housing was compared with the effect of wheel access. In Experiment l, a group of rats was moved from individual to pair-housing (IP group) and compared to a group of individually-housed rats (IND group) and a group of chronically pair-housed rats (PAIR group). The animals in the IP group showed a temporary (three days) suppression in feeding (initially 23%). When half of the IND and PAIR group …

Home Visiting: The Effect Of A Hospital Based Nurse Home Visiting Programme On The Rehabilitation Of Children Following Their Discharge From A Child Psychiatry Inpatient Unit, Gordon H. Peers

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a nurse home visiting programme on the rehabilitation of children following their discharge from a dedicated child psychiatry hospital. The research was based on the premise that a nurse home visiting programme may have a positive influence on the outcomes of the rehabilitation of children following their discharge from hospital, if it reduced the need of outpatient appointments with the psychiatrist and the need for children to be re-admitted to hospital.

Prediction Of Stress Appraisals From Mastery, Extraversion, Neuroticism, And General Appraisal Tendencies, S. H. Hemenover, Richard A. Dienstbier

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Several personality dimensions (mastery, extraversion, and neuroticism) and a new General Appraisal Measure were used to predict stress appraisals made by college students in specific situations. Using multiple-regression techniques, mastery and general appraisal tendencies predicted appraisals for an intellectual task. Path analysis supported a structural model with general appraisal tendencies as a mediator between mastery and specific appraisal. In the second study mastery, extraversion, neuroticism, and general appraisal tendencies predicted appraisals for an academic stressor. Path analysis again supported the mediational nature of general appraisal tendencies from personality variables to specific appraisal. We discuss a potential causal mechanism between personality …

Use Of Folk Healing Practices By Hiv-Infected Hispanics Living In The United States, Mariana Suarez, Marcela Raffaelli, Ann O'Leary

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

In the absence of a medical cure for AIDS, HIV-infected individuals may seek alternative treatments that are consistent with cultural and social beliefs. This paper examines beliefs about, and use of, folk healing practices by HIV-infected Hispanics receiving care at an HIV/AIDS clinic in inner-city New Jersey. Anonymous individual interviews were conducted with 58 male and 18 female HIV-infected Hispanics aged 23-55, primarily of Puerto Rican origin (61%) or descent (29%). The majority of respondents believed in good and evil spirits (73.7%); among the 56 believers, 48% stated that the spirits had a causal role in their infection, either alone …

The Right To A Family Environment For Children With Disabilities, Victoria Weisz

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

To access services for children with disabilities, the children often have been required to leave their families of origin. However, social science evidence indicates that there are substantial psychological benefits for children to remain with their families whenever possible. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN General Assembly, 1989) supports policies and programs that enable children with disabilities to receive services without leaving their family environment. This article briefly reviews the social science literature and the UN. Convention, and it documents trends in US. law consistent with the implications of the scientific evidence and international consensus. The …

The Effects Of An Appraisal Manipulation: Affect, Intrusive Cognitions, And Performance For Two Cognitive Tasks, Scott H. Hemenover, Richard A. Dienstbier

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

We examined the relationship between trait measures of general appraisal and test anxiety, state measures of stress appraisals, affect, and intrusive cognition, andperformance measures on two cognitive tests (mental math and Raven matrices). Participants were randomly assigned to threat, challenge, or control conditions that were created by manipulating both primary and secondary appraisals. We predicted that the threat condition would lead to more negative affect, stress appraisals, intrusive cognitions, and more errors. While our manipulated conditions led to inconsistent effects, path analyses tended to confirm predictions that negative task appraisals and trait test anxiety lead to negative affect and to …

The Relations Of Children’S Dispositional Prosocial Behavior To Emotionality, Regulation, And Social Functioning, Nancy Eisenberg, Richard A. Fabes, Mariss Karbon, Bridget C. Murphy, Marek Wosinski, Lorena Polazzi, Gustavo Carlo, Candy Juhnke

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to examine the relations of a measure of children’s dispositional prosocial behavior (i.e., peer nominations) to individual differences in children’s negative emotionality, regulation, and social functioning. Children with prosocial reputations tended to be high in constructive social skills (i.e., socially appropriate behavior and constructive coping) and attentional regulation, and low in negative emotionality. The relations of children’s negative emotionality to prosocial reputation were moderated by level of dispositional attentional regulation. In addition, the relations of prosocial reputation to constructive social skills and parent-reported negative emotionality (for girls) increased with age. Vagal tone, a marker …

Communicating Violence Risk Assessments, Thomas Grisso, Alan Tomkins

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Recent developments in the law have made the assessment of risk of violence a required professional ability for every clinical psychologist. About 30 years ago, laws controlling involuntary civil commitment evolved to require more than merely a finding of mental illness. They also required evidence that patients, if not committed, would be dangerous to themselves or to others. During that era, states also developed laws that made it mandatory for clinicians to report evidence if their child clients, the children of their adult clients, and disabled or older adults were in danger of abuse by their caretakers.

Clinicians’ obligations to …

The Course Of Aggression In First-Grade Children With And Without Comorbid Anxious Symptoms, Nick Ialongo, Gail Edelsohn, Lisa Werthamer-Larsson, Lisa J. Crockett, Sheppard Kellam

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

We studied the course of aggressive behavior in an epidemiologically defined sample of first graders with and without comorbid anxious symptoms. Our primary purpose in doing so was to understand whether the stability of aggression in young children was attenuated or strengthened in the presence of comorbid anxiety. Previous studies of older children and adolescents had produced equivocal findings in this regard. Data on anxious symptoms were obtained through an interview of the children, whereas aggressive behavior was assessed through the use of a teacher interview and peer nominations. Assessments were performed in the fall and spring of first grade. …

Relationships Of Job And Family Involvement, Family Social Support, And Work–Family Conflict With Job And Life Satisfaction, Gary A. Adams, Lynda A. King, Daniel W. King

Management Faculty Research and Publications

A model of the relationship between work and family that incorporates variables from both the work-family conflict and social support literatures was developed and empirically tested. This model related bidirectional work-family conflict, family instrumental and emotional social support, and job and family involvement to job and life satisfaction. Data came from 163 workers who were living with at least 1 family member. Results suggested that relationships between work and family can have an important effect on job and life satisfaction and that the level of involvement the worker assigns to work and family roles is associated with this relationship. The …