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An examination of the specific areas of agreement and disagreement among the Beck Depression Inventory (DI), the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS), and the Lubin Depression Adjective Check Lists (DACL) was made to see if all three measured the same aspects of depressive behavior and how they could be used together to optimize assessment of depression. (Author/RK)

Attempts to determine whether a maladaptive attitude, frequently observed in therapy clients, could be altered by the use of a counter-attitudinal message. The attitude at which this counter-attitudinal technique is directed is that of low self-esteem. (Author/RK)

In an attempt to change attitudes toward mental illness, as well as to increase positive self-attributions, 37 community residents were presented a series of "demythologizing" seminars. Implications of the results of the seminars for clinical and community psychology were discussed. (Editor/RK)

This research attempted to determine whether child abuse influences aggression in young children. The results clearly indicate that abused children are significantly more aggressive than nonabused, normal children in three distinct areas: fantasy, free play environment, and a school environment. (Author/RK)

Despite increasing recognition of the early importance of peer relations, virtually no systematic information exists on the way in which normal children view their emotionally disturbed peers. This research reports a replication of recent findings on children's use of the concept of emotional disturbance. (Editor/RK)

Investigated auditory word discrimination skills in children diagnosed as having minimal brain dysfunction (MBD) because a lack of auditory discrimination skill seems relevant to learning deficiency in language acquisition, a typical sign of MBD. (Editor/RK)

Induced Anxiety is a brief psychotherapy procedure that teaches individuals to cope with negative effect by using relaxation techniques. This research investigated the role of physiological arousal in the affect induction phase of Induced Anxiety therapy by using biofeedback to facilitate arousal. Twenty-one college students suffering from free-floating anxiety were the subjects of the study. (Author/RK)

This research investigated the possibility that there exists a systematic difference in WAIS verbal and performance IQ indices. It was hypothesized that VIQ (verbal) scores on the WAIS tend to be significantly higher than PIQ (performance ability) scores. (Author/RK)

Two case reports illustrate the application of mnemonic techniques for the remediation of memory problems common to brain-damaged patients. A clinical paradigm for such work that includes general and specific assessment, laboratory evaluation of intervention strategies, and finally actual application is described. (Editor/RK)

This research provides an initial evaluation of an actuarial diagnostic testing program that is being conducted by the Psychometric Laboratory at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas. It was hoped that an actuarial program for psychiatric diagnosis would create greater efficiency, lower cost, and superior validity with respect to diagnostic and treatment decision-making. (Author/RK)

To the extent that brain dysfunction is present in violence-prone groups, one may expect that assessment of simple perceptual and cognitive abilities may facilitate significantly the detection of subjects prone to violent behavior. This research examines the ability of neuropsychological tests to discriminate between violent and nonviolent delinquent adolescent boys. (Author/RK)

Presentence evaluations conducted by psychologists and psychiatrists (clinicians) and correctional counselors (caseworkers) were subjected to multiple regression analyses in order to specify the relative contribution of inmate characteristics (offense severity and recidivism probability) and decision-maker response biases to sentencing recommendations. Discusses the need for an accountability system designed to minimize the effects of the response biases of correctional decision-makers. (Editor/RK)

Four articles that reported studies that used the Whitaker Index of Schizophrenic Thinking (WIST) were published in the "Journal of Clinical Psychology" in early 1977. These articles are reviewed by the WIST's author in terms of necessary conditions for valid and useful studies of schizophrenic thinking. (Editor)

Describes an experiment in which a presumptively behavioral anxiety-management technique known as "cue-controlled relaxation" (Russell, Miller & June, 1975) was compared with a "deactivated" version of Borkovec's (1972) Avoidance Response Placebo treatment and with no intervention as means of reducing self-reported test anxiety among college students. (Author)

Asked United States, British, and Mexican male students of college age to discriminate among three affective displays presented by 10 schizophrenic and 10 normal U.S. women. Significant main effects for diagnostic category, nationality of judge, and for the interaction of nationality and diagnostic category were obtained. (Editor)

It is not readily apparent whether the deviant behavior of drug addicts should be attributed to deficient moral values, deficient ego controls which includes intelligence, attentional control, and delay of gratification, or to both of these factors. Attempts to ascertain the level of moral reasoning of drug addicts to determine whether they differ from a nonaddict population in this dimension. (Author/RK)

Despite extensive literature on the impact of physical impairment upon personality, there is a dearth of objective data with adolescent age groups. This research attempts to determine if there are personality differences between groups of adolescents with observable, yet dissimilar physical disabilities. (Author/RK)

Idiographic research occupies an accepted position in personological study and clinical psychology. This review critically examines one such method of investigation, the clinical-personological approach, which relies on inductive inference and attempts to provide description at the level of the "whole person". (Editor)

In order to determine the correlates of depressive mood, members of a women's volunteer organization were surveyed by a mailed questionnaire that included the Depression Adjective Check List (DACL) Form E and 14 depression-related measures. Correlations are presented and discussed.(Editor)

In critically reviewing learned helplessness literature, P. H. Blaney (1977) has noted that most of the current support for this model rests on studies that induce or reduce helplessness in college student Ss. This research, employing a psychiatric population, addressed two issues Blaney suggested as in need of clarification: (1) the role of reduction in perceived control as an antecedent to clinical depression; and (2) the specificity of learned helplessness to depression as a diagnostic category. (Author/RK)

Assessed the psychometric structure of a neuropsychological test battery in order to assist in understanding the predictive and descriptive components in the diagnosis of organic brain disturbance. The methods chosen were both linear and nonlinear, factor analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis. (Author)

States that there is a need for a systematic attempt to break down the performance of black children (who have taken the WISC-R) into analytical and verbal-comprehension clusters. This need is based on the hypothesis that group blacks tend to show up as deficient in abstraction. Profile analysis could be useful in planning educational, vocational, and guidance programs to meet the specific needs of subgroups. (Author/RK)

Aims of this study were to determine whether the factor structure produced in earlier research by Kear-Colwell (1973, 1977) on the Wechsler Memory Scale could be replicated in a non-patient population (most research uses patient populations) and also to examine the effects of age, sex, and social class on the performance of normal adults on this test thus providing some new normative data for the clinical application of this psychometric tool. (Author/RK)

Attempted to investigate the effects of different levels of test anxiety on actual rather than simulated classroom test performance. The intent was to learn whether the effect of anxiety would be dependent upon or independent of several variables, such as test scores, sex differences, intelligence, and type of test items. (Author/RK)

Assesses the concurrent validity of the Vane Kindergarten Test with low socioeconomic status black preschool children with the Stanford-Binet as the external criterion. Also examines its feasibility with children below the age of 4 1/2. (Author/RK)

Attempts to compare the characteristics of the ego development continuum as revealed by incomplete sentences and self-report scales and also to ascertain how well the structured personality inventory can estimate the ego development stages as assessed by the Sentence Completion Test (SCT).

A consistent picture regarding the reliability of the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities cannot be obtained from current literature. A clear understanding of the stability of the MSCA would be particularly useful in establishing and planning academic programs and this research attempts to provide such an estimate of reliability. (Author/RK)

Seeks to establish the relationship of specific verbal and nonverbal behaviors to judgments of overall assertiveness in a college sample. Also examines the effects of varying the social context in which the situation was role-played (i.e., male vs. female role partner; expression of positive vs. negative assertion) and assesses the relationship of role-played measures of assertiveness and self reported level of assertion. (Author/RK)

Compared two sets of variables (one known to reflect psychopathology and the other to reflect certain normal personality traits) to determine whether they overlapped in both normal and abnormal samples. Findings are taken as indicative that personality patterns remain contiguous with psychological symptomatology regardless of the presence or lack of presence of psychopathological illness. (Author/RK)

This research attempted to develop a job skills training package suited to the needs of offenders and to document its utility by using a research design that remedies some of the inadequacies often found in skill training research. (Author/RK)

Examines the Personal Health Survey methodology and suggests that in studying the factorial composition of physical and mental health complaints in limited populations, the data provides normative information "only" for the samples tested on one occasion. States further that it would require large-scale normative studies to make any definitive statements about public physical and mental health. (Author/RK)

Reports on a series of methodological refinements used in developing a systematic rationale for the construction, standardization and interpretation of the Personal Health Survey (PHS), a 200-item questionnaire designed to screen pathological functioning in the psychophysiological support systems that underlie physical and mental health. The PHS is one of the subtests of the Integration Level Test Series (ILTS), which measures a hierarchy of levels of factors that organize integration. (Author)

Employed the Personal Health Survey (PHS) to study patterns of symptomology related to physical and mental health in a population of 730 Ss, which consisted of five groups: felons, hospitalized alcoholics, unmarried mothers, college students and institutionalized schizophrenics. (Editor)

The Personal Health Survey (PHS) is a 200-item inventory designed to sample symptomatology as subjective experiences from the 12 principal domains of organ system and psychophysiological functioning. This study investigates the factorial validity of the empirically constructed scales. (Author)