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Presents the findings of a study on the implications for neuropsychological assessment involving individuals suspected of exposure to formaldehyde. What the relationships between exposure and neuropsychological deficits are based on; What is formaldehyde; Discussion on the shortcomings in formaldehyde research; Insight on the implications of these shortcomings for assessment of individual patients.

Seeks to examine some of the methodological flaws of studies supporting the issue of health effects of long term, low-level exposure to organic solvents. Argument that potential confounds and other factors preclude a consensus on the chronic neurobehavioral effects of exposure to organic solvents; Examination of cross-sectional studies that compared neuropsychological test scores of exposed and nonexposed individuals.

The effects of counterfactual thinking and causal attribution on accident-related judgments were investigated. Subjects read about a couple who died in an automobile accident where mutability of the outcome was varied. Mutability refers to the extent that a factual event can be mentally altered, with mutable outcomes more easily imagined otherwise than immutable outcomes. In comparison to the immutable scenario, participants reading the mutable scenario saw the accident as more avoidable, ascribed a greater causal role to the accident perpetrator, and perceived the perpetrator having more causal control over the couple's deaths. In addition to increased anger, a harsher financial penalty was levied against the accident perpetrator by participants in the mutable than in the immutable condition. Multiple regression analysis supported the efficacy of attribution theory to explain the affective and behavioral consequences of counterfactual thinking in accident-related judgments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Female and male subjects read one of three scenarios depicting a social-sexual interaction between a man and a woman. The scenarios varied in severity of the stimulus male's behavior according to whether sexual harassment had occurred. Subjects then rated the offensiveness of his behavior and whether it constituted sexual harassment. Subjects also rated the stimulus male's behavior on Weiner's (1986) three basic dimensions of causality: locus of causality, or the perceived cause of the behavior as internal or external; stability, or the likelihood of its recurrence; and controllability, or the amount of volitional influence he exercised during the interaction. Additionally, subjects reported their anger at the target male and sympathy for the target female. Findings generally indicated that for both women and men, as the scenarios increased in severity, these ratings were elevated. Gender comparisons also showed elevations in these ratings for female but not for mate subjects, and only in the scenarios of lesser severity. Regression analyses revealed attribution variables--control, stability, and anger--as reliable predictors of perceived offensiveness and harassment in the most severe scenario, whereas affects were the most reliable predictors in scenarios of lesser severity. The implications of these findings for perception of sexual harassment are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examined the influence of hindsight bias and causal attribution on perceptions of a technological disaster. After reading a fictitious account of a toxic substance spill near a populated area, subjects were provided with information that disease rates had either increased or had remained stable (hindsight conditions), or were presented with no outcome information (control condition). Subjects were then asked to predict the likelihood of increases in disease rates and to make causal attributions regarding the target company and residents of the disaster community. When compared to subjects provided with either no outcome information or with information that disease rates remained stable (positive-outcome condition), subjects told that disease rates had increased (negative-outcome condition) showed elevated predictions regarding future disease rates, ascribed greater responsibility for the accident to the target company, and reported more anger toward the company and greater sympathy for the residents. Subjects receiving positive outcome information and no outcome information did not significantly differ on these measures. In addition, results from a path analysis supported the efficacy of attribution theory to account for the cognitive, affective, and behavioral consequences resulting from hindsight bias following a negative environmental event. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reports base rate data for 113 family practice patients with no history of head trauma or toxic exposure, 68 family practice patients with a history of head trauma or toxic exposure, and 156 personal injury claimants with no history of toxic exposure or head trauma who presented for a psychological evaluation due to emotional distress. Personal injury claimants reported suffering from significantly more neurotoxic and neuropsychologic symptoms than subjects with a reported history of head trauma and/or toxic exposure. The authors urge that evaluating psychologists consider the base rate of these symptoms in litigating populations and use caution in relying on self-reported symptoms as evidence of injury when patients are in litigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]