PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

M J Stones

Publications and source records attributed to M J Stones.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1986

Happiness and activities as propensities.

The research proceeded in two stages. The intention at the first stage was to develop a comprehensive activities inventory (i.e., the Memorial University of Newfoundland Activities Inventory, or MUNAI) that reflected recurrent content themes in interview data obtained from elderly adults. The intention at the second stage was to test a reactivity model and a propensity model of happiness-activity relationships in an 18-month longitudinal design. The reactivity model asserts that happiness, in part, is determined by activity levels. The claim of the propensity model is that both happiness and activity indices are reflections of different underlying propensities. The results supported the propensity model in that (a) activity structure retained stability over the longitudinal interval, (b) the relative standing of individuals on both happiness and the structural activity indices retained stability and, (c) the happiness-activities relationship was of a limited order.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1984

Longitudinal trends in track and field performances.

Previous investigation of aging effects in track and field performances has relied on cross-sectional data. In the present study, the shapes were examined of longitudinal performances on age curves from 81 older, elite, male athletes. The mean duration of the longitudinal span was 5.3 years, and performances were obtained from six events. The prediction made was that the performance on age curves would be curvilinear in shape: attenuated decline was predicted for the early portion of the longitudinal span, due to the effects of accumulated training. After quantification of the curves by application of a second-order polynomial model, the prediction was borne out by overall analysis of the equation coefficients. Other findings indicated discrepancies in the shape of the curves between the long jump and running events, and a failure to obtain effects owing to the ages of athletes.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Predictors of happiness.

The current investigation reports findings on the temporal stability of happiness as assessed by the Memorial University of Newfoundland Scale of Happiness (MUNSH), and the stability of the predictor/happiness relationships in three subgroups of persons over 64 years of age. Respondents were interviewed twice, 18 months apart, on the MUNSH and on nine established correlates. Separate multiple regression analyses were used to assess the predictor/happiness relationship for each phase. The stability of happiness was evaluated by the inclusion of phase 1 MUNSH scores in the phase 2 predictor array. For urban and institutional persons the main independent predictors of happiness in both phases were housing satisfaction, health, activities, and changes in life events. For rural individuals only health and marital status remained consistent predictors for both phases. Happiness, greater in rural than in institutionalized persons, remained stable for all groups, with an average of 86% of the accounted MUNSH 2 variance due to MUNSH 1 scores. These results show that, although predictor effectiveness may differ across subgroups, happiness remains stable in later years.

Aged↗
PubMed1981

Adult age trends in athletic performances.

Aged trends in male, world record, track and field performances were examined over the 40-69 years age range. Five hypotheses were compared with respect to accuracy of prediction of differential age trends across events. The only hypothesis to yield statistically significant predictions was termed that of energy expenditure-supply ratio. This hypothesis predicts performance changes with age to exhibit steeper overall declines for events for events associated with higher maximal force transmissions, relative to the available (anaerobic or aerobic) energy supply.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

Adult age trends in record running performances.

Age trends in record running performances, over distances from 100 yards to the marathon, were analyzed for males between 40-74 years. Within event distances, an exponential model most accurately related performance time to age. In terms of this model, rate of age decline in running performance was greater for middle and longer distance events than for sprints. Within age-levels, linear and power models were highly accurate in relating performance time to event distance. A general model, that proved highly accurate in accounting for variance in performance times over the full age and distance ranges, expressed performance as the product of a power function of distance and an exponential function of age. Findings are discussed in terms of anaerobic and aerobic processes that underlie running performance at different event distances.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

The measurement of happiness: development of the Memorial University of Newfoundland Scale of Happiness (MUNSH).

Items of the Affect Balance Scale, the Life Satisfaction Index-Z and the Philadelphia Geriatric Center Scale together with 22 new items were used in the construction of a happiness scale for the elderly. Items were initially administered to 301 subjects from urban, rural, and institutional settings and correlated with ratings of happiness. A new scale consisting of 24 items was cross-validated on an additional 297 subjects. Test-retest reliability scores were obtained on 56 subjects. Results indicated that the new scale was a better predictor of "avowed happiness" in both validation and cross-validation samples than the existing scales used for comparison. Moreover, the new scale's test-rated reliability was within an acceptable range for this type of scale.

Aged↗
PubMed1980

Issues relating to the usage and conceptualization of mental health constructs employed by gerontologists.

A major intention of the article was to delineate and clarify issues related to the usage and conceptualization of mental health constructs commonly utilized by gerontologists. Conclusions were drawn to the effect that (a) meanings of mental health constructs cluster differently depending on the type of analysis employed, (b) happiness may be considered the most apposite representative of the array of mental health constructs employed by gerontologists, (c) happiness has been conceptualized either as containing current affect and dispostional components or current affect components only, (d) contemporary models of happiness favour neither the expansionist nor contractionist positions as a means of attaining happiness and (e) questions as to the relative contributions to happiness of the affective and dispositional components represents an important problem for future research. A final intention of the article was to provide a speculative reconceptualization of the happiness construct.

Aged↗
PubMed1979

Rekitting the Wechsler Paired-Associate Task: the Waterford Index.

The Waterford Index provides a new scoring system for the Wechsler paired-associate task. Item performances across successive trials were coded so as to reflect the psychological phenomena of learning, forgetting and item effects (N = 50). The Index describes two rules for differentiating between cases of cognitive impairment and non-impairment. Rule 1 contrasts the respective contributions of learning and forgetting. Rule 2 takes account of cases characterized by a high proportion of correct responses. Against a criterion index based on performances on other psychological tests of organic dysfunction, the Waterford Index yielded higher predictive efficiencies than associated with other Wechsler indices, intelligence, and age.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

A critique of the clinical-personological approach to idiographic personality study.

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." The data base is essentially clinical, psychosocial and psychometric, and information integration is achieved through "convergent validation." The approach was criticized on three grounds: (a) level of description is only at a single level, ie., the general; (b) the data base is limited to grosser system attributes and is typically of low reliability and validity; and (c) inductive inference formulation is unduly susceptible to influence by chance factors, and attempts to validate the hypothesis are rare. Of the alternative approaches, Personal Construct Theory appears a promising avenue, but is also open to criticism.

Humans↗
PubMed1978

Aging and semantic memory: structural age differences.

The objective of this research was to investigate age differences in the structure of semantic memory. The tasks employed (i.e., vocabulary, word fluency by conceptual category cueing and word fluency by initial consonant cueing) were representative of different age trends in quantitative test scores. Matching across age levels (young versus middle-aged) was in terms of family membership. Results showed a greater intra-individual variability and lower relationships between aspects of semantic memory by the time of middle-age. The results were viewed from process-oriented and environment-oriented explanatory perspectives.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

A further study of response, set and the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI).

The aims of the investigation were to draw attention to systematic scale score discrepancies between Forms A and B of the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI), to suggest that these discrepancies might be mediated by acquiesence response set (ARS), and to provide reliability estimates for ARS and lie scale scores. Evidence relevant to all three intentions was obtained from a student group and a group of psychiatric patients. The predicted discrepancies between scale scores were obtained. The ARS measure derived from the E scale was found to be reliable, and ARS measures from both the E and L scales were found to obtain significantly different values across forms. Practical suggestions were made with regard to the utilization of an individual form of the EPI.

Deception↗
PubMed1977

Self-ratings and the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI).

An attempt was made to assess the relationships between self-ratings and psychometric (EPI) estimates on the dimensions of extraversion and neuroticism. Ninety-five individuals served as Ss. The correlations between self-ratings and EPI estimates achieved high significance on both dimensions. Contrary to earlier suggestions (Bem & Allen, 1974), ratings of behavioral variability on the respective dimensions failed to produce a significant moderating effect. However, a tentative trend was observed for cross-procedural comparability (between self-ratings and the EPI) to be higher near the midpoints of the respective distributions. A factor contributory to this was a central regressive tendency (noted at both poles on both dimensions and for both sources of estimation), whereby an extreme estimate from one source was associated with a less extreme estimate from the other.

Evaluation Studies as Topic↗
PubMed1977

Memory performance after arousal from different sleep stages.

Learning material was presented to independent groups of subjects either after arousal from non-Rapid Eye Movement (non-REM) sleep, after arousal from REM sleep, or under conditions of no prior sleep. Measures of immediate and subsequent free recall were taken. Memory performance was found to be impaired where learning took place after non-REM arousal. This was manifest in the number of categories recalled, over both immediate and subsequent recall, and in the number of items recalled per category over subsequent recall. It was suggested that the memory performance decrement after non-REM arousal may be understood in terms of a retrieval deficit as well as a coding deficit. It is possible that the former is consequent upon a lower general level of arousal, whereas the latter is specific to memory.

Arousal↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Performance on cognitive tasks in predicting the behavioral competences in the institutionalized elderly.

The questions under consideration concern quantitative and qualitative aspects of the relationship between cognitive abilities and behavioral competences in the elderly institution residents. The former was assessed by an array of five cognitive measures, namely, two Piagetian tasks, Set Test, WAIS Vocabulary and Digit Span subtests and the WMS Associative Learning subtest and the latter by the Stockton Geriatric Rating Scale (SGRS). The overall variance in common between the two sets of variables was approximately 70 percent. Of the cognitive tasks, those most highly predictive of behavioral competences were the Piagetian tasks, Set Test and, to a lesser extent, WAIS Vocabulary subtest. Of the four SGRS factors, that predicted to the greatest extent was apathy, with physical disability to a lesser extent.

Aged↗