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Biomedical subjects

N Haslam

Publications and source records attributed to N Haslam.

35 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1999

Detecting complex patterns in interpersonal profiles.

The assessment of interpersonal problems has advanced in recent years with the development of new methods for analysing individual profiles. These new methods assume that each profile can be modelled by a mathematical function that reflects the person's single prevailing interpersonal theme. However, some profiles may contain more complex patterns, with two or more distinct themes. Such complexities in a person's interpersonal profile might be clinically important, perhaps reflecting an interpersonal style that is conflictual. In an effort to detect complex patterns, Fourier analysis was applied to profiles of 200 psychotherapy out-patients and 200 undergraduates, using the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems. Although many profiles did not clearly manifest a single prevailing interpersonal theme, having two distinct profile peaks, their apparent complexity generally resulted from measurement error. Systematically complex or conflictual patterns were rarely detectable. Profiles of interpersonal problems may contain complex patterns, but simple patterns reflecting the prevailing interpersonal theme are apt to be more clinically informative.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

An audit of the investigation and treatment of folic acid deficiency.

On the suspicion that folate deficiency was not being thoroughly investigated we conducted a retrospective study of management in a teaching hospital. Notes from 84 consecutive patients with low red cell folates (mean age 69.5 years, range 21-95, M:F 33:51) were reviewed for haemoglobin, mean cell volume, dietary history, alcohol consumption, drug history, relevant medical history, relevant investigations, treatment, repeat measurement of red cell folate and diagnosis of deficiency. In 52 (61.9%, mean age 72.9 years, range 33-95, M:F 21:51) no diagnosis was reached. In only 32 (38.1%, mean age 63.9 years, range 21-89, M:F 12:20) was a definitive diagnosis established: 5 had coeliac disease, 1 had Crohn's disease, 9 had drug-associated deficiency (4 methotrexate, 3 phenytoin, 1 trimethoprim and 1 valproate), 1 had combined variable immunodeficiency and 16 had dietary deficiency. In most cases of folic acid deficiency no attempt was made to establish aetiology. We recommend that younger patients without an obvious cause are investigated initially by dietary assessment and measurement of anti-endomysial antibody and by duodenal biopsy with small-bowel follow-through if clinically indicated.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Dichotomous thinking as a sign of suicide risk on the TAT.

Previous research has supported theoretical claims that dichotomous thinking may be a risk factor for suicide. However, the concept of dichotomous thinking is vague, and thus far, no measures of it have been developed. This study developed a coding scheme useful on Thematic Aperception Test (TAT; Murray, 1943) protocols and applicable to other verbal productions to refine the concept of dichotomous thinking and to assess its utility as a predictor of suicidality. Suicidal patients had a significantly elevated rate of a narrowly defined type of dichotomous thinking involving diametric or polarized possibilities. However, suicidal and nonsuicidal patients did not differ on weaker forms of dichotomous thinking involving nonexclusive or nonbinary alternatives. Suicidal patients produced shorter TAT stories than nonsuicidal patients, supporting other findings in the literature that suicidal patients tend to be cognitively and affectively "shut down." Traditionally designated "suicide cards" also yielded shorter stories but did not elicit higher rates of dichotomous thinking.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Evidence that male sexual orientation is a matter of degree.

Whether male sexual orientation is best represented by discrete categories or by a continuum has been the focus of much debate. These alternatives were compared in an analysis of 1,138 men's scores on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 Masculinity-Femininity Scale, an established correlate of male sexual orientation. Mixtures of 2 or 3 latent distributions did not fit the observed distribution of scores better than a single normal distribution, suggesting that the latent variable underlying male sexual orientation is not discrete. Additional taxometric analyses provided convergent support for continuity. The findings were inconsistent with accounts of male sexual orientation that invoke single preponderant causes, whether genetic or environmental, and call some forms of taxonomic theorizing about sexual orientation into question.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Is obsessive-compulsive disorder a pathology of the human disposition to perform socially meaningful rituals? Evidence of similar content.

This study investigated the theory that obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a pathology of the human disposition to perform culturally meaningful social rituals. We tested the hypothesis that the same actions and thoughts that are ego-dystonic in OCD are valued when they are appropriately performed in socially legitimated rituals. Two coders analyzed ethnographic descriptions of rituals, work, and another activity in each of 52 cultures. The coders recorded the presence or absence of 49 features of OCD and 19 features of other psychopathologies. The features of OCD were more likely to be present and occurred more frequently in rituals than in either control; rituals also contained more diverse kinds of OCD features. The features of other psychopathologies were less likely to be present and were less numerous in rituals than the features of OCD. Analysis of variance showed that OCD features discriminate between rituals and controls better than the features of other psychopathologies. These results suggest that there could be a psychological mechanism that operates normally in rituals, which can lead to OCD when it becomes hyperactivated.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1997

Distinctive disorders are less prevalent.

To test the hypothesis that nosologies are biased towards recognizing highly distinctive syndromes and therefore conflate those that are less distinctive, eight subjects judged the distinctiveness of 33 DSM-IV disorders and 20 rheumatic disorders. As predicted, judged distinctiveness was negatively correlated with prevalence for both sets of disorders.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Robustness of taxometric analysis with skewed indicators: I. A Monte Carlo study of the MAMBAC procedure.

A small Monte Carlo study was conducted to determine whether Meehl and Yonce's (1994) MAMBAC procedure--a taxometric method for testing between discrete and continuous models of latent variables--is robust when the latent variable and its manifest indicators are skewed. Analysis of constructed data sets containing three levels of skew indicated that the MAMBAC procedure is highly unlikely to yield spurious findings of discreteness ("taxonicity") even when skewness is considerable. MAMBAC appears to be a robust and promising addition to the family of taxometric procedures.

Humans↗
PubMed1996

Robustness of taxometric analysis with skewed indicators: II. A Monte Carlo study of the MAXCOV procedure.

A small Monte Carlo study was conducted to determine whether MAXCOV analysis, a taxometric method for testing between discrete ("taxonic") and continuous models of latent variables, is robust when indicators of the latent variable are skewed. Analysis of constructed data sets containing three levels of skew indicated that the MAXCOV procedure is unlikely to yield spurious findings of taxonicity even when skewness is considerable. However, care must be taken to distinguish low base-rate taxonic variables from skewed nontaxonic variables.

Humans↗
PubMed1995

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.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Categories of social relationship.

The study of social relationships lies at the heart of the social sciences, but our understanding of the cognitive structures that support them has received little attention. This paper develops an account of the form and content of these structures, arguing that social relationships are represented by a small number of categories, rather than by dimensions as proposed by others. Taxometric analyses demonstrated that categories proposed by Fiske (1991) are truly discrete, controverting dimensional representation and one possible form of prototype structure. The categories appear to combine in the specification of actually existing social relationships, and are more informative, or "basic", then colloquial relationship categories.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Subtyping major depression: a taxometric analysis.

Taxometric procedures were used to test claims for the content and latent structure of 5 proposed subtypes of major depression: an endogenous form, sociotropic and autonomous forms proposed by A. Beck (1983), a self-critical form proposed by S. J. Blatt (e.g., S. J. Blatt & E. Homann, 1992), and a hopelessness form proposed by L. Y. Abramson, G. I. Metalsky, and L. B. Alloy (1989). Analysis of self-reported symptom and personality profiles of 531 consecutively admitted outpatients with a primary major depressive diagnosis sought to determine whether the clinical features proposed by the respective accounts systematically covary; which features are central to the respective latent structures; and whether these structures are discrete or continuous. Clear evidence for discreteness was found only for the endogenous subtype. The other proposed forms lacked internal coherence or were more consistent with a continuous or dimensional account.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Mental representation of social relationships: dimensions, laws, or categories?

The study of social relationships lies at the heart of the social sciences, but psychologists' understanding of the cognitive structures that support them remains in the hinterlands. Two studies supported the proposal that social relationships are represented by a small number of implicit categorical forms in contrast with accounts proposing dimensional representations or formally specifiable laws. Discrete forms based on 2 of Alan Fiske's (1991, 1992) relational models predicted prototypicality ratings defined over a comprehensive field of hypothetical relationships better than corresponding dimensions of communality and authority and 3 laws of complementarity and symmetry propounded by D. J. Kiesler (1983), J. S. Wiggins (1979), and G. Bateson (1979). In addition, "competition" between the orthogonal dimensions was observed, strengthening the argument for categoriality.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Categorization of major depression in an outpatient sample.

Intake Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) item scores of 400 outpatient major depressives were submitted to a categorization algorithm developed for artificial intelligence applications. The algorithm maximizes a function of "category utility" that is preferable in several respects to available clustering methods, and has demonstrated its capacity to locate the most informative, or "basic," level of categorization. The analysis yielded four syndromal subtypes: a common, general depressive type; a common and relatively severe melancholic type; an infrequent type characterized by self-critical features, generalized anxiety, and an absence of melancholic features; and an infrequent, mild type distinguished by enervation and anhedonic features. Implications for the classification of depression are discussed.

Affective Symptoms↗
PubMed1992

Temperament and the transitional object.

The transitional object attachments and persistent oral habits of 37 three-year-olds were examined in relation to their present and retrospectively rated infantile temperament. Children attached to a transitional object were differentiable from unattached children on infantile but not early childhood temperament, and the predictive temperament pattern differed from the pattern predicting oral habits. Transitional object attachments were independent from oral habits and were interpreted to serve distinct non-pathological developmental functions. The study suggests that temperament plays an etiological role in transitional object attachments, but that the status of the object as a developmental marker is ambiguous.

Anxiety Disorders↗
PubMed1991

Confusing one person with another: what errors reveal about the elementary forms of social relations.

Seven studies investigated the cognitive structure of social relationships exhibited in the patterns of substitutions that occur when people confuse a person with another. The studies investigated natural errors in which people called a familiar person by the wrong name, misremembered with whom they had interacted, or mistakenly directed an action at an inappropriate person. These studies tested the relational-models theory of A. P. Fiske (1990b, 1991) that people use 4 basic models for social relationships. All 7 studies provide support for the theory; Ss tend to confuse people with whom they interact in the same basic relationship mode. In addition, Ss confuse people of the same gender. Other factors (age, race, role term, similarity of names) generally have smaller, less reliable effects, indicating that the 4 elementary modes of relationships are among the most salient schemata in everyday social cognition.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Peritoneal leakage of gastric contents, a rare complication of percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy.

BACKGROUND: A 94-year-old man underwent a routine percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy but 7 days later developed abdominal pain and died of a previously unreported late complication. METHODS: A case report of the main clinical and pathological findings and a brief discussion of the significance of the case. RESULTS: Postmortem examination revealed a chemical peritonitis due to leakage of 2.8 L of formula into the peritoneal cavity through an enlarged gastrostomy hole around a correctly positioned tube. CONCLUSION: This is a previously unreported complication that occurred because of repeated pulling on the tube by a confused patient, causing a loss of the usual apposition of the gastric and the anterior abdominal walls. The importance of the case is to emphasize that late, even fatal, complications can occur until a permanent fibrous tract has been formed between the skin and the gastric wall.

Aged↗