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Nick Haslam

Publications and source records attributed to Nick Haslam.

27 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed2003

Acculturation and changing concepts of mental disorder: Brazilians in the USA.

Forty-three Brazilian citizens living in the USA judged whether a sample of conditions were mental disorders and rated them on proposed features of the concept of mental disorder. Judgments and ratings were correlated with measures of American acculturation and identification with Brazilian culture, and with years of American residence. Consistent with prediction, greater acculturation was associated with a concept of distúrbio mental that was broader in reach and more intrapsychic in focus. However, greater acculturation was also associated with a stronger tendency to understand disorder as a violation of social expectations and to pathologize behavior in excess or 'acting out.' American acculturation yielded no convergence of distúrbio mental with the concept of disorder embodied in DSM-IV.

Acculturation↗
PubMed2003

A critique of the methods and conclusions in the patient outcome research team (PORT) report on psychological treatments for schizophrenia.

The schizophrenia Patient Outcome Research Team (PORT; Lehman and Steinwachs, 1998), a policy paper on the treatment of schizophrenia sponsored by the United States government Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, has minimized the efficacy and utility of psychological treatments for schizophrenia and concluded that some treatments like psychoanalytic psychotherapy are contraindicated and harmful. A critical review of Recommendations 22, 23, 24, 25, and 26 (those addressing the efficacy of psychological treatments) was undertaken. The purpose of this critique was to describe the threats to validity inherent in the PORT report's design and to demonstrate how those threats make the relevant recommendations specious. In addition, empirical evidence from meta-analytic reviews is described to show that, indeed, psychological treatments for schizophrenia are efficacious. Limitations of the available evidence and suggestions for a PORT revision are discussed.

Humans↗
PubMed2002

The lay concept of "mental disorder" among American undergraduates.

Lay concepts of "mental disorder" were investigated in a pilot study of beliefs about 68 conditions, 47 of which corresponded to DSM-IV mental disorders. Undergraduates who had no formal education in abnormal psychology rated the conditions on features proposed in technical definitions of "mental disorder" and judged whether the conditions were mental disorders. The features composed three dimensions-social deviancy, harmful dysfunction, and peculiarity-the last two of which were strongly and independently associated with judgments of mental disorder (R = 0.83). Lay and DSM-IV understandings of "mental disorder" showed moderate convergence.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Are essentialist beliefs associated with prejudice?

Gordon Allport (1954) proposed that belief in group essences is one aspect of the prejudiced personality, alongside a rigid, dichotomous and ambiguity-intolerant cognitive style. We examined whether essentialist beliefs-beliefs that a social category has a fixed, inherent, identity-defining nature-are indeed associated in this fashion with prejudice towards black people, women and gay men. Allport's claim, which is mirrored by many contemporary social theorists, received partial support but had to be qualified in important respects. Essence-related beliefs were associated strongly with anti-gay attitudes but only weakly with sexism and racism, and they did not reflect a cognitive style that was consistent across stigmatized categories. When associations with prejudice were obtained, only a few specific beliefs were involved, and some anti-essentialist beliefs were associated with anti-gay attitudes. Nevertheless, the powerful association that essence-related beliefs had with anti-gay attitudes was independent of established prejudice-related traits, indicating that they have a significant role to play in the psychology of prejudice.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Aberrant social relations in the personality disorders.

Research on the interpersonal aspects of personality disorders (PDs) has generally sought to describe them in terms of behavioural dispositions, often mapping these dispositions onto the interpersonal circumplex. The present study, in contrast, tested a theory that accounts for PDs as systematic disturbances in relationships between people. Self-reports of 57 participants experiencing significant interpersonal difficulties showed many predicted associations between PD symptoms and aberrant enactment of four elementary forms of social relationships (Fiske, 1991). Symptoms were associated with aberrant motivations for, and cognitive implementations of, these 'relational models', and with difficulties conducting them. These associations were comparable in strength to, but largely independent of, those obtained with a circumplex measure. Aberrations of authority- and equality-based relationships were central to many PDs, but not captured well by the circumplex. A relational analysis affords a fruitful and largely unexplored perspective on PDs.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Taxometric analysis of fuzzy categories: a Monte Carlo study.

A small Monte Carlo study examined the performance of a form of taxometric analysis (the MAXCOV procedure) with fuzzy data sets. These combine taxonic (categorical) and nontaxonic (continuous) features, containing a subset of casts with intermediate degrees of category membership. Fuzzy data sets tended to yield taxonic findings on plot inspection and two popular consistency tests, even when the degree of fuzziness, i.e., the proportion of intermediate cases, was large. These results suggest that fuzzy categories represent a source of pseudotaxonic inferences, if on is understood in the usual binary, "either-or" fashion. This in turn implies that dichotomous causes cannot be confidently inferred when taxometric analyses yield apparently taxonic findings.

Fuzzy Logic↗
PubMed2002

Categories and continua: a review of taxometric research.

The taxometric procedures developed by Paul Meehl and his colleagues have been used in a large body of research seeking to distinguish between categorical and continuous models of latent variables. In this article the authors survey taxometric studies of psychopathological, personality, and other variables and draw conclusions about the taxonicity of latent variables in these domains. In addition, the authors review research on the validation and refinement of taxometric methods and make proposals for improving the application of taxometric research. The authors consider questions that remain about the conceptual status of taxometrics and raise new ones. They show that taxometric methodology has made an accelerating number of contributions to psychological research, has resolved several longstanding controversies, and has challenged some entrenched theoretical assumptions in differential psychology. Moreover, they contend that the research possibilities that it affords have yet to be fully exploited.

Anxiety Disorders↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Taxonicity of adolescent melancholia: a categorical or dimensional construct?

A taxometric analysis was conducted to test the hypothesis that the latent structure of melancholia in adolescents is categorical. Two taxometric procedures were used: Mean Above Minus Below a Cut (MAMBAC) and Maximum Covariance (MAXCOV) analyses. Participants were 378 adolescents presenting for a depression evaluation. Indicators of melancholia were constructed using items from the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School Aged Children (K-SADS) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). The indicators of melancholia were consistent with a categorical latent variable. The findings suggest that the latent structure of melancholia in adolescents is similar to its previously identified categorical structure in adults. Implications for clinical research are discussed.

Adolescent↗