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PubMed1999

Perceptual defense mechanisms in Crohn's disease and panic disorder.

The defense organization of Crohn's disease and Panic Disorder was studied with a well-validated tachistoscopic paradigm, the Defense Mechanism Test. Three sex- and age-matched groups of 34 subjects (Crohn, Panic, and Nonclinical) were compared on the main codings of defense. Crohn patients were characterized by stereotypy and lack of recognition of the threat. The Panic group presented clearly higher frequencies of protocols with repression, isolation, and disappearance of the threat. Especially was the strongest variant of isolation, barrier-isolation, typical of the defensive substructure of panic patients.

Adult↗

PubMed2000

Ego Function Assessment of substance abusers: standardization and reliability.

This study examined the reliability of Ego Function Assessment in a self-report inventory which yields 12 function measures. 89 substance abusers in an urban treatment facility completed the inventory; 81 completed the inventory again after 2 wk. Test protocols of the first administration were assessed for interitem consistency utilizing a hierarchical algorithm which revised scales to yield optimal alphas. Retest scores were used to evaluate the stability of the 12 scales over 2 wk. Standardization, reliability, and stability data are presented for the original and revised scales. The possibility of response sets in the items are explored, and data patterns are discussed in terms of state vs trait issues in ego functioning.

Adult↗

PubMed1996

Predicting dyadic adjustment from general and relationship-specific beliefs.

The cognitive mediation model of human psychological functioning has received increasing attention by researchers studying the role of cognitive variables in relationship distress. This study is an examination of the role of general irrational beliefs, as measured by the Irrational Beliefs Test (IBT; Jones, 1968), and relationship-specific irrational beliefs, as measured by the Relationship Belief Questionnaire (RBQ; Romans & DeBord, 1994), in predicting the perceived quality of relationships by married or cohabiting couples. Results indicated that respondents who reported higher levels of relationship-specific irrational beliefs also reported higher levels of dyadic adjustment; but contrary to expectation, higher levels of general irrational beliefs correlated with lower levels of dyadic adjustment. Implications of these findings are discussed in relation to the depressive realism hypothesis.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1989

Small-scale deceit: deception as a marker of two-, three-, and four-year-olds' early theories of mind.

This research report summarizes the results of a study into the abilities of 2-, 3-, and 4-year-old children to deceptively lead others into false beliefs, and is intended to help arbitrate a growing controversy as to when young persons first acquire some theory-like understanding of other minds. Utilizing a novel hide-and-seek board game as a context within which to observe children's spontaneous use of deceptive strategies, a total of 50 subjects between the ages of 2 1/2 and 5 were tested. In contrast to the competing findings of others, which are claimed to establish that children younger than approximately 4 suffer a cognitive deficit that wholly blocks them from the possibility of entertaining any sort of contrastive beliefs about beliefs, the results of this study show that even 2 1/2-year-olds are capable of already successfully employing a range of deceptive strategies that both trade upon an awareness of the possibility of false beliefs and presuppose some already operative theory of mind.

Attention↗

PubMed1997

Cognitive restructuring in the treatment of social phobia. Efficacy and mode of action.

Cognitive restructuring (CR) is commonly used to treat social phobia, although its contribution to treatment efficacy has not been established. CR requires the person to think about and discuss feared social events with his or her therapist and thus entails some degree of exposure to social stimuli. CR also is thought to enhance the efficacy of therapeutic exposure exercises (EXP). Four predictions were tested based on this model: Relative to a control intervention matched for the exposure inherent in CR, CR is more effective in (1) reducing social phobia, (2) reducing negative social cognitions, (3) increasing positive cognitions, and (4) enhancing the effects of subsequent EXP. People with generalized social phobia (N = 60) were randomly assigned to CR followed by EXP or to a control intervention followed by EXP. Support was found for predictions 1 to 3, but not 4.

Adult↗

PubMed1995

A pilot study of exposure control of chronic auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND: Many patients complain less of their auditory hallucinations per se than of lack of control of the experiences. There is reason to believe that a non-distraction (exposure) approach could help patients gain more control over persistent auditory hallucinations and teach them that their experience is a form of thinking and has no external source. This study is a pilot test of that idea. METHOD: Five DSM-III-R schizophrenic outpatients with medication-resistant auditory hallucinations improved with a mean of 31 hour-long sessions over 3 months of therapist-guided exposure to their hallucinations and situations likely to evoke them. RESULTS: Improvement was greatest in patients' anxiety and sense of control over their hallucinations, less in social use of leisure and hallucinating time. CONCLUSIONS: These mildly encouraging pilot results warrant a controlled study of exposure for drug-resistant chronic auditory hallucinations and other psychotic experiences which are associated with anxious avoidance.

Anxiety↗

PubMed1994

The defensive function of persecutory delusions. Evidence from attribution tasks.

Abnormalities of 'social' reasoning were investigated in patients suffering from persecutory delusions and in matched depressed and normal controls using transparent (obvious) and opaque (unobvious) tests of attributional style. Whereas depressed and normal subjects yielded similar causal inferences for both attributional measures, the deluded subjects showed a marked shift in internality, attributing negative outcomes to external causes on the transparent Attributional Style Questionnaire but, on the more opaque Pragmatic Inference Task, attributing negative outcomes to internal causes and thus showing a cognitive style resembling that of the depressed group. This finding, interpreted in terms of explicit versus implicit judgements, supports the hypothesis that delusions function as a defence against underlying feelings of low self-esteem.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Popper and nursing theory.

Science seems to develop by inducing new knowledge from observation. However, it is hard to find a rational justification for induction. Popper offers one attempt to resolve this problem. Nursing theorists have tended to ignore or reject Popper, often on the false belief that he is a logical positivist (and hence hostile to qualitative research). Logical positivism claims that meaningful sentences containing any empirical content should ultimately be reducible to simple, observation statements. Popper refutes positivism by showing that there are no such simple statements. He is not a positivist. For Popper, the scientist begins with problems and puts forward trial solutions. These are subjected to rigorous testing aimed at falsifying them. A new theoretical position is then reached in which the scientist knows either that the trial solutions are false or that they have not yet been falsified. Science is characterized by the fact that it tests its ideas through attempted falsification. Non-science tests its ideas through attempted refutation. Nursing theory is a mixture of science and non-science. Popper's method requires rigorous testing of theory in both realms. As such, some nursing theory should be discarded. Popper's view faces at least two important criticisms. One is that a scientist can always reject an apparent falsification by instead altering some auxiliary hypothesis (e.g. denying the accuracy of the falsifying observation). Popper can deal with this argument by saying that defence of a theory in this way will eventually break down if the theory is false. The second criticism is that Popper's method does ultimately draw upon induction. This criticism is true, but his method can be usefully adapted. An adapted from of Popper's philosophy of science provides a good basis for nursing theory.

Humans↗

PubMed1991

Trance logic in hypnosis and imagination.

In 2 experiments we investigated trance logic, or the tolerance of logical incongruity, in age regression and hallucination. Experiment 1 tested 21 hypnotizable and 19 unhypnotizable subjects in an application of the real-simulating model of hypnosis. Experiment 2 tested 26 high and 19 low imagery ability subjects in an adaptation of the model to the imagination context. Subjects' experiences were investigated through the experiential analysis technique. More real than simulating subjects displayed trance logic during age regression, but they did not differ on the major measures of trance logic during hallucination. This pattern of responding occurred in both the hypnosis and the imagination contexts. Subjects' comments suggested that completeness of and belief in age regression or hallucination may play some role in trance logic. The importance of understanding trance logic from the subject's point of view is discussed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1997

Suspiciousness, mental simulation, and norm theory.

Seven studies were conducted to replicate the work of Miller, Turnbull, and McFarland (1989), who tested predictions from norm theory (Kahneman & Miller, 1986). The first three studies with stimulus materials identical to those used by Miller et al. failed to confirm that the ease with which the event might be mentally simulated affected the degree of suspiciousness. In Studies 4, 5, and 6, the improbable events were made objectively more probable, but this did not produce significant results. In the 7th study, the objective probability and attitude toward the target were varied. Although there was a main effect for ease of mental simulation, this effect was produced by only 1 of the 3 vignettes.

Adult↗

PubMed1978

Reality orientation therapy: a study investigating the value of this therapy in the rehabilitation of elderly people.

The Leeds Technique for Therapy with the Aged is described and evaluated. The purpose of the study was two-fold--to evaluate the therapy itself, and to examine it as a possible extra incentive for nurses working with the aged. Forty-six elderly patients were included in the study. Fourteen took part in a pilot study. Later, in a more carefully controlled investigation, the remaining 32 patients were divided into two groups, one of experimental subjects and one of control subjects. Improvement was assessed using the Clifton Assessment Schedule (CAS) and the Stockton Geriatric Rating Scale (SGRS). Twenty-five of the 30 experimental subjects improved and 10 were discharged. Eight of the 16 control subjects improved, but none was discharged.

Aged↗

PubMed1993

Source monitoring.

A framework for understanding source monitoring and relevant empirical evidence is described, and several related phenomena are discussed: old-new recognition, indirect tests, eyewitness testimony, misattributed familiarity, cryptomnesia, and incorporation of fiction into fact. Disruptions in source monitoring (e.g., from confabulation, amnesia, and aging) and the brain regions that are involved are also considered, and source monitoring within a general memory architecture is discussed. It is argued that source monitoring is based on qualities of experience resulting from combinations of perceptual and reflective processes, usually requires relatively differentiated phenomenal experience, and involves attributions varying in deliberateness. These judgments evaluate information according to flexible criteria and are subject to error and disruption. Furthermore, diencephalic and temporal regions may play different roles in source monitoring than do frontal regions of the brain.

Attention↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Was Snow White a transsexual?].

The Rorschach Ink Blot test is considered to be an essential analytical instrument when studying the personalities of individuals presenting identity disorders, in particular, in the context of a sex change request. Nevertheless, there exist less than 20 studies of transsexualism utilising the Rorschach since the creation of this diagnostic category in 1953. This research has mostly concerned itself with relations between psychopathology and transsexualism. Practically non-existent are studies investigating the psychological conditions that permit, shape or induce sex change requests in individuals. Transsexuals request the removal of their genitals through mutilation surgery, which can be seen as subjects literally crying out to be castrated. This request is all the more surprising given that castration, in psychoanalytic terms, is considered to be the most severe punishment that an individual (woman or man) can be threatened with. Therefore, we asked ourselves which psychic conditions could motivate such as request. Based on any earlier study where answers (some explicit, others symbolic) given by sex-change applicants tested on the Rorschach were analysed, results seemed to suggest a counter-phobic attitude underlying sex-reassignment requests (28). According to these hypotheses, the fear of castration (banal as such) can only be overcome through the active search for castration itself. In opting for castration, the transsexual puts an end to the states of anxious waiting that are dominated by feelings of the incertitude and unpredictability of an eventual castration. Once obtained, the threat it constituted disappears, and with it so does the fear. Thus, by taking this active and voluntary step, the subject is no longer exposed to an imminent danger in a passive manner. This in itself creates a great feeling of relief, if not of actual pleasure in the subject (28). In this article, we postulated in a purely speculative manner, the existence of one or several modalities in the transsexual dynamics. Nevertheless, one can ask oneself about the possibility of a request based on a desire rather than on a defense, or even on the existence of a defensive process diametrically opposed to the counter-phobic attitude and which, instead of actively provoking the dreaded reality, would privilege its avoidance and the search of passivity. This latter hypothesis has the advantage of being rather easy to explore with the Rorschach because, according to Exner, the predominance of passive compared to active human movement responses (which he terms the Snow White Syndrome) indicates the propensity to escape into passive fantasies and the tendency to avoid the initiative for behaviour or decision-making, if other people can do it in the subject's place (12). Our results largely confirmed the hypothesis of the existence of an opposite mechanism, as a third of subjects (n = 26) presented Snow White Syndrome. According to Exner, these transsexuals are typically characterized by hiding into a world of make believe, avoiding all responsibility, as well as any decision-making. This passivity in our Snow White Syndrome group was all the more remarkable in that, on the whole, it infiltrated into all the movement responses and seemed to define a rigid style of thinking and mental elaboration, in addition to a suggestive content of passivity. However, this condition cannot be associated with a general lack of dynamism or energy. In fact, the treatment of information, which provides data concerning the motivation to treat a stimulus field of the stimulus--whether this concerns the capture (L) of the stimulus or the elaboration (DQ+) of the response--displayed a sufficient amount of motivation. Furthermore, internal resources (EA) were considerable and were brought into play whenever it was necessary to adopt a behaviour or make a decision. Furthermore, based on these Rorschach findings, we note that in transsexuals with Snow White Syndrome, there is a stereotyped tendency to shy away from difficulties by seeking refuge in realistic representations (but that lack in variety), which could be materialized by actions, but where the initiative is delegated to others. These transsexuals appear to shy away from the difficulties of life by seeking refuge into a world of fantasy, which they fill with the representations borrowed from reality (rather than fantasy) and consequently that are liable to be transposed, if necessary, back into reality. Therefore, one can better understand why they shun away from the deceiving reality that their physical sex represents, into the satisfying dream where they possess the genitals of the opposite sex, that is, a perfectly real organ, no longer the result of the subject's fantasy world.

Adult↗

PubMed1989

Experiences of alien control in schizophrenia reflect a disorder in the central monitoring of action.

Twenty-three acute psychotic patients who were drug free at the time of testing performed a motor task designed to elicit many errors. Normal subjects and many of the psychotic patients were able to correct these errors in the absence of visual feedback. The ability to make such corrections depends on the subject knowing what response he has just made. Patients with experiences of alien control of their thoughts and actions who formed a subgroup of those classified as schizophrenic, were significantly less likely to make error corrections in the absence of visual feedback. This result is consistent with our previous suggestion (Frith, 1987) that these symptoms are a consequence of problems with the central monitoring of responses.

Affective Disorders, Psychotic↗

PubMed1991

Cognitive therapy. A 30-year retrospective.

Several lines of investigation have evolved from the initial cognitive model of depression and other disorders. A large number of studies have tested the cognitive model using both clinical and laboratory-based strategies. In general, studies that most closely approximate the clinical conditions from which the theory was derived are supportive of the cognitive model of depression. Studies of anxiety and panic, although fewer, generally support the cognitive model of anxiety and panic. The application to the treatment of clinical problems has been promising and supports the concept of cognitive specificity. The cognitive therapy of depression has led to the utilization of specific cognitive strategies based on the specific conceptualizations of a given disorder to a wide variety of disorders. Study of abnormal reactions has also provided clues to the cognitive structure of normal reactions.

Anxiety Disorders↗

PubMed1990

Young children's understanding of fact beliefs versus value beliefs.

Recent research on the development of children's knowledge about the mind has shown that young 3-year-olds have difficulty inferring that another person holds a false belief about a matter of verifiable fact, even when provided with considerable help. 4 studies tested the hypothesis that they would have less difficulty inferring that another person holds an odd, nonnormative belief about a matter of taste or value--one which, like the false fact belief, they themselves do not hold. On fact-belief tasks, an experimenter acted as if, or even explicitly stated that, she believed that the contents of a container were other than what the children knew to be the case. On value-belief tasks, she behaved as if she believed that a stimulus had a good or bad taste, smell, or appearance, whereas they thought it had the opposite. The results of all 4 studies confirmed the hypothesis.

Attention↗

PubMed1996

Monitoring the source of memory in detoxified alcoholics.

The ability to monitor the source of remembered information and related reflective cognitive processes was examined in normal volunteers and detoxified alcoholics. Normal volunteers were very accurate judges of whether remembered events were presented as stimuli or were self-generated, even when memory was tested 2 days later. In contrast, a subgroup of otherwise cognitively unimpaired alcoholics demonstrated impairments in the ability to track the source of remembered knowledge and were also less able to inhibit intrusion errors in recalling information from memory. These findings provide preliminary evidence of an impairment in cognitive control functions in certain alcoholics. This conclusion is supported by associated findings indicating that, among alcoholics, performance on explicit memory tasks that required reflective cognitive operations were positively correlated with glucose utilization rates in left prefrontal, temporal, and posterior orbital frontal cortical regions.

Adult↗

PubMed1995

Reasoning about the referent of a picture versus reasoning about the picture as the referent: an effect of visual realism.

Research on picture perception and picture-based problem solving has generally considered the information that enables one to "see" and think about a picture's subject matter. However, people often reason about a picture or representation as the referent itself. The question addressed here is whether pictorial features themselves help determine when one reasons about the referent of an image, as with an engrossing movie, and when one reasons about the image in its own right, as with abstract art. Two experiments tested the hypothesis that pictures with relatively high fidelity to their referents lead people to think about those referents, whereas pictures with relatively low fidelity lead people to think about the picture as a referent. Subjects determined whether marks on the bottom and top boards of an open hinge would meet if the hinge were closed. Accuracy and latency results indicated that subjects who saw realistic displays simulated the physical behavior of the hinge through analog imagery. In contrast, subjects who saw schematic displays tended to reason about static features of the display such as line lengths and angles. The results demonstrate that researchers must be cautious when generalizing from reasoning about diagrammatic materials to reasoning about the referents themselves.

Adult↗