Psychological Opinion Research Articles

Continuity in mental development from infancy.

In this essay we document moderate continuity in mental development beginning in infancy and extending into childhood. Psychological opinion in the past has tended to favor discontinuity theories of cognitive development from infancy. In recent years, however, the foundations on which discontinuity positions were originally established have themselves come under question and new findings grounded in new assessment procedures have appeared, necessitating revision of opinion on this significant psychological and developmental issue. Our essay has several aims. We first review briefly the bases for contemporary discontinuity theories of mental development. Second, we present current findings that support the alternative proposition of continuity: Recent research demonstrates that infants who more efficiently encode visual stimuli or more efficiently recollect visual or auditory stimuli tend to perform more proficiently on traditional psychometric assessments of intelligence and language during childhood. Third, we scrutinize the assessment methods from which these continuity results derive. Fourth, we offer several models that help to explain the continuity findings. Fifth, we discuss critically the origins and the maintenance of continuity in mental development as it is coming to be conceptualized currently. Finally, we reflect on implications of continuity for the future of infant assessments specifically and for theories of early mental development generally.

Hunting Ability and Reproductive Success Among Male Ache Foragers: Preliminary Results

Hunting Ability and Reproductive Success Among Male Ache Foragers: Preliminary Results

Validation of a systems-actuarial computer process for multidimensional classification of child psychopathology.

Tested diagnostic classifications of child psychopathology produced by a computerized technique known as multidimensional actuarial classification (MAC) against the criterion of expert psychological opinion. The MAC program applies series of statistical decision rules to assess the importance of and relationships among several dimensions of classification, i.e., intellectual functioning, academic achievement, adaptive behavior, and social and behavioral adjustment, to perform differential diagnosis of children's mental retardation, specific learning disabilities, behavioral and emotional disturbance, possible communication or perceptual-motor impairment, and academic under- and overachievement in reading and mathematics. Classifications rendered by MAC are compared to those offered by two expert child psychologists for cases of 73 children referred for psychological services. Experts' agreement with MAC was significant for all classification areas, as was MAC's agreement with the experts held as a conjoint reference standard. Whereas the experts' agreement with MAC averaged 86.0% above chance, their agreement with one another averaged 76.5% above chance. Implications of the findings are explored and potential advantages of the systems-actuarial approach are discussed.

Employment Tests and Employment Discrimination: A Dissenting Psychological Opinion

Employment Tests and Employment Discrimination: A Dissenting Psychological Opinion

Suicide among U.S. women physicians, 1967-1972

The authors examined AMA records of the deaths of 751 women physicians during 1967-1972. Forty-nine (6.56%) committed suicide. The suicide rate for women physicians (40.7 per 100,000 per year) was higher than for men physicians and about four times that for white American women of the same age. From the known morbid risk for suicide among women with primary affective disorder, the authors calculated that about 65% of American women physicians have primary affective disorder.

The Trail Making Test and Bender Background Interference Procedure as screening devices.

The Trail Making Test and Bender Background Interference Procedure were evaluated with 598 Ss against both external neurologic criteria and against psychological opinion derived from a more complete evaluation. For Trails, highly significant differences in mean scores were seen when preselected neurologic patients and patients without neurologic stigmata were compared. Similarly, the distribution of classification of these patients by Bender is significantly different from chance. Application of these measures in a screening paradigm, however, yielded large numbers of false negatives against both neurological and psychological criteria. It was not possible to establish an optimal cutting score to justify application of these measures as screening devices, either alone or in concert.

Psychological and psychiatric opinions on schizophrenia.

Psychological and psychiatric opinions on schizophrenia.

Defining borderline patients: an overview.

This review of the descriptive literature on borderline patients indicates that accounts of such patients vary depending upon who is describing them, in what context, how the samples are selected, and what data are collected. The authors identify six features that provide a rational means for diagnosing borderline patients during an initial interview: the presence of intense affect, usually depressive or hostile; a history of impulsive behavior; a certain social adaptiveness; brief psychotic experiences; loose thinking in unstructured situations; and relationships that vacillate between transient superficiality and intense dependency. Reliable identification of these patients will permit better treatment planning and clinical research.

Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach

Since the turn of the twentieth century, legislation in Western countries has expanded rapidly to reverse the brief dominance of laissez faire during the nineteenth century. The state no longer merely protects against violations of person and property through murder, rape, or burglary but also restricts ‘discrimination’ against certain minorities, collusive business arrangements, ‘jaywalking’, travel, the materials used in construction, and thousands of other activities. The activities restricted not only are numerous but also range widely, affecting persons in very different pursuits and of diverse social backgrounds, education levels, ages, races, etc. Moreover, the likelihood that an offender will be discovered and convicted and the nature and extent of punishments differ greatly from person to person and activity to activity. Yet, in spite of such diversity, some common properties are shared by practically all legislation, and these properties form the subject matter of this essay.

Religious Sectarianism in the Lebanese Political System

Previous articleNext article No AccessReligious Sectarianism in the Lebanese Political SystemRalph E. CrowRalph E. Crow Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Politics Volume 24, Number 3Aug., 1962 Sponsored by the Southern Political Science Association Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1017/S0022381600015450 Views: 130Total views on this site Citations: 9Citations are reported from Crossref PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Alexander Henley Normalization through Religious Representation, Implicit Religion 23, no.44 (May 2022): 363–387.https://doi.org/10.1558/imre.20626Matt Buehler, Jonah Schulhofer-Wohl The international sources of prejudice against Shi‘a in the Middle East and North Africa: Original survey evidence from Morocco, Mediterranean Politics 21 (Sep 2021): 1–29.https://doi.org/10.1080/13629395.2021.1974198Vivienne Badaan, Rudy Richa, John T Jost Ideological justification of the sectarian political system in Lebanon, Current Opinion in Psychology 32 (Apr 2020): 138–145.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2019.07.033Sanaa Alsarghali Sectarianism and Constitutional Identity, The Review of Faith & International Affairs 18, no.11 (Mar 2020): 97–108.https://doi.org/10.1080/15570274.2020.1729512Mahmood Monshipouri, Jonathon Whooley Minorities and Marginalized Communities in the Middle East: The Case for Inclusion, (Jan 2011): 153–169.https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137001986_9Max Weiss The Historiography of Sectarianism in Lebanon, History Compass 7, no.11 (Jan 2009): 141–154.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1478-0542.2008.00570.xDanilo Di Mauro The Consociational Democracy at Stake: Four Approaches to Explain Lebanon Past and Present, Acta Politica 43, no.44 (Dec 2008): 453–471.https://doi.org/10.1057/ap.2008.15Jame McKay Religious Diversity and Ethnic Cohesion: A Three Generational Analysis of Syrian-Lebanese Christians in Sydney, International Migration Review 19, no.22 (Jun 2018): 318–334.https://doi.org/10.1177/019791838501900206John P. Entelis Reformist Ideology in the Arab World: The Cases of Tunisia and Lebanon, The Review of Politics 37, no.44 (Aug 2009): 513–546.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034670500015084

Psychiatric versus psychological opinion regarding personality disturbances.

Psychiatric versus psychological opinion regarding personality disturbances.