Appraisal of four psychological theories of paranoid phenomenaColby, Kenneth M.
doi: 10.1037/0021-843X.86.1.54pmid: N/A
Four psychological theories of paranoid phenomena, termed the shame-humiliation, homosexual, hostility, and homeostatic theories, are compared for their explanatory power. The shame-humiliation theory is considered preferable because of its greater explanatory range and its ability to include the others as special cases. This theory has been embodied in an interactive computer simulation model of paranoid processes to assure consistency and provide testability. The theory also has direct pragmatic implications for management, treatment, and prevention of paranoid disorders.
A test of reciprocal inhibition: Are anxiety and sexual arousal in women mutually inhibitory?Hoon, Peter W.; Wincze, John P.; Hoon, Emily F.
doi: 10.1037/0021-843X.86.1.65pmid: N/A
Tested J. Wolpe's (1958) prediction that autonomic sexual and anxiety arousal states are mutually inhibitory. Using a new physiological measure of female sexual arousal (vaginal blood volume), changes in 7 sexually experienced Ss (mean age 27 yrs) were compared during erotic video stimulation following anxiety and control stimulus preexposure and during anxiety and control stimulation following erotic stimulus preexposure. Consistent with reciprocal inhibition theory, when Ss were sexually aroused by erotic preexposure, anxiety arousal inhibited sexual arousal more rapidly than did an attention control stimulus. However, contrary to reciprocal inhibition theory, Ss became more rapidly aroused sexually following anxiety preexposure than following neutral preexposure. In the case of heart rate, changes were compared during erotic and neutral stimulation following anxiety preexposure and during anxiety arousal following erotic and neutral preexposure. Consistent with the literature to date, there were no heart rate changes that could be attributed to differential preexposure. Taken together, the results do not support Wolpe's reciprocal inhibition theory but do suggest a context interpretation: The way in which sexual and anxiety arousal states interact with each other may depend on the context in which Ss perceive the stimuli that generate these respective arousal states. The clinical implications of the findings are discussed. (27 ref)
Components of processing deficit among paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenicsNeufeld, Richard W.
doi: 10.1037/0021-843X.86.1.60pmid: N/A
22 paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenic inpatients were compared to 18 normals in their performance on a sentence verification task. Analysis of latency times indicated that the groups did not differ with respect to the aspect of processing involving central scanning and comparison operations. However, the paranoids were significantly slower than the normals in their overall latency times. Possible sources of this difference are discussed, and results are related to past evidence and hypotheses about central processing performance among schizophrenics. (21 ref)
Resolution of inconsistent attitude communications in normal and schizophrenic subjectsNewman, Eugene H.
doi: 10.1037/0021-843X.86.1.41pmid: N/A
Investigated the resolution of inconsistent attitude communications by 30 schizophrenic patients as compared to a matched group of 30 normal Ss. 12 inconsistent messages served as the experimental stimuli. The verbal channel, represented by sentences, carried 3 degrees of verbal strength––mild, moderate, and strong––used for both the positive and negative conditions. The nonverbal channel was vocal tone, held constant at a moderate strength, independently assessed with a band-pass filter. It was found that schizophrenics resolved more to the verbal channel than did normals. Schizophrenics showed a trend toward increased confusion overall and were found to rate inconsistent messages with a negative vocal component as more confusing than did normal Ss. Based on the findings of this study, some general guidelines for the practicing therapist and implications for double-bind theory are discussed. (17 ref)
Schizophrenic discrimination learning as a function of aversive social and physical reinforcementFrieswyk, Siebolt H.
doi: 10.1037/0021-843X.86.1.47pmid: N/A
60 schizophrenics comparable in important psychopathological variables (e.g., Inpatient Multidimensional Psychiatric Rating Scale and the Premorbid History-Phillips Prognostic Rating Scale) to Ss in other similar studies were compared on a discrimination learning task with noxious physical reinforcement (intense white noise at 91–94 db) under experimenter (E)-present conditions with motivational instructions and E-absent conditions with neutral instructions. Aversive reinforcement was delivered on a response contingent basis for avoidance and escape training under both social conditions. Long-term effects were evaluated 3 consecutive learning tasks: before, during, and following the 6 reinforcement conditions. Results provide strong confirmation that social factors in the E–S relationship determine the speed of learning throughout. Regardless of physical punishment or the reinforcement paradigm (avoidance or escape), Ss learned significantly faster in the E's presence with motivational instructions both during and after the reinforcement phase. The theoretical implications of what is called biological motivation were found to be insufficient grounds for ordering the data. (19 ref)
Neuropsychological differences among subtypes of schizophreniaGoldstein, Gerald; Halperin, Keith M.
doi: 10.1037/0021-843X.86.1.34pmid: N/A
Administered the WAIS, the Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery, associated test procedures, and complete neurological evaluations to 140 schizophrenic inpatients. These Ss were subdivided according to 3 criteria: paranoid vs nonparanoid, neurologically normal vs abnormal, and long-term vs short-term institutionalization. Comparisons between groups were made using 3 stepwise discriminant analyses. Although all of these analyses yielded percentages of correct classification that exceeded chance, the greatest accuracy by far was obtained for the long-term vs short-term institutionalization subdivision. Individual tests contributing the most discriminatory power varied from comparison to comparison, with a complex problem-solving test being the best discriminator in the long-term vs short-term comparison and a simple motor test the best discriminator in the other comparisons. (20 ref)
Immunization against learned helplessness in manJones, Stanton L.; Nation, Jack R.; Massad, Phillip
doi: 10.1037/0021-843X.86.1.75pmid: N/A
Immunization against learned helplessness has been found in dogs and rats; the present experiments tested for the same effect in humans. In Exp I, 38 college students were divided into 4 groups. A helplessness control group received no immunization training, whereas 3 other groups received either a 0, 50, or 100% schedule of success on a series of discrimination problems. All groups were then given insoluble problems and were subsequently tested on a human shuttle box. An immunization effect against helplessness was produced; the 50% immunization schedule produced performance significantly superior to the helplessness control and 0% groups. The 100% group failed to produce the immunization effect. Exp II with 45 Ss involved a partial replication of the 1st experiment, but anagram solutions were used as the test task. Also, control groups based on the triadic design were included in Exp II. Results for the 2nd experiment essentially paralleled the results from Exp I. Immunization effects were shown following a 50% schedule but not following either 0 or 100% immunization schedule. These findings lend substantial support to the stimulus–response explanation of helplessness phenomena over the expectancy-of-independence explanation. Implications of the study for the helplessness model of depression and for strategies in clinical therapy are also discussed. (19 ref)
Performance of process schizophrenics on tasks involving visual searchRussell, Paul N.; Knight, Robert G.
doi: 10.1037/0021-843X.86.1.16pmid: N/A
Compared the response times of 32 process schizophrenics and 16 nonhospitalized matched controls on 3 visual search tasks. Exp I involved the location of a target letter within an array of different background letters. Other experiments required a same–different response. Exp II involved the identification of a single different letter set within the uniform context of a square display formed by up to 40 replicates of another letter. Exp III presented 2 3–6 letter clusters in a single horizontal line. The 2 clusters were identical or had 1 different letter. Word and nonword clusters were used. Paranoid and nonparanoid groups did not differ on any measure. Schizophrenic response times were about 1 sec longer, but measures of rate of increase in response time with number of letters displayed did not generally differ significantly between groups. Schizophrenics tended to make more errors. Experimental manipulations affected the response times and error rates of schizophrenics and controls alike, and to much the same degree. Results suggest that process schizophrenics are not abnormally slow when extracting information from visual displays, and they appear to perform operations and strategies similar to those of normals when doing so. (30 ref)