Showing papers in "Journal of Abnormal Psychology in 1993"

Adolescent psychopathology: I. Prevalence and incidence of depression and other DSM-III-R disorders in high school students.

Abstract: Data were collected on the point and lifetime prevalences, 1-year incidence, and comorbidity of depression with other disorders (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders [3rd ed., rev.]) in a randomly selected sample (n = 1,710) of high school students at point of entry and at 1-year follow-up (n = 1,508). The Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children was used to collect diagnostic information; 9.6% met criteria for a current disorder, more than 33% had experienced a disorder over their lifetimes, and 31.7% of the latter had experienced a second disorder. High relapse rates were found for all disorders, especially for unipolar depression (18.4%) and substance use (15.0%). Female subjects had significantly higher rates at all age levels for unipolar depression, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, and adjustment disorders; male subjects had higher rates of disruptive behavior disorders.

Response styles and the duration of episodes of depressed mood.

Abstract: We examined the relationship between ruminative and distracting styles of responding to depressed mood and the duration of mood. Seventy-nine subjects kept accounts of their moods and responses to their moods for 30 consecutive days. The majority of subjects (83%) showed consistent styles of responding to depressed mood. Regression analyses suggested that the more ruminative responses subjects engaged in, the longer their periods of depressed mood, even after taking into account the initial severity of the mood. In addition, women were more likely than men to have a ruminative response style and on some measures to have more severe and long-lasting periods of depression.

Emotion in the criminal psychopath: startle reflex modulation.

Abstract: Startle-elicited blinks were measured during presentation of affective slides to test hypotheses concerning emotional responding in psychopaths. Subjects were 54 incarcerated sexual offenders divided into nonpsychopathic, psychopathic, and mixed groups based on file and interview data. Consistent with findings for normal college students, nonpsychopaths and mixed subjects showed a significant linear relationship between slide valence and startle magnitude, with startle responses largest during unpleasant slides and smallest during pleasant slides. This effect was absent in psychopaths. Group differences in startle modulation were related to affective features of psychopathy, but not to antisocial behavior per se. Psychopathy had no effect on autonomic or self-report responses to slides. These results suggest an abnormality in the processing of emotional stimuli by psychopaths that manifests itself independently of affective report.

Subliminal processing of emotional information in anxiety and depression

Abstract: The study investigated selective processing of emotional information in anxiety and depression using a modified Stroop color naming task. Anxious (n = 19), depressed (n = 18), and normal control (n = 18) subjects were required to name the background colors of anxiety-related, depression-related, positive, categorized, and uncategorized neutral words. Half of the words were presented supraliminally, half subliminally. Anxious subjects, compared with depressed and normal subjects, showed relatively slower color naming for both supraliminal and subliminal negative words. The results suggest a preattentive processing bias for negative information in anxiety. According to Beck's schema model, anxiety and depression are each characterized by mood-congruent biases that operate throughout all aspects of processing, such as attention, reasoning, and memory (Beck, 1976; Beck, Emery, & Greenberg, 1986; Beck, Rush, Shaw, & Emery, 1979). Anxiety and depression are presumed to differ in terms of the content of the processing bias. According to this content-specificity hypothesis, anxious individuals selectively process anxiety-relevant information, whereas depressed individuals selectively process depression-relevant information. The evidence for Beck's theory has been mixed. For example, several studies have suggested that anxiety is primarily associated with a bias in early aspects of processing such as attention (see Mathews, 1990, for a review), whereas depression is primarily associated with a bias in later stages of processing such as memory (for reviews, see Dalgleish & Watts, 1990; MacLeod,

Emotion perception in schizophrenia: Specific deficit or further evidence of generalized poor performance?

Abstract: Several studies have investigated the ability of schizophrenics to perceive facial and vocal emotion in others. Although most suggest that schizophrenics have an emotion perception deficit, there is little agreement as to its specific nature. Much of the confusion may be attributed to the failure of investigators to use the differential deficit design and standardized measures of emotion perception. The present study reexamined the question of an emotion recognition deficit in a sample of 29 unmedicated schizophrenics and 23 normal controls, using facial and vocal emotion identification and discrimination tests that have been standardized and cross-validated plus two neuropsychological control tests. Results suggested that differences between schizophrenics and normals on such tasks reflect a generalized performance deficit, rather than a specific emotion recognition deficit.

Relation of parental alcoholism to early adolescent substance use: A test of three mediating mechanisms.

Abstract: The current study assessed 3 hypothesized mediating mechanisms underlying the relation between parental alcoholism and adolescent substance use. Using structural equation modeling, we analyzed data obtained from a large community sample of adolescent children of alcoholics and a demographically matched comparison group. Results suggested that parental alcoholism influenced adolescent substance use through stress and negative affect pathways, through decreased parental monitoring, and through increased temperamental emotionality (which was associated with heightened negative affect). Both negative affect and impaired parental monitoring were associated with adolescents' membership in a peer network that supported drug use behavior. The data did not support a link between parental alcoholism and temperamental sociability.

Dimensions of perfectionism, daily stress, and depression: a test of the specific vulnerability hypothesis

Abstract: We tested whether perfectionism dimensions interact with specific stressors to predict depression. A depressed patient sample (N = 51) and a general psychiatric sample (N = 94) completed measures of perfectionism, hassles, and depression. Subjects in Sample 2 also completed other personality measures to assess the amount of unique variance in depression. Partial support was obtained in that in both samples self-oriented perfectionism interacted only with achievement stressors to predict depression. Socially prescribed perfectionism interacted with interpersonal stress in Sample 1 and with achievement stress in Sample 2 to predict depression. Several personality variables, including socially prescribed perfectionism, accounted for unique variance in depression. The results suggest that perfectionism dimensions are associated with depression and may constitute specific vulnerability factors.

Explaining the relation between IQ and delinquency: Class, race, test motivation, school failure, or self-control?

Abstract: An inverse relation between IQ and delinquency has been well established, but the direction of effect remains to be specified. Differing explanatory accounts of the relation were empirically examined in the present study using data on 13-year-old boys involved in a high-risk longitudinal study. Accounts that interpreted the relation as spurious or that posited that delinquency-related factors lead to low IQ scores received no support; findings were most consistent with the hypothesis that the direction of effect runs from low IQ to delinquency. The IQ-delinquency relation was robust after race, class, and observed test motivation were controlled statistically. Additionally, the effect of IQ was mediated by school performance for Black youth but not for White youth. On average, delinquents score eight IQ points lower than nondelinquents on standard intelligence tests. Additionally, this relation is stronger for verbal tests than for performance tests (Prentice & Kelly, 1963; West & Farrington, 1973). The existence of this negative relation is difficult to deny; it is one of the most robust findings across numerous studies of juvenile delinquency. In fact, all previous reviews of the literature on IQ and delinquency (Caplan, 1965; Hirschi & Hindelang, 1977; Wilson & Herrnstein, 1985; Woodward, 1955) have escaped with the conclusion that a negative relation exists. Where reviewers have disagreed, however, is with regard to the interpretation of this relation. There are three general ways in which IQ may be related causally to delinquency: A third variable may cause both low IQ and delinquency, in which case the relation is said to be spurious; a delinquent life-style may result in lower IQ scores; or a low IQ may lead to delinquency. All of these possibilities have been advanced by one theorist or another. We examined each of these possibilities and assessed empirically which is the best description of the relation between IQ and delinquency.

Intellectual performance and school failure in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and in their siblings.

Abstract: We made psychiatric and intellectual assessments of 140 children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), 120 normal controls, and their 303 siblings. The index children were white, non-Hispanic boys. ADHD children were more likely to have had learning disabilities, repeated grades, been placed in special classes, and received academic tutoring. They also did worse on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children--Revised (WISC-R). Among ADHD probands, comorbid conduct, major depressive, and anxiety disorders predicted school placement more than school failure or WISC-R scores. However, the neuropsychological disability of all ADHD children could not be attributed to comorbid disorders because those without comorbidity had more school failure and lower WISC-R scores than normal controls. Intellectual impairment was also increased among siblings of ADHD children. This provides converging evidence that the ADHD syndrome is familial.

Depressive reactions to failure in a naturalistic setting: a test of the hopelessness and self-esteem theories of depression

Abstract: We tested the hopelessness and self-esteem theories of depression and an integration of the two by examining whether a stable, global attributional style (attributional diathesis) and low self-esteem interacted with the outcomes students received on a midterm examination to predict their subsequent depressive reactions over the course of 5 days. Students' immediate depressive reactions (on receipt of grades) were predicted solely by the examination outcome, whereas their enduring depressive reactions during the following 4 days were predicted by the Attributional Diathesis x Low Self-Esteem x Failure interaction. The results also indicated that the three-way interaction predicted enduring depressive reactions through the mediating role of hopelessness.

Psychosocial correlates of recurrent childhood pain: a comparison of pediatric patients with recurrent abdominal pain, organic illness, and psychiatric disorders.

Abstract: Pediatric patients with recurrent abdominal pain (RAP) were compared with patients with peptic disease, patients with emotional disorders, and well children with regard to (a) emotional and somatic symptoms and (b) theoretically derived variables, including negative life events, competence, family functioning, and the modeling and encouragement of illness behavior. RAP patients had levels of emotional distress and somatic complaints higher than those of well children and lower than those of psychiatric patients, but not different from those of patients with peptic disease. RAP patients had fewer negative life events, better family functioning, and higher competence than children with emotional disorders. In comparison with well children and psychiatric patients, both RAP and peptic disease patients had a higher incidence of illness in other family members and perceived greater parental encouragement of illness behavior for abdominal symptoms.

On the automatic nature of phobic fear: conditioned electrodermal responses to masked fear-relevant stimuli.

Abstract: Normal subjects (n = 64) were exposed either to pictures of snakes and spiders or to pictures of flowers and mushrooms in a differential conditioning paradigm in which one of the pictures signaled an electric shock. In a subsequent extinction series, these stimuli were presented backwardly masked by another stimulus for half of the subjects, whereas the other half received non-masked extinction. In support of a hypothesis that suggests that nonconscious information-processing mechanisms are sufficient to activate responses to fear-relevant stimuli, differential skin conductance response to masked conditioning and control stimuli was obvious only for subjects conditioned to fear-relevant stimuli. These results were replicated in a second experiment (n = 32), which also demonstrated that the effect was unaffected by which visual half-field was used for stimulus presentation.

Models of cognitive mediation and moderation in child depression.

Abstract: Negative cognitive errors, attributional style, positive and negative events, peer-nominated competence, and self-reported depression were assessed in 356 fourth, sixth, and eighth graders. Data supported theoretical models in which attributional style and cognitive errors mediated the relation of competence to depression. Data did not support models in which attributional style moderated the relation between either life events or competence and depression; however, weak support emerged for a moderational model involving negative life events and cognitive errors. The viability of diathesis-stress models in childhood, especially in which cognitive style is the diathesis, is critically examined.

Flat affect in schizophrenia does not reflect diminished subjective experience of emotion.

Abstract: Although accorded historical significance, affective features of schizophrenia have only begun to receive systematic empirical attention. Interestingly, both early psychopathology writers and more recent investigators have reported frequent discrepancies between schizophrenics' feelings and outward expressions of emotion. Using a more comprehensive assessment of emotion, the present study examines the relationship between emotional experience and expression in a sample of medication-free schizophrenics. Compared with their normal counterparts, schizophrenics were indeed much less facially expressive of both positive and negative emotions during emotion-eliciting films, yet they reported experiencing as much positive and negative emotion. Therefore, the blunted affect typical of some schizophrenics misrepresents their underlying emotional experience. Future research into an inhibition hypothesis is recommended.

Personality and behavioral vulnerabilities associated with risk status for eating disorders in adolescent girls.

Abstract: This article presents first-year cross-sectional findings from a study of the development of eating disorders. Adolescent female (N = 937) 7th through 10th graders completed measures that included information on personality, self-concept, eating patterns, and attitudes. A risk status score was calculated on the basis of comprehensive information regarding DSM-III-R eating disorders criteria and other weight and attitudinal data. All personality measures showed significant differences according to risk, based on subject classification into high, moderate, and mild risk status and comparison groups. Early puberty was not associated with increased risk. The strongest predictor variables for risk were body dissatisfaction, negative emotionality, and lack of interoceptive awareness. The possible diathesis of personality including temperamental factors in the later development of an eating disorder is discussed.

Differences between depressed and nondepressed individuals in the recognition of and response to facial emotional cues.

Abstract: The present study investigated the recognition of, and responses to, facial expressions of emotion. Participants were all women and consisted of the following groups: (a) Sixteen depressed college students; (b) 16 nondepressed college students; (c) 16 depressed psychiatric patients; and (d) 11 nondepressed psychiatric patients. Results suggest that both depressed groups, relative to the nondepressed college group, made more errors in recognizing the facial expressions and reported more freezing or tensing; higher fear and depression reactions; and less comfort with their own emotional reactions to these expressions and a stronger desire to change these reactions. Few differences were found between the depressed psychiatric patients and the psychiatric control subjects. It is concluded that inappropriate reactions to others' emotions may maintain or increase depression.

Age-cohort changes in the lifetime occurrence of depression and other mental disorders

Abstract: Data from three samples of adults (Ns = 571, 472, and 989) and a sample of adolescents (N = 1,710) supported the possibility that the prevalence of major depression has been increasing in recent birth cohorts, a phenomenon labeled the age-cohort effect (ACE). A significant ACE for relapse was also found in 1 of the adult samples. In addition, early onset age in the adults (prior to age 25) tended to be associated with relapse. Adults in recent birth cohorts were also found to show an elevated prevalence of other disorders. We examined the power of 4 variables (current mood state, social desirability response bias, labeling, and time interval between the episode and the diagnostic interview) to produce these results without an actual increase in the rate of mental disorder. With 1 exception (labeling), the variables were significantly associated with reports of past episodes of disorder and with birth cohort. Controlling for their influence, however, did not reduce the ACE.

Attributing negative intent to wife behavior: The attributions of maritally violent versus nonviolent men.

Abstract: This study compared attributions for negative wife behavior offered by three groups of husbands: 22 maritally violent and distressed, 17 nonviolent but maritally distressed, and 17 nonviolent and nondistressed. Husbands rated wife behaviors presented in nine hypothetical problematic marital situation vignettes. On a measure of responsibility attributions, violent husbands were more likely than nondistressed husbands to attribute negative intentions, selfish motivation, and blame to the wife. On a measure of possible negative wife intentions, violent husbands were more likely than either distressed or nondistressed men to attribute negative intentions to the wife. Exploratory analyses suggested that certain types of marital situations (e.g., jealousy and rejection from wife) were particularly likely to elicit attributions of negative intent from violent husbands. Language: en

The social self in bulimia nervosa: public self-consciousness, social anxiety, and perceived fraudulence.

Abstract: Bulimic women appear preoccupied not only with their physical presentation but also with their "social self"--how others perceive them in general. This study examined the relationship of the social self to body esteem and to bulimia nervosa. In Phase 1, in which 222 nonclinical women (aged 16 to 50) participated, the social-self measures of Perceived Fraudulence, Social Anxiety, and Public Self-Consciousness were negatively associated with body esteem. In Phase 2, 34 bulimic women were compared with 33 Ss scoring high on the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT) and 67 matched control. Bulimic Ss, high-EAT Ss, and control Ss all differed on Perceived Fraudulence, and bulimic Ss and high-EAT Ss scored higher than control Ss on Public Self-Consciousness and Social Anxiety. The findings strongly support the hypothesized link of social-self concerns to body dissatisfaction and bulimia nervosa.

Cognitions, Depressive Symptoms, and Development in Adolescents

Abstract: This study examined the generalizability of cognitive models of depression to adolescents and explored developmental differences with regard to depressotypic cognitions. Self-reported depressive symptoms and various hypothesized cognitive correlates (e.g., automatic thoughts, attributions, dysfunctional attitudes) were investigated in a sample of 688 adolescents in grades 7 through 12. Measures of normative adolescent cognitions (e.g., egocentrism, self-consciousness) also were included. There was a strong association between negative thinking and depression in adolescents. There was no association between depressogenic thinking and age, nor did the strength of the association between negative cognitions and depression vary from early to middle adolescence. Finally, negative cognitions were associated with self-report measures of both depressive and anxious symptoms.

Negative reciprocity and communication in couples with a violent husband.

Abstract: To better understand the relationship dynamics of couples experiencing husband-to-wife violence, the interaction patterns of 29 domestically violent (DV), 15 distressed but nonviolent (DNV), and 13 happily married (HM) couples were examined using the Marital Interaction Coding System and lag sequential analyses. DV spouses were generally more often aversive and less often facilitative than nonviolent couples. DV couples were significantly more likely to engage in negative reciprocity than their DNV or their HM counterparts. DV wives were as likely as their husbands to reciprocate negative behavior. Furthermore, no support was found for a negative reinforcement hypothesis that husbands' aversiveness was shaped or maintained by wives' capitulation. There have been few systematic efforts to study the interaction patterns of physically abusive husbands and their wives. However, the study of these interaction patterns through current observational methods promises to provide a unique and invaluable source of information in our continuing efforts to understand and treat domestic violence. To date, the only published research using observational measures with violent couples is the work of Margolin and her associates (e.g., Burman, John, & Margolin, 1992; Margolin, John, & Gleberman, 1988). These investigators found that physically aggressive husbands were more negative than their maritally discordant but nonviolent counterparts. The findings for the wives, however, were less clear-cut. Wives in violent marriages exhibited more negative behavior during the middle of the interaction than their nonviolent counterparts; yet by the end of the interaction, the groups were indistinguishable. This was interpreted by the investigators as evidence that wives within violent marriages tend to back down to avoid further antagonizing husbands with a history of violence (cf. Walker, 1984). These investigators also conducted sequential analyses on the couple interactions, examining, among other things, the tendency on the part of spouses to continue negative behavior once it began. This tendency, known as negative reciprocity, has been shown to characterize maritally distressed couples and to distinguish them from happily married couples (Gottman, 1979). They found that wives in physically aggressive relationships were significantly more likely to reciprocate negative behavior than their nonviolent counterparts. In contrast, physically aggressive husbands, although likely to become defensive after

Psychophysiological assessment of posttraumatic stress disorder imagery in World War II and Korean combat veterans.

Abstract: We assessed the heart rate, skin conductance, and left lateral frontalis electromyographic responses of World War II (WWII) and Korean War male veterans to recollection of their combat experiences by using a script-driven imagery technique previously validated in Vietnam veterans (Pitman et al., 1990; Pitman, Orr, Forgue, de Jong, & Claiborn, 1987). Medication-free subjects were classified on the basis of criteria from the revised third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders into posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; n = 8) and non-PTSD (n = 12) groups, which did not differ in overall combat exposure or severity of personal combat events. PTSD subjects' physiological responses during personal combat imagery were markedly larger than those of non-PTSD subjects', even though the self-reported emotional responses of the two groups were comparable. A physiological discriminant function derived from Vietnam veterans (Orr et al., 1990) correctly classified 7 of the 8 PTSD subjects (sensitivity was 88%) and 12 of the 12 non-PTSD subjects (specificity was 100%; p < .001).

Attention and schizophrenia: impaired modulation of the startle reflex.

Abstract: The startle reflex (SR) elicited by abrupt stimuli can be modified by attention to nonstartling stimuli that shortly precede the startle-eliciting stimulus. The present study of 15 recent-onset, relatively asymptomatic schizophrenic outpatients and 14 demographically matched normal control subjects demonstrated that attentional modulation of SR is impaired in schizophrenic patients. Specifically, the control group exhibited greater startle eye-blink modification following to-be-attended prestimuli than following to-be-ignored prestimuli, whereas the patients failed to show the attentional modulation effect. These results suggest traitlike attentional deficits in schizophrenia because the patients were relatively asymptomatic. The measurement of attentional modulation of SR may provide a nonverbal, reflexive, state-independent marker of the vulnerability to schizophrenia.

Anxiety and the interpretation of ambiguity: A text comprehension study.

Abstract: Beck's influential cognitive account of anxiety has led to the prediction that individuals vulnerable to anxiety should favor threatening interpretations of ambiguity (e.g., Beck & Clark, 1988; Beck, Emery, & Greenberg, 1986). The current study introduces a novel adaptation of the RSVP technique, previously used in text comprehension research, to evaluate this hypothesis. Results suggest that a group of 24 high trait anxious students did indeed selectively impose threatening interpretations on unconstrained ambiguous sentences. In contrast, a matched group of 24 low trait anxious students appeared to selectively impose non-threatening interpretations on such ambiguous sentences. These findings are fully consistent with the predicted anxiety-linked interpretative bias. Specific testable hypotheses are developed concerning the types of interpretative idiosyncrasies that plausibly may contribute to pathological anxiety.

Negative cognitions and attributional style in depressed adolescents: an examination of stability and specificity.

Abstract: Despite recent findings that the prevalence of unipolar depression is as high in adolescents as it is in adults, relatively little is known about the applicability of cognitive theories of depression to adolescents. The present study examined the nature, specificity, and stability of cognitive dysfunction in male and female depressed, remitted, and psychiatric control adolescents. Factor analysis of a diverse set of measures yielded two factors, labelled Negative Cognitions and Attributional Style. Scores on both these factors were related to a current diagnosis of depression. Results also indicated that there may not be complete recovery of cognitive functioning (or of depressed mood) with diagnostic remission of depression. Finally, whereas elevated scores on the Negative Cognitions factor appeared to be specific to depression, the depressed and psychiatric control adolescents did not differ with respect to their scores on the Attributional Style factor. Of all the psychiatric disorders, depression is by far the most common, annually affecting more than 100 million people worldwide. During the course of a lifetime, it is estimated that between 8% and 18% of the general population will experience at least one clinically significant episode of depression (Karno et al., 1987). Moreover, for approximately 15% of these individuals, the depressive episode will result in suicide. It is clear, therefore, that the problem of depression is considerable, and its consequences potentially lethal. A number of investigators assessing psychological aspects of depression have focused on the cognitive functioning of depressed persons. Indeed, three major psychological theories of depression accord central importance to cognitive functioning in the onset of this disorder. Beck (1976) focused on the "cognitive triad," cognitive distortions or faulty information processing, and the negative self-schemata of depressed persons. Beck postulated that depressed individuals exhibit a negative view of themselves, their experiences, and the future. He suggests further that depressed persons are characterized by systematic errors in thinking, including arbitrary inference, selective abstraction, and all-or-none thinking. Finally, Beck postulated that depressed persons are characterized by negative schemata, cognitive processes that represent a stable characteristic of depressed individuals' personalities and that are present even in the absence of depressive symptoms. These negative schemata are hypothesized to play a causal role in depression by influencing the selection, encoding, and evaluation of stimuli in the environment, which leads subsequently to depressive affect.

Emotional learning, hedonic change, and the startle probe

Abstract: A multiple-response analysis of aversive learning was conducted in human subjects. For each subject, two pictorial stimuli were presented--one paired with electric shock. After training, the magnitude of the acoustic startle eyeblink reflex elicited in the context of the shocked picture increased dramatically and was significantly larger than for reflexes elicited during the nonshocked stimulus. Five different picture contents were tested in separate groups: Reflex potentiation was larger for pictures rated as pleasant than pictures rated as unpleasant. Conditioned responses were also evident for skin conductance, heart rate, and affective judgments. Different systems reflected different aspects of the acquired fear response: Conductance change covaried with arousal, and startle probe magnitude varied with affective valence (pleasure). The neurophysiological implications of the data are elucidated, and parallels drawn between animal and human subjects findings.

Self-discrepancies in clinically anxious and depressed university students.

Abstract: Self-discrepancy theory proposes that anxiety and depression are the result of different types of conflicting self-beliefs. This study examined self-discrepancies in four groups of university students who completed a questionnaire assessing levels of self-discrepancy and were characterized by the following disorders: (a) depression, (b) anxiety, (c) both anxiety and depression, or (d) no psychiatric disorder. As predicted, subjects with anxiety or depressive disorders had higher levels of self-discrepancy than normal subjects. Depressive subjects had higher levels of actual:ideal discrepancies than nondepressive subjects. Anxious subjects (with or without depressive disorders) had higher levels of actual:ought discrepancies than nonanxious subjects (normals and depressed-only subjects). Results provided general support for self-discrepancy theory in accounting for depressive and anxiety disorders.

Early language and intelligence development and their relationship to future criminal behavior

Abstract: The relationship between intelligence, measured regularly from the ages of 3 to 17 years, and registered criminality was investigated for boys (N = 122) in a birth-to-maturity study. Significant negative correlations appeared at several ages, even for intelligence assessed as early as at the age of 3. The hypothesis was advanced that the early language development of the boys would be negatively associated with future criminality. Information on language development, obtained by applying the Brunet-Lezine psychomotor developmental test for infants, substantiated this hypothesis. Significant correlations with registered criminality appeared for language development at 6, 18, and 24 months. Further support for the hypothesized link was provided by psychologists' ratings of children's verbal behavior and by maternal reports of their child's speech at the ages 3 to 5. The role of early language retardation in contributing to later criminality is discussed.

Perception of self and other in major depression.

Abstract: Previous research on the nature of person perception in depression has been inconclusive. This investigation differs from earlier studies in that extensive free-response descriptions of other people and self were collected from patients with major depression and from nonpsychiatric control Ss. In comparison with control Ss, depressed patients described fewer positive aspects not only of self but also of parents and significant others and reported more negative aspects of these people. Cluster analysis (HICLAS) also showed that more cognitive differentiation of negative self-perceptions (negative self-complexity) was characteristic of clinical depression. In both control Ss and patients, a positive (or negative) view of self was highly correlated (.85 or more) with a positive (or negative) view of parents and significant others. These correlations were significantly stronger than those between self and less important others.