Showing papers on "Poison control published in 1973"

On the psychology of prediction

Abstract: In this paper, we explore the rules that determine intuitive predictions and judgments of confidence and contrast these rules to the normative principles of statistical prediction. Two classes of prediction are discussed: category prediction and numerical prediction. In a categorical case, the prediction is given in nominal form, for example, the winner in an election, the diagnosis of a patient, or a person's future occupation. In a numerical case, the prediction is given in numerical form, for example, the future value of a particular stock or of a student's grade point average. In making predictions and judgments under uncertainty, people do not appear to follow the calculus of chance or the statistical theory of prediction. Instead, they rely on a limited number of heuristics which sometimes yield reasonable judgments and sometimes lead to severe and systematic errors (Kahneman & Tversky, 1972b, 3; Tversky & Kahneman, 1971, 2; 1973, 11). The present paper is concerned with the role of one of these heuristics – representativeness – in intuitive predictions. Given specific evidence (e.g., a personality sketch), the outcomes under consideration (e.g., occupations or levels of achievement) can be ordered by the degree to which they are representative of that evidence. The thesis of this paper is that people predict by representativeness, that is, they select or order outcomes by the degree to which the outcomes represent the essential features of the evidence.

Testing for Competence Rather Than for "Intelligence"

Abstract: The testing movement in the United States has been a success, if one judges success by the usual American criteria of size, influence, and profitability. Intelligence and aptitude tests are used nearly everywhere by schools, colleges, and employers. It is a sign of backwardness not to have test scores in the school records of children. The Educational Testing Service alone employs about 2,000 people, annually administers Scholastic Aptitude Tests to thousands of aspirants to college, and makes enough money to support a large basic research operation. Its tests have tremendous power over the lives of young people by stamping some of them "qualified" and others "less qualified" for college work. Until recent "exceptions" were made (over the protest of some), the tests have served as a very efficient device for screening out black, Spanish-speaking, and other minority applicants to colleges. Admissions officers have protested that they take other qualities besides test achievements into account in granting admission, but careful studies by Wing and Wallach (1971) and others have shown that this is true only to a very limited degree. Why should intelligence or aptitude tests have all this power? What justifies the use of such tests in selecting applicants for college entrance or jobs? On what assumptions is the success of the movement based? They deserve careful examination before we go on rather blindly promoting the use of tests as instruments of power over the lives of many Americans.

The resolution of conflict;: Constructive and destructive processes

Abstract: Conflict is a natural and inevitable part of our personal and social lives. In this volume Morton Deutsch, the distinguished social psychologist, explores the factors that determine whether the outcome of conflict will be fruitful or destructive. He examines conflict at the intrapsychic, interpersonal, and intergroup levels and formulates meaningful cross-level generalizations about the determination of conflict resolution.

A short version of the Attitudes toward Women Scale (AWS)

Abstract: A short (25-item) version of the Spence-Helmreich (1972) Attitudes toward Women Scale (AWS) is presented. Correlations between scores on the short and the full (55-item) version for groups of male and female students and groups of their parents were.95 or above. The results of a factor analysis and part-whole correlations also indicated the similarity of the two forms. Normative data for the student and parent samples are described.

Alcohol Problems in Adoptees Raised Apart From Alcoholic Biological Parents

Abstract: Drinking practices and problems, plus a wide range of other life experiences, were studied in a group of 55 men who had been separated from their biological parents early in life where one parent had a hospital diagnosis of alcoholism Compared to a matched control group of adoptees, significantly more of them had a history of drinking problems and psychiatric treatment The two groups did not differ with regard to other forms of psychopathology, such as depression or character disorders Children of alcoholics had three times the divorce rate of the controls Apart from alcohol problems and divorce, the two groups did not differ significantly with regard to any other variable studied The adoptive parents of index and control subjects were of similar socioeconomic class and had similar rates of alcoholism and other psychiatric disorders These findings suggest that genetic factors may play a role in the development of alcohol problems

Residual Visual Function after Brain Wounds involving the Central Visual Pathways in Man

Abstract: IT is generally believed that total destruction of visual cortex and optic radiations in man should lead to blindness, and that regional (subtotal) destruction should correspondingly produce circumscribed areas of blindness (“scotomata”) in the visual field1. Such areas of blindness are defined by a patient's inability to detect and report visual stimuli projected into the affected region. Standard methods of visual field testing (perimetry) suggest that such scotomata may be “absolute”, that is the patient seems to be unable to distinguish between the presence and absence of visually presented targets whenever they are presented in the scotomatous area. Suspecting that the response of the visual system may depend on the task requirements, we used a technique which requires a localizing response from the patient2, in addition to clinical perimetry. As a result, we have found evidence for the processing of information about the locus of light stimuli presented in areas of the visual field which are “blind” by the traditional definition.

Violence without Moral Restraint: Reflections on the Dehumanization of Victims and Victimizers

Abstract: The paper identifies a class of violent acts that can best be described as sanctioned massacres. The special features of sanctioned massacres are that they occur in the context of a genocidal policy, and that they are directed at groups that have not themselves threatened or engaged in hostile actions against the perpetrators of the violence. The psychological environment in which such massacres occur lacks the conditions normally perceived as providing some degree of moral justification for violence. In searching for a psychological explanation of mass violence under these conditions, it is instructive to focus on factors reducing the strength of restraining forces against violence. Three interrelated processes are discussed in detail: (a) processes of authorization, which define the situation as one in which standard moral principles do not apply and the individual is absolved of responsibility to make personal moral choices; (b) processes of routinization, which so organize the action that there is no opportunity for raising moral questions and making moral decisions; and (c) processes of dehumanization which deprive both victim and victimizer of identity and community. The paper concludes with suggestions for corrective efforts that might help to prevent sanctioned massacres by counteracting the systemic and attitudinal supports for the processes described.

The extent of processing of noise elements during selective encoding from visual displays

Abstract: Circular visual displays of 12 elements, consisting of A, H, M, and U, were presented to S. She responded with a lever movement in one direction if a given letter designated by a bar indicator was a member of the set A-U and in the opposite direction if it was from the other set. The principal experimental variables were the SOA by which the indicator preceded the display and whether the target letter was flanked by letters of the same or opposite set. The results indicated that the interference produced by noise letters is primarily on the response as opposed to the processing side. Also, there is a limit to the precision of selective attention in the visual field. The interference of opposite-set letters was inversely proportional to their distance from the target.

Amphetamine Psychosis: A "Model" Schizophrenia Mediated by Catecholamines

Abstract: Because of its close clinical similarity to acute paranoid schizophrenia, amphetamine psychosis may serve as a useful experimental model for schizophrenia. Molecular and clinical studies suggest that both the schizophrenia-like symptoms of amphetamine psychosis and the specific ability of phenothiazines to relieve the symptoms of schizophrenia and amphetamine psychosis may be the result of interactions with dopamine systems in the brain. The author discusses some implications of the roles dopamine and norepinephrine may play in mediating some schizophrenic symptoms.

Loss of control drinking in alcoholics: an experimental analogue

Abstract: W this landmark article was published in 1973, the domi­ nant model of alcoholism considered it a dispositional dis­ ease, the cardinal symptom of which is inevitable loss of control whenever alcohol is consumed. The reasons for this loss of con­ trol over drinking were generally assumed to be physiological, an automatic and irreversible reaction to the chemical ethanol (pure alcohol). A few controversial voices in the alcohol field, including Jellinek (as expressed in his book The Disease Concept of Alcoholism, 1960), had questioned the scientific accuracy of the disease model as a universal description of alcoholism. Nevertheless, it was widely believed that the essence of alcoholism was a biomedical abnor­ mality, inexorably rooted in the alco­ holic’s physical constitution. This innovative experiment by Marlatt and his colleagues put this assumption about alcoholism to the test by studying whether behavior changes resulted from the actual presence of alcohol or from the be­ lief that alcohol was present. The au­ thors introduced two novel research methods in this study, both of which inspired many subsequent studies. The first of these was the taste­rating task, in which subjects, made up of both alcoholics and social drinkers, were asked to taste and compare three ostensibly different beverages by rating them on a variety of de­ scriptive adjectives such as “sweet” and “strong.” The actual purpose of the task was to study the amount and manner of drinking the subjects did without making them self­conscious that their drinking was being moni­ tored. Later research has shown that this clever procedure does, in fact, mirror a person’s real­life drinking habits. It also is clear from two dec­ ades of subsequent studies that this unobtrusive measure is useful in gauging how a person’s drinking is affected by social and environ­ mental factors. The second innovative method in­ troduced in this study was the bal­ anced placebo design, which was made up of four groups of both alco­ holics and social drinkers: Subjects in two groups were told that they were drinking alcohol, and subjects in two groups were informed that there was no alcohol in the beverage. Under these conditions, one­half of the subjects received alcohol and one­half did not. Marlatt devised an effective method to disguise the presence of alcohol so that the subjects could be convinced they were drink­ ing alcohol when they were not (placebo group) or could be given alcohol without their being aware of it (balanced placebo group). This study’s central finding was that the subject’s belief that he was drinking alcohol, rather than its actual presence, deter­ mined the amount he consumed on the taste­rating task. This ef­ fect was found for both alcoholics and social drinkers, although the difference was greater for alcoholics. As a result of Marlatt and colleagues’ demonstration, the balanced placebo design be­ came a common research tool in the alcohol field. Dozens of subsequent studies have shown that it is the subject’s expectation

Hockey Helmets, Concealed Weapons, and Daylight Saving: A Study of Binary Choices With Externalities

Abstract: This paper is about binary choices with externalities. These are either-or situations,not choices of degree or quantity. An "externality" is present when you care about my choice or my choice affects yours. You may not care, but need to know-whether to pass on left or right when we meet. You may not need to know, but care---you will drive whether or not I drive--- but prefer that I keep off the road.You may both care and need to know. The literature of externalities has mostly to do with how much of a good or a bad should be produced,consumed,or allowed.HereI consider only the interdependence of choices to do or not to do, to join or not to join, to stay or to leave, to vote yes or no, to conform or not to conform to some agreement or rule or restriction. Players will accept hockey helmets (or not) by individual choice for several reasons. Chicago star Bobby Hull cites the simplest factor: "vanity." But many players honestly believe that helmets will cut their efficiency and put them at a disadvantage, and others fear the ridicule of opponents. The use of helmets will spread only through fear caused by injuries like Green's-or through a rule making them mandatory. . . One player summed up the feelings of many: "It's foolish not to wear a helmet. But I don't because the other guys don't. I know that' silly, but most of the players feel the same way. If the league made us do it, though, we'd all wear them and nobody would mind." Shortly after Teddy Green of the Bruins took a hockey stick in his brain, the player, Don Awrey, commented to a Newsweek(1969) reporter, "WhenI saw the way Teddy looked, it was an awful feeling . . . I'm going to start wearing a helmet now, and I don't care what anybody says." A voluntary helmet may be seen as cowardly,but nobody thinks a baseball player timid when he dons the batting helmet without which the league will not let him bat. Motorcycle helmets are not only worn regularly,but probably worn more gladly, in states that require them. When ever ascribed motives matter, the way a choice is organized or constrained will itself be a part of the "outcome" and affect the payoffs.

On the moral and legal status of abortion.

Abstract: 1 We will be concerned with both the moral status of abortion, which for our purposes we may define as the act that a woman performs in voluntarily terminating, or allowing another person to terminate, her pregnancy, and the legal status that is appropriate for this act. I will argue that, while it is not possible to produce a satisfactory defense of a woman’s right to obtain an abortion without showing that a fetus is not a human being, in the morally relevant sense of that term, we ought not to conclude that the difficulties involved in determining whether or not a fetus is human make it impossible to produce any satisfactory solution to the problem of the moral status of abortion. For it is possible to show that, on the basis of intuitions which we may expect even the opponents of abortion to share, a fetus is not a person, hence not the sort of entity to which it is proper to ascribe full moral rights.

CHILD ABUSE AS PSYCHOPATHOLOGY: A Sociological Critique and Reformulation

Abstract: Book reviewed in this article: Much of the current research on child abuse employs a psychopathological model, which explains child abuse as a function of a psychological pathology, or a “sickness.” This paper asserts that major deficiencies of this model are its inconsistency and narrowness. It is suggested that a more dimensional approach to child abuse is possible by focusing on the sociological and contextual variables associated with abuse.

The Experimental Reproduction of Amphetamine Psychosis

Abstract: A large dose of intravenous methamphetamine hydrochloride reproduced the amphetamine psychosis in 12 of 14 patients dependent on amphetamine sulfate and failed to produce a psychosis in two patients who were eventually found to have not used amphetamine regularly above the therapeutic dose range. The psychosis was the facsimile of the disorder observed during drug abuse—a schizophrenic-like state of paranoia in a setting of clear consciousness accompanied by auditory or visual hallucinations, or both, but without thought disorder. Since in some cases the onset of the psychosis was sudden and occurred within one hour of commencing the intravenous injection, hypotheses about depletion of catecholamines and long term metabolites may need to be reconsidered.

Attribution of fault to a rape victim as a function of respectability of the victim.

Abstract: Tested the hypothesis that a socially respectable person is seen as more at fault in a crime in which he was the victim This hypothesis was based on 2 assumptions: (a) individuals believe in a just world where people deserve what they get and (b) the more respectable the victim the greater the need to attribute fault to his actions since it is more difficult to attribute fault to his character It was also hypothesized that a defendant who has injured a more respectable person is sentenced more severely Results with 234 male and female undergraduates support the predictions The victim of a rape case was faulted more if she were married or a virgin (most respectable) than if she were a divorcee Also, Ss sentenced the defendant to a longer imprisonment for the rape of a married woman than for the rape of a divorcee No sex differences were found in the attribution of fault or the assignment of sentences (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)

Threat as a factor in authoritarianism: an analysis of archival data.

Abstract: Many investigators have proposed that threat is a basic cause of authoritarianism. This perspective suggests the hypothesis that increased threat should evoke increased authoritarianism. To test this prediction, various archival data from 2 threatening historical periods (the 1930's and 1967-1970) and 2 nonthreatening periods (the 1920's and 1959-1964) were examined to determine whether authoritarianism did increase in response to threat. Data indicate that environmental threat was reliably associated with changed behavior in most areas of the "authoritarian syndrome." Results are consistent with the hypothesis that threat is a cause of authoritarianism and added validity to the concept of an authoritarian syndrome. (45 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)

Processing demands during mental operations

Abstract: Man possesses a central system of limited capacity. Theorists at first described this system as a single limited capacity channel Two current theoretical alternatives to single-channel theory are (1) the undifferentiated capacity hypothesis that man possesses a pool of capacity units so that interference occurs oniy if the total number of capacity units that mental operations demand exceeds the system limit and (2) the hypothesis that some, but not all, mental operations require space in a limited capacity central mechanism and that any operation that requires space will interfere with any other operation that also demands space. Time on task fails as a sensitive measure of capacity demands because some task components require time but not full processing capacity. The secondary task technique uses the interference between a primary task and a secondary task to assess the extent to which the primary task makes processing demands on the central limited system. Processing demands have been measured for five categories of mental operation: (1) encoding, (2) multiple input, (3) rehearsal, (4) transformation, and (5) responding.

The Mississippi Valley earthquakes of 1811 and 1812: Intesities, ground motion and magnitudes

Abstract: Contemporary newspaper accounts of the 1811-1812 Mississippi Valley earthquake sequence are used to construct a generalized isoseismal map of the first of three principal shocks of the sequence, that of December 16, 1811. The map is characterized by an unusually large felt area, with MM intensities of V as far away as the southeast Atlantic coastal area. By correlating the isoseismal map with that of recent earthquakes for which ground motion data are available, the body-wave magnitude of the December 16, 1811 earthquake is estimated to be 7.2. The other principal shocks, on January 23, 1812 and February 7, 1812, had estimated mb values of 7.1 and 7.4, respectively. The total energy released by the principal shocks and their larger-magnitude aftershocks is estimated to be equivalent to that of an mb = 7.5 (or Ms = 8.0) earthquake. The anomalously large areas of damage and of perceptibility of the principal shocks result from both the surficial geological conditions of the Mississippi Valley and the relatively low attenuation of surface-wave energy in eastern North America. Estimates of the vertical component of ground motion, for an earthquake of mb = 7.2 occurring in eastern North America, are given. These include values for particle velocity, displacement, and acceleration at frequencies of about 3, 1 and 0.3 Hz.

Evolving behavior in the clinical and experimental amphetamine (model) psychosis.

Abstract: A parallel is drawn between several behavioral constellations observed in the evolution of the human amphetamine psychosis and the motor-postural-attitudinal manifestations induced in animals by chronic amphetamine intoxication. On the basis of the results reported, a triple-layered model of psychosis is suggested and the roles played by participating neurotransmitters and mechanisms are further elaborated.

Energy damage and the ten countermeasure strategies.

Abstract: A major class of ecologic phenomena involves the transfer of energy in such ways and amounts, and at such rapid rates, that inanimate or animate structures are damaged. The harmful interactions with people and property of hurricanes, earthquakes, projectiles, moving vehicles, ionizing radiation, lightning, conflagrations, and the cuts and bruises of daily life illustrate this class.There are ten strategies for reducing the human and other losses that make this class of social concern. These are identified in logical sequence and copiously illustrated by tactics widely employed. The reduction of animate and inanimate damage due to interaction with most environmental hazards, including pollutants, drugs, and microorganisms can be approached in the same manner, as can strategies for population control. Appendices provide additional examples and four illustrative case studies concerned, respectively, with reducing: losses associated with femoral fractures among the elderly; thermal energy damage to children a...