Psychological Bulletin

Tarabulsy, George M.; Tessier, Réjean; Kappas, Arvid

doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.120.1.25pmid: 8711014

In this report, the authors review studies addressing the issue of contingencies in social and nonsocial contexts during infancy. The review is divided into 4 groups of studies that suggest that (a) young infants detect contingencies unrelated to their behavior; (b) infants detect contingencies involving their behavior; (c) the study of contingency is pertinent for addressing behavioral organization within parent–infant interaction; and (d) there is a link between behavioral contingency in early infancy and global measures of socioemotional development that are predictive of social functioning at later points during childhood. Throughout the report, the pertinence of infant emotional responses during contingency-related tasks is emphasized. Finally, the authors delineate certain enduring questions regarding contingency experience in infancy and suggest ways of organizing research to address some of them.

Gleaves, David H.

doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.120.1.42pmid: 8711016

According to the sociocognitive model of dissociative identity disorder (DID; formerly, multiple personality disorder), DID is not a valid psychiatric disorder of posttraumatic origin; rather, it is a creation of psychotherapy and the media. Support for the model was recently presented by N. P. Spanos (1994).In this article, the author reexamines the evidence for the model and concludes that it is based on numerous false assumptions about the psychopathology, assessment, and treatment of DID. Most recent research on the dissociative disorders does not support (and in fact disconfirms) the sociocognitive model, and many inferences drawn from previous research appear unwarranted. No reason exists to doubt the connection between DID and childhood trauma. Treatment recommendations that follow from the sociocognitive model may be harmful because they involve ignoring the posttraumatic symptomatology of persons with DID.

Ito, Tiffany A.; Miller, Norman; Pollock, Vicki E.

doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.120.1.60pmid: 8711017

The authors conducted a meta-analysis of 49 studies to investigate 2 explanations of how alcohol increases aggression by decreasing sensitivity to cues that inhibit it. Both the level of anxiety and inhibition conflict moderated the difference between the aggressive behavior of sober and intoxicated participants, but neither level adequately accounted for variation in effect sizes. Additional analyses of 3 social psychological moderating variables—provocation, frustration, and self-focused attention—showed that the aggressiveness of intoxicated participants relative to sober ones increased as a function of frustration but decreased as a function of provocation and self-focused attention. The authors also examined the moderating effects of dose.

Stewart, Sherry H.

doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.120.1.83pmid: 8711018

In this article, the author critically reviews studies on the relationship between exposure to trauma, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and alcohol abuse. After establishing that strong relationships exist between exposure to traumatic events and alcohol problems, and particularly between the diagnoses of PTSD and alcoholism, the author discusses various factors, theories, and possible mechanisms to account for these associations. Moreover, she discusses applications of these findings to the assessment and treatment of people exposed to trauma who abuse alcohol. Finally, the author outlines novel methods for testing theoretical hypotheses and makes suggestions for methodological improvements in future research.

Johnson, Carla J.; Paivio, Allan; Clark, James M.

doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.120.1.113pmid: 8711012

A substantial research literature documents the effects of diverse item attributes, task conditions, and participant characteristics on the ease of picture naming. The authors review what the research has revealed about 3 generally accepted stages of naming a pictured object: object identification, name activation, and response generation. They also show that dual coding theory gives a coherent and plausible account of these findings without positing amodal conceptual representations, and they identify issues and methods that may further advance the understanding of picture naming and related cognitive tasks.

Garb, Howard N.; Schramke, Carol J.

doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.120.1.140pmid: 8711013

The authors review judgment research in the area of neuropsychological assessment. Topics include the reliability and validity of judgments, the appropriateness of confidence ratings, the value of training and experience, the cognitive processes of neuropsychologists, and the use of decision aids, including automated assessment programs and statistical prediction rules. Most of the research is on reliability and validity. The results indicate that neuropsychologists frequently make reliable and moderately valid judgments. However, for several tasks, experimenters have not studied the reliability and validity of judgments.