Clinical outcome, consumer satisfaction, and ad hoc ratings of improvement in children's mental health.

Mental health clinics and managed care organizations assess treatment effectiveness with consumer satisfaction measures and ad hoc measures of improvement obtained from a single informant; some of these measures are as simple as asking clients whether they improved during treatment. In the present correlational study of 199 treated adolescents, we used a multitrait-multimethod analysis to examine psychometrically measured pathology change (pre- and postassessment of symptoms and functioning), consumer satisfaction, and perceived improvement reported by multiple informants. Confirmatory factor-analytic results indicate that (a) outcome variance due to multiple informants cannot be ignored, (b) consumer satisfaction is unrelated to pathology change, and (c) parent-reported perceived improvement ratings are more akin to satisfaction than to pathology change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Editorial statement of the American Psychologist: III.

Presents an editorial statement about the publication policies of the American Psychologist (AP). About half the contents of the AP are documents that report on the activities of the Association—the minutes of the Council of Representatives, the address of the immediate Past President, and those reports of the Association boards and committees of concern to a large percentage of the membership. The remaining pieces are articles that the editorial board and the ad hoc reviewers judge to be of sufficient interest and consequence to appeal to the large and heterogeneous readership of the AP. These articles should explicitly address the broadest scientific and practical implications of the topic under consideration. In addition, a new series, tentatively called "Science Watch," will appear in the AP on an irregular basis. The purpose will be to cover articles that broaden our understanding of the discipline, that enable us to understand the connections between our discipline and others, and that help us glimpse the directions in which our science is moving. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cross-linking of the CAMPATH-1 antigen (CD52) mediates growth inhibition in human B- and T-lymphoma cell lines, and subsequent emergence of CD52-deficient cells

Emotional hyperthermia, circadian variations and the rise of body temperature related to exercise, have all been attributed to setpoint temperature shifts. The accepted theory holds that core temperature is regulated by corrective thermoregulatory responses opposing the core temperature deviations from the setpoint level. However, in fever and anapyrexia the thermoregulatory responses appear to be not corrective but helping, that is in the same direction as the core temperature deviation. A supplementary ad hoc hypothesis that setpoint level shifts explains why the thermoregulatory responses still could be considered "corrective" in spite of being in the same direction as the core temperature deviation. But supplementary ad hoc hypotheses immunize a theory to experimental challenges and therefore can no longer be considered a scientific theory. The present work shows that most of the arguments adduced to explain almost every biothermal phenomenon as being due to setpoint shifts cannot withstand a critical analysis.     

Skin signs in the diagnosis of thallium poisoning

OBJECTIVES: We sought to determine the cost advantage of a strategy of same-sitting diagnostic catheterization and percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) (ad hoc) in comparison with staged PTCA. BACKGROUND: It is widely assumed that an ad hoc strategy lowers costs by reducing the length of hospital stay (LOS). However, this assumption has not been examined in a contemporary data set. METHODS: We studied 395 patients undergoing PTCA during 6 consecutive months. Cost analysis was performed using standard cost-accounting methods and a mature cost-accounting system. Costs were examined within three clinical strata based on the indication for PTCA (stable angina, unstable angina and after myocardial infarction [MI]). RESULTS: For the entire patient cohort, there was no significant cost advantage of an ad hoc approach within any of the strata, although there was a nonsignificant trend toward an ad hoc approach in patients with stable angina. For patients treated with conventional balloon PTCA alone, the lack of a significant difference between ad hoc and staged strategies persisted. For patients who received stents, there was a significant cost advantage of an ad hoc approach in all three clinical strata. An important cost driver was the occurrence of complications. Differences in the rates of complications did not reach statistical significance between ad hoc and staged strategies, but even a small trend toward greater complications in patients who had the ad hoc strategy negated cost and LOS advantages. Our study had the power to detect significant cost differences of $1,300 for patients with stable angina, $2,100 for patients with unstable angina and $2,500 for post-MI patients. It is possible that we failed to detect smaller cost advantages as significant. CONCLUSIONS: A cost savings with an ad hoc strategy of PTCA could not be consistently demonstrated. The cost advantage of an ad hoc approach may be most readily realized in clinical settings where the intrinsic risks are low (e.g., stable angina) or in which the device used carries a reduced risk of complications (e.g., stenting), because even a small increase in the complication rate will negate any financial advantage of an ad hoc approach.     

Reliability in ethics reviews: Some initial empirical findings.

Assessed the reliability of peer judgments about the ethical acceptability of research proposals by examining independent review of 111 submissions to a psychology department ethical review committee during a 10-mo period. With a 3-category rating protocol, independent reviewers agreed exactly on 67.7% of submissions. However, this level of observed agreement accounts for only 8% of the possible beyond-chance agreement. Lack of success in obtaining reliability is attributed to insufficient attention to reliability issues, and suggestions are discussed for improving interjudge agreement. (French abstract) (8 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reply to Jon Mills (2006): An open letter to the members of Division 39.

This letter is an objection to the publication of a series of remarks by Jon Mills in the commentary entitled "A response to my critics" (23 [1]: 197-209, 2006; see record 2006-03254-016). The remarks are ad hominem attacks on the behavior of Jody Davies and myself at a panel at the Division 39 meeting in New York on April 17, 2005. The remarks precede his commentary on three written discussions of a version of the paper presented at the panel that was later published in Psychoanalytic Psychology. Mills claims that all I did from the floor was rant and rave about his criticisms of Stephen Mitchell, attacking him in an ad hominem way without having anything to say substantively about his critique. I object that the editor allowed these remarks to be published despite their vitriolic content and the fact that the reader has no way of checking the accuracy of Mills' representation of what I (and Dr. Davies) said and did. In addition, the letter includes an account of the arguments that I presented at that panel, rebutting Mills' claim that I presented nothing substantive at all. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of feeding level on growth, composition of gain, carcass quality and mature body size in steers at ages up to six years

Tissue gain and efficiency and carcass characteristics of seventy-eight Angus steers were compared on three feed intake regimens and serially slaughtered at 6 months to 6 years. The regimens were: (A) continuous ad ad libitum feeding, (B) restricted to gain about 0.45 kg daily and (C) restricted as in B until 6 months before slaughter then fed ad libitum. Steers, regardless of feeding regimen, made their greatest gains up to 12 months of age and became less efficient after that time. Steers fed ad libitum had the highest percentage of fat but the lowest percentage of lean and bone when compared with steers fed for restricted gain. Carcasses of the steers fed ad libitum contained more lean and fat at each slaughter age. Average daily gain, feed efficiency and percentage of lean and bone decreased with age; and feed intake, slaughter grade, dressing percent, taste panel desirability and percent of fat tended to increase with age. All steers reached their maximum growth in height at withers, depth of chest and length of body at about 3 years. Steers that were restricted up to 6 months before slaughter showed compensatory growth during their ad libitum feeding period and during the first 12 months of the study; protein and fat were produced most efficiently by this growth. It would appear that it is possible to modify fat deposition by changing feed intake level.     

Group supervision of paraprofessional counselors.

Group supervision of paraprofessional counselors was investigated at a short-term residential facility for emotionally disturbed children and adolescents. Four counseling teams' group supervision meetings were studied over a 45-day period. A behavior observation system was used to collect data about problem solving and member participation at these meetings. A questionnaire was designed to measure supervisees' satisfaction with and perceptions of their group supervision. Group supervision meetings tended to be highly task oriented: 69% of the comments at the meetings pertained to resolving the children's and adolescents' emotional problems. Supervisors participated at a marginally higher frequency (51%) than did supervisees (47%). Overall, supervisees tended to be satisfied with and have positive perceptions of their group supervision experiences. However, experienced supervisors' group supervision meetings received higher ratings of supervisee satisfaction than did novice supervisors' meetings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interrelationships among warmth, genuineness, empathy, and temporal speech patterns in interpersonal interaction.

Paired 32 male and 32 female undergraduates, who were strangers to each other, into same-sex dyads. After a 45-min session of natural conversation in each dyad, Ss completed a questionnaire rating their conversational partners on empathy, warmth, and genuineness. Comparison of ratings by partners with ratings by independent Os did not correlate significantly. However, Os' ratings support the hypothesis that "switching pauses" (1 of the parameters of temporal congruence) would correlate significantly with ratings of warmth. Results show that the notion of switching-pause convergence as a reliable, objective measure of warmth in peer conversations is a valid one. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Human subjects review, personal values, and the regulation of social science research.

157 university human-Ss committees (i.e., institutional review boards [IRBs]) provided reviews of 9 hypothetical proposals that were identical in their treatment of human Ss but differed in sociopolitical sensitivity and in level of ethical concerns (e.g., presence or absence of deception, debriefing). The socially sensitive proposals were designed to document discrimination or reverse discrimination according to race or sex in corporate hiring practices, whereas nonsensitive proposals were designed to document discrimination based on height or weight. All aspects of the proposals were otherwise identical. Results show that socially sensitive proposals were twice as likely to be rejected by IRBs. Reasons for nonapproval varied: For sensitive proposals containing ethical concerns (e.g., deception), the foremost reason given for nonapproval was the violation itself. For sensitive proposals that did not involve ethical concerns, the reason most often given for nonapproval was "methodological" (e.g., poor control group). Nonsensitive proposals that did not involve ethical problems were approved 95% of the time vs only 40–50% of the time for comparable sensitive ones. Content analysis of the narratives that accompanied decisions revealed that the primary reason for rejection of sensitive proposals was the potential political impact of the proposed findings (e.g., discrediting of affirmative action policies). (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of patients' ability to pay, gender, and smoking history on public attitudes toward cardiac transplant allocation: An experimental investigation.

This study assessed public attitudes toward organ allocation through vignettes that were varied by patient's ability to pay (insured or uninsured), gender, and smoking history (current, former, or never). Participants were 681 adults contacted at a state driver's license office who read a vignette about a heart transplant candidate and subsequently rated their likelihood and priority of offering transplantation. Results revealed main effects for patient smoking history exclusively. Post hoc analyses for likelihood of offering transplantation revealed that participants gave higher ratings for never smokers than current smokers. For priority of transplantation, analyses revealed higher ratings for never smokers than for both former smokers and current smokers. Results suggest that public opinion about organ allocation may include the consideration of smoking history but not ability to pay or gender. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Subjective and Reinforcing Effects of Visual and Olfactory Stimuli in Alcohol Drinking.

Nonpharmacological cues associated with drug intake may influence subjective and reinforcing effects of those drugs. Social drinkers (N = 80) participated in 2 sessions in which they rated and then consumed ad lib their preferred beer (with participants blind to brand). Visual and olfactory stimuli were obscured during 1 session (blocked) and not obscured during the other (unblocked). Dependent measures included ratings of "liking", "want another", and "desire to drink"; subjective mood; and ad lib beer consumption (reinforcement). Most ratings and ad lib consumption were lower during the blocked versus the unblocked condition. There were no interactions of blockade condition with sex and no effect of blockade on mood. These findings show that nonpharmacological stimuli associated with alcohol consumption influence alcohol's subjective and reinforcing effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A note on the judgment of speaker effectiveness.

Ratings of the effectiveness of the speaker at each of 14 meetings (445 participants, some attending more than 1 meeting) on an 8-item rating scale showed that a simple rating procedure can yield useful discrimination as to the excellence of public-speaker addressed meetings. However, this discrimination is primarily on a general or overall factor, with little evidence of differentiation among such elements as the speaker's qualifications or ability, topic coverage, personal gain from meeting, or satisfaction of expectations. Ratings of "timeliness of topic" alone tended to be somewhat independent of the evaluation of the meeting itself. Ratings of the effectiveness of the speaker were not significantly correlated with attendance at the meetings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prediction of soldiers' food preferences by laboratory methods.

To determine how well the relative preference ratings of foods by groups of soldiers correspond with ratings by groups of civilians under similar test situations, the ratings for twelve test foods made by four 50-man groups of soldiers were compared with the ratings made by two 40-man groups of civilians. Under the conditions of the experiment, correlations above .9 were found between the soldier and civilian ratings, and it was concluded that "… pretesting of rations in the Institute laboratory may be considered equivalent to pretesting by the soldier-consumer panel method." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reliability and the number of rating-scale categories.

"Ss (N = 236) rated 20 foods as to preference using rating scales containing 2, 3, 5, 7, and 9 categories. Test reliability (summed ratings for each S) and rater reliability (summed ratings for each food) were computed for each scale. Test reliability was constant over the entire range of categories and was very similar to reliabilities found in another study. Rater reliability was constant from five to nine categories, but was slightly lower at two and slightly higher at three categories. It was concluded that test reliability is independent of the number of scale categories, and that rater reliability is relatively constant but" warrants further research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

APA and UNESCO.

"There are 2 primary reasons for increased concern with UNESCO at this time. 1st, the United States National Commission for UNESCO, on which APA has been represented since 1960, has asked professional societies in the social sciences to furnish program suggestions that can be built into the long-range planning of UNESCO." The 2nd reason is that the director general has proposed combining the Department of Social Sciences in UNESCO with the Department of Cultural Affairs under 1 administrative head. "UNESCO is examining the feasibility of undertaking a major study of trends in the social sciences." An ad hoc committee on relations between APA and UNESCO has made recommendations concerning (a) the proposed reorganization, (b) personnel for UNESCO, (c) various international activities, and (d) Ideas of Resonance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)