Childhood Memory and a History of Different Forms of Abuse

A widespread professional and public controversy has recently emerged regarding recovered memories of child sexual abuse, but the prevalence and nature of these memories have received limited empirical examination. This study (N = 553 nonclinical participants) found that very similar proportions of those with histories of physical, emotional, or sexual abuse reported that they had periods without memory of their abuse (21%, 18%, and 18%, respectively). The responses of approximately one half of these participants suggested that they lacked conscious access to their abuse memories, whereas the responses from the others suggested that they had conscious access to their memories. A great deal of variance was found in the reported quality of general childhood memory and the offset of infantile amnesia, and the findings also suggest that it is normative to recover memories of childhood. Each of these variables was also unrelated to the experience of child abuse

Support for the Validity of the Graduate Record Examination

Comments on the article by R. J. Sternberg and W. M. Williams (see record 1997-04591-002) regarding the empirical validity of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) in predicting graduate student performance in psychology. It is argued that Sternberg and Williams used a misleading approach for analyzing their data. Predicting precise levels of achievement in graduate school from GRE scores alone when all admitted students are judged to be highly capable will necessarily result in low correlations. High achievement in any profession is dependent on a confluence of factors, and any single factor will necessarily be a relatively weak predictor of level of success. It is only by combining data regarding such factors that this type of prediction is strengthened. Given that Sternberg and Williams\u27s study focused on the use of GRE scores in making graduate admissions decisions, a more appropriate methodology for examining their data involves decision theory and selection accuracy

A dedicated algorithm for calculating ground states for the triangular random bond Ising model

In the presented article we present an algorithm for the computation of ground state spin configurations for the 2d random bond Ising model on planar triangular lattice graphs. Therefore, it is explained how the respective ground state problem can be mapped to an auxiliary minimum-weight perfect matching problem, solvable in polynomial time. Consequently, the ground state properties as well as minimum-energy domain wall (MEDW) excitations for very large 2d systems, e.g. lattice graphs with up to N=384x384 spins, can be analyzed very fast. Here, we investigate the critical behavior of the corresponding T=0 ferromagnet to spin-glass transition, signaled by a breakdown of the magnetization, using finite-size scaling analyses of the magnetization and MEDW excitation energy and we contrast our numerical results with previous simulations and presumably exact results.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

The growing need for a unified biopsychosocial approach in mental health care

Psychology has been remarkably successful as a scientific discipline and field of clinical practice. Despite its remarkable growth, however, the field has also experienced substantial conflict and controversy. There has been great diversity in the approaches counselors and psychologists have used to understand development, psychopathology, and the goals and processes of psychotherapy. This has led to large numbers of conflicts and controversies that have distracted the field from its primary purposes. A biopsychosocial approach has the potential to bring the field together around a unified science-based framework for understanding mental health practice that will avoid these conflicts

Beyond Theoretical Orientations: The Emergence of a Unified Scientific Framework in Professional Psychology

Psychology has been remarkably successful as both a basic and applied science despite serious and persistent conflict between its many theoretical camps and schools of thought. By far the most influential approaches to conceptualizing clinical practice in psychology have been the traditional theoretical orientations, even though they are widely viewed as inadequate and incomplete. This article reviews the underlying reasons for these conflicts and then discusses the emergence of a unified scientific framework that moves the profession beyond these problems. Outmoded conceptual frameworks are not appropriate for a science-based profession, and professional psychology needs to consider making a systematic transition to a comprehensive scientific approach to understanding human development, functioning, and behavior change

Family of Origin History, Psychological Distress, Quality of Childhood Memory, and Content of First and Recovered Childhood Memories

Objective: Individual differences in quality of childhood memory and recovered memories from childhood remain poorly understood. Therefore, this study tested several hypotheses which may help account for the large amount of variation that individuals report in the general quality of their childhood memory and the valence of the memories that many individuals report recovering from their childhoods. It was hypothesized that family of origin dysfunction would be associated with poorer childhood memory, that current depressed mood would be associated with impaired childhood recall and the recall of negative memories, and that the content of recovered childhood memories would be disproportionately negative because they include a significant number of memories which had been repressed or dissociated. Method: Questionnaires were administered to 553 college students, 27% of whom reported a history of child abuse. Results: The participants reported substantial variation in the general quality of their childhood memories and also a wide variety of different types of experiences for both their first childhood memories and the recovered memories that most of them had from their childhoods. Weak associations were found between family of origin dysfunction and poorer general quality of childhood memory, but the study as a whole resulted in few significant findings. Conclusions: Only weak support was found for some of the factors that have been hypothesized to distort autobiographical memory. The substantial individual variation in childhood memory that has been reported by college student samples remains poorly understood