Melvin Zax

BIRTH OUTCOMES IN THE OFFSPRING OF MENTALLY DISORDERED WOMEN

The course of pregnancy and birth were studied among schizophrenic, neurotic depressive, and personality-disordered women, compared to a normal control group. The lighter birthweight of schizophrenic womens offspring was found more strongly related to the severity and chronicity of their mental illness than to the diagnosis itself. Children of neurotic depressive women had lower APGAR scores and more fetal deaths.

Contextual risk and resiliency during late adolescence.

The factors contributing to the mental health of a sample of 18-year-olds were analyzed in a hierarchical multiple regression analysis. The contribution of proximal variables such as parenting behavior, intermediate variables such as other family factors, and the more distal variables such as social class and minority status were all highly significant. Child variables were also found to make significant contributions to understanding mental health. When the sample was divided into three subsamples, white advantaged, white disadvantaged, and African American (almost entirely disadvantaged), the mental health of the African American sample was higher than that of the white disadvantaged sample. The regression coefficients fit to the whole sample underestimated the mental health of the African Americans and overestimated the health of the white disadvantaged. The parenting of the African American sample was less approving and more critical and more controlling than that of the other two samples. To investigate the correlates of resilience, pairs of subjects were contrasted who had the same mental health but differed in whether they exceeded or were less than the mental health predicted for them. None of the variables in the study differentiated significantly between the two groups.

Childbirth education, maternal attitudes, and delivery

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a childbirth education program (patterned after the Lamaze procedure) on maternal attitudes and the delivery process. Dependent variables included axniety as measured by the anxiety scale of the IPAT, scores on the Maternal Attitudes to Pregnancy Inventory (MAPI), the duration of labor, and the amounts of premedication and anesthesia administered during delivery. Three groups of pregnant women were used as subjects: 70 primiparous and 48 multiparous women taking a 6 week childbirth education course and 41 multiparous women delivery at the same hospitals but not taking the course. In addition the data on labor duration and amount of medication administered to 1,400 multiparous and 1,015 primiparous patients delivery at one of the same hospitals as the other three groups were examined for comparison purposes. No differences were found between groups on the anxiety measure or on duration of labor. Some differences favoring women who had the childbirth education course were found on the MAPI and the medication and anesthesia measures. It was concluded that the childbirth education course had some beneficial effects.

Perinatal characteristics of the offspring of schizophrenic women.

Delivery complications of schizophrenic women were compared to control groups in two studies. Although in both studies the schizophrenic women had more complications than normal controls, and more than personality disordered women in the second study, in both studies a neurotic depressive group of women had a comparable number. In both studies chronicity of mental disorder was more strongly related to number of delivery complications than any particular psychiatric diagnosis.

INTELLIGENCE AND SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL DISCRIMINABILITY

240 Ss, subdivided by sex, intelligence (high and low) and grade level (fourth, eighth and twelfth), rated 10 Rorschach cards on each of 15 semantic differential scales. Each Ss responses were summarized by the entropy statistic, H, as a measure of discriminability. Discriminability increased as a function of intelligence and of grade level, but not of sex, and there were no significant interactions. However, further analysis showed that the relationship between intelligence and discriminability only prevailed in Grades 4 and 8. Contradictions in the research literature can be resolved with some attention to sample size, age of Ss, stimulus condition, and response measures.

The Stimulus Value of the TAT

Abstract Ratings of all 30 TAT cards were obtained from 34 male and 40 female college students on the following 10 bipolar, adjectival scales: accepting-rejecting, aggressive-passive, dependent-independent, happy-sad, hopeful-hopeless, impulsive-controlled, pleasant-unpleasant, safe-dangerous, severe-lenient, and sexy-sexless. The results of the ratings indicate that the cards vary considerably as to their ambiguity, i.e., the number of scales which consistently describe the picture. Further, the stimulus properties of some cards are such that it is likely they will “pull” negatively-toned stories. It is suggested that in evaluating stories given to the TAT cards, the interpretation should be made only in light of the stimulus value of the particular card.

Personality Dimensions and Extreme Response Tendency

In a study of the relationship between pathology and rating style, 68 Ss rated 10 Rorschach inkblots on 15 semantic differential scales. Ss were selected from a total of 158 Japanese college students as extreme neuroticism and/or extraversion scorers based on the Japanese version of the Maudsley Personality Inventory. It was found that neurotics made significantly more extreme ratings than non-neurotic Ss and that stable introverts had significantly fewer extreme ratings than neurotic extraverts. No significant differences were found in intermediate and neutral ratings.

Once more unto the breach dear friends…A reconsideration of the literature on symptom substitution

Abstract For over 25 years the question of symptom substitution has been the most heatedly contested theoretical point between the behavioral and psychodynamic schools. The behaviorists have claimed to show empirically that symptom substitution is at worst a negligible phenomenon, while the psychodynamicists have argued that this is a theoretical impossibility. This paper reviews the basic behavioral and psychodynamic positions on this issue. It subsequently argues that the behavioral studies in this area are methodologically and conceptually flawed to the point of neutralizing the claim of “empirical” resolution. Finally, current behavioral and psychodynamic positions on this issue are viewed, as well as their relevance to future research and therapeutic intervention.