Paul D. Werner

Inpatient Evaluation of Aggression in Psychiatric Patients

The authors rated violent and violence-related behavior of patients on a psychiatric intensive care unit, and found that despite the restricted environment such behavior was manifested to a considerable degree. The amount of violent behavior was significantly correlated with admission Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale ratings on measures of thought disorder and schizophrenic thinking, but not with ratings of hostility.

Persistence and change in sex-role stereotypes

Persistence and change in sex-role stereotypes were examined by replicating in 1978 a study of sex-role conceptions published by Sherriffs and McKee in 1957. Results suggested that in many particulars sex-role stereotypes have changed little over the intervening two decades. Respondents of both sexes continued to view men as more forceful, independent, stubborn, and reckless than women; and women continued to be viewed as more mannerly, giving, emotional, and submissive than men. On the other hand, many changes in sex-role conceptions were also found to have occurred. Especially for female respondents, results suggested that stereotypes have changed in the direction of greater favorability toward women and less favorability toward men. The relevance of these findings to the psychological understanding of social change is discussed.

Hostile words and assaultive behavior on an acute inpatient psychiatric unit

This report analyzes the relationship of hostile verbalizations to assaultive acts committed by 110 male schizophrenic patients on an acute psychiatric unit. It was found that patients who were verbally assaultive and threatening also tended to be physically assaultive. Assaults rarely occurred in the absence of verbal threats or abuse, and 32 per cent of violent patients could be identified on the basis of the occurrence of hostile verbalizations.

The content of personality inventory items.

Four aspects of the item content of personality inventories were studied: the area of psychological functioning addressed (cognitive, preferences, feelings, behavioral), degree of reference to situational factors, degree of reference to response frequency, and the nature of reference to time. Three judges rated items of the California Psychological Inventory, Eysenck Personality Inventory, Maudsley Personality Inventory, Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, Jackson Personality Research Form, and Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire. Behavioral acts were found infrequently addressed in inventory items, and the other areas of functioning were approximately equally represented. More than half of the items referred to situation characteristics, 39% included the notion of frequency of behavior or experience, and most referred to the present. Rating reliabilities were also presented, and results for individual inventories were compared. Implications for controversies in the field of personality were discussed.

The effect of defined auditory conditions versus mental loading on the laparoscopic motor skill performance of experts

BackgroundMusic and noise are frequent occurrences in the operating room. To date, the effects of these auditory conditions on the performance of laparoscopic surgery experts have not been evaluated.MethodsEight internationally recognized experts were recruited for a crossover study. The experts were randomized to perform three simple tasks on a laparoscopic simulator, SurgicalSIM VR. The tasks were equal in difficulty and performed under the following conditions: silence, dichaotic music (auditory stress), classical music (auditory relaxation), and mental loading (mental arithmetic tasks). Permutations of the conditions were created to account for a learning effect. The tasks were performed twice to test for memory consolidation and to accommodate baseline variability. Time until task completion and task accuracy via instrument tip trajectory (path of the tip through space) were recorded. Performance was correlated with responses on the Brief Musical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ).ResultsThe study demonstrated that dichaotic music has a negative impact on time until task completion but not on task accuracy. In addition, memory consolidation of accuracy is negatively influenced. Classical music has a variable effect on experts’ time until task completion, yet all the experts performed the tasks more accurately. Classical music had no effect on recall of a procedure. Mental loading increased time until completion, but did not affect accuracy or recall. The experience of music varied among experts and influenced how each of the conditions affected their performance.ConclusionThe study demonstrated that, contrary to common belief, proficiency in surgery does not protect against stressful auditory influences or the influence of mental preoccupation. Interestingly, relaxing auditory influences such as classical music can even have a positive impact on the accuracy of experts. Previous musical experience could help to identify surgeons whose performance may be specifically affected by music or noise.

The Music Experience Questionnaire: Development and Correlates

The authors introduce the Music Experience Questionnaire (MEQ), a selfreport measure of individual differences in reactions to music. In analyses of responses in a derivation sample of 211 undergraduates and a replication sample of 105 undergraduates, scores on the 6 scales of this measure showed acceptable alpha coefficients and testretest correlations. The authors found 2 principal factors: subjective/physical reactions to music and active involvement. MEQ scores were, at most, weakly correlated with 2 measures of favorability of self-presentation, the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (D. P. Crowne & D. Marlowe, 1960) and the Responding Desirability on Attitudes and Opinions Scale (K. Schuessler, D. H. Hittle, & J. Cardascia, 1978). Examination of correlations between MEQ scores and the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale (L. S. Radloff, 1977), as well as factor scores on the Adjective Check List (H. G. Gough & A. B. Heilbrun, 1983), suggested areas of similarity and difference in the correlates of music experience for women and men. The authors discuss directions for future research as well as potential uses of the MEQ.

The relationship between anxiety and sexual functioning in lesbians and heterosexual women.

The association between anxiety and sexual functioning was studied in relation to womens sexual orientation. Participants in lesbian relationships (n = 42) and heterosexual relationships (n = 78) completed the Multidimensional Anxiety Questionnaire and Female Sexual Function Index. No difference was found between groups on the anxiety measure, but lesbians scored higher than heterosexuals on sexual functioning scales for arousal and orgasm. Intercorrelations among sexual functioning scales were dissimilar for lesbians and heterosexuals. Among heterosexuals, anxiety was negatively correlated with overall sexual functioning, lubrication, orgasm, and pain, but among lesbians anxiety was uncorrelated with all sexual functioning variables.

Family conflict, psychopathology, and dangerous behavior by schizophrenic inpatients

Data supporting the hypothesis that history of severe discipline and parental conflict in childhood is related to current violence were obtained in a study of 100 schizophrenic inpatients. In addition to a relation between inpatient violence and degree of schizophrenic symptoms, inpatient assaults and other dangerousness measures were positively and significantly correlated with severity of parental discipline, especially involving the father, and with degree of family conflict, particularly fights between parents and others outside the home.

Development of a Geriatric Behavioral Self‐Assessment Scale*

ABSTRACT: Described is the development of a self‐rating geriatric behavioral scale modeled after the Sandoz Clinical Assessment‐Geriatric (SCAG). This new Self‐Assessment Scale‐Geriatric (SASG) provides a valid and reliable measure of behavioral pathologic changes for the selective screening of elderly patients who manifest mild to moderate symptoms of dementia. Further use and refinement of this new measuring device are required to confer on it the maximum possible accuracy.

The context of involuntary commitment on the basis of danger to others: a study of the use of the California 14-day certificate.

This study examines the application of civil commitment criteria for prolonged (14-day) involuntary hospitalization of individuals judged to be dangerous to others by reason of mental illness. The California Civil Commitment Statute (Lanterman-Petris-Short, LPS) provides for such commitment, after a 72-hour period of observation. For a sample of 71 males on an acute inpatient unit, we examined the relationship between 14-day certification by reason of dangerousness to others (DO) under the LPS and measures of prehospitalization dangerousness, prior legal status, assaultive behavior in hospital, and mental status. The 31 per cent of subjects who were certified as DO were found to have been significantly more often held initially for 72-hour observation on the DO grounds than were patients who were certified for other reasons. However, subjects in the DO group were no different from the contrast groups on ratings of assaultiveness of preadmission behavior and of violent acts while in hospital. The implications of these results for the evaluation of civil commitment proceedings are discussed.