Biomedical subjects

I H Bernstein

Publications and source records attributed to I H Bernstein.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1995

On the utility of the West Haven-Yale Multidimensional Pain Inventory.

STUDY DESIGN: Two studies evaluated the West Haven-Yale Multidimensional Pain Inventory. This 52-item inventory contains 12 scales divided into 3 parts: 1) interference, support, pain severity, self-control, and negative mood; 2) punishing responses, solicitous responses, and distracting responses; and 3) household chores, outdoor work, activities away from home, and social activities. OBJECTIVES: The objective of study 1 was to investigate the internal structure of the Multidimensional Pain Inventory and its demographic correlates. The objective of study 2 was to explore its external correlates (construct validity). SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: The Multidimensional Pain Inventory appears promising because of its brevity, scope, ease of administration, and initial results. Despite this, it has attracted very little attention in the orthopedic literature since its introduction nearly a decade ago. METHOD: The internal structure was examined using oblique multiple group confirmatory factor analysis. Demographic correlates were examined using discriminant analysis. The external correlates were examined using multiple regression and discriminant analysis. RESULTS: The items' proposed structure fit well except that two pairs of scales are poorly separated: 1) activities away from home and social activities, and 2) solicitous responses and distracting responses. Correlations with external criteria are meaningful. CONCLUSIONS: The Multidimensional Pain Inventory meets standards of reliability and convergent validity, and it may be an improvement over current psychometric devices used to this same end.

Black or African American↗

PubMed1991

Reexamination of Eisen, Zellman, and McAlister's Health Belief Model questionnaire.

Eisen, Zellman, and McAlister proposed a 22-item scale to measure four Health Belief Model (HBM) constructs as applied to adolescent contraceptive behavior. Their factor analysis led them to conclude that there were several discrepancies in their proposed scales. We suggest that they were unduly pessimistic. Although their proposed scales could stand improvement, they are adequate preliminary tools. The major reason they concluded that the scales were deficient was that they applied criteria that are generally appropriate for continuous data to their inherently discrete (categorical) item response data. A secondary consideration is that confirmatory methods of factor analysis can yield results that bear more directly on their proposed organization of items than the traditional exploratory methods that they used. A reanalysis of their data suggests that their proposed scales have fewer problems than they believed they had. Our results increase the likelihood of standardizing HBM measures.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1990

Perceptual and response interactions in semantic priming.

In two experiments, subjects made pairs of lexical decisions verbally. In Experiment 1, masked stimuli appeared concurrently to the left and right of fixation; in Experiment 2, nonmasked stimuli appeared sequentially at fixation. The left-hand letter strings were judged more accurately in in Experiment 1, and the second letter strings were judged more accurately in Experiment 2. Each string in the pair could be either a word (e.g., fork) or a nonword anagram (e.g., frok). Consequently, the two strings in the pair could be related (e.g., fork-spoon, frok-spoon, etc.) or unrelated (e.g., fork-door, frok-door, etc.), independently of whether neither, either, or both strings were words. Semantically related stimuli induced consistent biases to respond "word," as noted in other studies. These biases were typically stronger for the event reported second. Minimal evidence was found for perceptual priming effects. The asymmetrical effects were consistent with spreading-activation-type mechanisms, but other considerations support a multiple-process view.

Adult↗

PubMed1989

Cognitive biases and depression.

Compared symptomatically depressed, clinically remitted, and normal controls using cognitive measures designed to be traitlike and statelike in cross-sectional and longitudinal designs, respectively. Remitted depressives and normal subjects did not differ in their attributional biases, endorsement of dysfunctional attitudes, or interpretation of schema-relevant ambiguous events, but both groups differed from symptomatic depressives. Depressive episodes thus affect cognition, but cognitions measured by self-reports are more statelike than traitlike.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1989

Semantic priming: subliminal perception or context?

Briefly presented, masked priming stimuli that cannot be identified by themselves can affect the processing of subsequent targets. The effect, which is sometimes viewed as a demonstration of unconscious processing, has been linked to the subliminal perception literature. Experiments 1 and 2 indicated that the identification of primes in the context of semantically related targets is superior to the identification of primes presented alone, and that the identification of primes in the context of semantically unrelated targets is inferior to the identification of primes presented alone. Experiment 3 indicated parallel findings in a recognition task. Consequently, an explanation of semantic priming in terms of the interactive nature of stimuli that are near to one another in time seems preferable to one based upon concepts of unconscious processing and subliminal perception.

Adult↗

PubMed1987

Invariance in the MMPI's component structure.

Bernstein and Garbin (1985b) suggested that the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory's major clinical scales (excluding Scales ? and 5) can be approximated by an oblique three-component structure: (a) Profile Elevation, (b) Test-taking Attitudes, and (c) Optimism-Pessimism, collectively termed the salient weight model. In this study, we found that both this model and the MMPI's principal component structure remain invariant across race, sex, and, as previously noted, context of testing (job applicants vs. inmates in correctional institutions). We further noted that several alternative definitions of Profile Elevation provide equally satisfactory representation of the relations among the scales. This factor invariance is necessary, but not sufficient, for the MMPI to be viewed as unbiased.

Adult↗

PubMed1986