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J M Neale

Publications and source records attributed to J M Neale.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1991

An alternative statistical treatment for summarizing the central tendency of replicate assay data.

Standard assay procedures call for multiple replicates for the purpose of averaging random error from individual replicate scores to obtain a reliable estimate of the true score and for the purpose of specifying the degree of variability within the assay. In this paper we focus on the variability and magnitude of within-assay replicates in order to improve the estimate of the true score. A rule is presented for deciding (1) when individual replicates should be omitted from the computation of the assay's summary score or (2) when an entire sample of replicates should be discarded based on the pattern of replicate scores. It is suggested that this rule improves the reliability of the estimated assay score and this is supported by an illustrative analysis of lymphocyte proliferation assays.

Data Interpretation, Statistical↗
PubMed1990

Self-focused attention, coping responses, and distressed mood in everyday life.

Several questions concerning the relation between self-focused attention and depressed mood were examined: (a) Does the association involve global negative affect, rather than sadness per se? (b) is self-focus associated with specific negative affects other than sadness? and (c) does the association occur at the between-subjects or within-subject level? Also hypothesized was that self-focus is associated with coping responses that may perpetuate negative mood. In an idiographic/nomothetic design, 40 male community residents completed daily reports for 30 days. Results suggest that self-focus is linked with global negative mood as well as specific negative affects other than sadness and that the association occurs on a between-persons, rather than a day-to-day within-person, basis. In addition, highly self-focused men reported using passive and ruminative coping styles, which in turn were associated with distressed affect.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1990

Effects of caring for a demented relative on elders' life events and appraisals.

Weekly ratings of events and appraisals were collected from 19 caregivers of dementia patients and 19 control subjects over 4 weeks. Caregivers reported more negative events overall and rated them as more undesirable than did control subjects, but significant differences were found in events of only 2 of the 11 life areas that were measured. Caregivers' negative appraisals were more frequent and more intense than those of control subjects in virtually every life area. These preliminary data fail to demonstrate a global disruption of caregiver's activities and suggest the importance of appraisals in determining the impact of caregiving.

Aged↗
PubMed1987

Evidence that secretory IgA antibody is associated with daily mood.

In this study, we examined the secretory immune system, the body's first line of defense against invading organisms, and its relation to daily fluctuations of mood. Specifically, secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA) was studied. Unlike other psychoimmunity studies that examined all sIgA protein regardless of specificity to invading organisms, ours examined an antigen-specific sIgA response to the oral administration of a harmless protein (rabbit albumin) and monitored the antibody produced in response to the protein. Dental students recorded their daily mood thrice weekly for 8 1/3 weeks, and parotid saliva was obtained from subjects during these contacts. Using a within-subjects analyses strategy, we found that antibody response was lower on days with high negative mood relative to days with lower negative mood, and conversely, sIgA antibody response was higher on days with high positive mood relative to days with lower positive mood. Results from total sIgA protein were in the opposite direction, although not significantly so. These results extend our knowledge of immunological changes and mood, and they suggest that minor life events' role in health may be mediated by the secretory immune system.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Changes in daily event frequency precede episodes of physical symptoms.

Although numerous reports show a direct relationship between life stress and various physical and psychological symptoms, methodological shortcomings have limited the significance of these studies. We present data from a prospective investigation of daily life experiences to provide more convincing evidence about this relationship. Undesirable events increased and desirable events decreased in frequency three to four days prior to the onset of an episode of symptoms. This finding and other physiological reports suggest mediation of this effect by suppression of secretory IgA.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1987

Secretory IgA as a measure of immunocompetence.

The field of psychoimmunology has rapidly expanded in recent years and various parameters of the immune system have been examined in relation to psychological factors. The secretory immune system is one of the more interesting aspects of the entire immune system because it protects mucosal membranes from invading organisms. Stress-produced changes in secretory immunoglobulin A (s-IgA) as measured by radial immunodiffusion assays have been reported in several studies. We present three reasons why total s-IgA protein, the measure derived from radial immunodiffusion assays, may not be a reasonable measure of immune system functioning, and we suggest an alternative method for examining secretory IgA that focuses on s-IgA antibody response to a novel antigen.

Animals↗
PubMed1986

Triggers or aggravators of symptoms?

This study attempts to replicate and extend the associations reported by Verbrugge among negative events, bad mood and symptoms. Employing the same symptomatology measure used in that study, but with more comprehensive event and mood questionnaires, we essentially replicated the same-day and lagged relationships reported by Verbrugge. One difference, however, was that undesirable events were a stronger predictor of symptom days than negative mood, whereas the opposite was true in Verbrugge's study. To further investigate the causal role of events and mood on symptoms, analyses were performed looking only at onset days of symptom episodes. This procedure greatly reduced same day event-symptom associations and eliminated event and mood's lagged relationships with symptoms. Our results do not, then, corroborate the triggering effect of events and mood for the onset of symptoms, although these variables may have a role in maintaining the duration of symptom episodes.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Daily versus major life events as predictors of symptom frequency: a replication study.

Predictions of physical symptomatology by daily life events and by major life events were compared, replicating and expanding work reported by DeLongis, Coyne, Dakof, Folkman, & Lazarus (1982). Analyses of daily, prospective data collected on 79 married men for 90 days demonstrated that daily, undesirable events were better predictors of symptom frequencies than either past, major life events or daily, desirable events. These results, similar to those found by DeLongis et al. (1982), were further explored by examining "healthy" subjects versus subjects with prior medical conditions. Undesirable daily events were a much stronger predictor of physical symptoms in the healthy group than in the prior medical conditions group.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1985

Learned helplessness and judgments of control.

One of the central hypotheses of learned helplessness theory is that exposure to noncontingency produces a reduced ability to perceive response-outcome relations (the postulated "cognitive deficit"). To test this hypothesis, subjects were exposed to a typical helplessness induction task and then asked to make judgments of the amount of control their responses exerted over a designated outcome (the onset of a light). Support for the postulated cognitive deficit would be found if subjects who experienced the induction underestimated the relation between their responses and outcomes. The results, however, demonstrated that induction subjects (n = 30) made higher and more accurate judgments of control than subjects in a no-treatment control group (n = 30). This finding clearly fails to support the postulated cognitive deficit and highlights the need for other direct tests of the basic hypotheses of helplessness theory.

Cognition↗
PubMed1985

The need to relate cognitive deficits to specific behavioral referents of schizophrenia.

The implicit rationale for many cognitive studies of schizophrenia hinges on the recognition that verbal communication generated by patients with this disorder is often elusive or difficult to comprehend. This observation has led to the inference that a cognitive dysfunction, which mediates the production of discourse failure, is characteristic of schizophrenia. Unfortunately, most investigators have chosen to examine this type of hypothesis by comparing heterogeneous groups of schizophrenic patients (without regard to whether they exhibit verbal communication impairment) with various control samples; they have not studied the association between cognitive processes and specific schizophrenic symptoms. Data are presented from two studies indicating that such relationships, even when highly plausible, cannot simply be presumed. In both studies, one with adults suffering from schizophrenia and the other with children at risk, a laboratory measure of referential communication failed to be strongly related to language disorder. These data suggest that future investigators should specify the features of schizophrenia that are expected to correlate with their laboratory measures and empirically evaluate these relations.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Effects of severe daily events on mood.

Studies of the effect of negative experiences on mood have shown an association between negative events and mood reported on the same day. In trying to make a more convincing case that negative events cause shifts in mood, we examined the effects of naturally occurring, daily events on next-day mood. From a sample of 50 men who had reported events and mood prospectively, 17 whose reports included a severe, negative event were selected. Same-day and next-day associations were examined using both self-reports from the men and wives' reports about their husbands' mood. Same-day associations were observed, but there was no strong evidence of changes in next-day mood. The results offer no support for 2-day or longer effects of daily, negative events and highlight the need for prospective studies for addressing causal questions and for cognitive mediational variables, such as coping, to be included in future studies.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1982

Speech competence of children vulnerable to psychopathology.

Verbal productivity and cohesion and reference patterns of children of schizophrenics (N = 23), unipolars (N = 43), bipolars (N = 38), and normals (N = 53) were assessed using the Rochester and Martin (1979) evaluation system. Children of all offspring groups could be discriminated from one another, with children of schizophrenics showing the most deviant speech performance across all dependent measures. Children of schizophrenics were less verbally productive and had poorer patterns of cohesion between ideas than children of normals. In addition, they produced more unclear and ambiguous references to previously mentioned ideas than did children of normals. The consistency of deviance and performance on specific dependent variables in these children at risk for schizophrenia was similar to the speech performance of thought-disordered schizophrenics. Possible explanations for these similarities were discussed and evaluated.

Bipolar Disorder↗