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Biomedical subjects

R Plutchik

Publications and source records attributed to R Plutchik.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1989

Correlates of suicide and violence risk: III. A two-stage model of countervailing forces.

Questionnaires and self-report scales were administered to 100 psychiatric inpatients. The scales measured such variables as depression, hopelessness, impulsivity, mental and life problems, family violence, personality characteristics, and dyscontrol tendencies. These were correlated with indices of suicide risk and violence risk. Most variables were found to correlate significantly with both suicide and violence risk. Partial correlation analyses revealed that 10 variables correlated significantly with suicide risk but not violence risk, while four variables correlated significantly with violence risk but not suicide risk. A two-stage model of countervailing forces, incorporating concepts from both psychoanalysis and ethology, is presented as a way of interpreting the results.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

The measurement of suicidality, aggressivity and impulsivity.

1. From an evolutionary point of view aggressive behavior increases the chances of individual survival as well as inclusive fitness. 2. There are brain structures and biochemical systems that are involved in the regulation of aggressive behavior. 3. Genetic studies have revealed genetic contributions to aggressive as well as impulsive behaviors. 4. Research has demonstrated correlations between measures of suicidality, violence and impulsivity. 5. A two-step model of countervailing forces has been developed that identifies amplifiers and attenuators of the aggressive impulse. This model has enabled us to determine a set of variables that influence suicide but not violence and another set that influences violence but not suicide.

Aggression↗
PubMed1989

Subtypes of suicidal and assaultive behaviors in adolescent psychiatric inpatients: a research note.

Among 129 adolescent psychiatric inpatients, four subgroups of suicidal and/or assaultive behaviors were identified. A suicidal-only subgroup with no evidence of assaultive behavior was characterized by depression, drug abuse and environmental stresses. An assaultive-only subgroup with no evidence of suicidal behavior exhibited aggressive symptoms and violence at home. A subgroup with both suicidal and assaultive behaviors experienced accidents and family violence. A fourth subgroup had neither suicidal nor assaultive behavior. This subgroup showed eating disorders, depression, minimal assaultiveness and few peer friendships.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Changes in suicidal behavior in child psychiatric inpatients.

This study of 49 preadolescent psychiatric inpatients, aged 6-12 years, evaluated changes from the time of admission to 7 weeks later in ratings of suicidal behavior, assaultive behavior, depression, hopelessness, and global functioning. Standard research instruments were used to measure these variables. There were significant decreases in suicidal behavior, assaultiveness, and depression and a significant increase in global assessment during the 7 weeks of hospitalization. Severity of suicidal behavior and severity of assaultive behavior at admission predicted a subsequent change in level of suicidal behavior. Furthermore, severity of suicidal behavior at admission was the best indicator of a change in severity of suicidal behavior.

Anxiety, Separation↗
PubMed1989

Defense mechanisms in risk of suicide and risk of violence.

This paper reports on an empirical study of defense mechanisms in 60 psychiatric inpatients. Eight defenses--compensation, denial, displacement, intellectualization, projection, reaction formation, regression, and repression--were studied in the context of a two-stage model of suicidal and violent behavior. The results showed that use of regression as a defense differentiated suicidal from nonsuicidal patients, and use of displacement differentiated violent from nonviolent patients. Repression tended to turn aggression inward, and projection and denial turned aggression outward.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Ethics in the practice of psychotherapy: a survey.

One hundred and one psychotherapists responded to a survey designed to obtain data concerning beliefs about various ethical issues encountered in psychotherapy. Opinions about ethical standards in many areas were quite varied for the entire sample. Differences also emerged when therapists were compared in terms of orientation and years of experience.

Confidentiality↗
PubMed1989

Prediction of risk for drug use in high school students.

On the basis of questionnaires administered to almost 2,000 high school students in Cali, Colombia, a subset of items was selected that deal primarily with parent-child relationships. This 53 item set, referred to as the Drug Risk Scale (DRS), was administered to two new cross-validation samples, one consisting of high school students and the other consisting of drug addicts attending drug rehabilitation centers. Significant differences in parent-child relations were found between these new groups. The DRS was also found to have reasonably high sensitivity and specificity. Its potential value as a risk-prediction instrument is discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

Increased suicidality in depression: group or subgroup characteristic?

A lifetime history of depressive episodes and suicide attempts was ascertained from 172 depressed patients admitted to a psychiatric inpatient service. Fifty-five of these patients had made at least one suicide attempt. The correlation of depressive episodes and the total number of suicide attempts for this group was close to zero. However, when the data were converted into rate measures (number of episodes or attempts per year), the correlations were very high and significant. It appears that approximately one-third of severely depressed, hospitalized patients have a history of suicide attempts and, once a suicide attempt has occurred, the patient is at high risk for more suicide attempts if future depressions occur. Within the group of depressives with a history of suicide attempt, the risk of suicidal behavior is evenly distributed. No evidence in favor of a "hypervulnerable" subgroup was found.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

The measurement of psychodynamic variables.

The paper is concerned with the integration of psychodynamic theory with psychometric theory in order to find meaningful ways to measure psychodynamic variables. Four reasons are suggested for the use of self-report tests in psychotherapy research. These include the need for reliable measuring instruments, cost-efficient methods of data collection, and the progressive refinement of "fuzzy" concepts through the process of test construction. A three-stage approach to outpatient assessment is presented which is called sequential psychodiagnostic evaluation. The first stage refers to the evaluation of crisis issues such as suicidality or psychosis; the second to egodystonic symptom assessment; and the third refers to the assessment of egodystonic states such as personality traits, ego strength and defenses. The construction of a number of these scales is illustrated and their use in a research study of predictors of psychotherapy outcome described.

Defense Mechanisms↗
PubMed1987

Interconvertability of five self-report measures of depression.

This article describes the construction of a new self-report scale based directly on the DSM-III criteria for major depressive disorder. It provides data on the interconvertability of scores on this scale with scores obtained on the Beck Depression Inventory, the Zung Depression Scale, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression (CES-D) Questionnaire, and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory Depression Scale (MMPI-D). The article also examines the relation between physical principles of measurement as described by physicists and psychiatric measurement. It concludes with an analysis of the connection between the dichotomies typical of diagnostic statements and the continuous, probabilistic data typical of self-report instruments.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Borderline and schizotypal personality disorders: mutually exclusive or overlapping?

This article is concerned with one aspect of the validity of DSM-III Axis II diagnoses, namely, the discriminability of borderline and schizotypal disorders. Forty-nine patients diagnosed by DSM-III criteria as borderline, schizotypal, or "mixed" personality disorders completed the Borderline Syndrome Index (BSI), an independent self-report 52-item instrument that has been shown to be reliable and to have discriminative validity. A one-way analysis of variance and a discriminant function analysis were conducted. Our major finding was that there were no significant differences among the groups on the BSI self-report test, although there were differences on clinical grounds. We discuss this in terms of "fuzzy set" theory and prototypic systems of classification.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Combined psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy for depression. A systematic analysis of the evidence.

To determine whether combined psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy is superior to alternative therapies for unipolar depression, we reviewed all controlled studies of outpatients treated for unipolar depression reported between 1974 and 1984. To accomplish this, we developed a new statistical approach that is specific in its method of evaluating the quality of each study and specific about the weights given to each outcome. The combined active treatments (drugs plus psychotherapy) were appreciably more effective than the placebo conditions but only slightly superior to psychotherapy alone, pharmacotherapy alone, or either of these combined with a placebo.

Adolescent↗