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First Factor (first + factor)
Selected AbstractsCriminal cognitions and personality: what does the PICTS really measure?CRIMINAL BEHAVIOUR AND MENTAL HEALTH, Issue 3 2000Dr Vincent Egan Introduction The Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) is a measure of the criminal cognitions and thinking styles that maintain offending. The scale comprises 8 a priori thinking styles and two validation scales, the validation scales having been found to be unreliable. Owing to the large amount of apparently shared variance in the original validation study, this data matrix needs re-analysis. Results from the PICTS were examined in relation to general measures of individual differences, in order to link the PICTS to the broader literature on the characteristics of offenders. Method The original PICTS data-matrix was re-analysed using a more parsimonious method of analysis. The PICYS was also given to 54 detained, mentally disordered offenders along with the NEO-Five Factor Inventory, the Sensation-Seeking Scale (SSS), the Attention Deficit Scales for Adults (ADSA) and, as a measure of general intelligence, the Standard Progressive Matrices. Results Principal components analysis suggested that the PICTS really comprised two factors: a lack of thoughtfulness (i.e. lack of attention to one's experience), and wilful hostility, with the first factor being most well defined. Intelligence was not associated with any factor of criminal thinking style. High scores on the ADSA and Disinhibition and Boredom Susceptibility subscales of the SSS were associated with much greater endorsement of criminal sentiments; high Neuroticism, low Extroversion, and low Agreeableness were slightly lower correlates. Discussion The issues involved in criminogenic cognitions need clarification and to be linked to the broader literature on cognitive distortions and personality. Interventions targeted at dismantling impulsive destructive behaviour, whether it be thoughtlessness or wilful hostility, may be effected by increasing thinking skills, so breaking down the cognitions that maintain criminal behaviour. Copyright © 2000 Whurr Publishers Ltd. [source] Responses of weaned lambs to fear-eliciting situations: Origin of individual differencesDEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOBIOLOGY, Issue 2 2003Manon Viérin Abstract The aims of this study were 1) to develop methods of objectively measuring fear in weaned lambs, and 2) to evaluate the effects of age, sex, breed, and rearing conditions on fear reactions. Four hundred forty-one lambs, aged 3 to 6 months, were submitted to three fear-eliciting situations (isolation, surprise effect, and human presence). Factor analysis revealed a first factor, interpreted in terms of fear, that accounted for 40% of total variance in the three tests. As in adult sheep, the main signs of fear were inhibition of feeding, long distance from the frightening stimulus, frequent immobilizations, and numerous high-pitch bleats. Behavior was also influenced by differences in general locomotor activity and exploratory motivation. Fear reactions were influenced by age (3- to 4-month-old lambs more fearful than 5- to 6-month-old), sex (females more fearful than males), breed (Romanov more fearful than Ile-de-France), and rearing conditions (artificial vs. maternal: almost no influence in males and influence in females depending on age). These results with sheep provide interesting theoretical and practical perspectives to the study of fearfulness. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 42: 131,147, 2003 [source] The development of a rating scale to screen social and emotional detachment in children and adolescentsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF METHODS IN PSYCHIATRIC RESEARCH, Issue 3 2007E. M. Scholte Abstract Rating scales to assess psychopathic characteristics in children and adolescents show a considerable item overlap with rating scales to assess attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), oppositional-defiant disorder (ODD) and conduct disorder (CD) symptoms. The aim of this study is to preliminary test a short questionnaire clinicians can use to screen the unique characteristics of psychopathy. Parental ratings of psychopathic characteristics and symptoms of ADHD, ODD and CD were gathered in a community sample of 2535 4,18-year-old Dutch children. The dimensionality of the ratings was determined by factor analysis and related to ADHD, ODD and CD. Two factors emerged covering egocentric-narcissistic and callous-unemotional characteristics. To avoid unnecessary stigmatization of youngsters the first factor is referred to as the "social detachment dimension" and the second as the "emotional detachment dimension". Parental ratings were reliable across all age and gender groups, and correlated moderately with ODD and CD, but not with ADHD. Preliminary findings support a two-dimensional syndrome depicting respectively narcissistic and unemotional characteristics. The syndrome is associated with ODD and CD symptoms and possibly depicts a subtype of the ODD/CD childhood disorder. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Estimating time dependent O-D trip tables during peak periodsJOURNAL OF ADVANCED TRANSPORTATION, Issue 3 2000Srinivas S. Pulugurtha Intelligent transportation systems (ITS) have been used to alleviate congestion problems arising due to demand during peak periods. The success of ITS strategies relies heavily on two factors: 1) the ability to accurately estimate the temporal and spatial distribution of travel demand on the transportation network during peak periods, and, 2) providing real-time route guidance to users. This paper addresses the first factor. A model to estimate time dependent origin-destination (O-D) trip tables in urban areas during peak periods is proposed. The daily peak travel period is divided into several time slices to facilitate simulation and modeling. In urban areas, a majority of the trips during peak periods are work trips. For illustration purposes, only peak period work trips are considered in this paper. The proposed methodology is based on the arrival pattern of trips at a traffic analysis zone (TAZ) and the distribution of their travel times. The travel time matrix for the peak period, the O-D trip table for the peak period, and the number of trips expected to arrive at each TAZ at different work start times are inputs to the model. The model outputs are O-D trip tables for each time slice in the peak period. 1995 data for the Las Vegas metropolitan area are considered for testing and validating the model, and its application. The model is reasonably robust, but some lack of precision was observed. This is due to two possible reasons: 1) rounding-off, and, 2) low ratio of total number of trips to total number of O-D pair combinations. Hence, an attempt is made to study the effect of increasing this ratio on error estimates. The ratio is increased by multiplying each O-D pair trip element with a scaling factor. Better estimates were obtained. Computational issues involved with the simulation and modeling process are discussed. [source] The Self-Injury Questionnaire: evaluation of the psychometric properties in a clinical populationJOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRIC & MENTAL HEALTH NURSING, Issue 2 2006E. E. SANTA MINA rn ba baan msc phd This paper presents the findings, from a clinical study, on the reliability and validity of a new measure for intentions in self-harm behaviour, the Self-Injury Questionnaire (SIQ). Eighty-three patients, who had presented to an emergency department with an episode of self-harm/suicidal behaviour, were given the SIQ as part of a battery of measures to evaluate differentiation in self-harm intentions based upon a history of childhood physical and/or sexual abuse. The internal consistency for the total scale was strong (, = 0.83). Construct validity demonstrated significant correlations with standardized measures. A principle component analysis of responses yielded a five-factor solution with ,affect regulation' items loading on the first factor. Cronbach's alphas were adequate for each subscale (, = 0.72,0.77). These preliminary findings indicate that the SIQ is a valid and reliable measure for research in an acute self-harming population. [source] Psychometric Properties of the Brazilian Version of the Drug Use Screening InventoryALCOHOLISM, Issue 10 2002Denise De Micheli Background Adolescent involvement with alcohol and other drugs is rising in Brazil, and there is an increasing need for psychometrically sound assessment tools to detect early drug involvement. Methods The psychometric properties of the Brazilian version of the Drug Use Screening Inventory (DUSI) were examined in a sample composed of 71 non,drug-dependent adolescents and 142 adolescents who met DSM-III-R criteria for drug dependence. Results With a cutoff score of 13% or lower for the absolute density index of the substance use area, DUSI correctly classified 80% of the drug-dependent adolescents and 90% of the non,drug-dependent adolescents, thus correctly classifying 83.6% of the sample. Factor analysis applied to each of the 10 DUSI areas indicated their unidimensionality, with substantial percentages of variance on the first factor. The Brazilian version of DUSI presented strong internal consistency reliability for the whole sample (drug-dependents and non,drug-dependent adolescents) with an average across all 10 scales for Cronbach's , reliability coefficient of 0.96 (standard deviation = 0.02) and for the split-half reliability coefficient of 0.88 (standard deviation = 0.08). Conclusions These results suggest that the Brazilian version of DUSI preserves its original psychometric properties and is a sensitive and useful screening instrument for drug use. [source] Novel factor of merit for center-frequency tunable bandpass filters comparisonMICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS, Issue 4 2009Emmanuel Pistono Abstract This article presents an improved factor of merit for the comparison of center-frequency tunable bandpass filters. This study draws up a comparison between existing tunable filters for which different commonly used parameters demonstrating their performance are given. A first factor of merit that takes all the major characteristics of such tunable filters into account is introduced. A second factor of merit is proposed to evaluate the filter compactness. These new factors of merit are applied for the comparison of more than 30 recently published papers. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 51: 985,988, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.24220 [source] No predictors of antidepressant patient response to milnacipran were obtained using the three-factor structures of the Montgomery and Åsberg Depression Rating Scale in Japanese patients with major depressive disordersPSYCHIATRY AND CLINICAL NEUROSCIENCES, Issue 2 2008Hisashi Higuchi md Aims:, Milnacipran, a new specific serotonin and norepinephrine re-uptake inhibitor, is as effective as tricyclic antidepressants. Symptomatological predictors of antidepressant response to milnacipran have not been studied until now. Methods:, This study included 101 Japanese patients who fulfilled the DSM-IV criteria for the diagnosis of major depressive disorders and whose score on the Montgomery and Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) was ,21. Eighty-three patients were finally included. Patients with a pretreatment MADRS score ,31 points were defined as severe (n = 28), and the rest as non-severe (n = 55). The three-factor model of MADRS was used for analysis; the first factor was defined by three items, the second factor was defined by four items and the third factor was defined by three items representing dysphoria, retardation, and vegetative symptoms, respectively. Milnacipran was administered twice daily for 6 weeks. The initial dose was 50 mg/day; after a week it was increased to 100 mg/day. Results:, No significant difference was observed in the mean score of first factor, second factor and third factor at pretreatment time between responders and non-responders in both severe and non-severe patients. Conclusions:, No predictor of antidepressant response to milnacipran was obtained using the three-factor structures of the MADRS in Japanese patients with major depressive disorders. [source] Block Design Performance in the Williams Syndrome Phenotype: A Problem with Mental Imagery?THE JOURNAL OF CHILD PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY AND ALLIED DISCIPLINES, Issue 6 2001Emily K. Farran Williams syndrome (WS) is a rare genetic disorder which, among other characteristics, has a distinctive cognitive profile. Nonverbal abilities are generally poor in relation to verbal abilities, but also show varying levels of ability in relation to each other. Performance on block construction tasks represents arguably the weakest nonverbal ability in WS. In this study we examined two requirements of block construction tasks in 21 individuals with WS and 21 typically developing (TD) control individuals. The Squares tasks, a novel twodimensional block construction task, manipulated patterns by segmentation and perceptual cohesiveness to investigate the first factor, processing preference (local or global), and by obliqueness to examine the second factor, the ability to use mental imagery. These two factors were investigated directly by the Children's Embeded Figures Test (CEFT; Witkin, Oltman, Raskin, & Karp, 1971) and a mental rotation task respectively. Results showed that individuals with WS did not differ from the TD group in their processing style. However, the ability to use mental imagery was significantly poorer in the WS group than the TD group. This suggests that weak performance on the block construction tasks in WS may relate to an inability to use mental imagery. [source] Patients' explanations for depression: a factor analytic studyCLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHOTHERAPY (AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF THEORY & PRACTICE), Issue 1 2008Rick Budd Objectives: Previous questionnaire studies have attempted to explore the factor structure of lay beliefs about the causes of depression. These studies have tended to either fail to sample the full range of possible causal explanations or extract too many factors, thereby producing complex solutions. The main objective of the present study was to obtain a more complete and robust factor structure of lay theories of depression while more adequately sampling from the full range of hypothesized causes of depression. A second objective of the study was to explore the relationship between respondents' explanations for depression and their perceptions of the helpfulness of different treatments received. Method and design: A 77-item questionnaire comprising possible reasons for ,why a person might get depressed' was mailed out to members of a large self-help organization. Also included was a short questionnaire inviting respondents to note treatments received and their perceptions of the helpfulness of these treatments. Data from the 77-item questionnaire were subjected to a principal components analysis. Results: The reasons rated as most important causes of depression related to recent bereavement, imbalance in brain chemistry and having suffered sexual assault/abuse. The data were best described by a two-factor solution, with the first factor clearly representing stress and the second factor depressogenic beliefs, the latter corresponding to a cognitive,behavioural formulation of depression aetiology. The two scales thus derived did not, however, correspond substantially with rated helpfulness for different treatments received. Conclusions: The factor structure obtained was in contrast to more complex models from previous studies, comprising two factors. It is likely to be more robust and meaningful. It accords with previous research on lay theories of depression, which highlight ,stress' as a key cause for depression. Possible limitations in the study are discussed, and it is suggested that using the questionnaire with more recently depressed people might yield clearer findings in relation to perceptions of treatment helpfulness.,Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | ||||||||||||||||