An interim report on the development of the Psychological Trauma and Resources Scales.

The William S. Hall Psychiatric Institute Psychological Trauma and Psychological Resources Scales is a preliminary measure for the assessment of psychological trauma and psychological health from a developmental perspective. This three-part article (1) discusses the various rationales leading to the development of the scales, (2) provides a factor-analysis of responses of 336 college students, and (3) addresses current (N = 37) and planned efforts to establish reliability and validity of a more refined version.

Hormonal influences on psychomotor reminiscence.

Psychomotor reminiscence was measured in contraceptively medicated and non-medicated subjects on Days 2, 8, and 14 of their menstrual cycles. As previously reported, mean reminiscence in non-medicated subjects was relatively low on Days 2 and 8, but significantly higher on Day 14. By contrast, reminiscence means in medicated subjects were relatively low and essentially alike across all testing days. These results are discussed within the context of reactive inhibition theory, wherein the adrenergic properties of mid-cycle concentrations of estrogenic hormones are thought responsible for more vigorous responding, hence more reactive inhibition and higher reminiscence. Such concentrations were, of course, precluded by contraceptive medication.

PIP: Psychomotor reminiscence was measured in contraceptively medicated and nonmedicated subjects on days 2, 8, and 14 of their menstrual cycles. The experimental sample of 89 subjects included 48 who were not using contraceptive medication and 41 who had used it consistently for an average of approximately 17 months. All subjects were Caucasian and right-handed and ranged in age from 18 to 25 years. Subjects were required to use mirror vision to track a small silver target as it moved clockwise at 1 rpm through a narrow star-shaped pathway and to keep the tracking stylus on the moving target as long as possible and to avoid touching the sides of the pathway. Time on target to the nearest .01 second was recorded for each minute of practice. 3 successive menstrual cycles for each subject were monitored to provide estimates of average cycle length. The subjects within each medication strategy were then assigned without bias to testing on days 2, 8, or 14 their cycles, or, in the latter case, on proportionately equivalent days as determined from average cycle length. After instruction and demonstration, all subjects executed a sequence consisting of 3 minutes massed practice, 3 minutes rest, 3 minutes massed practice, 3 minutes rest, and 3 minuts massed practice. When endogenous concentrations of estrogenic hormones were kept low by contraceptive medication, mean reminiscence values remained low and essentially alike across testing days, and they were not significantly different from those of nonmedicated subjects who were tested at the nadirs of their cycles. When estrogen concentrations were allowed to reach their natural midcycle peak, as in nonmedicated subjects, mean reminiscence values peaked accordingly. These results are interpreted to mean that the adrenergic properties of high estrogen concentrations promoted correspondingly more vigorous responding and greater accumulations of reactive inhibition, which across rest was manifested as higher reminiscence.