1,720,991 research outputs found
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Theoretically informed, prototypical diagnostic models of psychosis: a narrative review
No full textIntroduction: Although psychotic disorders have been intensively studied for more than a century,
with a bewildering accumulation of empirical data, we still have only a very partial understanding of
their diagnostic boundaries and etiopathogenesis. The relative lack of etiological and therapeutic
progress has been partly attributed to the DSM's rigid "neo-Kraepelinian" descriptive, symptom-
focused classification relying on present-versus-absent diagnostic criteria, mostly delusions,
hallucinations, and Schneiderian first-rank symptoms. This approach, which overly on criteria
potentially sacrifices validity for reliability, has at least three main limitations: 1) it affects differential
diagnosis and improves comorbidity as an artifact of the excessive splitting of closely related clinical
conditions; 2) milder forms of schizophrenia that would have previously been considered latent,
borderline, or pseudoneurotic have struggled to claim a proper diagnostic location (Lingiardi &
Boldrini, 2018), and, more importantly; 3) it fail to grasp clinical manifestations that may be detectable
at premorbid phases of the illness and that may reflect or constitute generative disorders at the core of
the illness. These limitations underscore the need to consider what Kendler (1990) has called "non-
empirical aspects of validity"—namely, the way in which a disease entity is conceptualized in the first
place (Nordgaard et al., 2013). In the current narrative review, we aimed at reviewing the available
literature on theoretically informed, prototypical diagnostic models of psychosis, not based on a
number of specific psychotic symptoms, but rather relied on the identification of characteristic traits
or gestalt.
Method: We searched PubMed, Web of Science, and PEPweb for papers published until June 2022.
Additional publications were identified in the references cited in the initial papers. We selected only
studies on definitions of psychosis from any theoretical background, which have been operationalized
through psychometric measures later used for generating empirical evidence on external and
prognostic validity. We used theoretical considerations to characterize approaches and noted empirical findings.
Results: In the psychodynamic literature, the terms psychosis and psychotic functioning primarily
refer to the behavioral manifestations of patients who have lost the capacity for "reality testing"
(Kernberg, 2019). The term reality testing was originally introduced by Freud (1911) as a kind of trial-
and-error approach to mapping the contours of reality. Later, it has been redefined within
psychoanalytic object relations theory as the ability to differentiate self from non-self, intrapsychic
from external origin of stimuli, and the capacity to maintain empathy with ordinary social criteria for
reality (Kernberg, 1984; Oyebode, 2018). In Kernberg's model of structural diagnosis, the loss of
reality testing is the unique criteria for differentiating psychotic personality organizations from
borderline personality organizations, giving even more importance to this clinical concept.
A standardized measure for psychotic personality organization has been validated, namely the
Structured Interview of Personality Organization (STIPO), developed by Kernberg's group (Clarkin et
al., 2004). However, not any empirical study has been conducted on its external and prognostic
validity. The diagnostic insight of a "psychotic level of organization" has also been included in the
Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (PDM-2; Lingiardi & McWilliams, 2017), due to its clinical utility
of conceptualizing a psychotic range of functioning. A psychotic level of personality organization
implies identity diffusion, poor differentiation between representations of self and others, poor
discrimination between fantasy and external reality, reliance on primitive defenses, and deficits in
reality testing. The Psychodiagnostic Chart-2 (PDC-2) is a PDM-2 derived validated clinician-rated
measure allowing for psychometrically assessing the psychotic level of organization. Even in this case,
no empirical studies have been conducted applying this measure to assess the external and prognostic
validity of the psychotic level of organization, probably since the instrument has been proposed
relatively recently. Regarding the academic phenomenology tradition, the "ipseity-self model" has been
developed, accounting for the so-called self-disorders that are considered as the pathogenic core of
psychotic disorders. Self-disorders (also termed anomalous self-experiences or basic self-disturbances)
can be depicted as long-lasting non-psychotic experiences and distortions in subjectivity. They include
changes in self-experience such as a failing sense of self-presence and feelings of not being truly
present in the world, bodily self-alienation and the permeability of ego-boundaries, "hyper-reflexivity"
(i.e., an exaggerated self-consciousness), and "disturbed grip or hold" to the world. A semi-structured
psychometric instrument for a systematic, qualitative, and quantitative assessment of self-disorders
was published— namely, the Examination of Anomalous Self-Experience (EASE; Parnas et al., 2005)
scale. Empirical studies using the EASE scale have been conducted worldwide, exploring non-psychotic self-disorders and their association with other clinical variables, such as diagnostic outcomes
and major symptom clusters (e.g., positive, negative, and disorganized). The results consistently show
that self-disorders hyper-aggregate in schizophrenia spectrum disorders but not in other mental
disorders; that self-disorders are found in individuals at a clinical risk of developing psychosis; that
self-disorders predict the later development of schizophrenia spectrum disorders; and that self-
disorders correlate with the canonical dimensions of the psychopathology of schizophrenia, impaired
social functioning, and suicidality (Henriksen et al., 2021).
Conclusion: We found two major theoretically informed, prototypical diagnostic models for
psychosis, the "psychotic level of organization" and the "ipseity-self model", from the psychodynamic
and phenomenological traditions, respectively. Both of them agree on the loss of capacity to
distinguish self from the non-self as a prototypical feature of psychotic disorders – defined as "loss of
reality testing" in psychodynamic diagnosis, and as "transitivistic phenomena" in the "ipseity-self
model". More research in the psychodynamic field is needed. Epistemological and clinical insights,
also for a potential integration between the two models, will also be discussed with reference to the
updates planned for the third edition of the PDM
Defense mechanisms in individuals with depressive and anxiety symptoms: A network analysis
No full textIntroduction: Defense mechanisms are crucial in understanding depression and anxiety. However, the
interpaly among defenses in individuals with depressive and anxiety symptoms is understudied. This study
aimed at estimating the network structure of defense mechanisms in people with depressive and anxiety
symptoms, focusing on identifying most central defenses (nodes) and significant connections (edges).
Methods: Using the Symptom Checklist-90, we enrolled 655 participants experiencing depressive and
anxiety symptoms during the first wave of the COVID-2019 Pandemic in Italy. Defense mechanisms
were evaluated using the DMRS-SR-30, from which a network structure was derived. Results: The results
revealed a main component consisting of 16 defense mechanisms. Self-assertion emerged as the most
central node, connected positively and negatively with mature and immature defenses, respectively.
Among the immature defenses, passive aggression showed the highest connectivity. Some mature
defenses, such as humor, affiliation, and sublimation, were not connected to other nodes. Acting out was
isolated, with its only significant edge being a positive connection to help-rejecting complaining.
Conclusion: This study pioneers the conceptualization of defense mechanisms as a complex network and
suggests that not all mechanisms within the same cluster (e.g., mature defenses) serve equivalent
functions. Central defenses like self-assertion and passive aggression could be valuable focal points for
therapeutic interventions
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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