Ethnic pride and self-control related to protective and risk factors: test of the theoretical model for the strong African American families program.

OBJECTIVE: To test a theoretical model of how ethnic pride and self-control are related to risk and protective factors. DESIGN: A community sample of 670 African American youth (mean age = 11.2 years) were interviewed in households. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Measures of cigarette smoking, alcohol use, and sexual behavior (lifetime to past month). RESULTS: Structural modeling analyses indicated parenting was related to self-control and self-esteem, and racial socialization was related to ethnic pride. Self-control and self-esteem variables were related to levels of deviance-prone attitudes and to perceptions of engagers in, or abstainers from, substance use and sexual behavior. The proximal factors (behavioral willingness, resistance efficacy, and peer behavior) had substantial relations to the criterion variables. Participant gender and parental education also had several paths in the model. Results were generally similar for the 2 outcome behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: In this population, self-esteem and self-control are related to parenting approaches and have pathways to attitudes and social perceptions that are significant factors for predisposing to, or protecting against, early involvement in substance use and sexual behavior.     

Visual hemispheric asymmetries depend on which spatial frequencies are task relevant

Observers classified sine-wave and square-wave gratings on the basis of fundamental frequency (Are the bars wide or narrow?) or on the basis of higher harmonic frequencies (Are the bars sharp or fuzzy?). Stimuli were presented in either the left (LVF) or right (RVF) visual field. When the classification was made on the basis of the fundamental frequencies (1 or 3 c/deg), there was a LVF/right hemisphere advantage. However, when the classification was on the basis of a sharp/fuzzy distinction which involved searching for the higher harmonic frequencies, then a RVF/left hemisphere advantage was found.     

Statistical analysis of fuzzy-set data from neuronal networks

In this study, we describe the process of transforming neuron polarization values that meet the assumptions of ratio data into ordinal data. This is a crisp-to-fuzzy set transformation. A computerized simulation of the application of this process is discussed and nonparametric methods of analyzing fuzzy-set data are presented.     

Information Consistency and Perceptual Set: Overcoming the Mental Retardation “Schema”1

Two factors that were thought to promote or inhibit schema-based or stereotypic responding in impression formation were examined in two experiments. Subjects were asked to provide evaluations of artwork supposedly painted by either mentally retarded or nonretarded children. Based on previous research, it was assumed that subjects would expect relatively poor quality artwork from retarded children, which would he consistent with a negative schema that they maintain for this group. It was also predicted that this negative schema would result in cursory examinations and unfavorable evaluations of the retarded artists' artwork, but only when the evaluative conditions were conducive to schematic responding. Specifically, the schema effect was predicted to occur when the artwork was of poor quality and subjects were instructed to provide an overall evaluation of the painting rather than an assessment of its specific characteristics. No derogation was expected when these factors were not present. Results supported these hypotheses. Additional analyses indicated that subjects were conducting a cursory search of the target stimuli when conditions favored schema-based responding.     

Developing probability limits for longitudinal physiological data

The objective of this study was to determine what amount of change in heart electrophysiology is necessary to yield a significant difference between a baseline condition and an experimental treatment condition. In a single-subject longitudinal design, a modification of at test was applied to baseline data, and the performance levels for both .05 and .01 probability levels were obtained. It was concluded that it is both ethically sound and physiologically safe to permit a subject in this type of experiment to physiologically respond at levels that would reach both the .05 and the .01 levels of significance.     

Type a behavior,field dependence,and hypervigilance: Toward increased Type A specificity

Field dependence and hypervigilance are two modes of sensory information processing that have been related to cardiovascular functioning. Two studies examined the relationship between these variables and Type A behavior. In both studies, Jenkins Activity Survey-defined Type A and B subjects were assessed for field dependence by the Embedded Figures Test (EFT) and then performed a size estimation task—the measure of hypervigilance. Results indicated that field-dependent Type A's were most hypervigilant. The possible contribution that perceptual style might make to the greater predictive specificity of Type A measures was discussed.Portions of this research were presented at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, Toronto, Canada, August 1984. The authors express their appreciation to Lois Haggard for the design of materials for Study II, and to Rick Smith and Kathy Connell for assistance in conducting Study II.