Age-related differences and similarities in dual-task interference

Differences between younger adults (mean age, 20.7 years) and older adults (mean age, 72.7 years) in dual-task performance were examined in 7 experiments in which the overlap between 2 simple tasks was systematically varied. The results were better fit by a task-switching model in which age was assumed to produce generalized slowing than by a shared-capacity model in which age was assumed to reduce processing resources. The functional architecture of task processing appears the same in younger and older adults. There was no evidence for a specific impairment in the ability of older adults to manage simultaneous tasks. There was evidence for both input and output interference, which may be greater in older adults.     

Psychotherapy training in Europe: similarities and differences

This paper gives a brief overview of the survey of European Psychotherapy training that was carried out by a team of European researchers. It sketches the current situation in each country and provides a brief quote from informants in each country, giving the flavour of the problems each is struggling with.     

Sex differences and sex similarities in disgust sensitivity

Across two studies, we test for sex differences in the factor structure, factor loadings, concurrent validity, and means of the Three Domain Disgust Scale. In Study 1, we find that the Three Domain Disgust Scale has indistinguishable factor structure and factor loadings for men and women. In Study 2, we find a small sex difference in sensitivity to pathogen and moral disgust and a large sex difference in sensitivity to sexual disgust, with women more sensitive to disgust across domains. However, correlations between Three Domain Disgust Scale factors and the five factors and 30 facets of the NEO Personality Inventory were indistinguishable between the sexes. These findings suggest that, despite mean sex differences in disgust sensitivity, the Three Domain Disgust Scale measures similar constructs in men and women. Implications for understanding the constructs measured by the Three Domain Disgust Scale are discussed.     

Private wishes: Gender similarities and differences

Preference for a variety of “private wishes” were investigated in two studies. In Study 1, two college samples and two samples of pedestrians selected 10 out of a list of 48 wishes. In Study 2, two college samples rated 20 wishes. Although ethnicity data were not gathered, the populations from which the samples were drawn are ethnically diverse. Correlations of preferences between women and men within samples averaged .86 in Study 1 and .85 in Study 2, indicating a great deal of similarity between genders in their overall wish preferences. By far, the largest gender difference was for the wish “To have sex with anyone I choose.” Men consistently preferred this wish across all samples and age groups. These results point to sexuality in its interpersonal context as a primary focus of difference in the inner emotional lives of women and men.     

Cultural similarities in psychological reactions to infertility

A 74-item especially developed and validated questionnaire for Iranian culture was administered three times to 37 Iranian infertile couples and 10 fertile couples acting as control group, namely, initial consultation, during treatment, and on completion of treatment. In view of parallel data also reported for Western patients interest centered on the results of two out of the five factors measured by the questionnaire, i.e., Psychological Stress and Social Behaviour. Analysis generally showed significantly high stress and social withdrawal for the patient group, particularly at initial consultation and after an unsuccessful treatment cycle as compared to the control group. Moreover, men whose partners eventually conceived scored significantly lower on stress than men whose partners did not conceive. Similar results have also been reported for Western infertile patients. The implications of the findings are discussed.     

Dreaming and waking: similarities and differences revisited

Dreaming is often characterized as lacking high-order cognitive (HOC) skills. In two studies, we test the alternative hypothesis that the dreaming mind is highly similar to the waking mind. Multiple experience samples were obtained from late-night REM sleep and waking, following a systematic protocol described in Kahan (2001). Results indicated that reported dreaming and waking experiences are surprisingly similar in their cognitive and sensory qualities. Concurrently, ratings of dreaming and waking experiences were markedly different on questions of general reality orientation and logical organization (e.g., the bizarreness or typicality of the events, actions, and locations). Consistent with other recent studies (e.g., [Bulkeley and Kahan, 2008] and [Kozmová and Wolman, 2006] ), experiences sampled from dreaming and waking were more similar with respect to their process features than with respect to their structural features.     

Age differences and similarities in the correlates of depressive symptoms

The authors investigated whether several life events or concerns were differentially related to depressive symptoms across 3 adult age groups (young adults, middle-aged adults, and older adults). They examined the relationships of 2 measures of depressive symptoms to work status and satisfaction, relationship status and satisfaction, loneliness, recent losses, parenting strain, and caregiving. Some differences between age groups in these relationships were found. Yet, most results suggested that, although the frequency with which people experience specific life events or concerns varies across the adult life span, the relationships between these events or concerns and depressive symptoms are similar across age groups.     

Contentment and tranquility: Exploring their similarities and differences

ABSTRACT

Two studies explored the similarities and differences between contentment and tranquility. In Study 1, in a sample of college students (N = 154), we examined the degree to which contentment and tranquility were associated with different types of pleasurable activities. Whereas contentment was positively associated with mastery activities, tranquility was negatively associated with mastery activities. Tranquility was strongly positively associated with spiritual activities. In Study 2, in a sample of college students (N = 176), using both trait and daily diary assessments, we examined the degree to which contentment and tranquility were associated with the degree to which participants focused on the process–versus the outcome–of activities, as well as their level of acceptance. Both contentment and tranquility were positively associated with acceptance. Tranquility was also positively associated with a focus on process. Based on the results of the present research, we update our theories about contentment and tranquility.     

Children's temperament in the US and China: similarities and differences

We report the results of research investigating temperamental characteristics of children in the People's Republic of China and the US using a parent-report instrument, the Children's Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ), defining temperament as individual differences in emotional, motoric, and attentional reactivity and self-regulation. Subjects were 624 6- to 7-year-old children, from Shanghai and the north-western region of the US. The 15 CBQ scales were factored for both samples, employing a principal axis factor analysis with an oblique rotation. Our findings indicated considerable similarity of factor structure in the two cultures, obtaining three factors labelled Surgency, Negative Affect, and Attentional Self-Regulation or Effortful Control. Differences across cultures were also found, with Surgency and Effortful Control scores being relatively higher than Negative Affect in the US sample and Negative Affect being relatively higher than Surgency and Effortful Control in the Chinese sample. Gender differences were also found to vary across cultures. Our findings are congruent with a view of underlying cultural similarities in temperamental variability across these cultures, influenced over time by the children's culturally varied experience.     

Age differences and similarities in the effects of cues and prompts

A series of 6 experiments investigated the use of cues and prompts by younger and older adults. Cues provide useful information about an impending target, even though the information is not always valid. Prompts provide an instruction about what aspect of the target is to be responded to. The costs and benefits of cues were most consistent with models in which the attentional resources that are shifted in response to the cue were as large or larger in older adults as they were in younger adults. The results with both cues and prompts converged on the conclusion that the time course of processing and using a cue or prompt is the same in younger and older adults. The attentional resources tapped by these procedures cannot be the diminished processing resource to which many age differences in cognitive performance are attributed.     

Gender-related sexual attitudes: Some crosscultural similarities and differences

We tested the hypothesis that males differentiate love and sex more strongly than females, and that the magnitude of this gender difference is augmented in homosexuals and diminished in married heterosexuals. American and Swedish subjects sorted statements describing behaviors of love, sex, and services into two piles on the basis of perceived similarity. The results of all three studies were consistent with the predictions. In addition, the findings suggest that Americans differentiate love and sex more strongly than Swedes.     

Sex differences and similarities in job attribute preferences: a meta-analysis

Many researchers have studied sex differences in job attribute preferences. The authors meta-analyzed 242 samples collected from 321,672 men and boys and 316,842 women and girls in the United States between 1970 and 1998. Findings indicated significant (p < .05) sex differences on 33 of 40 job attribute preferences examined. The effect sizes were small. Of the 33 significant differences, 26 had average effect sizes of magnitude .20 or less. The directions of the differences were generally consistent with gender roles and stereotypes. Many job attributes became relatively more important to women and girls in the 1980s and 1990s compared with the 1970s, indicating that women's aspirations to obtain job attributes rose as gender barriers to opportunity declined.     

Exploring the similarities and differences between person-centred and psychodynamic therapy

Person-centred therapy is compared to the psychodynamic approach defined by Hans Strupp and Jeffrey Binder. Their broad-based time-limited version is chosen because it is a precise manual ofhow to practise that has been assembled from 30 years of research and practice experience. It is demonstrated that person-centred practice and theory are psychodynamic in a general psychoanalytic sense because they refer to unconscious processes. Furthermore, it is proposed that person-centred practice could be enriched by reconsidering the differences to and similarities with psychodynamic therapy, thereby establishing greater clarity about each form of practice and further defining the boundary between these similar forms of relationship and feeling-oriented work.     

Interbehavioral psychology and radical behaviorism: Some similarities and differences

Both J. R. Kantor's interbehavioral psychology and B. F. Skinner's radical behaviorism represent wellarticulated approaches to a natural science of behavior. As such, they share a number of similar features, yet they also differ on a number of dimensions. Some of these similarities and differences are examined by describing their emergence in the professional literature and by comparing the respective units of analysis of the two approaches-the interbehavioral field and the three-term contingency. An evaluation of the similarities and differences shows the similarities to be largely fundamental, and the differences largely ones of emphasis. Nonetheless, the two approaches do make unique contributions to a natural science of behavior, the integration of which can facilitate the development of that science and its acceptance among other sciences and within society at large.     

论渐修与顿悟的同异

学界一般认为 ,南、北禅宗的主要区别之一就是南顿北渐。本文认为 ,所谓渐修与顿悟 ,实际上是一个修行过程线上的两个不同点 ,即事物变化时的量变和质变。北宗所追求的也是刹那间的顿悟成佛 ,却强调渐修的重要 ;南宗默认渐修过程的存在 ,却强调顿悟。由于强调点不同 ,导致了南北二宗兴衰的不同。     

Forecasting exponential growth and exponential decline: similarities and differences

Previous research has demonstrated adults' difficulties with explicitly forecasting exponential processes. Exponential growth is usually grossly underestimated, whereas exponential decline is forecast more accurately. By contrast, the present study examined implicit knowledge about exponential processes and how it is affected by function type (growth versus decline) in samples of 7-, 10-, 14-year-olds, and adults (N=80). Different indicators of the quality of forecasts were investigated. As opposed to previous findings, participants of all age groups estimated exponential decline less adequately than exponential growth. This effect could be attributed mainly to the fact that, in relation to fitted exponential functions, the starting value, or intercept, of the function was approximated well for exponential growth but badly with regard to exponential decline. The accuracy of the non-linear component in forecast functions barely differed between function types within the same age group. Furthermore, even 7-year-olds appeared to have a preliminary understanding of exponential processes, while both intercepts and exponents of forecasts became more accurate with age. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Unaware learning versus preserved learning in pharmacologic amnesia: similarities and differences

The differences between learning in lorazepam (LOR)--or scopolamine (SCOP)--induced amnesia and learning in unaware drug-free normal subjects were examined. The drugs produced impairment in free recall, but did not affect digit span or word retrieval. In a verbal version, but not a motor version, of the serial reaction time task, the subjects who received SCOP or higher dose LOR showed impairment of sequence-specific learning. Subjects who received placebo had no such impairment. In the stem completion paradigm, higher dose LOR, but not SCOP, impaired performance. In a tachistoscopic word identification task, neither drug interfered with repetition priming. Unaware learning and drug-induced amnesic learning were thus dissociable. These findings disconfirm the hypothesis that unaware learning and drug-induced amnesic learning are analogous.     

Cultural and sex differences in touch avoidance

250 male and female respondents from American, Mediterranean, Near Eastern, and Far Eastern cultures completed a self-report measure of touch-avoidance. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated factors for opposite-sex and same-sex touch-avoidance. These factors were used as dependent variables in a 4 x 2 (culture by sex) multivariate analysis of variance which yielded a significant interaction of culture by sex on opposite-sex touch-avoidance and a main effect of the respondents' sex on same-sex touch-avoidance.