Stressful events and coping responses among older adults in two sociocultural groups

In this study of the way 32 men and women between the ages of 60 to 90 coped with stressful situations, two instruments were used: the Life Experiences Survey and the Ways of Coping Checklist. Overall, health-related concerns were more frequently reported by older adults than any other stressful event. When coping responses were categorized according to four modes--intrapsychic, inaction, direct action, and information seeking--the Appalachian group was found to use the information-seeking mode; the Cherokee group, the intrapsychic mode. Significant differences were found between males and females in coping modes and life-stress categories. When groups were combined, significant correlations were noted between life stress, particularly health-related stress, and the coping modes of intrapsychic and information seeking.     

Stressful Events and Coping Responses Among Older Adults in Two Sociocultural Groups

In this study of the way 32 men and women between the ages of 60 to 90 coped with stressful situations, two instruments were used: the Life Experiences Survey and the Ways of Coping Checklist. Overall, health-related concerns were more frequently reported by older adults than any other stressful event. When coping responses were categorized according to four modes—intrapsychic, inaction, direct action, and information seeking—the Appalachian group was found to use the information-seeking mode; the Cherokee group, the intrapsychic mode. Significant differences were found between males and females in coping modes and life-stress categories. When groups were combined, significant correlations were noted between life stress, particularly health-related stress, and the coping modes of intrapsychic and information seeking.     

Personality Differences Among Navy Occupational Groups

Differences among six Navy occupational groups (Administrative, Technical, Mechanical, Electrical, Construction, and Cooks) were determined for 31 personality and value scales, including the Allport-Vernon-Lindzey Study of Values, the Survey of Interpersonal Values, and the FIRO-B Inventory. Age and Navy experience were controlled by dividing groups into “experienced” and “inexperienced” categories. Significant differences between groups were present for 29 of the 62 comparisons. Most of the variance in test scores among groups could be accounted for by dichotomizing the six occupational specialties into two broad categories, “white collar” (Administrative and Technical) and “blue collar” (other groups). The results suggested relationships between choice of occupational specialty and the value systems, needs, and motivations of individuals in the naval service.     

Blazing the trail versus trailing the group: Culture and perceptions of the leader’s position

Research suggests that power triggers assertive action. However, people from different cultures might expect different types of action from powerful individuals such as leaders. In comparing cultural differences in leadership imagery, we find that Americans represent leaders standing ahead of groups, whereas Asians also represent leaders behind groups. We propose that front versus back positions embody two faces of leader action: individual assertion versus group-focused action. Studies 1a and 1b respectively employed etic and emic methods to demonstrate that Singaporeans were more likely than Americans to represent leaders behind groups. In Study 2, Singaporeans evaluated back leaders more favorably than Americans did, and group focus mediated cultural differences. Simulating the conditions under which cultural differences arise, Study 3 demonstrates that a primarily Western managerial sample primed with threat (versus opportunity) preferred back leaders. By describing cultural variations in imagery, we reveal more nuanced implicit theories of leader action.     

Personality Variables in Rorschach Scoring

Twenty-three clinical trainees scored a standardized list of 150 Rorschach responses and were administered the EPPS. Ten directional hypotheses were advanced which predicted certain personality attributes of those making scoring errors in various determinant categories. Results showed significant differences between high and low error groups on scores on several EPPS scales, supporting four of the ten hypotheses. Scoring errors in the color, human movement, texture, and vista determinant categories were related to scores on the Exhibition, Affiliation, Autonomy, and Abasement scales, respectively. Implications of these results are discussed regarding the reliability of Rorschach interpretations.     

Scholastic Aptitudes and Vocational Needs of Original Thinkers and Good Elaborators

This study seeks to expand the concept of creativity by investigating the scholastic aptitudes and vocational needs of highly creative public high school seniors. Torrance's (1962) Minnesota Tests of Creative Thinking were administered to 708 seniors. Students scoring highest and lowest on two scales, originality and elaboration, were divided into 12 criterion groups (N = 311) among boys and girls. Significant differences were obtained on the Minnesota Scholastic Aptitude Test and the Minnesota Importance Questionnaire (MIQ) (Weiss, Dawis, England & Lofquist, 1964). Highly original seniors had significantly stronger needs than good elaborators on four MIQ scales. Students highest in both abilities had stronger needs than either high originals or good elaborators on five other MIQ scales.     

A comparison of MMPI profiles for state and private disability insurance applicants

The use of the MMPI in predicting successful rehabilitation outcomes has met with limited success. Because the motives of a disability insurance applicant may differ greatly from a disability insurance recipient, disability applicants were investigated. The MMPI scores of state disability applicants and private industrial insurance applicants were compared to a control group. Positive outcomes of test taking was possible for all three groups. Significant group differences were found for scales F, Hs, D, Hy, Pd, Pa, Pt, Sc, and Ma. Significant sex differences were found for scales Hs, D, Hy, Mf, Pt, and Sc.     

Goal Structures in Creative Motivation

Our culture, as reflected in the creativity literature, has focused on products and productivity. We know relatively little about motives related to other creativity goals or to multiple-goal structures. We studied differences in goal structures between high and low creative individuals, across creative and routine situations, in four categories: person, process, situation, product. Creativity potential was assessed with a composite of four scales. Goal structures in creative and routine situations were assessed with a self-report measure. Nearly all subjects used all four goal categories to describe their motivation in both situations. Only about 34% of subjects' motivation was product-related. There were several differences between high and low creatives: (a) high creatives made more use of the full range of goal categories; (b) in creative situations, high creatives put more emphasis on person and less on product; (c) they also put less emphasis on product than low creatives did in either situation; (d) high creatives reported significantly higher motivation than low creatives in both situations.     

Use of the Personality Assessment Inventory in Assessment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Women

This study investigated the utility of the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) for the assessment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Participants were 55 community-residing adult women who were administered a comprehensive battery that included the PAI and the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS). Participants were classified as either PTSD or non-PTSD based on the CAPS, and PAI profiles were compared between the two groups. Significant group differences were found for seven PAI clinical scales (Anxiety, Depression, Anxiety-Related Disorders, Somatic Complaints, Paranoia, Borderline Features, and Schizophrenia), one validity scale (Negative Impression), and two treatment scales (Nonsupport and Treatment Rejection). When all PAI scales and component subscales are considered, the largest group differences were found for the physiological subscale of the Depression scale (DEP-P) and the Traumatic Stress subscale of the Anxiety-Related Disorders scale (ARD-T). ARD-T and DEP-P also demonstrated excellent diagnostic utility. Finally, correlations between PAI scales and four CAPS symptom clusters provided additional validity evidence, in particular supporting a distinction between effortful avoidance and numbing. Taken together, these results support the use of the PAI in the assessment of PTSD.This study was the basis of a Masters thesis for Meghan McDevitt-Murphy. Portions of this study were presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy, November 2000.     

Personality characteristics of ADHD adults assessed with the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-II: evidence of four distinct subtypes

This study compared the personality characteristics of 104 adults diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Personality features were assessed with the MCMI-II (Millon, 1987). Participants were divided into 4 groups based on the presence of persisting oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) or other comorbid diagnoses (ADHD only, ADHD-comorbid, ADHD-ODD, ADHD-ODD-comorbid). Significant differences between these groups were present for 9 of the 13 MCMI-II personality scales, resulting in 4 modal personality styles. ADHD-only adults evidenced mild histrionic traits, whereas the ADHD-comorbid group was more often avoidant and dependent in personality style. ADHD-ODD adults showed histrionic, narcissistic, aggressive-sadistic, and negativistic traits whereas the ADHD-ODD-comorbid group had a combination of avoidant, narcissistic, antisocial, aggressive-sadistic, negativistic, and self-defeating personality features. Implications for treatment are discussed.     

Closing the Vocational Counseling Realities Gap

A two-week summer institute sponsored by Plans for Progress, encompassing company visitations and scheduled campus speakers augmented by seminar discussions, provided significant improvement in counselors' perceptions of industry expectations and requirements. A perspective on the amount and accuracy of company knowledge held by vocational counselors was obtained by administering the questionnaire used in the Plans for Progress Institute to a group of undergraduate campus leaders and two expectedly biased “in” groups earning degrees in business administration. The counselors were found to be as knowledgeable as mature MBA students working full time in industry and significantly more informed than undergraduates majoring in business administration as well as undergraduate student leaders.     

Hand Test Indicators of Antisocial Behavior

The Hand Test Acting Out Score (AOS) and to a limited degree other scores were studied in relationship to offense type of 614 military prisoners, their subsequent disciplinary problems in adjusting to confinement, and an Army measure of mental ability. Significant differences were observed between the mean AOSs of Ss who had committed offenses against people and against property and between Ss who subsequently were model prisoners and disciplinary offenders. The mental ability measure was minimally related to Hand Test response categories. Considerable overlap was observed in AOS distributions of the varying antisocial groups and the AOS was felt to be of questionable value in predicting individual antisocial behavior in confinement.     

Reasoning Ability in Young Children

The astrological assumption of personality differences among individuals born under different sun signs was investigated. Significant differences were obtained between sun sign groups on four of the 18 scales of the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) as follows: Communality, Socialization, Flexibility, and Femininity. The overall pattern of results based on F ratios, multiple comparisons between means, and estimates of strength of association was interpreted as showing no meaningful relationships between sun sign and scores on Communality, Socialization, and Flexibility. Adopting even the most conservative standards of inference, however, all of the test statistics employed indicated a powerful effect on the Femininity scale. Implications for future research were discussed.     

Wepman test of auditory discrimination: What does it discriminate

This study investigated auditory discrimination as a function of ethnic group membership within the same socioeconomic status (SES). Subjects were 126 randomly selected six-year-old students attending schools in the lower SES community of southeast San Diego. Only students with no known speech or hearing defects and of normal intelligence were included. They were assigned to one of three categories: Black, Chicano, or Anglo.Subjects were administered four tests in a counterbalanced design: the Wepman, the Gross, and the Ott. The latter two were developed for use with Black dialect and Spanish-speaking youngsters, respectively. The ANOVA results indicated a reliable difference between the main effects of the groups (F=40.34,p<.001) and tests (F=72.82, p<.001), with a significant interaction between tests and groups (F=44.91, p<.001). Interaction effects were evaluated with the Dunn theorem. Significant differences were found among Anglo, Black, and Chicano students on the discrimination list for Spanish sounds (Ott) and a significant Anglo/Black difference on the discrimination test for Black dialect (Gross). Contrary to previous findings, there were no differences between the groups on the Wepman Test of Auditory Discrimination (WTAD). However, there are significant differences between groups on separate items of this test.     

Vocational interests of career and homemaker oriented women

Women who had completed the SVIB-W as freshmen in college were contacted 13 to 21 years later and were classified as career (N = 236) or homemaker (N = 527) oriented on the basis of their actual work experiences. Significant differences between the groups were found on 25 of the 44 occupational scales, one of the three nonoccupational scales, and four of the 19 basic interest scales. The interests of the homemaker oriented women were more similar to the interests of women in business, nonprofessional, and home economics occupations while the interests of the career oriented women were more similar to the interests of women in the verbal-linguistic, verbal scientific, and scientific occupations. The results are discussed in terms of previous research and Holland's Occupational Classification system.     

Effects of alcohol abuse and familial alcoholism on physical health in men and women

Detoxified alcoholic men (n = 76) and women (n = 72) and nonalcoholic control men (n = 50) and women (n = 51) were given a structured interview that assessed five categories of physical health: medical history, alcohol-related disorders, trauma history, drug use history, and, for females, female-related disorders. Approximately half the subjects in each group were family history positive for alcoholism. Significant differences between alcoholics and controls were found for all five categories; family history effects were significant for four of the five categories, and sex differences were present in two categories. The results indicate that (a) alcoholics suffer pervasive physical health difficulties, (b) a family history of alcoholism is predictive of health problems in both alcoholics and controls, (c) the effects of alcohol abuse and family history of alcoholism on health appear to be independent and additive, and (d) women may be more "illness prone" than men and exhibit an increased vulnerability to the adverse effects of alcoholism.     

Diminished performance on response-selection tasks in Type 2 diabetes

Comparisons of visual perception, response-selection, and response-execution performance were made between Type 2 diabetes mellitus patients and a matched nondiabetic control group. 10 well-controlled male patients with Type 2 diabetes without diabetic complications (M age 58 yr.) and an age and IQ-matched non-diabetic control group consisting of 13 male healthy volunteers (M age 57 yr.) were included. Significant differences were found only between the two groups on response-selection performance, which concerns the selection and preparation of an appropriate motor action.     

Peer ratings of males and females possessing different sex-role identities

Two investigations were conducted to explore peer ratings of males and females exhibiting different sex roles. In the first study, 160 males and females representing four sex-role groups were rated by close, same sex friends on Gough's Adjective Check List. The results indicated that for both males and females, the four sex-role groups were perceived differently by their friends. I n the second investigation, peer rated adjectives which differentiated between the sex-role groups in Study I were evaluated on a positive/negative dimension; self-rated adjectives differentiating between the four sex-role groups in an earlier study (Baucom, 1980) were evaluated similarly. The findings showed that the peer-rated and self-rated adjectives which differentiated androgynous males and females from the other sex-role groups were viewed more positively than adjectives describing any other group: peer-rated and self-rated adjectives describing undifferentiated persons were consistently viewed negatively. Significant differences between the evaluations of the peer-rated and self-rated adjectives suggest that conclusions about the effects of sex roles are likely to vary, depending upon whether self-report inventories or peer ratings are investigated. Cautions are presented regarding generalizations from only one method of measurement.     

Anthropometric profiles and social physique anxiety of physical education professionals from India

Previous work indicates that there may be a relationship between the observation and evaluation of one's physique and the construct of social physique anxiety associated with this process. Since physical educators are expected to serve as role models of desired fitness behaviors, bodily appearance, and composition, it is of interest to examine whether such responses and relationships may be observed. However, there is limited published information on anthropometric profiles and body images of physical education professionals, especially of those from India. Therefore, this study compared anthropometric profiles and Social Physique Anxiety in a sample of 182 male physical education professionals from India (M age=41.2 yr.). Body Mass Index, sum of three skinfolds (Tricep, Abdomen, and Thigh), and waist/hip ratio were determined using standard procedures. The sample was grouped into overweight and normal weight categories. Significant group differences were found for the sum of skinfolds and waist/hip ratio, with no significant differences between groups on the Social Physique Anxiety total score. Correlations for the anthropometric measures with the Social Physique Anxiety scores indicated no significant relationships. Mean total Social Physique Anxiety score for the combined group was comparable to those reported for other groups of physically active individuals. These findings indicate low Social Physique Anxiety in this sample and may have implications with regard to the attitudes pertaining to body image and role modeling of appropriate fitness behaviors.