Gender and temporal differences in identifying sources of stress

Much of the methodology in stress research focuses on stress manifestation and organismic reactions to life’s crises. In contrast, the present study sought to identify the major sources of stress and the nature of those sources. The results revealed a consistent pattern in high and low stressors throughout the 3-year period of the study, and differences only of intensity between males and females, not type of stress. Except for individuals’ temporal variations in critical events, the highest stressors for the groups were external, primarily financial and time management. Internal sources, such as personal relationships and self-absorption, were typically the lowest concerns. Everyday problems arising from current life styles seem to be significant sources of stress.     

Gender and temporal differences in identifying sources of stress

Much of the methodology in stress research focuses on stress manifestation and organismic reactions to life’s crises. In contrast, the present study sought to identify the major sources of stress and the nature of those sources. The results revealed a consistent pattern in high and low stressors throughout the 3-year period of the study, and differences only of intensity between males and females, not type of stress. Except for individuals’ temporal variations in critical events, the highest stressors for the groups were external, primarily financial and time management. Internal sources, such as personal relationships and self-absorption, were typically the lowest concerns. Everyday problems arising from current life styles seem to be significant sources of stress.     

Individual differences methods for randomized experiments

Experiments allow researchers to randomly vary the key manipulation, the instruments of measurement, and the sequences of the measurements and manipulations across participants. To date, however, the advantages of randomized experiments to manipulate both the aspects of interest and the aspects that threaten internal validity have been primarily used to make inferences about the average causal effect of the experimental manipulation. This article introduces a general framework for analyzing experimental data to make inferences about individual differences in causal effects. Approaches to analyzing the data produced by a number of classical designs and 2 more novel designs are discussed. Simulations highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the data produced by each design with respect to internal validity. Results indicate that, although the data produced by standard designs can be used to produce accurate estimates of average causal effects of experimental manipulations, more elaborate designs are often necessary for accurate inferences with respect to individual differences in causal effects. The methods described here can be diversely applied by researchers interested in determining the extent to which individuals respond differentially to an experimental manipulation or treatment and how differential responsiveness relates to individual participant characteristics.     

Meta‐analysis methods for risk differences

The difference between two proportions, referred to as a risk difference, is a useful measure of effect size in studies where the response variable is dichotomous. Confidence interval methods based on a varying coefficient model are proposed for combining and comparing risk differences from multi‐study between‐subjects or within‐subjects designs. The proposed methods are new alternatives to the popular constant coefficient and random coefficient methods. The proposed varying coefficient methods do not require the constant coefficient assumption of effect size homogeneity, nor do they require the random coefficient assumption that the risk differences from the selected studies represent a random sample from a normally distributed superpopulation of risk differences. The proposed varying coefficient methods are shown to have excellent finite‐sample performance characteristics under realistic conditions.     

Sex differences in identifying the facial affect of normal and mirror-reversed faces

The influences of sex and lateralized visual hemispace bias in the judgment of the emotional valence of faces during a free viewing condition are evaluated. 73 subjects (aged 18 to 52 yr.) viewed videotaped facial expressions of emotion in normal and mirror-reversed orientation and classified each face as a positive, negative, or neutral expression. There was a significant interaction between the sex of the rater and the orientation of the face that influenced the proportion of correct classifications. Male and female perceivers did not differ in the accuracy of their affect judgments for faces viewed in normal orientation, whereas reversal of the orientation of the faces resulted in a significant enhancement of accuracy judgments for the males but not the females. The results suggest greater cerebral lateralization of perceptual processes in males.     

Further evidence for systematic reliability differences between explicit and implicit memory tests

Meier and Perrig (2000) as well as Buchner and Wippich (2000) have shown that simple dissociations between explicit and implicit memory measures need not reflect functional dissociations of hypothetical underlying memory systems. Instead, such dissociations may also result from the fact that some widely used implicit memory measures are simply less reliable than the explicit measures with which they have been compared. We extend this argument in two ways. First, we show that illusion-based memory measures such as the priming measures derived from fame andpreference judgement tasks are also subject to the reliability problem. Second, we show that yes-no and two-alternative forced-choice paradigms should, and in fact do, yield virtually identical results as far as the reliability of the memory tests is concerned.     

Liking and identifying emotionally expressive music: age and gender differences

Adults and children 5, 8, and 11 years of age listened to short excerpts of unfamiliar music that sounded happy, scary, peaceful, or sad. Listeners initially rated how much they liked each excerpt. They subsequently made a forced-choice judgment about the emotion that each excerpt conveyed. Identification accuracy was higher for young girls than for young boys, but both genders reached adult-like levels by age 11. High-arousal emotions (happiness and fear) were better identified than low-arousal emotions (peacefulness and sadness), and this advantage was exaggerated among younger children. Whereas children of all ages preferred excerpts depicting high-arousal emotions, adults favored excerpts depicting positive emotions (happiness and peacefulness). A preference for positive emotions over negative emotions was also evident among females of all ages. As identification accuracy improved, liking for positively valenced music increased among 5- and 8-year-olds but decreased among 11-year-olds.     

Sex differences in the Poggendorff illusion: identifying the locus of the effect

Extensive research has identified individual differences associated with sex in a range of visual task performances, including susceptibility to visual illusions. The aim of this study was to identify the locus of sex differences within the context of the Poggendorf illusion. 79 women and 79 men participated within a mixed factorial design. Analyses indicated that sex differences were only present in the stimulus context with the full inducing element present. This finding replicates recent research and provides qualifying evidence as to the locus of the effect. The findings are discussed within the functional framework of perceptual processes involved in extrapolating 3-dimensional characteristics from 2-dimensional visual stimuli.     

The reliability and concurrent validity of alternative methods for assessing ego development

This study demonstrates that an unstructured interview (INT) and the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) are suitable alternatives to Loevinger's Sentence Completion Test of Ego Development. Seventy subjects were solicited from six groups varying widely with respect to age and education level. Each subject was asked to complete the SCI, an INT and the TAT. Two raters using Loevinger and Wessler's self-training exercises and Loevinger, Wessler, and Redmore's scoring manual rated subjects' responses to each instrument. Reliability was found between raters and concurrent validity between instruments. Subjects scoring high on the SCT were found to score higher on the INT and TAT.     

Probability judgment accuracy for general knowledge. Cross-national differences and assessment methods

In this study we compare the probability judgment accuracy of subjects from the United States and Turkey. Three different response modes were employed — numerical probabilities, pie diagrams, and odds. The questions employed in the study were restricted to two-alternative, general-knowledge items. The observed pattern of differences in the components of probability judgment accuracy paralleled those of studies that have compared Western and Asian subjects. In particular, Turkish subjects exhibited better discrimination but worse calibration than their US counterparts. This result persisted across all three response modes. These findings lend support to previous assertions that observed cross-national differences arise from socioeconomic rather than Asian versus Western cultural differences. However, the consistency of the observed differences across response modes refutes a previous assertion that observed cultural differences are merely the result of response bias.     

Explaining cross-state differences in elderly suicide rates and identifying state-level public policy responses that reduce rates

Elderly Americans commit suicide at higher rates than other age groups. We contend that macro- and micro-social variables contribute distinct aspects to explanations of this tragic loss: the former focus on circumstances that affect overall rates, the latter reveal why certain individuals succumb to suicide. Our analysis focuses on the macro-social end of a causal sequence including variables at both levels. We describe how elderly suicide rates vary among states, show that macrosocial indicators of social integration contribute to cross-state variation in elderly suicide rates, and explain how selected aspects of state-level public policy contribute to reducing elderly suicide rates.     

Modeling individual differences in working memory performance: a source activation account

Working memory resources are needed for processing and maintenance of information during cognitive tasks. Many models have been developed to capture the effects of limited working memory resources on performance. However, most of these models do not account for the finding that different individuals show different sensitivities to working memory demands, and none of the models predicts individual subjects' patterns of performance. We propose a computational model that accounts for differences in working memory capacity in terms of a quantity called source activation , which is used to maintain goal-relevant information in an available state. We apply this model to capture the working memory effects of individual subjects at a fine level of detail across two experiments. This, we argue, strengthens the interpretation of source activation as working memory capacity.     

Interpretation of instructions: A source of individual differences in analogical reasoning

Two studies were conducted to identify individual differences in the effect of instruction on strategies used to solve figural/numerical analogies. In Study 1, students aged 9, 11, 13, and 19 years were given incomplete instructions and then were assessed for (a) consistent use of an appropriate rule for solving analogies and (b) the type and number of stimulus attributes that are incorporated in those analogical rules. Use of an analogical rule increased with age and corresponded to higher scores on a psychometric test of reasoning within each age group. In Study 2, analysis of verbal protocols was used to identify the strategies of some 9- and 11-year-olds who showed a peculiar pattern of responding in Study 1. These children attended to relevant attributes but used systematic nonanalogical rules to solve problems. When provided with more specific instructions, most of these children adopted an analogical rule but failed to incorporate relevant attributes. Results indicate that selection or construction of task-relevant solution strategies from incomplete instructions may partially account for differential performance on tests of analogical reasoning.