Sex differences in math and science career self-efficacy among disadvantaged students

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among sex and math/science career self-efficacy, interests, and consideration for disadvantaged students who participated in a precollege program. The findings indicate sex differences in self-efficacy for three math/science careers; no sex differences emerged for non-math/science careers. Results of regression analyses suggest that consideration of careers is most highly related to interest in the career. For females, confidence in meeting educational requirements was also shown to be related to consideration of a career.     

Personality differences between intrinsically religious and nonreligious students: a factor analytic study

By means of Allport's Religious Orientation Inventory (ROI) 145 students were classified as intrinsically religious and 133 as nonreligious. Personality differences between the two groups were explored on the basis of their scores on EPPS, the CPI, and 16 PF Questionnaire. Factor analysis of the combined 49 subscales of these three instruments produced eight factors: Achievement Potential, Self-Control, Social Ascendency, Affiliation, Personal and Social Adequacy, Egocentric Sexuality, Restlessness, and Stereotyped Femininity. Analyses of variance of the factor scores of the two groups of subjects showed significant differences on five of the eight factors, accounting for a total of 25% of the total variance. The intrinsically religious scored significantly higher on Self-Control, Personal and Social Adequacy, and Stereotyped Femininity; the nonreligious scored higher on Egocentric Sexuality and Restlessness. These results were discussed in relation to some of Allport's ideas on religion as a dimension of personality.     

Reactive and proactive aggression: Similarities and differences

The purpose of the current study was to elaborate the nomological net surrounding the constructs of reactive (RA) and proactive aggression (PA). Typically examined in the context of children, the current study utilized a sample of 211 young adults to examine the relations between reactive and proactive aggression and measures of general personality and social information processing, as well as maladaptive behavioral correlates such as crime, substance use, and riskier sex. Both raw and residualized scores were examined. Using raw scores, the primary differences between RA and PA were related to Neuroticism (i.e., RA more strongly related) and externalizing behaviors (i.e., PA more strongly). The authors comment on the similarity of findings when using raw scores and the divergence of findings using residualized scores and argue for a cautious interpretation of differences based on residualized scores. The authors conclude that the role of Neuroticism warrants further exploration as a means for understanding the heterogeneity of aggressive behavior.     

Culture and systems of thought: holistic versus analytic cognition

The authors find East Asians to be holistic, attending to the entire field and assigning causality to it, making relatively little use of categories and formal logic, and relying on "dialectical" reasoning, whereas Westerners are more analytic, paying attention primarily to the object and the categories to which it belongs and using rules, including formal logic, to understand its behavior. The 2 types of cognitive processes are embedded in different naive metaphysical systems and tacit epistemologies. The authors speculate that the origin of these differences is traceable to markedly different social systems. The theory and the evidence presented call into question long-held assumptions about basic cognitive processes and even about the appropriateness of the process-content distinction.     

Gender differences in environmental concern among college students

The debate over gender differences in environmental concern is sharply divided. One set of theories expects women to be more environmentally concerned than men while another set expects the opposite to be true. This study, based on a random sample of college students at a medium-sized midwestern university, tests the impact of gender on environmental concern while controlling for class standing and family income. The sample used in the final analysis consisted of 340 white students and 25 nonwhite students. Males were found to be slightly more likely than females to express environmental concern. Theoretical refinements regarding the effects of gender are drawn from marginality theory, and the overall relevance of gender is addressed.     

Inter- and intra-group differences in psychological concerns among international students

With data gathered from 47 university counseling centers in the United States, this study addresses both inter- and intra-group differences in symptomatology at intake among international students. In Study 1, symptomatology among international students was explored in comparison to US ethnic groups. In Study 2, intra-group differences in symptomatology among international students were examined. In Study 1, data consisted of 14,421 international, White American, African American, Asian American, and Latina/Latino American counseling center clients who completed the CCAPS-62 at intake. Partially supporting our hypothesis, results indicate significant findings among international students in the social anxiety and academic distress domains of the CCAPS-62. Contrary to our expectations, Asian American students reported significantly greater concerns across many domains when compared to other groups. In Study 2, international students (n = 607) were further divided into five continents of origin: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, and Europe. Results indicate that in multiple domains, international students from Asia and Africa reported significantly greater concerns than those from Europe, North America, or South America. Implications of findings for university counseling centers and universities at large are discussed.     

More than meets the eye: Morandi's art and analytic listening

This study of Giorgio Morandi, the great twentieth-century Italian painter, departs from the model of Freud's essay on Leonardo, in which he creates a psychodynamic hypothesis by linking the art with facts and conjecture about the artist's life. Because personal information about Morandi is remarkably scarce, we can make few connections between his art and his individual psychology. But Morandi's works can inform psychoanalysis and enhance analytic listening when we reflect on the paintings themselves, our responses to them, and the responses of art critics. This approach to his art evokes core principles of clinical theory, demonstrates the overlap between the creative process in art and analysis, and exemplifies the value of interdisciplinary study for analytic education.     

Sex differences in cognitive strategic preference among medical students

The cognitive strategic preferences of first-year medical students (42 men and 31 women) were assessed using the Word-Shape Sorting Test, on which subjects may adopt a verbal or visuospatial approach to problem-solving. 24 (77%) women, but only 25 (60%) men, exhibited a clear preference for a particular information-processing strategy. Some factors contributing to confusion in the literature on cognitive style are discussed.     

Latent inhibition and learned helplessness in children: Similarities and differences

Four experiments used a common set of procedures to investigate the occurrence and the generalization of learned helplessness (LH) and latent inhibition (LI) in 10- to 11-year-old children. In Experiment 1, preexposure to response-outcome independence impaired performance (i.e., LH) on two subsequent tests: The first was similar to the preexposure situation, the second was not. Moreover, LH occurred whether preexposure involved positive or negative feedback. On the other hand, noncontingent stimulus preexposure did not impair subsequent performance, i.e., LI was not obtained in the first experiment. Experiment 2 replicated the LH findings of Experiment 1: LH occurred following preexposure to response-independent feedback, regardless of whether that feedback was positive or negative, and LH generalized to a situation that was different from the preexposure situation. In addition, the stimulus preexposure procedures of Experiment 2 were embedded in a “masking” task and, under these conditions, LI was obtained. Nevertheless, LI did not generalize to a testing situation that was different from the preexposure situation. Experiment 3 demonstrated that noncontingent stimulus preexposure impairs performance relative to a nonpreexposed control group, that the effect is dependent upon masking, that masking alone produces no performance decrement, and that LI is, indeed, stimulus specific. In Experiment 4, preexposure to response-outcome independence impaired subsequent performance on similar and dissimilar tests whether feedback was consistently positive, consistently negative, or randomly positive and negative over trials. In addition, stimulus preexposure produced LI only under conditions of masking and even then, LI was not evident in novel test situations. The results are discussed in terms of common and different mechanisms underlying the LI and LH phenomena.     

Sex differences in depressive symptom expression and help-seeking among college students

Considerable controversy has emerged around the issue of sex differences in depression. A recent study of a large sample of young, unmarried college student found no sex differences in degree of depression as measured by the Beck Depression Inventory, and yet significant sex differences emerged in the patterns of symptoms expressed by the most depressed subsample. It was speculated that sex differences in symptom expression may lead to sex differences in self-presentation, help-seeking, and evaluation by professionals — eventuating in predominance of women treated for depression. Two studies were conducted to clarify these issues. The first study attempted to replicate the findings on a similar large sample of college students using discriminant function analysis of male and female responses to the D30 subscale of the Depression scale of the MMPI. The results confirmed the previous finding that depressed men in a college population are more likely to express social withdrawal, cognitive and motivational deficits, and somatic concerns. Depressed women are characterized on the D30 by a lack of confidence, a lack of concern for what happens to them, and being hurt by criticism. The second study examined possible sex differences in the self-labeling of depression, attitudes toward seeking help for depression, and actual help-seeking behaviors. Men and women did not differ in willingness to report depression. However, there were clear sex differences in both help-seeking attitudes and reported behaviors, with men more reluctant to seek help.