Effect of behavioral inhibition on interactions in mixed-sex dyads

The present studies assessed the effect of behavioral inhibition on interactions of college students in mixed-sex groups. In Study 1, 20 participants were arranged into two dyadic groups based on self-rated measures of approach/withdrawal behavior. These dyads (inhibited men/uninhibited women; inhibited women/uninhibited men) were videotaped during an unstructured 5-min. interaction in a laboratory. Time series analysis indicated greater behavioral covariation in the inhibited men/uninhibited women dyads and less behavioral covariation in the inhibited women/uninhibited men dyads. Additional analyses indicated a relationship between inhibition and comfort experienced during the interaction. Inhibited participants, particularly women, reported feeling uncomfortable while interacting with an uninhibited male partner. A second study corroborated the findings reported in Study 1 and also noted elevated heart rate in the inhibited women. This increased discomfort in women appeared to be related to heightened self-consciousness during the interaction.     

Entertaining the stranger

This paper attempts to address the problematic of the other in analytical psychology. Despite the important contributions of Papadopoulos (1991, 2002) and Huskinson (2000, 2002) this question has not received the attention it warrants. Read in the light of Levinas' writings on otherness, Jung's tendency to characterize the self as unitary, autonomous and undivided may be seen as a defence against or even an erasure of otherness. However, a Derridean revisioning of this approach suggests that the ambiguities and paradoxes which Jung insisted were intrinsic to his intuitions about the self-concept have the potential to evoke a remarkably subtle vision of Selfhood manifesting within the very tensions generated between Same and Other. In conclusion, this experience of Selfhood is amplified in the light of some of the insights of contemporary German philosopher Waldenfels, with particular attention to the role of pathos in the encounter with alterity.     

The familiar stranger

To classify the contents of the collective unconsciousness which he had just discovered, Jung made use of typology. Later, beginning in the 1940s, he adopted the concept of archetypal field (relational and energetic), emphasizing the dynamic of opposites. Drawing inspiration from the field concept, the author shows the active role taken in the transference relationship by the opposites 'strange' and 'familiar'– defined as antinomic values – and studies the therapeutic conditions for a transition from one pole to the other, in neurotic and borderline cases. The clinical examples are drawn from Théodore Flournoy's book, Des Indes à la planète Mars (From India to the Planet Mars) , and two films, Theorem by Pasolini and Hiroshima mon amour by Alain Renais and Marguerite Duras.     

The stranger1

This work concerns a nine‐year analytical experience with a patient who presented as a main feature an apparent inability to experience and express feelings. Right from the beginning the author was confronted with the question of the viability of analytical work, considering transference or emotional involvement in the absence of perceptible establishment of an affective link on the part of the patient. The patient never missed a session, was usually very punctual and presented very rich material, but the accounts of his life, everything he was saying, hearing and observing was manifestly deprived of any emotional meaning for the patient and consequently deprived of sense for the analyst. If, at the beginning, the question was how to communicate with the patient, after some time it became a problem of how to enable the patient to communicate with himself. Confi rming an observation by Bion that the patient is the best colleague the analyst can have, the way forward was indicated by the patient himself. This article is a theoretical exercise based on this clinical experience, using concepts developed by Bion, Ferro and Winnicott.     

Performance-self-esteem and dominance behavior in mixed-sex dyads1

Past studies suggest that males tend to be more dominant than females in task-oriented, mixed-sex groups. It was hypothesized that one factor accounting for this sex difference is performance-self-esteem. Subjects were 44 male-female pairs (college undergraduates) who participated in a decision-making task. As predicted, female performance-self-esteem level was related to the dominance cluster of opinions, disagreements, and decision outcome scores (p < .035). Females were more dominant and males less dominant in dyads containing high performance-self-esteem females; the reverse was true in dyads containing low performance-self-esteem females. No relationship was found between male performance-self-esteem level and dominance. Also, with performance-self-esteem level controlled, no overall sex difference in dominance occurred. However, some sex differences were found in the relationships between outcome satisfaction and dominance for high and low performance-self-esteem subjects.     

Behavioural linking of stranger rapes

A sample of serial stranger rape cases ( n = 43) that had occurred in Finland during the years 1983–2001 were studied with the objectives being to: (a) describe the characteristics of the offenders; (b) explore the structure of serial rape; and (c) demonstrate behavioural linkage through an analysis of the offenders' crime scene behaviour using both multidimensional scaling (MDS) and discriminant function analysis (DFA). The material was content analysed with regard to the occurrence of a number of dichotomous variables. The inter‐relationships of the variables was studied using MDS. The analysis revealed two previously identified major modes of interaction with the victim: involvement and hostility. Employing MDS and DFA, it was shown that the offences of different offenders were distinguishable in terms of variation between the offences of different offenders and consistency within the offences of a single offender. Using DFA, the classification accuracy clearly exceeds that expected by chance, and 25.6% of the cases were classified without any error. The results are discussed in relation to their practical utility and previous studies. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Female behavior in mixed-sex competition: A review of the literature

In this literature review, two aspects of female behavior in mixed-sex competition were examined, competitive performance itself and physiological changes during competition. In nearly every study reviewed, at least some of the female subjects depressed performance levels, resulting in loss to male competitors. This was more likely to occur in naturalistic studies than in tightly controlled laboratory studies. Females who competed vigorously against males were characterized as being masculine or androgynous, having more internal locus of control, and preferring nontraditional roles. The data on female physiological responses in competitive situations suggest that conflicting social demands raise anxiety levels for at least some female competitors.     

Statistical modelling in the investigation of stranger rape

A sample of stranger rape offences (n = 271) registered in the Dutch Violence Crime Linkage Analysis System database in the Netherlands between 1997 and 2007 was studied with the objective of developing statistical models, which give an indication of the probability of basic offender characteristics. Observable crime characteristics concerning the modus operandi, interaction between the offender and the victim, violence, precautionary measures, and sexual behaviours were selected in the dataset. Offender characteristics were selected based on their usefulness for the police organisation in narrowing the scope of a criminal investigation. Spatial behaviour, criminal history, and living situation of the offender were selected. From the predictive models, four out of five achieved a correct rate of over 70%, and all models predicted better than the best guess method. The proposed models for distance and prior convictions for violence seem particularly promising. Both these models show an improvement of correctly predicted offender characteristics of more than 20 percentile points compared with that which could have been estimated based on the average in the total sample. The predictive value of the models needs to be tested further with ‘new offences’, which were not used to construct the model. In general, the current study supports the finding that crime characteristics can be used to get an indication of the probability of certain offender characteristics. Nevertheless, for an understanding of the relationship between the crime characteristics and offender characteristics, a further development of a theoretical framework is urgently necessary. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Promoting leadership behaviors in low performance-self-esteem women in task-oriented mixed-sex dyads1

Methods for promoting leadership behaviors in low performance-self-esteem women were explored in two studies. Female undergraduates were paired with male peers who had either very similar or much higher scores on the Performance-Self-Esteem Scale. The mixed-sex dyads in Study 1 were given either no leader, chance-based leader, or ability-based leader instructions. Study 2 included only the latter two conditions and allowed subjects preparation time between leader appointment and the dyadic interaction. All leader appointments were given to the female dyad member. Members' influence was measured by verbal interaction counts, decision outcome scores, and members' ratings. Both leader conditions were successful in promoting female leadership behavior in Study 2, as measured by verbal interactions, but neither was successful in Study 1. Results indicated that Study 2 females exercised a helpful leadership style and that Study 2 males were satisfied with their partners' role in the interaction.     

The declining job satisfaction of white-collar women in sex-segregated and mixed-sex occupations

The declining job satisfaction of women white-collar workers reported by J. Veroff, E. Douvan, and R. A. Kulka (1981, The Inner American: A self-portrait from 1957 to 1976, New York, Basic Books) is explored through secondary analyses of their data from two national cross-sectional surveys conducted in 1957 and 1976. Analyses were done using data from 258 women in 1957 and 372 women in 1976 in white-collar jobs. Multivariate contingency table analyses were used first to explore the separate effects of type of white-collar employment, whether or not the job was sex segregated, age, birth cohort, and education on job satisfaction declines. The decline in job satisfaction was found to be greater for women in sex-segregated occupations that in mixed-sex ones. In addition, while all white-collar women express increased dissatisfaction with ego-involving aspects of work, those in sex-segregated fields showed the greatest increases in job dissatisfactions in affiliative and achievement spheres. Neither type of white-collar employment nor birth cohort related to differential job satisfaction declines though age and education changes did. The final multivariate analysis demonstrated that the changing age and educational characteristics of job holders in sex-segregated fields accounted for the greater job satisfaction declines for these women, and that sex segregation did not appear to affect job satisfaction beyond changes related to these demographic factors.     

Sex differences in responses to the stranger in the strange situation

Children are exposed to differences in adult interactive styles from an early age. The Ainsworth Strange Situation. designed as a standard measure to activate attachment behaviors in the young child, allows us to examine the child's reaction to individual differences in strangers' styles. In the present study, the effect of 11 different strangers was examined to determine if different stranger styles influenced the scoring of behavioral ratings of the child's behavior in the Strange Situation. Boys and girls reacted differently to the different strangers. Eighteen-month-old children showed more variations in their reactions to different interactional styles than did 12-month-olds. Boys showed more resistance and avoidance to strangers who used more direction and initiation. Girls did not react this way. The results are discussed in terms of the child's expectations of sex-determined styles of interaction learned from past social interactions.This research was supported by Grant MH 37911 to the senior author from the Behavioral Sciences Research Branch, Family Processes Division, NIMH, U.S. PHS and Grant HD 17571 from the National Institute of Child Health and Development.     

Attributions of responsibility for date and stranger rape

This study examined the effects of the victim-perpetrator relationship on college students' attributions of responsibility for rape. In addition, the rape specificity of these attributions was investigated. College females and males read one of six scenarios that depicted a rape or a proposition, and that varied according to the victim-perpetrator relationship (steady dating partners/acquaintances on a first date/strangers). Then they rated seven responsibility attributions for the rape or proposition. Results indicated that most forms of victim responsibility were stronger for the rape and proposition on a date than for the incidents between strangers, and the findings concerning the perpetrator's responsibility were mixed. The pattern of both victim- and perpetrator-responsibility attributions suggests that both a rape and proposition on a date, compared to incidents between strangers, elicit stronger sex role and sexual attributions. Moreover, male subjects, in comparison to female subjects, gave higher ratings to several responsibility attributions, and these, also, are linked to sex role and sexual considerations. Further, the data revealed that only the perpetrator-responsibility attributions were stronger for the rape than the proposition.This research was supported by the University of Connecticut Research Foundation Grant No. 1171-000-22-00215-35-760. The authors thank Laurin Hafner for his help with the data analysis.     

Resource utilization in mixed-sex dyads: The influence of adult presence and task type

This study explores the effects of context on cross-sex dominance. An emerging finding in the sex differences literature is that boys are often more successful than girls at influencing members of the other gender. As a result, boys tend to get more than their share of a scarce resource in mixed-sex situations. Because the presence of adults inhibits just those strategies that boys use successfully when dominating girls, we hypothesize that the presence of an adult will reduce or eliminate the sex difference in access to a scarce resource. This should be particularly true for tasks in which boys' strategies are most likely to be effective. To test this hypothesis, dominance (as evidenced by asymmetry in gaining access to a scarce resource) was measured while 48 boy-girl pairs, ranging in age from 42 to 60 months, negotiated turn taking at a movie viewer in either the presence or absence of an adult (adult location factor) in a situation that either did or did not require the cooperation of the second child in order to see cartoons (task type factor). For the cooperative task, neither sex significantly dominated the other in either the presence or absence of the adult. In contrast, for the competitive task, boys dominated in the absence of the adult. When the adult was present, however, boys and girls shared more equally. An examination of the strategies children used in the competitive task indicated that boys were inhibited in the adult's presence, dropping their rate of demands and giving girls longer turns. Implications for gender segregation and for sex differences in seeking proximity to adults are discussed.Portions of this paper were presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development in Baltimore, Maryland, April 1987. This research was supported, in part, by a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship. The authors are grateful for the cooperation of the directors, staffs, parents, and children of the preschools that participated in the study; Bing School, Convenant Presbyterian Preschool, Menlo Park Presbyterian Nursery School, Buttons 'N Bows Preschool, Community Preschool, and Foothill College Child Care Center. We are also inebted to Carolyn Johnson, Robert McClure, Ennis Blount, Paul Endo, and Lara Helms for serving as experimenters, and to Colleen Kerrigan, Kathryn Shade, Diane Walters, Deborah Haley, Ira Lit, and Caroline Collins for their work in coding the data. Finally, we would like to thank Ellen Markman for reading and commenting on an earlier draft of the paper, and Mary Parpal, whose helpful comments and other contributions are greatly appreciated.     

Sex and sycophancy: Communication strategies for ascendance in same-sex and mixed-sex superior-subordinate dyads

The purpose of this study was to examine communication strategies for ascendance in same-sex and mixed-sex superior-subordinate dyads. The strategies, operationalized in terms of task and social facilitation, were derived from Bales' Interaction Process Analysis categories. Corollary data were collected relative to the subordinate's expected job satisfaction under male versus female supervision. Results indicated that (1) the perceived importance of task versus social facilitative strategies varied both within and across the four types of dyads, and (2) female subordinates expected to be more satisfied working under female supervision than did male subordinates.The authors would like to thank Ralph Kilmann and John Grant, Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh, for their assistance in providing subjects for this study.     

Investigating the nature of expressiveness in stranger,acquaintance and intrafamilial homicides

This study explores the role of the victim–offender relationship in the dynamics of homicide, by examining the crime scene behaviour of 25 intrafamilial, 30 acquaintance and 27 stranger homicide offenders (n = 82). Six crime scene variables were examined: ‘Weapon from the scene’, ‘Excessive wounding’, ‘Facial trauma’, ‘Multiple wounds to a single area’, ‘Post‐mortem activity’ and ‘Manual violence’. The first objective was to identify whether these variables could be combined to form a partially ordered scale of expressiveness. The second was to examine whether the nature of this expressive crime scene varied according to the victim and offender relationship. It was hypothesised that the intrafamilial homicides would be characterised by a more expressive crime scene. This was examined by Partial Order Scalogram Analysis which supported the hypothesised link between the level of expressed emotion evident in the crime scene and the nature of the victim–offender relationship. Further analysis on the individual variables revealed that the best single predictor of the relationship between victim and offender was the presence of multiple wounding. These findings are discussed both as contributing to a theoretical understanding of the emotional salience of crime scene actions when killing a family member, and in practical terms in relation to the significance of these variables for both police investigations and clinical interventions with homicide perpetrators. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.