The emergence of an appreciation for help during childhood and adolescence

This study investigated developmental changes in the perceived usefulness of help from the perspective of the person receiving the help. Boys and girls in grades 3, 6, 9, and 12 responded to a questionnaire which presented seven hypothetical problem situations; each situation was paired with seven different helpers, which resulted in a total of 49 helper-situation combinations. Children responded on a Likert-type scale as to whether it would be useful to receive help with a particular problem from the specified helper. There was support for the hypothesis of a developmental increase in the perceived usefulness of help across the school-age years (middle childhood and adolescence). Other major findings showed that girls consistently perceived help as being more useful than did boys, and girls were generally rated as the most effective helpers.     

Gender,attitudes towards women,and the appreciation of sexist humor

According to the dispositional theory of humor, females should enjoy female-disparaging jokes less than male-disparaging jokes because the recipient of the disparagement in the former situation is a member of the respondent's reference group. Several studies have shown, however, that both men and women often prefer female-disparaging humor. In the present study, attitudinal disposition was measured using Spence and Helmreich's Attitudes Toward Women Scale. Participants were then asked to rate the funniness of sexist and nonsexist jokes. Although sexist jokes were, in general, rated funnier than nonsexist jokes, joke type interacted with attitudinal disposition such that males and females with less traditional views of women's roles showed reduced preference for sexist humor, compared to their more traditional counterparts.     

Edward Aloysius Pace

Summary Edward Aloysius Pace, pioneer of experimental psychology among American Catholics, was the first American Catholic and the first Catholic priest to study with Wilhelm Wundt. Upon his return from Leipzig, where he received his PhD in 1891, he established a psychological laboratory and department of psychology at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. This department became the model for most of the early departments of psychology at Catholic colleges and universities as well as the training center of many teachers who staffed the new departments at these Catholic colleges and universities. From Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, the experimental psychology of Wundt radiated to Catholic circles throughout the United States.The best account of Pace's life is to be found in Hart C (ed), Aspects of the New Scholastic Philosophy (New York: Benziger 1932, pp 1–9); a series of philosophical essays dedicated to Pace by the American Philosophical Association on the occasion of his seventieth birthday