Size overestimation among anorexics: much ado about very little?

Research on size overestimation among anorexics has failed to control for the effects of actual body size on estimated size. We obtained estimates of the size of 3 body sites from 3 groups: 13 anorexic women; 13 non-eating disordered women matched with the anorexics on actual body size; and 13 non-eating disordered women of average size. The anorexic and size-matched normal subjects did not differ in the extent to which they overestimated their body size, but both displayed significantly greater overestimation than did the subjects of average size. Both groups also estimated the actual size of their body sites to be larger than did average-size normal subjects. These findings illustrate the need for appropriate control procedures when considering body image disturbances among persons with eating disorders, and they raise questions about the psychological significance of disturbances in the perceptual component of body image.     

The relationship of participation in school activities to abilities and interests in a high school student sample

Participation in school activities is hypothesized to be related to the multiple abilities and interests of high school students. The Ball Aptitude Battery (yielding 14 ability scores), Holland's Vocational Preference Inventory, and a biographical information blank (to obtain information about participation in 53 extracurricular activities) were administered to over 900 high school seniors of both sexes. Correlational and multiple regression analyses showed different patterns of activity participation to be related to different abilities and interests. The degree of relationship was generally low, generally higher for the males than for the females, and higher for interests than for abilities. Activity correlates of abilities differed for the sexes, but activity correlates of interests tended to be similar. This suggests that the same ability can result from differential participation in activities, but the same interest develops from similar activities.     

Assessment of self and others during treatment for anorexia nervosa

Abstract

Repertory grids were used to compare a group of anorexic women (n = 12) with normal-weight (n = 12) and dieting (n = 10) control groups. Anorexics differed from both control groups in their perceptions of themselves and others. The constructs used were more meaningful to anorexics than to either control group. The way in which anorexics saw themselves differed from the way in which clinicians have indicated in the literature that they see their anorexic patients. Some constructs adopted a differential meaning and relevance for observer and observed when applied to the anorexic condition. The discrepancies between internally defined and externally imposed interpretations of construct meaning may help to explain why resistance to treatment and high relapse rates are encountered in anorexic women.     

Creative Out-of-School Activities in Intellectually Gifted Adolescents as Predictors of Their Life Accomplishment in Young Adults: A Longitudinal Study

Career interests and abilities were examined in 130 young adults who, as adolescents, had received exceptionally high scores (top 5% of the entire country) on the test of general intelligence developed by the Israel Defense Force and used each year for selection and placement of recruits. The interests and abilities of the majority of the intellectually gifted research participants were found to be focused and not the opposite, as has been widely assumed among educators of the gifted. In 45% of the research participants, we found a strong relation between the focus of adolescents' out-of-school activities and the field of their adult vocation. Moreover, participants whose adolescent out-of-school activities matched their adult occupation had a higher level of work accomplishment than participants for whom such a match was absent. Our findings indicate that measures of out-of-school activities may provide an appropriate tool for counselors to use in career counseling with adolescents. Finally, young adults who were recognized as intellectually gifted in their adolescence perceived their family climate very positively. They described their families us highly cohesive and said that family members helped and supported one another.     

Depressive realism and clinical depression

Depressive realism suggests that depressed individuals make more accurate judgments of control than their nondepressed counterparts. However, most studies demonstrating this phenomenon were conducted in nonclinical samples. In this study, psychiatric patients who met criteria for major depressive disorder underestimated control in a contingent situation and were consistently more negative in their judgments than were nondepressed controls. Depressed patients were less likely than their nondepressed counterparts to overestimate control in a noncontingent situation, but largely because they perceived receiving less reinforcement. Depressed patients were no more likely to use the appropriate logical heuristic to generate their judgments of control than their nondepressed counterparts and each appeared to rely on different primitive heuristics. Depressed patients were consistently more negative than their nondepressed counterparts and when they did appear to be more “accurate” in their judgments of control (as in the noncontingent situation) it was largely because they applied the wrong heuristic to less accurate information. These findings do not support the notion of depressive realism and suggest that depressed patients distort their judgments in a characteristically negative fashion.     

Predicting parenting behaviors from Antisocial Practices content scale scores of the MMPI-2 administered during pregnancy

This article examines the relation between scores on the Antisocial Practices (ASP) content scale of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2; Butcher, Dahlstrom, Graham, Tellegen, & Kaemmer, 1989) and parenting behaviors in a sample of low-income women. During pregnancy, 141 women were administered the MMPI-2 and then placed into 1 of 3 groups: an antisocial, nonclinical, or clinical control group. When their children were 13 and 24 months old, antisocial mothers were observed to be less understanding and more hostile and harsh in their parenting styles than mothers in the other groups. The nonclinical and clinical control groups did not differ on any measures. Other MMPI-2 measures of antisocial behavior were not predictive of harsh parenting styles. These findings support the predictive and construct validity of the ASP content scale of the MMPI-2.     

Depression in a Cancer Patient Population

The main goal of this study was to examine depression and its components in cancer patients as compared with healthy control subjects and psychiatric inpatients. The participants were 54 cancer patients (28 females with breast cancer, 26 males with prostate cancer), 59 healthy controls (33 females, 26 males), and 75 psychiatric patients (27 females, 48 males). Participants were administered the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the State Trait Personality Inventory (STPI) Depression scales. Cancer patients had higher overall depression scores than did healthy controls as measured by BDI, but the difference was due primarily to the significantly higher scores of the cancer patients on the BDI Somatic–Performance subscale. No differences were found on the BDI Cognitive–Affective subscale. Cancer patients also scored significantly higher than healthy controls on the State-Trait Personality Inventory (STPI) State Depression (S-Dep) scale because of higher Euthymia subscale scores. The psychiatric inpatients scored significantly higher than the other groups on all measures of depression. The findings of this study suggest that cancer patients may be erroneously labeled as depressed because of somatic–performance difficulties they may experience, which are similar to symptoms of depressed individuals. In addition, it is essential to delineate the various components of depression in evaluating cancer patients.     

Interaction of sex-related psychological characteristics and psychoneuroendocrine stress responses

Sex-related psychological characteristics of male and female engineering students were examined and correlated with measures of sympathetic-adrenal medullary hormones. Self-ratings showed that both males and females perceived themselves as equally high in characteristics generally viewed as masculine and feminine. Retrospective reports of play activities in childhood reflected the traditional sex-role patterns, whereas ratings of adult interests, hobbies, and job preferences showed that the two gender groups had moved in a more androgynous direction, with the increase in females' cross-sex interests being greater than that of males. The intellectual performance profiles showed the well-documented sex difference, with males excelling in visuospatial abilities and females in verabl abilities and perceptual speed. Correlations between measures of intellectual performance and catecholamine excretion were mainly positive in the male group and negative in the female group, which is consistent with findings from previous studies.     

Acceptability and suppression of negative emotion in anxiety and mood disorders

The present study investigated perceived acceptability and suppression of negative emotion in participants with anxiety and mood disorders. Sixty participants with these disorders and 30 control participants watched an emotion-provoking film and completed self-report measures of their experience and regulation of emotions. The film elicited similar increases in negative emotion for clinical and nonclinical participants; however, clinical participants judged their resulting emotions as less acceptable and suppressed their emotions to a greater extent. The higher level of suppression in the clinical group was attributable to females in the clinical group suppressing their emotions more than females in the nonclinical group. For all participants, high levels of suppression were associated with increased negative emotion during the film and during a postfilm recovery period. Further analyses showed that appraising emotions as unacceptable mediated the relationship between negative emotion intensity and use of suppression in the clinical group. This study extends the literature on emotion regulation to a clinical sample and suggests that judging emotions as unacceptable and suppressing emotions may be important aspects of the phenomenology of emotional disorders.     

The Effects of Perceived Activity Choice upon Frequency of Exercise Behavior

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of perceived activity choice upon the frequency of exercise behavior of adult women. Thirty-six recent enrollees in a private health club were recruited for involvement in a new exercise program. At an initial organizational meeting, subjects ranked their preferences for different activities and completed a number of self-report inventories. Subjects were paired on the basis of their activity preferences so as to establish two matched groups of subjects. One member of each pair was then randomly assigned to a choice condition while the other was assigned to a no choice control condition. Perceived choice was manipulated at the time of an individual's next visit to the club, with subjects in the choice group being led to believe that their initial activity selections were the basis for their programs whereas subjects in the control group were informed that they had been assigned a standardized exercise program by the club's instructresses. The overall attendance of the choice group was better than that of the control group. Across both groups there was a significant decline in attendance over the 6-week period but the decrement was significantly greater in the control group. At the conclusion of the 6-week period, subjects in the choice condition expressed a greater intention to continue exercising at the club than did subjects in the control condition.     

Gender-deviant boys compared with normal and clinical control boys

The physical movement and social characteristics of effeminate behavior-problem, referred boys (N=13)were compared with those of normal boys (N=25)and boys (N=12)referred for nongender problems. Parent reports, observer ratings, and videotapes were collected in a series of structured tasks. As expected, mothers described gender-problem sons as much more feminine than the other two groups in interests, activities, and mannerisms. Gender-problem sons were also seen as relatively inactive and introverted. Further, they were non-significantly lower than the clinical control boys in perceived behavior problems, but both groups had marginally more problems than the normal boys. Gender-problem and clinical control boys both showed more body constriction than normal boys in ratings of a videotaped interview. They also both showed less ideal ball-throw form than normal boys on a set of variables scored with slow-motion video. However, in a set of behaviors directly rated in the various tasks, the gender-problem boys gave a uniquely general impression of uncoordination. The groups did not differ on seven additional variables.The research was supported in part by USPHS Grant MH17072. The authors are indebted to the more than two dozen research staff members who contributed many essential services at various stages of the project, to the families who generously participated, to the clinicians who referred their clients to our project, and to Marion Hee for computational assistance.     

Hostility and sex guilt: Perceptions of self and others as a function of gender and sex-role orientation

Males and females indicated their perceptions of sex and hostility guilt for themselves and for typical males or typical females. Males were found to be less guilty than females. Both sexes perceived the typical female to be more guilty than the typical male, and both underestimated the actual level of female guilt. Subjects were also classified according to sex-role orientation. Masculine sex-typed people were less guilty than feminine sex-typed individuals, with androgynous groups falling between these two. Also, sex-consistent subjects and androgynous females perceived themselves as similar to others of their gender, while androgynous males perceived themselves as being similar to both males and females. Sex-reversed subjects evidenced conflict and inaccuracies in their perceptions of self versus others. Implications for future research are presented.The author wishes to thank Shari Sparling for her assistance in collecting and scoring the data for this study.     

A Comparison of the Effectiveness of Values Clarification Presented as a Personal Computer Program versus a Traditional Therapy Group:

Eight adolescent inpatients were assigned to two groups equated as much as possible by matching the subjects for age, sex, and diagnosis. The experimental group viewed an individual self-paced computer program on values clarification, and the control group attended a single group therapy session covering identical content. Pretesting and posttesting was done using the Tennessee Self-concept Scale and the Internal-External Control Scale. No significant differences were found using these tests as measures of effectiveness, but on the post-treatment attitude survey, subjects in the computer group reported greater perceived effectiveness than those in the control group. The computer program was well accepted and not related to prior exposure to computers. Subjects completed the computer program in less than half the time required to present the material in the therapy group.     

SEX ROLE SATISFACTION AMONG AUSTRALIAN CHILDREN: SOME SEX, AGE, AND CULTURAL GROUP COMPARISONS

Children's satisfaction with being a member of their own sex was explored within two Australian samples. In a national sample of 2,268 children, grades 1–6, trends were similar to those reported in the United States. Girls were less satisfied with their sex role than boys, and older girls were more dissatisfied than younger girls. The most frequent reason girls offered for dissatisfaction with their sex was restriction of sports opportunities. In a smaller sample of 9–11-year-olds (133 boys, 146 girls), chosen to include adequate representation of children of non-Anglo immigrants, it was found that while Anglo-Australian girls were less satisfied with their sex role than boys, non-Anglo girls were just as satisfied as the boys. The non-Anglo girls were no higher in global satisfaction with themselves or with their lives in general than other children. They were, however, less likely to offer self-definitions that included sports abilities and interests. While non-Anglo parents observed a stronger public/private division of labor in certain childcare activities, this difference was not associated with children's satisfaction with their sex role. However, across the entire sample, children's sex-role satisfaction was associated with parents' division of labor on two tasks on which cultural groups did not differ—disciplining and comforting.     

Perceived stress,life events,dysfunctional attitudes,and depression in adolescent psychiatric inpatients

Hewitt, Flett, and Mosher (1992) examined the factor structure of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and its relation to depression in adult psychiatric patients. This study sought to replicate and extend their findings, using a sample of 203 adolescent psychiatric inpatients. All patients admitted to the adolescent unit in a psychiatric hospital over a 3-year period were administered the PSS, as well as measures of depression, life events, dysfunctional attitudes, and intellectual abilities. Consistent with Hewittet al., two factors were found in the PSS, reflecting perceived distress and perceived coping ability. Regression analyses indicated that, for males, both factors account for independent variance in depression, whereas for females, only the distress factor is related to depression. In addition, for both male and female, dysfunctional attitudes account for significant variance in depression in addition to PSS, but negative life events do not. None of the variables were related to intellectual abilities. Implications for clinical assessment and intervention are discussed.     

Impulsivity in suicidal and nonsuicidal adolescents

Nonsuicidal and suicidal adolescent inpatients were compared to community high school students using behavioral measures of impulsivity. Measures of problem solving ability, hopelessness, and depression were also administered to all groups. The suicidal inpatients were characterized by greater impulsivity, hopelessness, and depression than both nonsuicidal inpatients and community high school students. There were no differences in problemsolving abilities found between the suicidal inpatients and either the nonsuicidal inpatients or the community controls.     

Attributional Style and Self-Reported Depression Among Adolescents Inpatients

Eighteen adolescent inpatients with various diagnoses completed the Children's Depression Inventory and the Children's Attributional Style Questionnaire. The correlations between the two scales were consistent with those obtained among nonclinical samples of children and adolescents. The data were consistent with their reformulated learned helpless theory of depression. Suggestions were offered for subsequent research with depressed adolescent inpatients.     

An Analysis of Certain Effects of Bilateral Temporal Lobectomy in the Rhesus Monkey,with Special Reference to “Psychic Blindness”

Southern, black, poverty-level, female subjects were classified as Actives, Dropouts, or Never-Beens in regard to attendance at a family-planning clinic. The subjects took a story-telling test designed for lower social class subjects and rated a variety of persons and activities along semantic differential dimensions. Women who had dropped out were significantly lower than the other groups in their needs for achievement and for controlling life events. Actives perceived more difficulty in controlling events. Several significant differences were also found in the semantic differential ratings. The results can be interpreted to yield a consistent set of hypotheses about motivations related to birth control decisions.