Defense mechanisms in minority African-American and Hispanic youths: standardization and scale reliabilities

The Defense Mechanisms Inventory (DMI), which has been standardized for White populations and has been used frequently in a variety of personality and interpersonal interaction studies, was administered to 229 minority noncollege youths. Reliability and sex difference data are presented, and the pattern of defenses is compared to published patterns among the White population. Normative tables are presented as references for future DMI studies with minorities, with comparisons for archival data on 504 college students. Data analyses demonstrate the reliability of the DMI for minorities, with tendencies toward the internalizing polarity of the composite (object relations) measure. Evidence is also presented that the DMI is more salient for the minority population on the composite cluster, rather than for the specific defenses.     

Defense Mechanisms in Minority African-American and Hispanic Youths: Standardization and Scale Reliabilities

The Defense Mechanisms Inventory (DMI), which has been standardized for White populations and has been used frequently in a variety of personality and interpersonal interaction studies, was administered to 229 minority noncollege youths. Reliability and sex difference data are presented, and the pattern of defenses is compared to published patterns among the White population. Normative tables are presented as references for future DMI studies with minorities, with comparisons for archival data on 504 college students. Data analyses demonstrate the reliability of the DMI for minorities, with tendencies toward the internalizing polarity of the composite (object relations) measure. Evidence is also presented that the DMI is more salient for the minority population on the composite cluster, rather than for the specific defenses.     

Familial dyadic patterns in defenses and object relations

The Defense Mechanisms Inventory was administered to 308 sets of marital couples, and adult sons or daughters. The inventory yields five defensive clusters as well as a composite object relations measure. Correlational analyses were aimed at determining the extent to which defensive and object relations styles generalize within the family. Results showed consistent similarities across the family in object relations styles and in acting out defenses. Dyadic analyses showed striking similarities between Husband-Wife, Father-Son, and Mother-Daughter, but not for Father-Daughter and Mother-Son dyads. Results are discussed in context of modeling, sex role, and systems theory.Data from this study were presented at the American Psychological Association annual convention, August, 1991, in San Francisco, CA.     

Parental defense style and child competence: A match-mismatch hypothesis

This study sought to explore the possible relationship between parental style of psychological defense and children's social competence in 50 families in which one parent had been hospitalized for a psychiatric disorder. Based upon a formal analysis of the logical transformations inherent in various defense mechanisms, three levels of complexity of defenses were identified, along with a counterpart set of cognitive operations necessary for decoding these defense levels. It was hypothesized that children lacking the requisite cognitive skills to grasp the logical complexities of their disturbed parent's primary mode of psychological defense would be less socially adjusted and judged less competent than children who could understand the defensive transformations of their parent. The results suggested that children who, due to their cognitive immaturity, are potentially     

Stimulus factors and listening strategies in auditory memory: An experimental demonstration

Three experiments are reported in which digits spoken at different rates were recalled and monitored. In Experiment I, digits to be recalled were embedded in varying levels of noise. In Experiment II noise was presented only during the inter-digit intervals, either to the same or to the opposite ear as the digits. In Experiment III Ss monitored these sequences for a specified digit and reported its successor. Stimulus rate and signal-to-noise ratio affected perceptual processing time, as evidenced by the frequency and relative proportion of item and order errors. These stimulus factors induce listening strategies that influence the shape of the serial position curve and that persist after stimulus conditions are changed. The data are consistent with a two-stage processing model for the temporal course of speech perception and the nature of listening strategies.     

Cognitive consequences of self-awareness

Recent research stimulated by Duval and Wicklund's self-awareness theory has shown that self-focused attention influences a wide range of attitudes, attributions, and behavior. The cognitive processes that supposedly mediate these effects have not been carefully explored, however. In order to discover whether a manipulation of self-awareness actually activates self-relevant thoughts, two studies were conducted using the Stroop color-word measure of concept activation in memory. The first revealed a pattern of differences between means that was consistent with the hypothesis, although the expected interaction of word content and presence of mirror and camera to produce longer color-naming latencies did not appear. Also, self-relevant words were read faster than neutral words, even though they had been matched for length, frequency, and part of speech. In the second study (a refinement of the first), the expected interaction was significant. The results support one of the central claims of self-awareness theory and suggest an alternative interpretation of classic findings concerning anxiety and memory.     

Development of the Career Exploration Survey (CES)

The development, properties, and uses of the Career Exploration Survey (CES) are described. The CES is intended to (a) facilitate further theory development and empirical research on how exploration affects career decisions, development, and job outcomes, such as job satisfaction, commitment, and turnover; (b) provide a network of variables for investigating the dynamics of the exploration process; and (c) provide a set of criterion measures for examining the effects of personal characteristics and educational treatments on career exploration behaviors and beliefs. The CES is based on a conceptual framework derived from theories of exploration, stress, motivation, and career preference. It consists of seven measures of the career exploration process, three reactions to exploration, and six beliefs about exploration. Dimensionality, reliability, and validity data are presented for four studies comprising 680 observations across 601 individuals.     

Is social comparison irrelevant for producing choice shifts?

After 15 years of research on group induced shifts in individual choice, two hypotheses, social comparison (involving image maintenance) and persuasive arguments (involving attitude change), have emerged as the leading explanatory contenders. Burnstein and his associates have recently reported a series of studies that they feel clearly establish the persuasive arguments hypothesis as the best explanation for the shifts. The present paper takes issue with their conclusion. A study is presented that supports a social comparison interpretation of one of the experiments reported in Burnstein and Vinokur (Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 1973, 9, 123–137). In addition, a critical analysis of several other key studies reported by Burnstein and his associates yields the conclusion that neither hypothesis completely accounts for the available data. Rather, both image maintenance and attitude change processes may operate in a complementary manner, with persuasive arguments facilitating the shifts motivated by social comparison. Parallels are drawn between the factors that affect choice shifts and those that affect conformity behavior.     

The development of a measure to assess vocational maturity in adults with delayed career development

The development and validation of a measure of vocational maturity for educationally and economically “disadvantaged” adults who experience delayed career development is described. The Adult Vocational Maturity Assessment Interview (AVMAI) measures the attitudinal, cognitive, and behavior aspects involved in coping with exploratory and early entrance stage vocational development tasks. The measure employs a structured interview format accompanied by a detailed content scoring manual. It includes 120 items which yield scores for eight scales: Orientation to Education; Orientation to Work; Concern with Choice; Self-Appraisal: Interests and Abilities; Self-Appraisal: Personality Characteristics; Self-Appraisal: Values; Exploring Occupations; and Using Resources. Evidence for the measure's reliability, content, and construct validity is presented by examining the internal consistency of the scales, the reliability of its scoring procedures, its interscale correlations, and its performance in a pretest-post-test experimental situation. Research and counseling uses of the measure are discussed in the context of the need for vocational psychologists to develop and use measures that are appropriate for the specific career development problems of different groups in society.     

Stimulus factors and listening strategies in auditory memory: A theoretical analysis

A theory for the temporal course of perceptual coding during auditory short-term memory tasks is described. A low-level “sensor” and a high-level “identifier” process item and order information from stimulus word-strings. Both word durations and interword pauses are needed for this processing, and if adequate processing time is unavailable, perceptual delays will lead to degraded recall performance. Stimulus parameters and subject strategies interact to determine the quality and the order in which stimulus items are coded. These hypotheses are supported both by experiments using grammatical sentences and those using lists of unrelated words.     

Semantic and surface codes in the memory of deaf children

In three experiments, deaf children in the age range of 6 years, 10 months to 15 years, 5 months were presented with continuous lists of items, and for each item they had to indicate whether it had appeared before on the list. Later items were related to preceding items either in surface form or in meaning or were unrelated. False-recognition errors (i.e., “yes” responses to new items) served as an index of memorial coding. In one experiment, the items presented to the subjects were printed words. The results of this experiment showed a false-recognition effect (i.e., more errors to related words than to unrelated words) for both semantically related words and orthographically similar words. In the other two experiments, the subjects viewed a series of manual signs on videotape. In these experiments, there was a false-recognition effect for signs related semantically and for signs related cherologically (i.e., similar in terms of their manual production). These results establish orthography and cherology as effective memorial codes for deaf children. The finding of a consistently strong semantic effect for young deaf children stands in contrast to findings of weak semantic effects in false-recognition studies with young hearing children. The ascendancy of semantic codes for deaf children was attributed to the absence of competition from the speech code which dominates the linguistic memory of hearing children.     

Case-like categories in children: The actor and some related categories

Case categories were investigated using a method in which pictures are presented accompanied by a sentence describing the scene: Preschool children learn to put tokens on the objects in the pictures according to the role each object plays in the scene as described. Generalization trials explore what the children include within the various roles. Children rapidly learn to associate tokens with case-like categories during the training phase, and readily transfer to new stimuli in generalization trials. The experiments demonstrate that children have a broad Actor category. The Actor “does” the action, and Actors are not necessarily animate. However, animacy is a class property of stimuli to which the children were very sensitive. There was evidence that User and Instrument are subcategories of Actor that are differentiated only when a sentence contains both. The data also suggest a Locative category, and Patient as a category of the grammatical object. Finally, the children appeared to treat subjects of predicate adjectives as a separate category, here called the Subject of Attribution, distinct from Actor, and functionally independent of objects of transitive verbs.     

Converging evidence for the functional significance of imagery in problem solving

Two kinds of explanations have been offered for the process by which three-term series problems are solved, one in terms of linguistic principles and the other in terms of visual-spatial imagery. Two experiments are reported in which three different classes of operations are brought to bear on the problem: (1) Manipulation of stimulus attributes (characteristics of problems), (2) manipulation of variables that selectively encourage or inhibit the use of imagery (facilitating instructions; the suppression of visualization by reading), and (3) measurement of relevant individual differences (spatial-reasoning ability). All of the results indicate that imagery plays a functional but not a necessary role in the solution of three-term series problems; it is suggested that imaginal representation is functional because it reduces the load on memory. An adequate explanation of problem-solving will have to address certain general issues, such as the diversity of forms of cognitive representation and differences within and between individuals in the choice of problem-solving strategies.     

Adaptive mental mechanisms. Their role in a positive psychology

Psychology needs a metric for positive mental health that would be analogous to the IQ tests that measure above-average intelligence. The Defensive Function Scale of the DSM-IV offers a possible metric. In the present article the author links the transformational qualities of defenses at the mature end of the Defensive Function Scale--altruism, suppression, humor, anticipation, and sublimation--to positive psychology. First, the methodological problems involved in the reliable assessment of defenses are acknowledged. Next, the use of prospective longitudinal study to overcome such difficulties and to provide more reliable definition and measurement of defenses is outlined. Evidence is also offered that, unlike many psychological measures, the maturity of defenses is quite independent of social class, education, and IQ. Last, evidence is offered to illustrate the validity of mature defenses and their contribution to positive psychology.     

Laterally induced impedance effects in vision

A linear integral equation for a system of mutually impeding points is developed and solved explicitly. Particular solutions are shown to be subharmonic functions for a large class of stimuli. Specialized forms of the general equation presented in this paper occur within a number of mathematical models of Mach bands. In addition to these known spatial properties, our results also show that the time course of this basic equation may be useful in developing models of transient neural activity as well as of temporal psychophysical phenomena, such as the Broca-Sulzer effect. Further, a spatial transfer function much like the low-frequency cutoff of empirically derived modulation transfer functions follows directly from our basic integral equation if the additional assumption of spatial homogeneity is imposed.     

A dual-process model of defense against conscious and unconscious death-related thoughts: an extension of terror management theory

Distinct defensive processes are activated by conscious and nonconscious but accessible thoughts of death. Proximal defenses, which entail suppressing death-related thoughts or pushing the problem of death into the distant future by denying one's vulnerability, are rational, threat-focused, and activated when thoughts of death are in current focal attention. Distal terror management defenses, which entail maintaining self-esteem and faith in one's cultural worldview, function to control the potential for anxiety that results from knowing that death is inevitable. These defenses are experiential, are not related to the problem of death in any semantic or logical way, and are increasingly activated as the accessibility of death-related thoughts increases, up to the point at which such thoughts enter consciousness and proximal threat-focused defenses are initiated. Experimental evidence for this analysis is presented.     

Semantic organization in the young child: Evidence for the development of semantic feature systems

In two experiments, 5-, 7-, 9-, and 11-year-old children and college students were presented on each trial with a sentence followed by a probe word. Their task was to indicate whether the probe was in the sentence or not. Of primary interest were the false recognitions and the correct latencies that occurred when the probe word was a synonym or antonym of one of the words in the sentence (Experiment I) or when the probe was a subordinate, superordinate, part, or whole (Experiment II). The younger children were more affected by synonymy than antonymy, although the older children and adults were not. At all ages, the categorical relationships caused more recognition confusion than the partwhole relationships. Subjects were more affected when the probe was a superordinate than when it was a subordinate, and somewhat more affected when the probe was the whole than when it was the part. These results suggest that children as young as 5 years of age have well-organized conceptual systems based on shared meaning components.     

The role of need level and/or need salience as moderators of the relationship between need satisfaction and work alienation-involvement

Contrary to previous findings documenting the importance of higher-order need satisfaction, a recent study by G. J. Gorn and R. N. Kanungo (Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 1980, 26, 265–277) has indicated that satisfaction of lower-order needs may lead to job involvement if such needs are salient. Data from a heterogeneous sample of 632 employees from six organizations were used to test six hypotheses concerning the effects of need level (higher vs lower order) and need salience as moderators of the relationship between need satisfaction and alienation-involvement. Three different ways of operationalizing need saliency were used, including a replication of Gorn and Kanungo's procedure. Higherorder need satisfaction was correlated with alienation-involvement scores to a significantly greater degree than was lower-order need satisfaction, even for those for whom lower-order needs were most salient. Need saliency was not found to moderate the need satisfaction-involvement relationship when need level was controlled. Issues regarding the operationalization of “need salience” were discussed and a new measure of alienation-involvement (the A-I Scale) was introduced. Implications for further empirical investigations of the need saliency issue were noted, as was the universal application of job enrichment programs aimed at promoting higher-order need satisfaction.     

Toward developing a scale to empirically measure psychotic defense mechanisms

In recent years, research on psychological processes has greatly advanced our understanding of various psychopathologies. Defense mechanisms, for example, have been described as observable phenomena, and studies have shown meaningful relationships among these processes and other measurable dimensions of health and illness. Despite some notable exceptions, one area that has been overlooked is the empirical study of defenses in psychotic disorders. This is in part due to the lack of valid instruments measuring psychotic-level defenses. Propadeutic to creating an empirical scale for measuring psychotic defenses, the psychoanalytic and empirical literature on psychotic defenses is reviewed, after which the concept of psychotic defenses as measured by the P-DMRS (Psychotic-Defense Mechanism Rating Scales)--which can be used independently or in combination with the current DMRS (Defense Mechanism Rating Scales)--is operationalized. Finally, current research directions applying the P-DMRS to the clinical setting are presented, as well as its implications for guiding current clinical practice.     

Avoidance extinction in goldfish

Independent groups of goldfish trained to avoid shock in a shuttlebox situation were presented with several extinction procedures in which the relationships between the conditioned stimulus and shock were altered and/or response contingencies removed. Random shock presentations, equivalent to the number of shocks received during avoidance acquisition, resulted in response decrements similar to those obtained when the conditioned stimulus was presented alone. Pairing the conditioned stimulus with shock on every trial, however, served to maintain response levels. When response-contingent punishment was superimposed upon these Pavlovian pairings, performance was facilitated slightly although punishment alone resulted in somewhat faster response reduction than that produced by exposure only to the conditioned stimulus. Extinction of avoidance responding produced by exposure to the conditioned stimulus alone was dependent on the total duration of exposure and independent of both number of stimulus onsets and response prevention. These experiments demonstrated that, in general, the procedures used to reduce avoidance responding in rats were equally effective for goldfish, with one exception: the introduction of a Pavlovian contingency following avoidance acquisition, making the previously avoidable shock unavoidable, maintained response probabilities near previously established levels.