Dreams: Sex Differences in Aggressive Content

The assumption that the extent of projection in projective techniques is a monotonic function of the degree of ambiguity in the TAT is seriously questioned. A review of several studies dealing with ambiguity yielded the conclusion that highly ambiguous TAT pictures were least useful for personality assessment. On the other hand, pictures which are highly unambiguous with regard to what is going on and which contain two or more persons, seem most promising for clinical assessment.     

Attitudes Towards Premarital Sex in India: Traditionalism and Cultural Change

Every society changes with time. With prosperity and improvement in economic conditions, values change. Traditional values that a society carries attenuate and modernity replaces age-old notions. The present article inspects the sixth wave of the World Values Survey examining changing perceptions of Indian respondents towards sex before marriage. It is observed that premarital sex in India is becoming more common but still not widespread. The ordered logit regression analysis reveals that whereas religious minded, single and left-leaning respondents are more traditional, respondents belonging to higher class or lower education level are more permissive about premarital sex. The article concludes that with the increase in permissiveness towards premarital sex and the possibility of unprotected, risky sexual behaviour, suitable policies should be adopted to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted infections.     

Gender Differences in the Effects of Extrinsic Motivation on Creativity*

Four studies were conducted to assess gender differences in the effects of extrinsic motivation on creativity. The first study replicated an earlier one (Baer, 1997) in which expectation of evaluation lowered the creativity of middle school girls, but not boys. The second study investigated the effects of doing work for reward; again, middle school girls' creativity suffered, but not boys'. The third study, also with middle school subjects, investigated the impact of expecting ungraded feedback; this reduced both the overall negative impact of expecting evaluation and the gender difference in this regard. The fourth study investigated the impact of evaluation expectation on second-grade subjects and found that boys', but not girls', creativity was increased when they expected evaluation.     

Relationships Between Contraceptive Behavior and Love Attitudes,Sex Attitudes,and Self-Esteem

The current research took into account two previously developed models of effective contraceptive behavior, a model emphasizing interpersonal variables and a model emphasizing intrapersonal variables. The purpose was to identify variables related to contraception that could be addressed during contraceptive counseling and to aid persons in deciding the most effective contraceptive method within the context of an intimate relationship. The research used questionnaire responses from 350 male and female college undergraduates. Results indicated some support for aspects of both models, with modest relationships between contraceptive behavior and attitudes toward both love and sex, and self-esteem. The difficulties of developing a comprehensive model of contraceptive behavior are discussed, as are some practical implications of this research.