Student Ratings of a Male and Female Professors’ Lecture on Sex Discrimination in the Workforce

Using an experimental design, male (n = 41) and female (n = 46) undergraduate students in the southeastern USA evaluated an identical written lecture by a male and female professor on pay disparities between men and women in the workforce suggesting sex discrimination. Regardless of the students’ sex, the male professor and his lecture was rated more positively and less sexist than the female professor. Moderated multiple regression analysis indicated that more traditional and gender stereotypical attitudes toward women in male students were related to greater sexism ratings of the female professor compared to the male professor whereas; no differences on ratings of sexism between the male and female professor were found for male students with more liberal attitudes.     

Symbolic significance of initials on longevity

The longevities of deceased major league baseball players who died prior to 1950 (N=3835) and whose initials formed acronyms, words, or names with "positive" or "negative" affect, as rated a priori by two judges, were compared with those for a group of neutral controls matched for birth year and career length, using the Berkeley standardized mortality tables. Players (n=11) with positive initials, e.g., A.C.E., lived a mean of 13 years longer than players (n=30) with negative initials, e.g., D.E.D., or players with neutral initials (n=864). These results corroborated a previous study and suggest positive name symbols are associated with increased longevity in this sample.     

Assessing concrete and abstract thinking with the Draw-a-Person technique

In this study, we examined the Draw-a-Person (DAP) technique as an indicator of concrete/literal and abstract thinking, Subjects (N = 50) included schizophrenic inpatients (n = 25) and college students (n = 25). Fourteen possible indicators of concrete/literal or abstract thinking on the DAP were generated based on theoretical considerations and prior research. Five indicators were eliminated because of their low interrater reliability. The Proverbs Test (Gotham, 1956) was used to establish evidence of concrete/literal and abstract thinking. Scores from the DAP and the Proverbs Test were correlated. Composite scores on the DAP were highly correlated (r = .52, p < .01) with the corresponding Proverbs Test score. In addition, abstract scores on the DAP were correlated (r = .54, p < .01) with a similar Proverbs Test score.. Concrete/literal DAP scores did not correlate significantly (r = .20, p > .05) with concrete/literal Proverb Test scores. Results indicate the potential for using the DAP technique to assess concrete/literal and abstract thinking when a nonverbal test is needed.     

Operant conditioning of activities of daily living on a psychogeriatric ward: a simple method.

On a psychogeriatric ward a simple token economy was established by handing out coffee and cigarette tickets for demands of concrete Activities of Daily Living from 14 men and 16 women. During the treatment period the number of target behaviors increased dramatically and many positive spin-off effects were observed. It was concluded that simple token economies of even 18 weeks can easily be introduced and administered and produce decisive positive changes with respect to psychogeriatric patients' activities of daily living, staff attitudes, and ward atmosphere.     

Treating insomnia with a self-administered muscle relaxation training program: a follow-up.

22 subjects seeking psychological help for problems of insomnia were trained to use a self-administered treatment package which contained a booklet explaining the problem and outlining the training program in detail and a tape with three versions of progressive relaxation training. A follow-up study one year later indicated that 90% of the subjects had trained according to the instructions and that 82% experienced a positive effect on sleep both with respect to falling asleep, staying asleep, and consumption of sleeping pills. It was concluded that self-administered relaxation training seems a cheap, convenient, and effective means of treating insomnia.     

The dark side of normal: A psychopathy-linked pattern called aberrant self-promotion

These studies investigate a personality and behavior pattern called aberrant self-promotion, conceptualized as a subclinical form of psychopathy. Aberrant self-promoters (ASPs) are theoretically defined as individuals characterized by a narcissistic personality configuration in combination with antisocial behavior. The first study verifies the existence of persons who manifest the ASP pattern. The second study validates the pattern, using as criteria the Revised Psychopathy Checklist (PCL-R) interview and records of antisocial behavior. In the first study a 179-item questionnaire, composed of five personality instruments, was administered to two separate samples of normal subjects (N = 214 and 367). ASPs were targeted by three methods: cluster analysis, item factor analysis, and person factor analysis. In Sample 1 the three methods demonstrated a convergence of 92 per cent in identifying the same individuals as ASPs; in Sample 2 the convergence rate was 94 per cent. In the second study 32 ASPs targeted in Study 1 were compared to 30 non-ASPS. The ASPs had significantly higher scores on the PCL-R and had committed significantly more antisocial acts than the non-ASPS. The general discussion focuses on the practical, theoretical, and measurement implications of considering aberrant self-promotion a distinct psychological motif.     

Infant crying: Acoustics,perception and communication

This paper first reviews briefly the literature on the acoustics of infant cry sounds and then presents two empirical studies on the perception of cry and noncry sounds in their social-communicative context. Acoustic analysis of cry sounds has undergone dramatic changes in the last 35 years, including the introduction of more than a hundred different acoustic measures. The study of cry acoustics, however, remains largely focused on neonates who have various medical problems or are at risk for developmental delays. Relatively little is known about how cry sounds and cry perception change developmentally, or about how they compare with noncry sounds. The data presented here support the notion that both auditory and visual information are important in caregivers' interpretations of infant sounds in naturalistic contexts. When only auditory information is available (Study 1), cry sounds become generally more recognizable from 3 to 12 months of age; perception of noncry sounds, however, generally does not change over age. When auditory and visual information contradict each other (Study 2), adults tend to perform at chance levels, with a few interesting exceptions. It is suggested that broadening studies of acoustic analysis and perception to include both cry and noncry sounds should increase our understanding of the development of communication in infancy. Finally, we suggest that examining the cry in its developmental context holds great possibility for delineating the factors that underlie adults' responses to crying.     

Subliminal stimulation and cognitive and motor performance

The present experiment investigated whether subliminally exposed messages affect cognitive and motor performance and whether personality factors can explain interindividual differences in this respect. According to Silverman (1983), people have a symbiotic fantasy, that is, a need for symbiotic oneness with the mother figure. This need can temporarily be satisfied by a tachistoscopic exposure of the message "Mommy and I are one." By relieving the unconscious conflict, psychological tension is reduced. Using these notions, it was hypothesized that different measures of performance should be improved. The results indicate that both cognitive performance, in terms of the ability to interpret incomplete and fragmented pictures, and motor performance, in terms of the ability to follow a printed line with a stylus, is improved by this procedure compared to that of a control group exposed to the neutral message "People are walking." However, it was not possible to relate these changes to individual differences in terms of the individual's structure of his psychological defense system as measured by the Defense Mechanism Test (DMT). Other possible explanations are discussed.