Sex role orientation and dimensions of self-esteem among middle adolescents

A questionnaire study of 229 high-school students examined the relationship between sex role orientation and various dimensions of self-esteem. The results provide strong support for the masculinity model self-esteem, especially for females. Multivariate analyses of variance revealed the following: (a) females perceived themselves to be significantly more socially competent than males; (b) males perceived themselves to be more physically competent than females; (c) adolescents high on masculinity perceived themselves to be significantly more socially competent, physically competent, and to have higher general self-esteem than those low on masculinity; (d) males and females high on masculinity perceived themselves to be significantly more physically competent and to have higher general self-esteem than females low on masculinity, although males low on masculinity did not differ significantly from any of the other interaction groups. Regression analyses by gender revealed the following: (a) the contribution of masculinity to social competence was much greater for females than for males, (b) the contribution of masculinity to physical competence was much greater for females than for males, and (c) the contribution of masculinity to general self-esteem was much greater for females than for males. In summary, for males, gender may override the impact of sex role orientation, while among females the impact of sex role orientation may be accentuated.     

Alcoholic blackouts: Phenomenology and legal relevance

Alcohol-induced amnestic periods (blackouts) are common to alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinkers. The use of alcoholic amnesia as evidence of incompetence to stand trial or in mitigation of criminal responsibility hinges upon the reversibility of amnesia and upon the voluntariness of intoxication and of the ensuing blackout. After discussions of the phenomenology of alcoholic blackouts and the role of alcoholic and nonalcoholic amnesia in criminal law, it is argued that the voluntary nature of alcohol consumption should not mitigate behavioral consequences in any drinker.     

A caveat on the use of a revised bootstrap algorithm

A recently suggested revision of Efron's bootstrap algorithm for small bivariate samples discards bootstrap samples having fewer than 3 distinct points in order to prevent degeneracies in Pearson'sr. Examples are given showing that this approach may severely underestimate the variance of sample moments when sample sizes are very small. This paper should have appeared in the September 1984 issue, however, due to some unknown reason the final stages of the publication process were not completed. We regret any inconvenience to the authors and our readers.—Editors. This research was supported by NIMH grant number 37188.     

Individual Marital Therapy — Have Reports of your Death been Somewhat Exaggerated?

In this reply to Wells and Giannetti's critique of our earlier reviews of research in family therapy, we demonstrate that the sense of absolute certainty with which they reappraise and dismiss as useless the studies we reviewed on individual marital therapy is unjustified. We also consider the implications of their critique and the conclusions they derive from it for public policy and clinical practice. Though we acknowledge the appropriateness of certain aspects of their critique, we continue to hold to our original position that, for now, there is ample empirical warrant for considering conjoint therapy to be the treatment of choice for marital problems.     

The community competence scale in the placement of the deinstitutionalized mentally ill

Little systematic research has been directed towards the determination of appropriate residential placements for deinstitutionalized psychiatric patients. A previous study suggested that the Community Competence Scale (CCS), a 124-item multiscale instrument, had potential utility for community placement decisions. In the present study, the CCS was administered to 52 deinstitutionalized patients placed in an urban boarding home, a rural boarding home, and urban apartments. No significant differences on the CCS occurred attributable to urban vs. rural setting; accordingly, the urban and rural boarding home groups were combined. The CCS discriminated between patients placed in boarding home and apartment settings after variability between the groups associated with age and diagnosis had been removed. The CCS discriminated more effectively between the groups than did prior hospitalization, subsequent rehospitalization, or the Social Competence Scale (SCS). The CCS was significantly positively correlated with the SCS and significantly negatively correlated with previous hospitalization and age.     

Anorexia nervosa: the treatment of a male case with combined behavioural and family therapy

The successful treatment of a case of anorexia nervosa in a 14-year-old boy is described in this paper. The treatment comprised an initial month-long hospital-based behavioural weight gain programme. Concurrently a family evaluation was conducted. Family therapy, involving the parents only, was conducted over a subsequent four month period. The management of a relapse four months after the termination of treatment is described and information obtained at 9 and 16 month follow up is presented.     

AN ANALYSIS OF A GROUP TEACHING PROCEDURE FOR PERSONS WITH DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES

This study evaluated whether a concurrent group teaching procedure, in which all students respond simultaneously, could be used for persons with moderate or severe mental retardation. The teaching procedure used was the Task Demonstration Model, a program based on stimulus-control research and the fading techniques of behavioral psychology. Three teachers and three groups of students participated. Results showed that the teachers increased their rates of questions and instructions, positive feedback, and use of functional materials, but they reduced their rate of prompts to almost zero. Students increased their percentage and rate of correct responding as well as their engaged time. In addition, maladaptive responding, for which there were never any direct consequences, decreased from 45% to 10% for 8 of the 14 students. Results are discussed primarily in two areas: (a) changing stimulus control from teacher prompts to critical elements of the items being taught, and (b) reasons for the reduction of maladaptive behavior for 8 of the subjects.