Assessing support networks: Stability and evidence for convergent and divergent validity

Data on important methodological problems in assessing support networks is presented. Stability (over 1 year) and construct validity were examined in two groups of mothers of preschool children. One group of mothers had children with a physical handicap (n = 25); the other group had normally developing children (n = 44). When their children were 4 years of age and again at 5 years of age, mothers' support networks were assessed with the Pattison Psychosocial Kinship Inventory (a semistructured interview) and a log diary. Results indicated considerable stability in mothers' support networks over the 1-year period. In addition, agreement across methods was fairly high despite marked differences in format, providing evidence for the construct of support networks. Further evidence for construct validity was provided by generally low correlations between support network variables and other measures of social ecology. Findings were roughly similar for both groups of mothers indicating general replicability of findings.     

Sex bias in visual images evoked by generics: A new zealand study

Male biases are known to exist in the usage, evaluation, and interpretation of masculine generics. This study explored, by means of a tachistoscope, sex-specific biases in visual images evoked by masculine (All men are created equal, At university a student can study whatever he wants) and feminine (The feminists protested outside the town hall, At university a student can study whatever she wants) generics. Photographs of male and female faces were presented in a deliberately ambiguous (subthreshold) viewing field while maintaining the masculine or feminine generic sentence on constant view. It was predicted and found in a sample of 48 university students that if generics invoked sex-specific images, the images would affect the direction in which the viewer would resolve the ambiguous faces, resulting in more reported male faces in the masculine than in the feminine generic condition.Preparation of this article was supported by a New Zealand Social Sciences Research Fund Committee grant (8632/21/24/8604) to S. H. Ng.     

An animal model of excessive eating: schedule-induced hyperphagia in food-satiated rats.

Nineteen rats were maintained throughout the experiment on ad libitum wet mash and water and were trained to press a lever on fixed-interval or fixed-ratio schedules of reinforcement with electrical brain stimulation. Fourteen rats ate at least 150% more mash during intermittent reinforcement sessions than during baseline, massed reinforcement control, and/or extinction sessions. In a 3-hr session, 11 of those 14 consumed more than 22 g of wet mash (13 g dry weight), the equivalent of nearly half an animal's daily food intake. In subsequent control sessions, the electrodes did not support stimulus-bound eating despite attempts to make stimulation parameters optimal. These results indicate that the eating was schedule induced or adjunctive, and suggest that the procedure may provide an animal model of excessive nonregulatory eating that contributes to obesity in humans.     

Middle temporal cortical visual area and visuospatial function in Galago senegalensis.

Bushbabies with lesions restricted to the middle temporal (MT) area and animals with larger extrastriate lesions including area MT were compared with normal control animals on test of visuospatial localization and discrimination learning. Ablation of area MT was sufficient to produce impairments in directing behavior appropriately on the basis of visuospatial cues. Extension of the lesion into areas 18 and 19 produced more profound deficits. Retardation in learning a stripe discrimination problem was correlated with the extent of damage to the geniculostriate system. It is hypothesized that area MT is important in achieving and maintaining fixation on a target whereas cortical areas 18 and 19 are necessary for establishing the location of stimulation in visual space.     

Interaction of visual information,verbal information,and linguistic competence in the preschool-aged child

Carol Chomsky found evidence to support the notion that children have not mastered the syntactic form of the sentence John is easy to see until after the age of 8 years. However, she failed to control for the effects the visual stimulus might have had on the child's understanding of the stimulus question. This study reexamined Chomsky's conclusions by using two experimental conditions. The first condition was an exact replication of Chomsky's method, while the second included a control for the biasing effects produced by the visual stimulus. The results confirmed the authors' suspicions that the visual stimulus was indeed distorting Chomsky's findings and that, on the average, children were able to decode this particular syntactic form by the age of 67 months. These findings are discussed from the perspective of Bruner's theory, which states that cognitive processes of children under 8 years of age are dominated by the iconic mode of representation.     

Suggestibility and type of interpersonal relationship: Special implications for the patient-practitioner relationship

Suggestibility was assessed in five conditions by the subject's response to suggestions falsely labeled as matters of fact. These misrepresentations of fact, or virtual suggestions, denoted a variety of hallucinations, an anesthesia, and an amnesia. They were administered as incidental intrusions while the subject was involved in the primary experimental task. In three of these conditions, the subject either observed his own spontaneous visual imagery, observed visual scenes provided by the experimenter, or simply waited with closed eyes for the presentation of the virtual stimuli. These conditions were characterized by a passive-receptive, interpersonal relationship in which the subject remained silent. Suggestibility was expected to be high. In a fourth condition the subjects described spontaneous visual imagery. This was characterized as an active-receptive relationship in which speech was maintained throughout. The suggestibility of the three passive-receptive conditions was comparable, and none of them differed from a baseline condition involving the formal induction of hypnosis. However, the fourth, active-receptive condition was significantly lower, and this difference survived a replication. Of special interest was the induction of an anesthesia in the majority of subjects in the three passive-receptive conditions.     

The evaluation of an intervention program for young schoolchildren with acting-out problems

The rationale and nature of a program to train nonprofessional child-aides for helping interactions with young acting-out school children are described. Pre/ post teacher measures of children's problems and competencies, aide measures of problem behavior, and school mental health professionals' change in behavior estimates were used to evaluate the program's effectiveness. Children seen by trained aides showed significantly greater reductions both in acting-out problems and in overall maladjustment than did similar children seen by comparable aides who did not have additional training, or by themselves before training. Implications were considered for optimizing outcomes both in the specific school intervention project in question and in other, broader types of clinical interventions.This study was supported by a grant from the NIMH Experimental and Special Training Branch (MH 14547-02), which the authors acknowledge with gratitude. Our thanks also go to Bruce Rapkin and Mary Boike, who assisted in the data analyses.     

PL 94–142 and Its Impact on the Counselor's Role

The new federal law pertaining to the education of handicapped students requires that all students must be provided with an adequate educational program. Specific procedures and requirements are mandated. The implementation of the law places new demands on the total educational profession and also creates new opportunities to use counseling skills and new avenues for the continued advancement of humane values.