The effect of attitudes on inferences of homosexuality and perceived physical attractiveness in women

A study was conducted to test the hypothesis that inferences of homosexuality will be made more frequently about women who are perceived to be less physically attractive. This hypothesis was supported. More importantly, the investigation was designed to determine whether the perception of a relationship between female homosexuality and level of physical attractiveness would be affected by raters' attitudes about homosexuality and traditional sex-role behavior. Results indicated that female raters with conservative attitudes were likely to associate homosexuality with those women to whom they had given the worst evaluations concerning physical appearance, while more liberal females were less likely to do so. Male raters' attitudes bore little relationship to their evaluations of homosexuality and physical attractiveness. Several interpretations of these results are discussed.     

Speech rate and the development of short-term memory span

Two experiments are reported which examine the effects of word duration on memory span in subjects of different ages. The same linear function relating recall to speech rate (assessed by the speed of repeating words) fits the results of subjects ranging in age from 4 years old to adulthood. It is concluded that developmental increases in short-term memory span can be explained in terms of increases in speech rate and that there is no evidence for an increase in short-term memory capacity. Analyses of the children's speech suggests that increases in speech rate with age reflect increases in the speed of articulation of individual words, rather than any change in the duration of pauses between successive words or changes in coarticulation between words.     

The relationship of early adolescent functioning to parent-reported and adolescent-perceived interparental conflict

Is an adolescent's perception of interparental conflict important or is the parents' report of such conflict sufficient to predict adolescent functioning? To examine this question, a study was undertaken with 178 young adolescents and their mothers, fathers, and social studies teachers. Adolescents completed a measure of their perceptions of interparental conflict while mothers and fathers completed a self-report measure of their conflict. Teachers provided an assessment of each adolescent's cognitive and social functioning at two separate times, 1 year apart. Results indicated that both parental report, particularly maternal, and adolescent perception of interparental conflict were significantly related to adolescent cognitive and social functioning, and the magnitude of the correlations did not differ significantly. Hierarchical regression analyses were performed in which mother and father report of conflict was forced into the equation initially and adolescent perception of such conflict was allowed to enter freely. These analyses indicated that adolescents' perceptions accounted for unique variance in their functioning, beyond that accounted for by parental report. The results are discussed in terms of the specific roles that parental conflict and adolescent perceptions of such conflict play and the possible mechanisms by which each operates.     

Parent-completed and adolescent-completed CDIs: Relationship to adolescent social and cognitive functioning

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of both young adolescents' scores on the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) and their mothers' ratings of the adolescents' depression (parent-completed CDI) to indices of their social and cognitive functioning obtained from a source outside the home. Subjects consisted of a nonclinic sample of 85 young adolescents (11–15 years of age), their mothers, and their social studies teachers. Recent school grades and teacher-completed measures served as the indices of adolescent social and cognitive competence. The results indicated that both adolescents' and mothers' CDI scores were significantly and negatively correlated with measures of adolescent cognitive and social functioning. Multiple regression analyses, utilizing adolescent- and parent-completed CDI scores as predictors, indicated that both predictor variables entered into the equations for cognitive functioning while only the mother-completed CDI entered into those for social functioning. When maternal depression was also entered into the multiple regressions, the findings regarding mother- and adolescent-completed CDI scores were not altered. The relationship of these findings to other somewhat disparate findings concerning the utility of mother and child reports of child depression is discussed.This research was supported, in part, by the William T. Grant Foundation and the University of Georgia's Institute for Behavioral Research.     

Prospective versus retrospective assessment of Menstrual cycle symptoms and moods: Role of Attitudes and beliefs

Prospective vs. retrospective self-reports of menstrual cycle symptoms and moods in users and nonusers of oral contraceptives were investigated. Subjects, aged from 17 to 27 years, included 56 women on the pill and 47 nonusers. The Menstrual Distress Questionnaire (MDQ) quantified physical symptomatology, while the Differential Emotions Scale (DES-IV) measured emotional states. Prospective reports suggested less discernible symptom and mood effects than did retrospective reports. Physical symptoms were significantly higher menstrually than premenstrually, whereas negative affects increased premenstrually. Women on the pill reported significantly fewer symptoms and negative moods than nonusers, although there were no significant differences in positive mood states. Menstrual Attitude Questionnaire (MAQ) scores suggested that nonusers of oral contraceptives found menstruation more debilitating than those on the pill. Based on a paper presented at the 5th Biennial Conference of the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences, Department of Experimental Psychology, Oxford University, July 22–26, 1991.     

Parental Socialization of Emotion

Recently, there has been a resurgence of research on emotion, including the socialization of emotion. In this article, a heuristic model of factors contributing to the socialization of emotion is presented. Then literature relevant to the socialization of children's emotion and emotion-related behavior by parents is reviewed, including (a) parental reactions to children's emotions, (b) socializers' discussion of emotion, and (c) socializers' expression of emotion. The relevant literature is not conclusive and most of the research is correlational. However, the existing body of data provides initial support for the view that parental socialization practices have effects on children's emotional and social competence and that the socialization process is bidirectional. In particular, parental negative emotionality and negative reactions to children's expression of emotion are associated with children's negative emotionality and low social competence. In addition, possible moderators of effects such as level of emotional arousal are discussed.     

Eye-movement parameters and pattern discrimination

Pattern discrimination was studied in a visual-search task by recordingan O’s eye movements while he determined how many of eight patterns, arranged in a square around a standardpattern, matched the standard pattern. The results demonstrate the role of eye movements in visual search and human pattern discrimination. The mean duration of an eye fixation on a pattern, the probability of fixating it, the probability ofrefixating it, and the sequence in which patterns were fixated were all systematically related to various pattern measures. Multivariateanalyses showed modest correlations between the duration of individual eye fixations and various pattern measures. Relative characteristics of patterns influenced performance more than absolute characteristics of patterns. Patterns that matched a standard were fixated more often and longer than patterns that did not match a standard. The order in which patterns were fixated depended upon their relative characteristics. The results were consistent with a model ofpattern discrimination consistingoftwo stagesin which (1) features of a fixated pattern are abstracted and encoded, and (2) these features are then compared with the features ofanother pattern.     

Conservation or conversation? Contextual facilitation of inappropriate conservation judgments

Recent studies have shown that children who fail Piagetian conservation tasks may succeed if the transformation of materials is made to seem accidental, or incidental to some other activity. In the present study, 46 children, mean age 6 years, were randomly assigned to either a standard or a modified testing condition. In both, the child first made a judgment as to the equality in area of two square fields, each made up from eight interlinked fence sections. Then the child saw one of the fields transformed into a rectangle, without the fences being disconnected, and was asked for a second judgment as to the equality of the fields. In the modified condition the transformation made sense in terms of creating a space for the farmhouse. Significantly higher levels of “conserving” judgments were obtained in the modified than in the standard condition. However, it should be noted that area is not in fact conserved in this case. The implications of this for the status of precociously correct conservation judgments are discussed.     

A short-term longitudinal examination of young adolescent functioning following divorce: The role of family factors

The purposes of this study were to examine young adolescent functioning over a 2-year period after divorce and to assess the role of two family factors, interpersonal conflict and the parent-adolescent relationship, in predicting such functioning. One hundred and twelve young adolescents, their mothers, and their social studies teachers served as participants. One-half of the adolescent were from recently divorced families and one-half were from married families. Mothers completed measures concerning interparental conflict and the parent-adolescent relationship, adolescents completed a measure of the relationship, and teachers completed measures assessing four areas of adolescent functioning. The results indicated that adolescents from divorced families were functioning less well than those from married families. There were no changes in adolescent functioning and the parent-adolescent relationship from the first to second year postdivorce. High levels of interparental conflict in divorced families were associated with more parent-adolescent relationship problems. In turn parent-adolescent relationships problems served as the best predictor of concurrent and subsequent difficulty in adolescent functioning.This study was supported, in part, by the William T. Grant Foundation and the University of Georgia's Institute for Behavioral Research.