MORE ON THE STRUCTURE OF MALE ROLE NORMS

This study assessed the structure of a widely used measure of masculinity ideology, the Male Role Norms Scale (Thompson & Pleck, 1986), using data from four samples of male college students (total N= 656) at two large, public universities (one Midwestern, one Eastern-Central). Exploratory factor analysis suggested a four-factor model best fit the data in the exploratory sample (sample 1; N = 210). The four factors were Status/ Rationality, Antifemininity, Tough Image, and Violent Toughness. A series of confirmatory factor analyses on a validation sample (samples 2, 3, and 4; N = 446), tested four models based on theory (i.e., Brannon, 1976) and previous research (i.e., Thompson & Pleck, 1986). Results from Study 1, our exploratory analysis, indicated that the four-factor model derived from the exploratory sample in Study 1 provided the best fit for the validation sample data of all models tested and also provided a good fit in absolute terms, according to several model-data fit indices. Implications for the assessment of masculinity ideology and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Effects of exposure to psychophysical scaling on lingual vibrotactile magnitude estimation and magnitude production

The purpose of the present study was to determine if the results obtained by the scaling methods of magnitude estimation and magnitude production could be influenced by providing subjects with prior exposure to psychophysical scaling in the form of magnitude estimation or magnitude production. Group 1 (n = 10, Mage = 21.1 yr.) performed lingual vibrotactile-magnitude estimation followed by lingual vibrotactile magnitude production. Group 2 (n = 10, Mage = 19.7 yr.) performed lingual vibrotactile-magnitude production (using the magnitude-estimation responses provided by Group 1), followed by lingual vibrotactile-magnitude estimation. For the magnitude estimations there was no over-all statistically significant difference between the two groups, but there was for the magnitude-production values. Magnitude-estimation scaling was apparently not influenced by prior exposure to magnitude production, while magnitude-production scaling was influenced by prior exposure to magnitude estimation. The results are discussed in terms of how subjective scaling behavior in psychophysical experimentation may be influenced by the interaction between an absolute internal scaling mechanism and parameters set by the experimenter, such as scaling method and range of stimulus intensity.     

The timing of psychosocial transitions and changes in women's lives: an examination of women aged 45 to 60

Sixty-four middle-class women from four cohorts aged 45, 50, 55, and 60 participated in a retrospective interview concerning psychosocial changes in their adult lives. Their responses provided self-report data relating to specific psychosocial changes, and judges who read the interview protocols provided independent ratings of major psychosocial transitions. The results indicated that major psychosocial transitions were more likely to be associated with phases of the family cycle than with chronological age; within the family cycle, transitions were more likely to occur during the preschool (28% of the women), launching (42% of the women), and postparental (33% of the women) phases than during the no children, school-age, or adolescent phases; transitions associated with the preschool and launching phases were characterized by dissatisfaction, personal disruption, marital unhappiness, and decreased personal development, whereas transitions associated with the postparental phase were characterized by personal mellowing and improved marital relations; and finally, numerous self-reported psychosocial changes were associated with family cycle phase, and a small number of changes was associated with chronological age.     

Sex,race, and experiences of aggression

Most previous research on sex differences in experienced aggression has confounded the sex of the aggressor and of the target by considering married or dating couples. In the present study, black and white male and female college students were asked about specific acts of aggression which they had received from or directed toward a male or female. As predicted, males were likely to have both received and exhibited more forms of aggressive behavior, although females were somewhat more likely to have been honked at, to have been forced by a male to have sex, and to have slapped someone. Few racial differences were found, but it appeared that blacks might have been relatively more likely to exhibit physical aggression and whites to exhibit nonphysical aggression. Some differences were found in specific behaviors directed toward and received from males and females, but in general subjects said that they received more aggressive behaviors than they directed toward others. © 1992 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

A test of interlingual interaction in comprehension by bilinguals

This study tested bilingual subjects' interaction of knowledge of both languages in comprehension. Spanish-English bilinguals and English monolinguals heard 36 sentences, all spoken in English. Twelve were normal English sentences, 12 contained Spanish word order, and 12 contained word-for-word translations of Spanish idioms. The dependent measure was performance on a phoneme-monitoring task; subjects pressed a button when they heard a particular phoneme within each sentence. Immediately following each sentence, subjects wrote down as much of that sentence as they could recall. Results showed that bilingual subjects pressed the button equally quickly for all sentences, but monolinguals were faster for control sentences than for idiom-translations, which was interpreted to mean that a knowledge of Spanish helped the bilinguals in processing the test items semantically.This research was based on a master's thesis presented by the first author and supervised by the second author at Kansas State University. Data were presented at the Psychonomic Society meeting, San Antonio, November 1978.     

Comprehension and production of the /−ez/ plural allomorph

Children's knowledge of morphological elements has traditionally been tested using Berko-type production tasks. Failure to respond correctly in this task may reflect production constraints independent of underlying linguistic knowledge. Accordingly, a detailed comparison of the comprehension of one morphological unit the /–ez/ plural allomorph, was investigated. Two groups of subjects were tested: (1) those who produced this allomorph correctly and (2) those who failed to produce it. For the subjects as a group, the results indicated that children who could produce the /–ez/ allomorph in nonsense word contexts performed significantly better than children who were unable to produce this allomorph. An analysis of individual performance indicated that almost all of the subjects who produced the /–ez/ allomorph correctly reliably comprehended it. A little more than half of the subjects who failed to produce it evidenced reliable comprehension. The conclusion was drawn that comprehension learning precedes production learning and that production-type tasks may consistently underestimate linguistic knowledge.This paper was supported by the Graduate College, University of Missouri, Kansas City.     

The processing of pseudohomophones by adults with a history of developmental language disabilities

Psuedohomophones are nonwords that sound like real words (e.g., BRANE). These items were used to gauge phonological access in adults who have experienced developmental language processing deficits (DLD). The standard effect for these items in lexical decision is an increase in response times over nonpseudohomophone nonwords. This disadvantage reflects phonological processing. In our first experiment the DLD group did not produce this pseudohomophone effect whereas in a second experiment they showed semantic priming effects when pseudohomophones were used as primes in lexical decision. The results therefore indicate that phonological processing of nonwords by adults with DLD can be uncovered under certain carefully controlled experimental conditions.     

Muscarinic cholinergic influences in memory consolidation

The central cholinergic system and muscarinic cholinergic receptor (mR) activation have long been associated with cognitive function. Although mR activation is no doubt involved in many aspects of cognitive functioning, the extensive evidence that memory is influenced by cholinergic treatments given after training either systemically or intra-cranially clearly indicates that cholinergic activation via mRs is a critical component in modulation of memory consolidation. Furthermore, the evidence indicates that activation of mRs in the basolateral amygdala (BLA) plays an essential role in enabling other neuromodulatory influences on memory consolidation. Memory can also be affected by posttraining activation of mRs in the hippocampus, striatum and cortex. Evidence of increases in hippocampal and cortical acetylcholine (ACh) levels following learning experiences support the view that endogenous ACh release is involved in long-term memory consolidation. Furthermore, the findings indicating that mR drug treatments influence plasticity in the hippocampus and in sensory cortices strongly suggest that mR activation is involved in the storage of information in these brain regions.