Behavioral correlates of the Hyperactivity Factor of the Conners Teacher Questionnaire

The present study assesses whether ratings on the Conners Teacher Questionnaire, Hyperactivity Factor, corresponded to observed behavioral and attitudinal differences in hyperactive and nonhyperactive males. Boys in the present study were rated on the questionnaire and then observed in a free-play situation. The boys' scores on the Teacher Questionnaire were later compared with their activity level, judgments about their behavior, and interview questions about their experience in the study. Several of these measures were found to correlate significantly with the Teacher Questionnaire scores, suggesting that it successfully taps observable dimensions of hyperactivity in novel situations.This project was part of the dissertation of the first author, Department of Psychology, The American University.     

Recall and recognition of order and item information in probed running memory, as a function of IQ

Two experiments were designed to test the possibility that correlations between IQ and probed serial running memory depend on IQ-related individual differences in the retention of order information in short-term memory. In Experiment I, correlations were obtained regardless of whether instructions emphasized serial recall or free recall. In Experiment II, a significant correlation between IQ and performance was obtained in a recognition test for very recent item information, but not in a recognition test for very recent order information. These data together with a theoretical analysis of the operations involved in the tasks, led to the conclusion that the correlations reflected individual differences in the capacity to access specified sets of items in very short-term memory.     

Sexual inequality and the reproduction of consciousness: An analysis of sex-role stereotyping among children

How children develop conceptions about their future roles in the economic world is an important concern for students of stratification. Several social learning theories have been offered in an attempt to explain the development of these roles in the minds of children. Recently, social psychological theories drawn from a neo-Marxist framework have been elaborated, and the purpose of this study is to test their explanatory power. Based on a survey of schoolchildren across grade levels, the data show that there is considerable disparity in the stereotypic attitudes of children towards different occupational categories. Although sex-role typing is relatively high in the occupational orientations of young children, it diminishes in the higher grade levels. In disaggregating the data, four other factors were considered: sex, race, socioeconomic status, and mothers' work status. The study questions the social consciousness explanation of sexual inequality posited by neo-Marxist theory. Several other factors are offered to explain the findings.     

Sequential cotherapy of groups for training and clinical care

Cotherapy has often been used as the leadership model in group therapy. The literature is full of contradictory data and impressions as to the efficacy of this model. In this article a new form of cotherapy is presented which may offer some of the assets attributed to the cotherapy leadership model while at the same time reducing some of the liabilities. Sequential cotherapy refers to cotherapy when each of the therapists leads sequentially rather than at the same time. The pros and cons of such an approach are discussed from both the perspectives of training new group therapists and of service to patients in groups.Dr. Rutan and Mrs. Alonso are members of the faculty of Harvard University Medical School and share responsibility for training psychiatric residents in group therapy at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.     

Female aggression as a function of attitudes toward women

The aggressive behavior of female subjects who held either liberal or traditional beliefs concerning the role of women in modern society was investigated as a function of provocation by traditional or liberal male opponents. Traditional female subjects responded more aggressively than liberal females. The male opponent's attitude had no effect on female aggression.This article is based on an honors thesis submitted to the Honors and Experimental College of Kent State University by the second author.     

Concurrent and Prospective Associations Between Social Anxiety and Responses to Stress in Adolescence

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Several studies have investigated the relationship between adolescents’ responses to stress and general anxiety and depression, but only few...     

Modeling,vicarious reinforcement and extraversion on blood donating in adults: Immediate and long-term effects

Studied the immediate and long-term effects of modeling on adult altruism using a quasi field experiment in a naturalistic setting. Forty-three female trainee occupational therapists aged 18-21 observed or did not observe a female model volunteer to donate blood. Modeling significantly increased the number of female observers who (a) also agreed to donate and (b) in turn actually gave their blood. The opportunity to donate blood occurred in a naturalistic situation on average six weeks after the commitment. It was concluded that observing a model could produce generalizable and durable behavior change in adults using an altruistic behavior of some cost to the individual. Personality and vicarious reinforcement effects however were not found.     

Instrumental and expressive representations of aggression: One scale or two?

The Expagg questionnaire was developed to measure a subject's view of their own aggression as a relatively instrumental or relatively expressive act. Two issues have been raised pertaining to the dimensional structure of the questionnaire: the use of principal components analysis on dichotomous responses and the possibility that instrumental and expressive representations might be independent dimensions rather than opposite ends of a single continuum. In study 1, dichotomous Expagg data from 405 subjects were subjected to microfact, principal components, and factor analysis. Each produced a first general factor, and the correlations between the item loadings were in excess of r = .99. In study 2, a 40‐item Likert scale version of Expagg was given to 295 subjects. Principal components analysis, paired item correlations, and subscale correlations suggested partial independence of instrumental and expressive items. Two new 8‐item scales measuring instrumental and expressive representations were constructed that maximise their independence. Potential uses of these revised scales are discussed. Aggr. Behav. 25:435–444, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Lexical retrieval constrained by sound structure: the role of the left inferior frontal gyrus

Positron emission tomography was used to investigate two competing hypotheses about the role of the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) in word generation. One proposes a domain-specific organization, with neural activation dependent on the type of information being processed, i.e., surface sound structure or semantic. The other proposes a process-specific organization, with activation dependent on processing demands, such as the amount of selection needed to decide between competing lexical alternatives. In a novel word retrieval task, word reconstruction (WR), subjects generated real words from heard non-words by the substitution of either a vowel or consonant. Both types of lexical retrieval, informed by sound structure alone, produced activation within anterior and posterior left IFG regions. Within these regions there was greater activity for consonant WR, which is more difficult and imposes greater processing demands. These results support a process-specific organization of the anterior left IFG.