Perceptions of coercive sexual behavior by males and females

In this study male and female subjects were given six vignettes depicting heterosexual interactions between acquaintances. The vignettes described sexual advances representing different points along a coerciveness continuum. The gender of the aggressor and the victim were varied. The subjects were then asked to indicate their perception of the degree of coerciveness involved. In addition, they were asked to attribute both positive and negative feelings to the victim. The results indicated that male subjects perceived these sexual advances as slightly more coercive when the victim was a female, whereas females perceived the advances as slightly more coercive when the victim was a male. Also, there was a tendency to view the low-coercion activities as more coercive when the males were the victim, whereas the opposite was true for the vignettes rated high on coercion, especially the one describing physical coercion. The attributions of positive and negative feelings tended to parallel the coerciveness ratings. Typically, the more coercive activity was seen as, the less positive feelings and more negative feelings the subjects attributed to the victim. The results were discussed in terms of stereotypical beliefs regarding the sexuality of males and females and attribution theory.     

Satisfaction with the Health Care Provider and Regimen Adherence in Minority Youth with Type 1 Diabetes

To assess whether satisfaction with the health-care provider is related to regimen adherence among primarily minority youth with type 1 diabetes. Youth with type 1 diabetes (n = 169; M age = 13.88; 52 % female; 70 % Hispanic) and their parents completed questionnaires that assessed their own satisfaction with the health-care provider and youths’ adherence to diabetes self-care behaviors. Higher youth and parent patient-provider relationship satisfaction was associated with higher regimen adherence. Gender affected the relationship between satisfaction and regimen adherence, such that for girls, greater satisfaction was associated with better adherence; this was not the case for boys. Patient satisfaction with the health care provider is important for regimen adherence among primarily minority youth with type 1 diabetes, particularly for girls. Future research might focus on improving youths’ relationships with their health care providers as a potential pathway to improve regimen adherence.     

Social problem solving training: A follow-up study of cognitive and behavioral effects

The long term effects of Spivack and Shures' social problem-solving training were assessed and compared to an attention-placebo control. Thirty-seven preschool age children were involved in this year's long intervention project and six month follow-up. All subjects received 46 sessions of intervention by specially trained assistants. Support was found for the cognitive effectiveness of social problem-solving training with aberrant children at post test in that they gained significantly in their ability to generate alternative solutions to interpersonal problems. This differential effect was not sustained at follow-up. Blind teacher ratings of behavioral adjustment and independent observers' ratings of behavior (using a naturalistic observation scale developed for this study) revealed no significant behavioral training effects at post test or at follow-up. Findings are discussed with the suggestion that behavior change in young children may not be mediated through a strictly cognitive intervention, and may more logically require an integration of behavioral and cognitve techniques.     

Exploring a Predictive Model

The purposes of this study were (a) to explore the utility of a model for predicting reporting of sexual harassment and (b) to collect data on the incidence of sexual harassment using the Sexual Experiences Questionnaire (SEQ; Fitzgerald et al., 1988). The sample included 214 tenuretrack faculty women and 276 women graduate students. The full model postulated that age, marital status, feminist ideology, and frequency of behavior would be directly related to perceived offensiveness at the behavior. In turn, perceived offensiveness, normative expectations for reporting, and perceived outcomes of reporting would directly influence reporting. As predicted, perceived offensiveness showed a direct influence on reporting, and feminist ideology and frequency of behavior were significant predictors of perceived offensiveness. Incidence data showed that the most frequently experienced situations involved gender harassment and seductive behaviors. Results suggest that educating women about the offensiveness of sexual harassment might increase frequency of reporting. Also, further exploration of the model seems warranted.     

A Decade of Feminist Influence on Psychotherapy

The last decade has seen some major impacts of feminism on the institution of psychotherapy regarding theories, treatment techniques, and assessment instruments. The changes in attitudes toward women as therapists and as clients have reflected the general advances of the women's movement in that women clients are more likely to seek women therapists and to receive treatments specifically developed for crises affecting women such as rape, pregnancy and domestic violence. The difficulties in designing empirical studies to demonstrate bias in psychotherapy have resulted in a confusing state of the art because only the higher-order interactions have consistently been significant. Attempts of some women to resist changes brought about by the women's movement and the apathy and levity of others have also presented problems in the path of progress. However, movement toward the long-range goal is encouraging when one compares the writing on women and psychotherapy in recent professional journals with examples from the 1960s.     

Short-term group psychotherapy: Who succeeds,who fails?

Group psychotherapy literature is unclear about what patient characteristics contribute to better and poorer outcome. This study examined pre-group therapy patient characteristics and their relationship to short-term group therapy outcome. A battery of outcome measurements was administered to 192 short-term group therapy patients before, after, and 4–6 months after their group experience. Three distinct outcome groups are defined: dropouts, low changers and high changers. Characteristics of each group are discussed. Aside from the traditionally important variables such as age and education, this study indicates that interpersonal variables (interpersonal sensitivity, distance/closeness to others, primary involvement with family) may be potentially important areas to pursue in screening and preparing patients for a group.     

Body movement and inattention in learning-disable and normal children

Four experiments were conducted to test various aspects of an optimal level of arousal model of hyperactivity in learning-disabled children. Vigilance performance and level of body movement were measured while learning-disabled and control children performed in an auditory vigilance task. The results suggested that body movement increased throughout the vigilance task, increased rates of external stimulation result in decreased level of body movement, and learningdisabled children differed from controls in showing higher levels of body movement and poorer vigilance performance. The results were discussed in terms of changes in arousal level and compensatory stimulus-seeking behavior.     

When attitudes do not fit: discordance of acculturation attitudes as an antecedent of intergroup threat

Recent research has shown that the perspectives of both minorities and majorities should be taken into account to reach a deeper understanding of the acculturation process and its consequences for intergroup relations. The authors report two experiments that investigated the impact of discordant acculturation attitudes on perceived threat. In Study 1 (N=183), Germans were asked for their attitudes toward Turks and Italians. Different levels of concordance of acculturation attitudes were induced by presenting participants with newspaper articles describing the acculturation attitude of the respective out-group and perceived threat was measured. In Study 2 (N=100), two fictitious immigrant groups were used as target groups. Results in both studies showed that discordance of acculturation attitudes leads to higher perceptions of intergroup threat than concordance of acculturation attitudes. Furthermore, both studies supported the assumption that a similar out-group is perceived as less threatening than a dissimilar out-group.