Discrimination of functionally appropriate and inappropriate throwing tools by captive tufted capuchins (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Cebus apella</Emphasis>)

A tool-throwing task was used to test whether capuchin monkeys understand the difference between functionally appropriate and functionally inappropriate tools. A group of monkeys was trained to obtain a sticky treat from a container outside their enclosure using a projectile attached to one end of an anchored line. Subsequently, these monkeys were given choice tests between functional and nonfunctional versions of tools used in training. A different feature of the tool was varied between alternatives in each choice test. The monkeys chose to use functional tools significantly more often than nonfunctional tools in early exposures to each choice test. A second experiment tested whether these subjects, as well as a second group of minimally trained participants, could distinguish between functional and nonfunctional tools that appeared different from those used in training. A new set of design features was varied between tools in these choice tests. All participants continued to choose functional tools significantly more often than nonfunctional tools, regardless of their tool-throwing experience or the novel appearance of the tools. These results suggest that capuchin monkeys, like chimpanzees studied in similar experiments, are sensitive to a variety of functionally relevant tool features.     

Effects of perpetrator gender and victim sexuality on blame toward male victims of sexual assault

Most researchers who have investigated attributions of blame toward victims in sexual-assault depictions have considered only female victims of male perpetrators. Few researchers have investigated the effects of perpetrator gender or victim sexual orientation on blame attributions toward male victims. The present authors investigated those two variables. Participants were 161 undergraduates at a British university in social science courses, each of whom read one scenario of a set in which perpetrator gender and victim sexual orientation were varied between subjects, and who completed a questionnaire measuring their blame toward the victim and the perpetrator. The present results showed that male participants blamed the victim more if a person of the gender that he was normally attracted to assaulted him. Male participants also regarded the female perpetrator in more favorable terms than they did the male perpetrator regardless of the victim's sexual orientation. The authors discussed the present results in relation to gender role stereotypes.     

Hotel room suicide

The objective of our research was to quantify the increased risk of suicide associated with registering in local hotels/motels. Medical examiner case files of suicide in King County, Washington, were reviewed for years 2002-2004. The incidence of suicide in local residents registering in local hotels/motels was 223/100,000 which is significantly greater than the incidence of suicide in the general population of King County (11.7/100,000 p < 0.0001). Hotel/motel guests from outside Washington had a significantly reduced incidence of suicide (3.9/100,000 p = 0.002). The study results suggest that there is an increased risk of suicide in local residents who register in local hotel rooms.     

An evaluation of the MMPI-2 and MMPI-a true response inconsistency (TRIN) scales

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent (MMPI-A) and Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) True Response Inconsistency (TRIN) scales are measures of acquiescence and non-acquiescence included among the standard validity scales on these instruments. The goals of this study were to evaluate the effectiveness of these scales in detecting varying degrees of acquiescence and non-acquiescence and to evaluate cutoff scores for clinical use. After the removal of invalid protocols from the MMPI-2 and MMPI-A normative samples, each normative sample was randomly divided in half. For each measure, one half of the normative sample served as a comparison group and the other half was modified with increasing degrees (10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, and 50%) of randomly inserted true or false responses. The results for a 9.1% base rate of acquiescence or non-acquiescence provide support for TRIN cutoff scores at or near those presented in the MMPI-A and MMPI-2 manuals.     

A factor structure for the MMPI-A: replication with male delinquents

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent (MMPI-A) Structural Summary was developed as a means of simplifying the interpretation of the 69 scales and subscales of this test instrument by organizing findings around eight primary factor dimensions. The current study examined the scale-level factor structure of the MMPI-A in a large sample of 1,610 male juvenile delinquents to assess the potential usefulness of this factor structure in a delinquency population. In this attempt to replicate the MMPI-A scale-level factor structure identified by Archer, Belevich, and Elkins in the MMPI-A normative sample and by Archer and Krishnamurthy in a clinical sample, a correlation matrix of all MMPI-A scale raw scores was created for a principal factor analysis. Results from the factor analysis produced a seven-factor solution that was largely consistent with the dimensions of the MMPI-A Structural Summary. Results were also reported in terms of the frequency of elevations on Structural Summary dimensions, with particular evidence of the importance of the Immaturity factor in describing this male juvenile delinquent sample.     

A comparative view of the new journal: Assessment

The reference sections from all articles in the 1997 volumes of Assessment, Journal of Personality Assessment, and Psychological Assessment were entered into a database and analyzed. An article published in Assessment averaged almost 31 references. An article published in Journal of Personality Assessment contained an average of 33 references. Psychological Assessment averaged 38 references per article. The median age of the references in the three journals was 8 years with an interquartile range of 4 to 14 years. The Journal of Personality Assessment had the largest number of citations in this database of 5,316 references. Each of these received a relatively large number of their citations from articles published in the same journal (self-citations). Randomly selected articles from the 1997 volume of Assessment received fewer citations in the Social Science Citation Index than a similar set of articles from the other two journals. However, the data on Assessment, when compared with data available on other new scientific publications, suggests that Assessment is doing as well as other fledgling journals.     

MMPI-A characteristics of male adolescents in juvenile justice and clinical treatment settings

The current study investigates the extent to which the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent (MMPI-A) profiles of 196 male adolescents evaluated in a South Carolina detention center could be successfully discriminated from the protocols of 200 male adolescent psychiatric inpatients in three states and 151 dually diagnosed male adolescents. Results showed significant differences in mean T-score values among these three groups of adolescents across a variety of MMPI-A scales and subscales. Results from discriminant function analyses indicate that treatment setting can be predicted effectively from MMPI-A profiles. Beyond the MMPI-A profile differences established for adolescents in these groups, the similarities of adolescents were also noted, particularly in terms of the frequent occurrence of Within-Normal-Limits profiles for adolescents in all groups. Potential directions for future research with the MMPI-A are presented.     

Reactions to diversity in recruitment advertising--are differences black and white?

The portrayal of racial diversity in corporate recruitment advertisements has become increasingly common. Despite widespread sentiment that ad diversity attracts a broader scope of applicants, empirical research on this topic is sparse. Consequently, the present study manipulated ad diversity at 2 hierarchical levels to assess its impact on organizational attractiveness for 273 Black and White university students. In contrast to the predictions of relational demography, White viewers exhibited no effect for ad diversity. Black viewers were attracted by ad diversity but only when it extended to supervisorylevel positions. More importantly, the effect of race on reactions to ad diversity was contingent on the viewer's openness to racial diversity (other-group orientation).     

The relationship of MMPI and Sensation Seeking Scales to adolescent drug use

This study examined the relationship of Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) measures, including the MacAndrew alcoholism (MAC) scale, and the Sensation Seeking Scales (SSS) to adolescents' drug use across nine drug categories. Subjects were 51 male and 72 female high school students between the ages of 14 and 18 (mean age = 16 years, 5 months). The drug use/abuse measure consisted of adolescents' self-reports on the Segal (1973) Alcohol-Drug Use Research Survey. Drug categories included for investigation were alcohol, amphetamines, barbiturates, caffeine, cocaine, hallucinogens, marijuana, narcotics, and tobacco. Scores from standard MMPI scales, the MAC scale, and the SSS were examined in relation to individual drug use outcomes, and multivariate procedures were used to predict polydrug versus single drug use patterns. Results demonstrated significant and meaningful relationships between personality measures and drug use among adolescents, with consistently strong findings for the SSS.     

MMPI adolescent norms: patterns and trends across 4 decades

This article examines central issues involving the accuracy of Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) adolescent norms through examination of findings from eight investigations (n = 17,286), reporting MMPI mean values for samples of normal adolescents conducted between 1949 and 1964, and four studies (n = 1,758), based on adolescent samples collected since 1975. Issues related to sex and racial differences in adolescent samples are also examined. In addition, MMPI data from 1,315 normal adolescents, collected at the Mayo Foundation, and from 217 normal adolescents, collected in Norfolk, Virginia, are evaluated in relation to adult normative values on the Harris-Lingoes (Harris & Lingoes, 1955) content subscales to identify unique characteristics of adolescents' response patterns. Results support the adequacy of the adolescent norms, developed by Marks, Seeman, and Haller (1974), for evaluation of samples of normal adolescents collected between 1947 and 1965. MMPI patterns, produced by contemporary samples of adolescents collected since 1975, are elevated above the Marks et al. norms on most clinical scales. This latter finding indicated the need for the development of new adolescent norms that more precisely reflect current adolescent response frequencies and patterns. Finally, results from Harris-Lingoes subscales are reviewed to highlight unique aspects of adolescent developmental experience and to underscore the necessity of development of age appropriate adolescent norms for MMPI special scales.