The relative autonomy of schools and educational interventions for substance abuse prevention, sex education, and gender stereotyping.

This paper evaluates intervention programs in schools using the theoretical framework of the critical sociology of education, and most specifically, the extent to which schools are autonomous from the larger society. Three different types of intervention programs are reviewed: drug abuse prevention, sex education, and programs to change gender stereotypes, all of which were found to have limited effectiveness. Schools appear unable to change behaviors which are prevalent in a culture because they themselves are strongly influenced by that culture, and because adolescents are influenced by forces outside school. To be effective, such interventions would seem to require governmental agencies, community groups, and the media to work with the schools in order to influence the culture and thus produce behavioral changes in individuals.     

Differences in school behavior and achievement between children from intact, reconstituted, and single-parent families.

Differences in school behavior and achievement between students from intact, reconstituted, and single-parent families were analyzed. Students from intact two-parent families had fewer absences and tardies, higher grade point averages, and fewer negative and more positive teacher behavioral ratings than did those from reconstituted and single-parent families.     

Individual differences in afterimage persistence: relationships to hypnotic susceptibility and visuospatial skills.

To investigate the moderating role of individual differences in hypnotic susceptibility and visuospatial skills on afterimage persistence, we presented a codable (cross) flash of light to 40 men and 46 women who had been dark adapted for 20 min. In an unrelated classroom setting, subjects had previously been given two standardized scales of hypnotic susceptibility (Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Shor & Orne, 1962; Group Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form C, Crawford & Allen, 1982) and the Mental Rotations Test (Vandenberg & Kuse, 1978). The first afterimage interval and the afterimage duration correlated significantly with hypnotic responsiveness, supporting Wallace (1979), but did not show the anticipated relationships with mental rotation visuospatial skills. Individuals in the high hypnotizable group had (a) significantly longer afterimage intervals between its first appearance and first disappearance than did those in medium or low groups, as well as (b) significantly longer afterimages between the first appearance and the final disappearance than did those in low groups, but those in medium groups did not differ significantly from the other groups. Discriminant analysis using the afterimage persistence measures classified correctly 65.2% of high hypnotizables, 37.5% of medium hypnotizables, and 54.8% of low hypnotizables. Hypothesized cognitive skills that assist in the maintenance of afterimages and underlie hypnotic susceptibility include abilities to maintain focused attention and resist distractions over time and to maintain vivid visual images.     

Psychoanalytic ecumenism and varieties of psychoanalytic experience.

Using the metaphor of ecumenism, the current status of psychoanalysis and the American Psychoanalytic Association is examined. The dialectical tendencies to oppose and to unify are noted in psychoanalytic theory, technique, and practice, as well as in the administrative and political life of our organization. Fostering tolerance for new hypotheses without sacrificing empirical discrimination, and promoting broad participation without lowering standards confront us as major tasks demanding continuing vigilance and effort.     

Neutrality, interpretation, and therapeutic intent.

Neutrality is a central concept within the theory of psychoanalytic technique. We spell out the major controversies in which the concept has become embroiled, and provide a definition that we believe coincides with actual psychoanalytic practice. We discuss its merits and weaknesses, noting also the negative consequences of relying on older definitions. We relate neutrality to the interpretive process, indicating ways interpretation protects neutrality and is made more effective by it. We discuss the complex and controversial relation between neutrality and the analyst's therapeutic intent.     

Selecting a best multiattribute alternative with partial information about attribute weights

Use of approximate weights would greatly simplify decision analysis under certainty since detailed weight elicitation could be avoided. This paper examines the degree to which rank order information about weights can be used to identify a best alternative, or falling uniqueness prescribes an easily implemented rule for selecting a ‘best’ alternative. The prescribed rule uses as weights the centroid of the feasible region defined by the rank order information. In conjunction with the rule, the value of the rank order information can be determined using an ‘expected gain from weight precision’ (EGWP) measure, analogous to ‘expected value of perfect information’ in decision analysis under uncertainty.     

Risk and behavior: The mediating role of risk appraisal

The main issue of this paper concerns the mediating role of risk appraisal in the relation between past and future behavior. We expected previous risky behavior to heighten risk appraisal, which, in turn, should stimulate preventive behavior. Results ofthree tests of this mediation hypothesis showed that past behavior was strongly related to future behavior; people who behaved hazardously in the past indicated that they tend to do so in the future. Generally, the expected relation between past behavior and risk appraisal was supported. More risky behavior in the past was associated with a heightened risk appraisal. Results also indicate a relation between risk appraisal and future behavior, but in the opposite direction as predicted. Heightened risk appraisal was related to increased levels of risk in future behavior. When predicting future behavior by both risk appraisal and past behavior the effect of risk appraisal on future behavior disappeared, while past behavior remained a strong predictor of future behavior. In a few cases risk appraisal still predicted future behavior when past behavior was controlled for. Unfortunately, these cases showed the opposite relation; i.e., heightened risk appraisal was related to more risky future behavior. Implications of these findings for research on the role of risk appraisal will be discussed.     

Smooth-pursuit eye movement dysfunction and liability for schizophrenia: implications for genetic modeling.

Forty-one nonpsychiatric subjects, 38 probands with schizophrenia, and 99 of their relatives were studied. Oculomotor functioning was bimodally distributed for probands and relatives. Oculomotor dysfunction was not present in all families with a schizophrenic proband. In those families in which it was present, there were significant phenotypic correlations between oculomotor functioning and schizophrenia-related characteristics. The patterns of familial resemblance in the families in whom oculomotor dysfunction was present were consistent with nonadditive genetic variance contributing both to oculomotor dysfunction and to the relationship between oculomotor dysfunction and clinical symptoms. These results suggest that schizophrenia may be etiologically heterogeneous and that oculomotor dysfunction may help to identify nonadditive genetic variance for this disorder.