Do the sources of the urban elderly's social support determine its psychological consequences?

This article examines whether the psychological impact of different kinds of social supports varies according to who provides them. Data on 82 older adults' social relationships, measured as social provisions (Weiss, 1974), were used to evaluate whether the relationship between social provisions and emotional well-being varied when kin and, alternatively, nonkin, made the provisions. Findings showed that, although most social provisions were valuable regardless of their source, reassurance of worth was distinctly more beneficial when provided by nonkin than by kin, and reliable alliance, or instrumental assistance, was more strongly related to well-being when provided by kin than by nonkin. Analysis of social network structure showed that "multiplexity" was negatively related to well-being, and having duplicate providers for a given social provision was uniquely important in offsetting negative affect.     

Asymptotic clarifications,generalizations, and concerns regarding an extended class of matched pairs tests based on powers of ranks

Recent studies pertaining to an extended class of matched pairs tests based on powers of ranks are discussed. Previous questions regarding the asymptotic properties for this class of tests are clarified and a generalization of this class is described. This generalization raises a previously unanticipated concern about whether or not the analytic comparisons resulting from these tests correspond with an intuitive notion of what is being compared.     

Primary prevention of acculturative stress among refugees. Application of psychological theory and practice

Primary prevention in refugee mental health requires information from clinical, health, and cross-cultural psychology. Primary prevention's roots are in public health, which is distinguished by a communitywide perspective for addressing mental health concerns. This article summarizes research suggesting that refugees are an at-risk population, making them especially suitable for public health interventions. Research on stress and acculturation is highlighted, given its importance to prevention in refugee mental health. The opportunities for primary prevention programs and policies at 3 levels (i.e., local community, national, and international) are illustrated with case examples from both the United States and Canada. Prevention at the international level is highlighted by a World Health Organization Mental Health Mission to camps on the Thai-Cambodian border.     

Validation of a pictorial recall test in three visual formats.

This study describes the validation of a visual recall test which was constructed using three different levels of visual complexity, line drawing, monochrome photographic, and color photographic. For a sample of 111 college students, the test was significantly correlated (.42 and .92) with two recognized tests of visual memory.     

Implicit and explicit knowledge bases in artificial grammar learning.

Two experiments examined the claim for distinct implicit and explicit learning modes in the artificial grammar-learning task (Reber, 1967, 1989). Subjects initially attempted to memorize strings of letters generated by a finite-state grammar and then classified new grammatical and nongrammatical strings. Experiment 1 showed that subjects' assessment of isolated parts of strings was sufficient to account for their classification performance but that the rules elicited in free report were not sufficient. Experiment 2 showed that performing a concurrent random number generation task under different priorities interfered with free report and classification performance equally. Furthermore, giving different groups of subjects incidental or intentional learning instructions did not affect classification or free report.     

Auditory versus audio-visual intelligibility measurements of alaryngeal speech: a preliminary report.

This investigation supports the notion that audio-visual presentations of esophageal speech to 32 university student judges yield a relative increase in rated intelligibility in contrast with esophageal speech presented auditorily. Implications suggest that to construct realistic therapeutic goals of an esophageal speaker more effectively, the audio-visual component should be included in the clinical assessment.     

An extended class of matched pairs tests based on powers of ranks

A large class of rank tests, which includes the familiar sign test and the Wilcoxon signed-ranks test, is described and discussed. This class of distribution-free tests provides a flexible basis for testing research hypotheses of various forms. Exact small sample and approximate large sample procedures are considered. Applications of these procedures are presented, including simple numerical examples.The authors wish to acknowledge the constructive comments by the reviewers.     

MÜLLER-LYER SUSCEPTIBILITY CULTURE,ECOLOGY OR RACE1?

L'auteur évoque brièvement les trois lignes de recherches qui attribuent la cause de L'illusion de Müller-Lyer, respectivement à un facteur de différenciation perceptive, à un facteur écologique (milieu “charpenté” ou non), à un facteur de pigmentation rétinienne. Il examine quelle est la part de chacun de ces facteurs dans les résultats de 10 échantillons de sujets, qui varient selon la culture et L'écologie. C'est L'hypothèse de pigmentation rétinienne qui semble la mieux confirmée, la moins confirmée était L'hypothèse écologique et le rôle de la différenciation perceptive ne recevant aucune confirmation de culture en culture.     

Sex-role and innovative major choice among college students

This study examined the relationship between sex-role and nontraditional major choice. The sample included 693 male and female students enrolled in traditional and nontraditional majors. In addition to exploring this relationship the study had a methodological intent: Could scales derived from previous factor analyses of the Bem Sex-Role Inventory delineate this relationship as readily as the traditional Bem scoring method. Results indicate significant distributional patterns in sex-role and choice of major, which vary by sex. Men tend to choose male-dominated majors, regardless of sex-role. Patterns for females are more complex. The factored scales used in cross-validated discriminate analysis procedures did demonstrate some power to discriminate students in the two majors, suggesting certain implications for sex-role transcendence in vocational settings.