Laterality of cerebral function: relations with anxiety, repression, and perception

Based on two factor analyses of data from 67 right-handed undergraduates, a laterality quotient based on forward memory spans, spatial minus digit, divided by their sum, was devised. The hemispheric balance factor for which this quotient served as the principal marker had significant positive loadings by the laterality quotient for the Edinburgh Handedness Questionnaire and by a measure of repressive tendencies, the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. Scores from this factor were positively related to global as opposed to analytic perception as measured by the Navon tachistoscopic task. This factor was unrelated to the trait anxiety and working short-term memory factors which also emerged. Trait anxiety was negatively related to global perception. The results raise the possibility that greater degrees of right-handedness may be related to the release of the nondominant right hemisphere from inhibition and that working short-term memory may not be lateralized.     

Comparing the variances of dependent groups

Recently several new attempts have been made to find a robust method for comparing the variances ofJ dependent random variables. However, empirical studies have shown that all of these procedures can give unsatisfactory results. This paper examines several new procedures that are derived heuristically. One of these procedures was found to perform better than all of the robust procedures studied here, and so it is recommended for general use.The author would like to thank the reviewers for their very helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.     

Systemic strategies for dealing with problem children in institutional settings

Family therapy when a problem child enters residential treatment is complicated and treacherous because of the need to coordinate what may often be competing hierarchies (parental, residential, school). If the goal of residential treatment truly is one of deinstitutionalization, of reintegrating the child into his/her home, school, and community, the family therapist must see to it that the parental hierarchy is the primary one and that all institutional hierarchies are kept secondary. This paper presents, through a discussion of the forces that operate as institutionalization of children progresses and through case illustrations, a framework in which family therapy can be conducted within a residential treatment setting.The author expresses appreciation to Barbara DiCocco, MSW, Phyllis Stern, MA, John Rhead, PhD, and Karen Meckler, MD, for their helpful comments on the initial draft of this article and to Linda McClure, MSW, and Larry McAvoy for their administrative support.     

Personality similarity in twins reared apart and together

We administered the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) to 217 monozygotic and 114 dizygotic reared-together adult twin pairs and 44 monozygotic and 27 dizygotic reared-apart adult twin pairs. A four-parameter biometric model (incorporating genetic, additive versus nonadditive, shared family-environment, and unshared environment components) and five reduced models were fitted through maximum-likelihood techniques to data obtained with the 11 primary MPQ scales and its 3 higher order scales. Solely environmental models did not fit any of the scales. Although the other reduced models, including the simple additive model, did fit many of the scales, only the full model provided a satisfactory fit for all scales. Heritabilities estimated by the full model ranged from .39 to .58. Consistent with previous reports, but contrary to widely held beliefs, the overall contribution of a common family-environment component was small and negligible for all but 2 of the 14 personality measures. Evidence of significant nonadditive genetic effects, possibly emergenic (epistatic) in nature, was obtained for 3 of the measures.     

Mediating effects of family social support on child psychological adjustment in juvenile rheumatoid arthritis

This study assessed the mediating effects of social support on psychological adjustment in children having to cope with the ongoing chronic strain of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Disease activity, family social support, and peer social support were entered into hierarchical multiple regression analyses to statistically predict internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. Family social support was a statistically significant predictor of child psychological adjustment for both internalizing and externalizing behavior problems, accounting for 22% of the variance in each. These findings are consistent with the stress-social support-psychological adjustment relationship that has received empirical attention in studies on physically healthy children. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for primary and secondary prevention efforts for those chronically ill and handicapped children who are at increased risk for psychological adjustment problems.     

Explaining the Social and Psychological Impacts of a Nuclear Power Plant Accident1

This research investigates the antecedents of psychosocial impacts of the TMI nuclear power plant accident. A model of factors that are hypothesized to affect impact levels is developed and configured to approximate a hypothetical causal sequence. Using data from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission telephone survey, the technique of path analysis is used to test relationships in the model. The results show that the antecedents explain 12% of the variance in individual stress, 45% of the variance in family disruption, and 16% of the variance in perceived community change. The analysis shows that the TMI specific attitudes and sensitivity to radiation risks are strong antecedents of impacts. Although general attitudes toward nuclear power have minor indirect effects, it appears that situational experiences with the accident are the major contributors toward explaining impact levels.     

The relationship of temperament to tolerance of cold and heat: Beyond “cold hands — Warm heart”

Thermal regulation and peripheral arousal in episodes of emotion are dependent upon similar autonomic and hormonal processes. Thermal-tolerance measure were developed and validated in order to indirectly assess adrenergic (cold tolerance) and cholinergic (heat tolerance) responsivity. We hypothesized that cold tolerance would correlate with reduced emotionality (largely fear and anxiety) and depression, and with increased stimulus seeking and dispositions toward activity; those hypotheses were confirmed. Tentatively advanced hypotheses that heat tolerance would correlate with reduced depression and related emotional states were not confirmed, but heat tolerance was positively associated with activity and (weakly) with some of the same dimensions of temperament that correlated with cold tolerance. Concepts of synergistic rather than oppositional relationships of adrenergic and cholinergic systems are discussed. The roles of autonomic strength and responsitivity in positive temperament dispositions and in coping with stress and challenge are discussed, and a theoretical system is sketched that is derived from these and related findings.We are grateful to Doris Weimer for assistance in the statistical analyses.     

A one-way random effects model for trimmed means

The random effects ANOVA model plays an important role in many psychological studies, but the usual model suffers from at least two serious problems. The first is that even under normality, violating the assumption of equal variances can have serious consequences in terms of Type I errors or significance levels, and it can affect power as well. The second and perhaps more serious concern is that even slight departures from normality can result in a substantial loss of power when testing hypotheses. Jeyaratnam and Othman (1985) proposed a method for handling unequal variances, under the assumption of normality, but no results were given on how their procedure performs when distributions are nonnormal. A secondary goal in this paper is to address this issue via simulations. As will be seen, problems arise with both Type I errors and power. Another secondary goal is to provide new simulation results on the Rust-Fligner modification of the Kruskal-Wallis test. The primary goal is to propose a generalization of the usual random effects model based on trimmed means. The resulting test of no differences among J randomly sampled groups has certain advantages in terms of Type I errors, and it can yield substantial gains in power when distributions have heavy tails and outliers. This last feature is very important in applied work because recent investigations indicate that heavy-tailed distributions are common. Included is a suggestion for a heteroscedastic Winsorized analog of the usual intraclass correlation coefficient.     

Influences of stress and situation-specific mastery beliefs and satisfaction with social support on well-being and academic performance.

The present study examined the effects of stress and cumulative situation-specific mastery beliefs and satisfaction with social support on somatic and psychological symptomatology and academic performance of 146 college men. Stress was directly related to increased symptomatology and decreased grade point average, whereas mastery beliefs were directly associated with reduced depression and anxiety. Satisfaction with social support was related to anxiety through an interaction with mastery. Neither mastery nor satisfaction with support appeared to act as a stress-buffer through a statistical interaction with stress to moderate effects of high stress. However, earlier analysis of some of the same data showed that total stress, the best predictor of each outcome in this study, was reduced by the combination of strong situation-specific mastery beliefs and high satisfaction with support for subjects who faced many stressors. The combined findings show that situation-specific mastery beliefs reduced appraisal of stress and were associated with better psychological adjustment.     

Rational-emotive therapy and religiousness: A review

Rational-emotive therapy has often been scrutinized and rejected by religious clinicians. Incompatibilities are frequently cited between rational-emotive psychology and theistic religious philisophies. Religious authors have been most notably oppossed to Ellis' ethical humanism, situational ethics and personal atheism. A review of these criticisms offers no evidence for a fundamental incompatibility between RET and religious faith. Several arguments exist for the application of cognitive-behavior therapy (RET in particular) to explicitly religious clients. The sparse empirical literature suggests that RET is effective with religious clients.W. Brad Johnson, M.A., is a doctoral student in clinical psychology at the Graduate School of Psychology, Fuller Theological Seminary. A commissioned Lieutenant in the United States Navy, he is currently an intern at the National Naval Medical Center.The author wishes to express thanks to Raymond N. Sampson, Albert Ellis, Charles R. Ridley and Siang-Yang Tan for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Navy, Department of Defense nor the U.S. Government.