Response to two presentations of the Sentence Completion Test of ego development

This was a study of the differences among individuals on their performance on oral and written versions of the Washington University Sentence Completion Test of ego development. The study included 192 subjects from three age groups: College age, community residents, and retired people. No oral versus written differences were found in scores. Gender was the only factor to exhibit a consistently significant effect on Sentence Completion Test score differences.     

Adolescent self-disclosure and loneliness: private self-consciousness and parental influences

Using structural equation techniques, we tested a theoretical model designed to describe the causal relations existing among loneliness, self-disclosure to peers and parents, and specific antecedent variables. Participants were 350 high-school students who answered questions concerning themselves and their interpersonal relationships. Results generally indicated a good fit between the theoretical model and the observed relations. In addition to replicating the findings of previous studies concerning the relation between self-disclosure and loneliness, results also indicated an indirect relation between private self-consciousness and loneliness via peer self-disclosure; that is, high private self-conscious adolescents' greater willingness to self-disclose to peers resulted in their feeling less lonely. Results are discussed in terms of current theory in related fields.     

Pessimistic self-preoccupation, performance deficits, and depression

Three studies are presented testing a model of the cognitive performance deficits shown in depression. The model proposes that such deficits occur as an interaction of expectancy and focus of attention variables, that is, in the presence of both low expectancy of success and high self-focus. Study 1 was a pilot study which documented that depressed undergraduates evidence poorer anagram performance, greater self-focus, and lower pretask expectancies than do nondepressed subjects. Study 2 showed that nondepressed undergraduates evidence performance deficits only when both expectancy is lowered and self-focus is increased. Study 3 suggested that depressed undergraduates' performance deficits are overcome either by lowering self-focus or by raising expectancy. Discussed are discrepancies between self-report and performance data, the relevance of these studies to the test anxiety literature, the need to integrate literature concerning the effects of depression, anxiety, and self-esteem on performance, and how the interactive roles of positive expectancy and focus of attention may be related to effective coping in a variety of situations.     

The growth of stability: postural control from a development perspective

This study compared central nervous system organizational processes underlying balance in children of three age groups: 15-31 months, 4-6 years, and 7-10 years, using a movable platform capable of antero-posterior (A-P) displacements or dorsi-plantar flexing rotations of the ankle joint. A servo system capable of linking platform rotations to A-P sway angle allowed disruption of ankle joint inputs, to test the effects of incongruent sensory inputs on response patterns. Surface electromyography was used to quantify latency and response patterns. Surface electromyography was used to quantify latency and amplitude of the gastrocnemius, hamstrings, tibialis anterior, and quadriceps muscle responses. Cinematography provided biomechanical analysis of the sway motion. Results demonstrated that while directionally specific response synergies are present in children under the age of six, structured organization of the synergies is not yet fully developed since variability in timing and amplitude relationships between proximal and distal muscles is high. Transition from immature to mature response patterns was not linear but stage-like with greatest variability in the 4- to 6- year-old children. Results from balance tests under altered sensory conditions (eyes closed and/or ankle joint inputs altered) suggested that: (a) with development a shift in controlling inputs to posture from visual dependence to more adult-like dependence on a combination of ankle joint and visual inputs occurred in the 4- to 6-year-old, and reached adult form in the 7- to 10-year-old age group. It is proposed that the age 4-6 is a transition period in the development of posture control. At this time the nervous system (a) uses visual-vestibular inputs to fine tune ankle-joint proprioception in preparation for its increased importance in posture control and (b) fine tunes the structural organization of the postural synergies themselves.     

Reflex responses of human lip muscles to mechanical stimulation during speech

The role played by reflex pathways in the production of movement has been a significant issue for motor control theorists interested in a wide variety of motor behaviors. From studies of locomotion and chewing, it appears that gains in reflex pathways can be altered so that activity in these pathways does not produce destabilizing responses during movement. In speech production, recent experimental evidence has been interpreted to suggest that autogenetic lip reflexes (perioral reflexes) are suppressed during sustained phonation or speech production. The present study was conducted to assess the effects of phonation, direction of movement, and ongoing speech production on reflex responses of lip muscles. The present results suggest, in contrast to earlier work, that this reflex pathway is not suppressed or absent because the amplitude of the observed response depends upon the activation levels of the various muscles of the lower lip and, therefore, indirectly on the nature of the gesture the subject is instructed to produce.     

Reaction time methods in the study of motor programming: the precuing of hand, digit, and duration

Recent reaction time analysis of motor programming has utilized a precue stimulus that provides advance information about some or all of the attributes for the upcoming motor response. This kind of precue typically confounds the number of remaining stimuli with the motoric processes under investigation (Zelaznik, 1978). In Experiments 1 and 2 the precuing of hand, digit, and duration of a key press response was manipulated. A new precuing procedure was utilized that does not confound the number of stimuli with the motoric processes under investigation. The findings of Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrate that none of the advance information was helpful in reducing reaction time and as such, suggest that these features of movement are not selected in any particular order. Experiment 3 compared this new method of precuing to the other, traditional method. The results of this experiment suggested that there is parallel processing of the perceptual and motor mental operations in this reaction-time task, since there was an underadditive interaction between the number of stimulus response alternatives and the non-precued movement dimensions. This paper highlights problems inherent in the utilization of precursing methods to understand motor programming processes. It appears that a better understanding about the variables involved in movement control is necessary before examining the order of selection of those variables.     

Gender differences in emotional development: A review of theories and research

Theories, data, methodological and conceptual problems concerning the study of gender differences in the development of defenses, emotional expression, recognition, and experiences are reviewed Data indicate gender differences in several areas of emotional functioning, including nonverbal sensitivity, expressiveness, self-reports of anger, fear, and sadness, the quality of defenses, and cognitive correlates of recognition abilities Studies suggest that with development, boys increasingly inhibit the expression and attribution of most emotions, whereas girls increasingly inhibit the expression and recognition of socially unacceptable emotions, e g, anger These differences may be a function of different socialization processes for males and females, which may be adaptations to innate gender differences in temperament, or adaptations to existing sociocultural pressures The present paper argues that emotions motivate and regulate adaptive behaviors, and that researchers must explore gender differences in emotional development as a function of different familial, sociocultural, and interpersonal roles to which males and females must adapt     

Personality variables and metabolic control in children with diabetes

Insulin-dependent diabetic children and a group of their nondiabetic peers were compared on measures of self-concept, locus of control and health locus of control. A metabolic measure of long term diabetes control was also obtained on the children with diabetes. Data analyses revealed that metabolic control was not related to any of the personality measures in the diabetic sample. Diabetic and non-diabetic children did not differ on measures of locus of control and self-concept, but diabetics exhibited a health locus of control which was significantly more internal than that of control subjects. A possible explanation for these results was discussed and practical implications for health care providers working with young diabetics were presented.