Stress,coping, HIV status,psychosocial resources,and depressive mood in African American gay,bisexual, and heterosexual men

The associations between stress, physical health, psychosocial resources, coping, and depressive mood were examined in a community sample of African American gay, bisexual, and heterosexual men (N=139). Data were collected from physical exams and in-person interviews. In our theoretical framework, depressive mood scores were regressed first on stressors, next on psychosocial resources, and finally on coping strategy variables. Results revealed that psychosocial resources mediate the effects of stressors, including health symptoms, hassles, and life events, on depressive mood. There were no significant differences in depressive mood associated with HIV status or sexual orientation. Results are discussed in terms of community interventions needed to provide social support as a buffer between stress and psychological distress in African American men. The research was completed at the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, University of California at San Francisco and was supported in part by National Institute of Mental Health Grants MH44045 and MH42459. The authors express their appreciation to the participants in this study.     

Increasing achievement motivation and work productivity in a chronic psychiatric population

The major goal of this study was to determine if social reinforcement for behavior in a simulated work activity would increase achievement motivation, work interest, and simulated work activity production. Forty-five chronic psychiatric patients were randomly assigned to one of three groups: work sample with praise, work sample without praise, and a no-treatment control group. A 3 (between) × 2 (within) analysis of variance was run for each dependent measure, that is, achievement imagery, work interests, and simulated work production. The main effect for the interaction between trials and treatment was significant on each dependent measure. Follow-up Duncan Multiple Range Tests indicated that the praise group showed a significant improvement on each dependent measure, pre to post, as well as significantly greater improvement than the no-treatment control group and/or the work sample without praise group. These results are discussed in terms of the procedure used as a method for increasing motivation and in terms of possible generalization of results to other treatment situations.     

Issues concerning collaborating careers

Male and female college students responded to stories about married physicians whose total income was greatest, respectively, when (1) the husband cared for the children, (2) the wife cared for the children, (3) either spouse cared for them, (4) the wife earned more than the husband, or (5) the husband earned more than the wife. A strong bias in favor of maternal child care was found in situations (2) and (3), while in situation (1) a majority of females favored paternal child care and males chose father and mother about equally. No aversion to the wife's earning more than the husband was found. The results were discussed in terms of their relevance to collaborating careers.     

Change in college students' attitude toward child-bearing from 1971 to 1973

Summary: Two samples of college students, one obtained in 1971 and one in 1973, were asked to draw a picture of a happily married couple. Some subjects were asked to draw the couple after two years of marriage and some after five years of marriage. The pictures were scored for the presence or absence of children as an estimate of the attitude that children are necessary for a happy marriage. A large decrease in the "presence of children" from the 1971 to 1973 sample was interpreted as indicating that fewer college students now accept the notion that children are necessary for marital happiness.     

Card pull in projective testing

Card pull, the tendency of the test stimuli to evoke or predispose certain cognitive and affective responses in the subject, is essential to the understanding and practice of projective testing. The basic instruction in projective testing employs the subjunctive mood to catalyze the dialectic between actuality and potentiality inherent in the projective stimulus. The subject is encouraged to play with the stimulus, to modify fact, to forsake the literal and the concrete, and to toy with the reality-stuff of the stimulus. Various conceptions of projective stimuli are reviewed and considered nondefinitive of projective testing. Projective testing is tentatively defined as a state of mind, a temporary but adaptive collusion shared between tester and subject which involves the former inviting the latter to modify a sample of reality.     

Cognitive style and literary regression A study of student writers1

Forty undergraduates, from either beginning or advanced writing classes, and classified as either abstract or concrete thinkers from responses to the “This I Believe” test, provided two works of prose fiction, which were coded for the use of regression techniques. As predicted, abstract thinkers with advanced training were most likely to employ regression. The relations among abstract cognitive style, creative writing training, and literary regression are discussed.     

SOME DETERMINANTS OF THE REINFORCING AND PUNISHING EFFECTS OF TIMEOUT1

Some determinants of the reinforcing and punishing properties of timeout were investigated in two experiments. Experiment I began as an attempt to reduce the frequency of tantrums in a 6-yr-old autistic girl by using timeout. Unexpectedly, the result was a substantial increase in the frequency of tantrums. Using a reversal design, subsequent manipulations showed that the opportunity to engage in self-stimulatory behavior during the timeout period was largely responsible for the increase in tantrums. Experiment II was initiated following the failure of timeout to reduce the spitting and self-injurious behavior of a 16-yr-old retarded boy. Using a multiple-baseline design, the nature of the timein environment was shown to be an important determinant of the effects of timeout. When the timein environment was “enriched”, timeout was effective as a punisher. A conception of timeout in terms of the relative reinforcing properties of timein and timeout and their clinical implications are discussed.