Biological background knowledge and learning from a drug and alcohol education program

The authors asked whether having a base of relevant biological knowledge put school children in a better position to understand the effects of alcohol and cocaine and to learn about these effects when exposed to a curriculum presenting a physiological theory of drug action. Participants were 337 ethnically diverse 3rd- through 6th-grade students who were pretested, trained, and posttested. Multiple regression analyses revealed that knowledge of the basic functions of the heart, blood, and brain predicted certain drug-knowledge variables. Students with greater biological background knowledge also learned more from instruction, a finding with implications for enhancing drug and other health education programs.     

Zeroing in on the dark side of the American Dream: a closer look at the negative consequences of the goal for financial success

Recent research has demonstrated that aspiring to the American Dream of financial success has negative consequences for various aspects of psychological well-being. The present longitudinal study examining the relation between the goal for financial success, attainment of that goal, and satisfaction with various life domains found that the negative impact of the goal for financial success on overall life satisfaction diminished as household income increased. The negative consequences of the goal for financial success seemed to be limited to those specific life domains that either concerned relationships with other people or involved income-producing activities, such as one's job; satisfactions with two of those life domains, however, were among the strongest predictors of overall life satisfaction in this sample of well-educated respondents in their late 30s. The negative consequences were particularly severe for the domain of family life; the stronger the goal for financial success, the lower the satisfaction with family life, regardless of household income.     

Analogy with knowledgeable learners: When analogy confers benefits and exacts costs

Though embedding analogy in a text can improve acquisition of concepts that are relatively unfamiliar to learners (Donnelly & McDaniel, 1993), it remains uncertain how analogy influences learning for learners with some background knowledge for the target material. We develop several theoretical possibilities and report an experiment to test these possibilities. Target concepts familiar to college students were expressed either in literal form or through analogy, and the concepts were presented in a manner that either facilitated or discouraged contact with subjects’ prior knowledge. As revealed by multiple-choice testing, analogy facilitated learning when the targets were presented to discourage contact with prior knowledge. In contrast, analogy decreased performance when the same targets were presented to facilitate contact with prior knowledge. Possible interpretations of this unique finding are discussed.     

The sanctity of life: The role of purity in attitudes towards abortion and euthanasia

Although abortion and euthanasia are highly contested issues at the heart of the culture war, the moral foundations underlying ideological differences on these issues are mostly unknown. Given that much of the extant debate is framed around the sanctity of life, we argued that the moral foundation of purity/sanctity—a core moral belief that emphasises adherence to the “natural order”—would mediate the negative relationship between conservatism and support for abortion and euthanasia. As hypothesised, results from a nation-wide random sample of adults in New Zealand (N = 3360) revealed that purity/sanctity mediated the relationship between conservatism and opposition to both policies. These results demonstrate that, rather than being motivated by a desire to reduce harm, conservative opposition to pro-choice and end-of-life decisions is (partly) based on the view that ending a life, even if it is one's own, violates God's natural design and, thus, stains one's spiritual purity.     

Just Say No: Japanese and American Styles of Refusing Unwanted Sexual Advances1

To determine whether cultural and gender differences in directness of communication are reflected in styles of refusing unwanted sexual advances, we surveyed American college students and Japanese international college students about direct and indirect ways of saying “no” in dating relationships. While both American and Japanese students said they would rather use indirect refusal tactics than direct ones, Americans rated direct strategies as more likely to be effective than did Japanese participants. Further, American students interpreted direct strategies as clearer refusals than indirect strategies, whereas Japanese respondents did not make this distinction. Men and women responded similarly in both cultural groups, so the findings point primarily to possible cultural differences in the meaning of direct refusals of sexual advances.     

A Two-Year Longitudinal Study of Neuropsychological and Cognitive Performance in Relation to Behavioral Problems and Competencies in Elementary School Children

Despite interest in early neuropsychological status as a possible contributor to children's behavioral development, prospective longitudinal investigations of neuropsychological measures in relation to later behavioral outcomes in childhood are few. A 2-year longitudinal study in a nonselected childhood sample is reported. The study tested the influence of early neuropsychological performance (verbal fluency, mental inhibitory control, and visual spatial ability) on later childhood behavioral problems and social competency. Regular education children (n = 235) were assessed at three time points 1 year apart. To control for autocorrelation of outcome measures, Time 1 behavior was partialed while testing the effects of Time 1 neuropsychological scores on Time 3 outcome. To control for autocorrelation of neuropsychological scores, Time 2 scores were partialed while testing the predictive effect of Time 1 scores on Time 3 outcome. Both sets of regression models suggested modest but statistically significant effects for inhibitory control and verbal fluency, but not IQ, reading, or visual spatial ability, on behavioral outcome. Study results are consistent with a modest causal effect of selected neuropsychological skills on later behavioral adjustment. The findings support theories that implicate subtle neuropsychological dysfunction in the development of behavioral problems in childhood.     

On the relevance of locus equations for production and perception of stop consonants

We examined the possible relevance of locus equations to human production and perception of stop consonants. The orderly output constraint (OOC) of Sussman, Frachter, and Cable (1995) claims that humans have evolved to produce speech such thatF2 at consonant release andF2 at vowel midpoint are linearly related for consonants so that developing perceptual systems can form representations in anF2 _ons-by-F2 _vowel space. The theory claims that this relationship described by locus equations can distinguish consonants, and that the linearity of locus equations is captured in neural representations and is thus perceptually relevant. We investigated these claims by testing how closely locus equations reflect the production and perception of stop consonants. In Experiment 1, we induced speakers to change their locus equation slope and intercept parameters systematically, but found that consonants remained distinctive in slope-by-intercept space. In Experiment 2, we presented stop-consonant syllables with their bursts removed to listeners, and compared their classification error matrices with the predictions of a model using locus equation prototypes and with those of an exemplar-based model that usesF2 _ons andF2 _vowel, but not locus equations. Both models failed to account for a large proportion of the variance in listeners’ responses; the locus equation model was no better in its predictions than the exemplar model. These findings are discussed in the context of the OOC.     

An Investigation of Client and Counselor Variables That Influence Likelihood of Counselor Self-Disclosure

Selected client and counselor variables affecting reported likelihood of self-disclosure by 120 experienced clinicians in relation to four scenarios were examined. Variables included client age and diagnosis and counselor gender, experience, and exposure to disclosing counselors in their own experience of counseling. Disclosure likelihood was greatest for high ego-strength diagnoses and for respondents who reported positive disclosures from counselors in their own counseling experiences. Reasons for and against using self-disclosure also were examined. Reasons for disclosing included promoting universality, giving encouragement, modeling, rapport-building, and offering alternatives. Reasons against disclosing included boundary blurring, concern about counselor welfare, merging, and premature closure. Implications for practice and research are discussed.     

Dressing for success: Effects of color and layering on perceptions of women in business

This study examines the effect on perceived competence of colors and layers in traditional business attire. Forty-five St. Ambrose College Master's in Business Administration program students (11 female, 34 male) judged eight artist's sketches of prospective job applicants varying in sex, color of suit worn (red or blue) and presence or absence of a jacket (layering). Analysis of variance results confirmed hypotheses that a person wearing blue or a jacket was perceived as more competent and properly dressed than a person wearing red or no jacket. Furthermore, these variables had more impact on the perception of male targets than of female targets. Finally, although males with blue jackets were rated most highly, female targets were rated more favorably than males overall. Apparently, while only a particular style of dress is considered suitable for men, a specific business uniform does not yet seem to have fully emerged for women. What has emerged as suitable dress for women seems to be to merely adopt, to some extent, traditional male attire.We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Carolyn Pillers and Michael Jerin for their help in data analysis and Rachel Chouteau for the preparation of artistic materials.