Gender Differences in Preschoolers' and Kindergartners' Artistic Production and Preference

There are striking differences between boys' andgirls' art during the elementary school years, but it isunknown whether such artistic gender differences emergeearlier in childhood. We tested 20 preschoolers (12 boys, 8 girls) and 29 kindergartners (15boys, 14 girls), most White and middle-class, on threetasks to assess gender-stereotypicality in theirdrawings and preferences for pictures. As predicted, in a production task, boys and girls drewgender stereotypical pictures, though neither group wasextremely stereotypical. Interestingly, evenpre-representational preschoolers' scribbles were ratedas gender-stereotypical, despite the absence ofidentifiable thematic content. In a second task,children chose coloring-book sheets, previously ratedfor gender-stereotypicality, which they expected tocolor. Boys chose masculine and girls chose femininesheets. In a third task, boys and girls preferredgender-stereotypical pictures and were similar in howstrongly stereotypic their choices were. The tasksdemonstrate that gender differences in artistic productionand preference emerge in the preschool years, earlierthan previously reported. Beneficial future work wouldaddress relations between children's artistic production and preference and their genderschema flexibility and socializationexperiences.     

Informant-Based Determinants of Symptom Attenuation in Structured Child Psychiatric Interviews

Informant-related determinants of item attenuation, that is, the drop-off in symptom endorsement rates at retest, were examined in an enriched community subsample of 245 parent–child pairs drawn from the National Institute of Mental Health Methods for Epidemiology of Child and Adolescent Mental Disorders Study. Youngsters and their parents were interviewed with the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (Version 2.3; DISC-2.3) on two occasions with a mean test–retest interval of 12 days. Item attenuation rates were high for both informants, with adults failing to confirm 42% and children 58% of baseline responses at retest. Stepwise regressions revealed that item attenuation at DISC-P retest was higher for adult informants who were younger, and who reported on older and less impaired children. On the DISC-C, attenuation was higher for children who were less impaired, rated as doing worse in school, and who had a longer test–retest interval. These results are broadly consistent with past studies examining the determinants of attenuation and test–retest reliability and have implications for the design and use of structured diagnostic instruments.     

The intersecting-overlapping self: Contemporary psychoanalysis reconsiders religion—Again

Heinz Kohut's psychoanalytic psychology of the self advances a distinctive interpretation of human nature that has significant implications for the study of religion. It presents a gestalt through which data otherwise not seen may be observed, and known data may be observed from a new angle of vision. To illumine particular features of this distinctive gestalt, as well as how and why it evolved, the discussion turns to the context within which all psychoanalytic theorizing emerges: the clinical situation. A clinical vignette is presented. An interpretation of the vignette from a classical psychoanalytic perspective exposes how Freudian categories, and our colloquial language, mistakenly collapse all data to fit within the boundaries of a subject-object model. Certain clinical data contribute to the formulation of a selfobject model, re-presented in terms of the root metaphor intersecting-overlapping self. Methodological, orientational, and normative implications of the selfobject model for the study of religion are presented.     

Managing data entry of a large-scale interview project with optical scanning hardware and software

A hardware and software system for the cost-effective preparation of interview data is described. Scantron optical scanning hardware and DataBlocks software were used to prepare ASCII data files from structured interviews and questionnaires. These data were then edited for analysis with SPSS-X Data Entry software. Three different processes for preparing interview data were compared. Time, personnel, hardware, and software costs were projected for each process, as well as comparative risks to the integrity of data. A scanning procedure saves time and money, and it reduces the risk of errors.     

EFFECTS OF SELF-MANAGEMENT TRAINING AND REINFORCEMENT ON THE TRANSFER OF IMPROVED CONDUCT IN THE ABSENCE OF SUPERVISION

The instruction, maintenance, and transfer of training of social skills of 3 seriously emotionally disturbed adolescents were accomplished by a self-management training and reinforcement package. During baseline sessions these students, who were covertly filmed in their classroom, averaged over 90% off-task or socially inappropriate behavior while their teacher was out of the room. They showed similar behaviors when walking between classes, unattended by their teacher. Treatment was introduced in the classroom and consisted of social skills and self-management training and reinforcement. Treatment procedures included instruction, modeling, and role playing of social skills, as well as self-assessment, self-recording, and self-reinforcement for correct approximations of these skills. After 5 weeks of training, all subjects demonstrated substantial improvements in the classroom during the teacher's absence and when distracted by other students; however, transfer of social skills did not occur to the between-class setting until students were given explicit instruction to initiate self-managing procedures in this setting.     

Processing level and recognition: A search method for inducing alternative encodings of unrelated words

Twenty-four subjects viewed cards containing four words. In synonym orienting, half of the cards contained a synonym pair and half did not; in homophone orienting, half of the displays contained a homophone pair. The remaining two words in each display were used to index retention. During presentation of displays, subjects responded “yes” or “no” to indicate the presence or absence of a matching pair. Following presentation, a recognition test was administered. Half the items were tested early and half were tested late; within each test order, half the items appeared with context cues during testing and half appeared without. Results showed superior recognition (1) following semantic orienting, (2) for items tested early, (3) for items tested with context, and (4) for nonmatch displays requiring exhaustive item comparison. An Orienting by Test Cuing interaction showed that the presence of test cues improved recognition for homophone orienting items only. The interaction may have resulted from the lack of cuetarget associations and the reinstatement of the phonemic orienting set during the test.     

Short-term memory models for choice behavior

In this paper we consider the effect of imposing memory restrictions on the accumulator and random-walk models of choice behavior outlined by Audley (Psychological Review, 1960, 67, 1–15). Specifically, it is assumed that subjects apply criteria to the numbers of impulses received, and that if the criteria are not satisfied by the time w impulses have been received, then thereafter the criteria are only applied to w impulses, which could, for example, be the last w impulses received. Exact and approximate mathematical approaches and simulation techniques are presented in detail. The results obtained demonstrate that both the restricted accumulator and the restricted random-walk models can make qualitative predictions in line with much recent data.     

When unexpected behavior is attributed to the environment

Two experiments were conducted to investigate a modification of the Jones and Davis (1965) analysis of attribution. Subjects were confronted with a situation in which there were two possible causes for an event, and differential information about these causes was provided such that subjects were much more informed about the nature of one potential cause than the other. This information also imparted to the subjects a definite expectancy about the forthcoming event. When the event disconfirmed subjects' expectancies, responsibility was attributed to the cause about which least was known. This result was found in both experiments. In addition, Experiment II offered some suggestive evidence that a disconfirmed expectancy will lead the person to direct his attention toward potential causes about which he is uninformed.