Sex role perceptions and social anxiety in opposite-sex and same-sex situations

The relationship between perceived sex role characteristics and self-rated anxiety and self-efficacy in both opposite-sex and same-sex interactions was evaluated. Forty-five male and 45 female undergraduates were administered the Bem Sex Role Inventory, and male or female versions of the Survey of Heterosexual Interactions, the Interpersonal Interaction Survey, and a Same Sex Interaction Inventory developed for the study. For both male and female subjects, reported discomfort in both opposite-sex and same-sex situations was significantly negatively related to masculinity, and unrelated to femininity. Congruently, self-efficacy ratings were positively related to masculinity and unrelated to femininity. Androgynous and masculine subjects did not differ in reported social discomfort or self-efficacy in either type of situation. These results suggest that social difficulties are associated with a deficit in some of the characteristics associated with the masculine sex role and add to a growing body of literature finding that only masculinity is associated with mental health and adjustment. Ratings in opposite-sex and in same-sex situations were strongly correlated with each other for both male and female subjects, suggesting that dating anxiety may be part of a broader pattern of social difficulty for both men and women.This report is based on part of a doctoral dissertation submitted by the author to the State University of New York at Stony Brook. The author gratefully acknowledges the contributions of the members of the dissertation committee: Marvin Goldfried, Ruth Hamill, Marcia Johnson, and John M. Neale, and the assistance of Cory Newman and Mike Peters in data collection.     

Redintegration and the benefits of long-term knowledge in verbal short-term memory: an evaluation of Schweickert's (1993) multinomial processing tree model

The impact of four long-term knowledge variables on serial recall accuracy was investigated. Serial recall was tested for high and low frequency words and high and low phonotactic frequency nonwords in 2 groups: monolingual English speakers and French-English bilinguals. For both groups the recall advantage for words over nonwords reflected more fully correct recalls with fewer recall attempts that consisted of fragments of the target memory items (one or two of the three target phonemes recalled correctly); completely incorrect recalls were equivalent for the 2 list types. However, word frequency (for both groups), nonword phonotactic frequency (for the monolingual group), and language familiarity all influenced the proportions of completely incorrect recalls that were made. These results are not consistent with the view that long-term knowledge influences on immediate recall accuracy can be exclusively attributed to a redintegration process of the type specified in multinomial processing tree model of immediate recall. The finding of a differential influence on completely incorrect recalls of these four long-term knowledge variables suggests instead that the beneficial effects of long-term knowledge on short-term recall accuracy are mediated by more than one mechanism.     

Social-cognitive processing and depressive symptoms in children: A comparison of measures

We assessed aspects of the reliability and validity of three measures of socialcognitive processing in children that have been developed to investigate the relations of such processes to childhood depression: the Children's Attributional Style Questionnaire (CASQ), the Children's Negative Cognitive Error Questionnaire (CNCEQ), and the Common Beliefs Inventory for Students (CBIS). In an unselected sample of 61 children, aged 8 to 12, the internal consistencies of the total scores on the CNCEQ and the CBIS were good; for the CASQ, it was only moderate. Internal consistencies of all subscale scores were inadequate. Despite this, several subscale and total scores were significantly associated with depressive symptoms, and the measures were generally correlated with each other. Although these data are encouraging concerning the role of social-cognitive processing in childhood depression, the field needs to develop psychometrically stronger measures and to test the role of social cognition in prospective studies of depression.This study was supported in part by a grant from the Spencer Foundation Awards to Young Scholars Program to the first author. The authors would like to express their thanks to Deborah Long for secretarial assistance, and to W. Edward Craighead, John Curry, and two anonymous reviewers for comments on an earlier draft of this article.     

The Awareness of Consequences Scale: An Exploration,Empirical Analysis,and Reinterpretation

The value–belief–norm model assumes that egoistic, social‐altruistic, and biospheric value orientations causally influence how people cognitively structure beliefs regarding adverse environmental consequences. Empirical studies have administered the Awareness of Consequences (AC) scale to differentiate between these 3 orientations. We report an analysis that challenges previous work in the field. Evidence is presented that indicates the AC scale should be reinterpreted as a measure of beliefs supporting environmental action and beliefs supporting environmental inaction. The beliefs supporting environmental action appear to be differentiable according to beliefs in the positive consequences from environmental protection and the seriousness of environment harm. This has major implications for the value–belief–norm model and its application.     

Is the Bible Becoming a Closed Book? British Opinion Poll Evidence

Opinion poll data from 123 national sample surveys of the adult general population and 35 national and local sample surveys of adult religious populations are used to study changes in the status and influence of the Bible in Britain since the Second World War. The principal measures of ‘Bible-centricism’ comprise Bible ownership, readership, knowledge, literalism, beliefs, and attitudes. The analysis proceeds both at top-line level and by breaks for gender, age, social class, religious denomination, and churchgoing. Twelve broad conclusions are drawn, with declining allegiance to the Bible visible on various fronts, even among regular churchgoers. In an everyday sense, one interpretation could be that Christianity is becoming de-coupled from the holy book on which it is founded. This process, mirroring declines in other religious indicators, is attributed to the waning influence of three principal agencies of religious socialisation (church/Sunday school, state school, parents) which formerly underpinned the Bible’s role in faith and society.     

Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS): Preliminary Australian normative data

The aim of the present study was to establish demographically adjusted normative data for the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) in an Australian context. RBANS data from 172 healthy Australian community dwelling adults enrolled in the “Using our Brains” (UoB) Brain Tissue Donor program between April 2002 and September 2005 were included in this study. The present study group differed from the original North American normative sample on all 12 subtests and five RBANS indices. Education and to a lesser degree age were related to RBANS performance. The present study provides complementary RBANS normative data for clinicians and researchers when interpreting RBANS results for Australian individuals closely matching those reported in this study.