Adolescent religiousness as a protective factor against pornography use

This study examined mediators of relations between adolescent religiousness and pornography use. The sample consisted of 419 adolescents (ages 15–18 years; M age = 15.68, SD = 0.98; 56% male). It was hypothesized that religiousness (religious internalization and involvement) would protect adolescents from pornography use (accidental and intentional viewing) by increasing self-regulation, conservative attitudes towards pornography, and social control against pornography. Path analyses revealed religious internalization and involvement were indirectly linked to intentional viewing through all three mediators. For accidental viewing, the only indirect effects were from religious internalization through self-regulation and social control, and from religious involvement through social control. Thus, religiousness may protect adolescents from intentional and accidental exposure to pornography.     

Predicting workplace victim status from personality

This study examined the extent that workplace victim status can be predicted from personality traits. The sample comprised 60 victims and a control group of 60 non-bullied work colleagues, matched on a number of organizational and personal criteria, from two large organizations (one public, one private) in Eire. Both groups completed a semi-structured interview and the ICES Personality Inventory (Bartram, 1994, 1998). Significant differences emerged between victims and nonvictims on all major ICES scales. Victims tended to be less independent and extroverted, less stable, and more conscientious than non-victims. From the development of a weighted composite personality profile, results illustrated that ICES personality traits strongly predicted victim status. The findings suggest that, using a five-factor framework, personality traits may give an indication of those in an organization most likely to be bullied and an indication as to why these individuals become victims.     

Lessons in conflict of interest: the construction of the martyrdom of David Healy and the dilemma of bioethics

Bioethics journals have lagged behind medical and science journals in exploring the threat of conflict of interest (COI) to the integrity of publications. Some recent discussions of COI that have occurred in the bioethics literature are reviewed. Discussions of what has been termed the "Healy affair" unintentionally demonstrate that the direct and indirect influence of undisclosed COI may come from those who call for protection from the undue influence of industry. Paradoxically, the nature and tone of current discussions may serve to dull sensitivities to what is indeed a serious set of issues facing bioethics. Some proposals are presented to address COI and other challenges to the integrity of bioethics and its journals. COI is too important a topic to be left to ideologues, and there is no substitute for readers' caution and skepticism as tools in dealing with the full range of biases that exist in published papers.     

Relation of intelligence to ego functioning in an adult psychiatric population

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) IQs and clinical ratings of 10 ego functions in a diagnostically heterogeneous sample of 60 adult psychiatric inpatients were correlated. With severity of pathology statistically controlled, higher intelligence was associated with more adequate ego functioning in several spheres: primary autonomous functions, thought processes, object relations, and mastery-competence. There were also some clinically meaningful differences between the Verbal and Performance IQs in the pattern of correlations. Extending Hartmann's original views, the authors employ an ethological framework to conceptualize intelligence in relation to the ego's role in adaptation, emphasizing that intelligence is an important-albeit neglected-aspect of ego functioning.     

The effect of therapist interventions on the therapeutic alliance with borderline patients

The authors draw attention to the problems of establishing and maintaining a therapeutic alliance in the psychotherapy of the borderline patient. They elaborate an extensive methodology designed to study the manner in which shifts in collaboration occur in response to therapist interventions. This report demonstrates how one particular borderline patient increased his ability to collaborate with the therapist in response to a transference focus in the psychotherapy. Methodological problems are noted as are directions for future research. Only a series of patients studied with this or with similar methodology will allow for a sophisticated and empirical rationale for choosing a particular form of psychotherapy for a particular kind of borderline patient.     

Personality and Health in the 1980s: Psychosomatic Medicine Revisited?

This special issue is a sign of a resurgence of interest in the role of personality in health not seen since the 1940s and early 1950s when the promises of the psychosomatic approach to health and illness appeared to be the greatest. This new look at personality and health represented by contributions to this special issue attempts to address the limitations of earlier work in psychosomatic medicine by making more explicit efforts to define personality variables precisely, to distinguish these variables from conceptually related psychological constructs, and to embed them in a body of theory and empirical research. This new work also attempts to remedy methodological limitations of earlier work by placing greater emphasis on prospective research and highlighting distinctions between symptom reports, illness behavior, and actual illness. However, the new work and earlier work in psychosomatic medicine share certain working assumptions, for example, a primary emphasis on the relatively direct impact of personality on disease onset, an assumption that personality variables operate in interaction with stressful events, and a frequent emphasis on general susceptibility to disease. Moreover, this new work frequently risks the same methodological pitfalls that limited scientific progress in psychosomatic medicine. We argue that the rapid rise and decline of psychosomatic medicine is most likely to be repeated in research on personality and health in the 1980s if reasonable criteria for considering personality variables a risk factor for disease are not precisely defined, disease endpoints (the dependent variable) are not assessed precisely, personality variables of interest (the independent variable) are not empirically distinguished from other related psychological variables, and complex relationships among risk factors are not taken into account. It is emphasized that models drawn from personality research cannot be transferred unchanged to the health arena without risking false inferences about the role of personality in health.     

Children of depressed parents: an integrative review

This article reviews the various literatures on the adjustment of children of depressed parents, difficulties in parenting and parent-child interaction in these families, and contextual factors that may play a role in child adjustment and parent depression. First, issues arising from the recurrent, episodic, heterogeneous nature of depression are discussed. Second, studies on the adjustment of children with a depressed parent are summarized. Early studies that used depressed parents as controls for schizophrenic parents found equivalent risk for child disturbance. Subsequent studies using better-defined samples of depressed parents found that these children were at risk for a full range of adjustment problems and at specific risk for clinical depression. Third, the parenting difficulties of depressed parents are described and explanatory models of child adjustment problems are outlined. Contextual factors, particularly marital distress, remain viable alternative explanations for both child and parenting problems. Fourth, important gaps in the literature are identified, and a consistent, if unintentional, "mother-bashing" quality in the existing literature is noted. Given the limitations in knowledge, large-scale, long-term, longitudinal studies would be premature at this time.     

THE EFFECTS OF PEER TUTORING WITH GROUP CONTINGENCIES ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF COLLEGE STUDENTS1

Improving the academic performance of college students who do not demonstrate mastery of course material is a major concern in traditional and nontraditional systems of instruction, where students may drop out, take incompletes, or continue to perform at low levels. The present study examined within-course peer tutoring as a potential solution. Twenty-one undergraduate students enrolled in a three-credit introductory course in Educational Psychology served as subjects. The class met one and a half hours each weekday for five weeks. Five students withdrew from the course and one student was placed on independent study before assignments to experimental conditions were made. The primary source materials were portions of Skinner's Technology of Teaching, plus two additional articles. The material was divided into nine equal units, each unit accompanied by study objectives. Nine one-hour essay exams were administered, one every other class day. Two review days were scheduled before a cumulative final was administered. Students could score a total of 20 points on each exam and the final. If a student scored 90% or better on an exam a score of 10 was earned. If a student scored 80% to 90%, a score of eight was awarded, and so on. A total score of 90 of 100 possible points at semester's end earned a student an “A”, 80 a “B”, and so on. The study consisted of three phases: Baseline I, Intervention, and Baseline II. Baseline I: after an initial introductory class, three lectures were presented—one for each unit. Each lecture day was followed by an exam day. Intervention: following the third exam, students were rank ordered and divided into high, medium, and low levels of performance on the basis of their raw scores on the previous three exams, and assigned to a paired or independent group. This assignment procedure resulted in three high-low pairs, three middle-middle pairs, two high-middle pairs, three low-independent students, and two middle-independent students. If, and only if, both students in a pair met a 90% mastery criterion on an exam did each receive five bonus points for the exam(s) reaching the criterion. The bonus points were used to offset points lost on the cumulative final. If both students in a pair met the 90% mastery criterion for units 4, 5, and 6, the pair received an automatic score of 10 on the cumulative final and had the two review days off. Other students who studied independently received identical payoffs if they met the same mastery criterion. The previous lecture time was used for inclass study. Baseline II: Baseline I procedures were reinstituted for the final three units. The test scores are the independent and paired students are shown in Figure 1. Compared to baseline, performance during peer tutoring improved for every student paired with a high partner, and not for those students who studied independently. Between-group comparisons suggest that the effective variables were related to the tutoring or its combination with the group contingency. However, the opportunity for intergroup discussion about treatment procedures and unequal assignment of subjects to the tutored and independent groups make conclusions about the between-group portion of the experiment tentative. Half to two-thirds of the students in each performance category viewed the peer-tutoring procedure favorably, and two-thirds or more reported that the procedure was effective in improving academic performance. Proportionately fewer students assigned to independent study found that procedure effective or viewed it favorably. It appears that pairing students with others who do better on tests and rewarding them for their combined performance results in considerable improvement in the performance of lower-level students.     

The effects of various rater training procedures on the perception of social skills and social anxiety

Procedures for the behavioral assessment of social skills typically rely on judges' perceptions of subjects' behavior in several simulated situations. This study examined two methodological variables which could influence the degree of situational specificity perceived by social skill judges. Forth-eight judges were presented videotapes of 15 actors who role played responses to eight simulated social situations. Half of the judges viewed the situations in a sequential fashion and the remaining half viewed the tapes grouped by situations. The second factor of this design included three different expectancy conditions included in an analogue training procedure. Differences in observed variability were examined for both social skill and social anxiety constructs. Order of stimulus presentation had no effect on variability. The expectancy manipulation significantly increased variability among social skill ratings but had no effect on reliability.This study was supported in part by the Veterans Administration.