Sado-masochism as a defense against merging: Six case studies

This paper reports on several patients who use sado-masochism as a defense against an unconscious wish for and fear of merging. The sado-masochism can be expressed as a sexual perversion or in a difficult ungratifying interpersonal relationship. These relationships have some of the quality of addictions in that the patients have a compulsive need to continue them and find it extremely difficult to leave them. Therapy must focus on helping the patient become more separate, rather than on other problems which may also be present. Initially, the therapist needs to take an educational stance in regard to the process the patient must complete, rather than the more traditional analytic stance.     

Adult Age and Gender Differences in Eyewitness Recall in Field Settings1

Six-hundred-fifty-one citizens were stopped in public places and tested for prompted recall of physical characteristics of a young woman to whom they had spoken for approximately 15 s, 2 min earlier. Recall differed as a function of the two targets used on five of eight characteristics, but no significant differences were found for either target as a function of the gender or age group of the witnesses. Young adults (18-29 years of age) in general were superior to middle-aged adults (30-44), who in turn were superior to older adults (45-65). Women were significantly more accurate than men in accuracy of recall for weight, and for characteristics judged to be more important than less important for person memory. Male and female witnesses were equally confident in their recall performance. Young and middle-aged groups were significantly more confident in recall than the oldest group. Significant correlations were found between confidence and accuracy of recall for men and for women, and for each age group. Women made significantly longer duration estimates of the encounters with the targets than did men. Men overestimated the duration by a 2:1 ratio, and women overestimated by a 3:1 ratio. No significant correlations were found between accuracy of duration estimates and confidence in reports. The results were interpreted in terms of their forensic importance.     

Parental functioning and children's adjustment in families of divorce: A prospective study

This paper prospectively examined relations between marital status, predivorce parenting practices, and children's adjustment, using data from the New York Longitudinal Study (NYLS). Prospective analyses of children's predivorce adjustment indicated that neither boys nor girls showed more problematic behavior prior to parental separation, and only boys had more difficulties after divorce. However, parents of to-be-divorced families reported more difficulties in childcare practices before divorce than did parents of always-married families. Parenting difficulties in to-be-divorced families were found consistently for boys but not for girls. Results suggest that the difficulties found among boys after divorce may be linked with parenting problems that begin before divorce.The authors are indebted to Alexander Thomas and Stella Chess, the original investigators of the project. We also would like to thank Jacqueline and Richard Lerner, and the John D. and Catherine MacArthur Foundation for their efforts in preserving this data base.     

Mental image reversal and verbal recoding: When ducks become rabbits

A recent debate has concerned whether classical bistable configurations (e.g., duck/rabbit) can be reinterpreted using mental imagery. Research in this field indicates that image reversal is possible only when subjects change their specification of orientation. In a series of four experiments, we demonstrate that mental reversal of classical bistable configurations( CBCs) is impeded by verbally recoding the visual pattern at the time of input. When subjects were prevented from verbally recoding visual stimuli in short-term memory, they fared systematically better in mentally reversing the CBC, even when they received no instructions to change their reference frame or specification of orientation. On this basis, we suggest a model of image reversal that takes into account the interaction between memory codes and provides a new perspective on verbal recoding, verbal overshadowing, and mental discoveries.     

The Influence of Verbal Responses to Common Greetings on Compliance Behavior: The Foot-In-The-Mouth Effect

This study reports the results of three field experiments which demonstrate that asking someone how they feel, having them verbally respond, and then acknowledging that response, facilitates compliance with a charitable request. The findings are discussed with respect to the influence of public commitments on behavioral consistency.
Before you ask anyone for a donation, you first ask them how they're feeling. After they tell you they're feeling good, and you tell them you're glad they're feeling good, the/11 be more likely to contribute to helping someone who isn't.     

Naming consistency in Alzheimer''s disease

Although lexical semantic deficits are postulated to play a prominent role in the anomia of Alzheimer's disease, it is unclear whether the primary disturbance is one of lexical access or one of lexical semantic loss. Response consistency on a naming task is one means of evaluating the underlying source of naming impairment. Access dysfunction usually implies variable word-finding difficulty, while a theory of lexical loss predicts that many word names would be consistently unavailable. Nineteen Alzheimer's disease patients were administered a visual confrontation naming task (the Boston Naming Test) on two occasions 6 months apart. Eighty percent of errors occurred consistently at both times; only 20% of errors occurred on only one occasion. Response consistency occurred significantly more often than expected under the assumption of no response consistency. Findings support the hypothesis that anomia in Alzheimer's disease is in part due to a loss of lexical semantic information.     

Maladjustment in statistical minorities within ethnically unbalanced classrooms

Ascertained if being a member of a statistical minority influences children's adjustment in school, as measured by the AML, a teacher-administered adjustment rating scale. Teachers from a southwest school district evaluated elementary students on aggressive, acting-out behaviors, moody-internalized behaviors, and learning difficulties. Analyses conducted on 376 students revealed significant effects of statistical minority status on certain dimensions of adjustment ratings for both Hispanic and Anglo students. Hispanic students in the statistical minority received poorer ratings on the moodiness dimension of the AML than nonminority Hispanic students. Anglo students in the statistical minority received poorer ratings on the aggression dimension of the AML than nonminority Anglo students. These results were interpreted in terms of cultural differences in coping with statistical minority status. Traits commonly exhibited within a culture may intensify and be perceived as maladaptive when stress resulting from being a minority occurs. Implications of the finding that statistical minority status within the school environment influences adjustment are discussed.