Sex differences in reactions to evaluative feedback

Two studies tested the influence of various types of verbal evaluative feedback men's and women's self-evaluations of their performance in achievenment situations. We tested a theory that women perceive evaluative feedback, particularly negative feedback, to be more informative about their abilities than do men. Because of this, women's self-assessments of their abilities are more straightforwardly influenced by evaluative feedback than are men's. In contrast, men take a more self-promotional approach to evaluative situations, and therefore are more selective in their responses to feedback. Results from our questionnaire study showed that women's self-evaluations were influenced by both positive and negative evaluative statements. Men allowed positive feedback to influence them more than negative feedback, and were less influenced overall by negative feedback than women. Furthermore, women reported that evaluative feedback, particularly negative feedback, contained more information relevant to their abilities than men. Our laboratory study showed that women's actual self-evaluations were impacted differently by positive and negative feedback, whereas men's were not. In addition, we found some evidence to indicate that women were more negatively influenced by feedback that was positively toned, yet irrelevant with respect to their performance, than men. This finding underscores the fact that the focus, and not just the valence, of evaluative feedback plays an important role in men's and women's responses to it.     

Group-analytic psychotherapy.

Group analysis is a flexible and effective method of providing group psychotherapy, thereby promoting maturation and symptom relief. Its metapsychology remains incompletely worked out but provides potentially exciting interfaces with biological and physical sciences, through Foulkes's (1973) seminal concept of the group matrix.     

Vulnerable self-esteem and depressive symptoms: prospective findings comparing three alternative conceptualizations.

Across diverse theoretical orientations, vulnerable self-esteem (SE) is thought to act as a diathesis for depression after life stress. In the present study, the roles of trait-level SE, low SE primed by depressed mood, and labile SE in prospectively predicting changes in depressive symptoms in a nonclinical sample (n = 192) were examined. Results indicated that labile SE predicted increases in symptoms. Furthermore, a 3-way interaction (Labile SE x Academic Stress x Initial Depression) suggested that in Ss who were initially asymptomatic, lability made Ss differentially vulnerable to increases in depressive symptoms after stress. In contrast to labile SE, trait-level SE and priming of low SE were relatively weak predictors of changes in depressive symptoms and did not interact with stress.     

Blending qualitative and behavior analytic research methods to evaluate outcomes in inclusive schools

Following Haring's (1992) recommendation, we have utilized qualitative research techniques to assist us in designing a program of research on inclusive education which is responsive to the outcome values and priorities identified by teachers and parents. Using interviews, observations, and document analysis to follow 35 children in full inclusion classrooms over a period of two years, we have described outcomes for these children in three major domains. These outcome domains, and subthemes within them, have been evaluated and revised based on interviews and social validation ratings by parents and teachers. Dependent measures based on our qualitative research findings are currently being used in a series of behavior analytic studies designed to evaluate the effects of specific interventions on outcomes of inclusion for children with and without disabilities.     

Plaster or Plasticity: Are Adult Work Experiences Associated with Personality Change in Women?

ABSTRACT The present study tested whether work experiences were associated with personality change across two periods of adulthood (age 21 to 27 and 27 to 43) in a longitudinal sample of women ( N = 81). Two competing theoretical perspectives were tested: the plaster theory, which claims that personality does not change after age 30, and the plasticity theory, which claims that personality can change at any time in adulthood. Evidence was found for both correlational consistency of personality in adulthood and for the socialization effect of work on personality change. Work experiences were not associated with personality change in young adulthood but were associated with changes between young adulthood and midlife. In the period from age 27 to age 43 women who worked more became more agentic, and women who were more successful in their work became both more agentic and more normadhering. This pattern of associations between personality change and work experience provided support for the plasticity model of personality change.     

OBJECTIFICATION THEORY

This article offers objectification theory as a framework for understanding the experiential consequences of being female in a culture that sexually objectifies the female body. Objectification theory posits that girls and women are typically acculturated to internalize an observer's perspective as a primary view of their physical selves. This perspective on self can lead to habitual body monitoring, which, in turn, can increase women's opportunities for shame and anxiety, reduce opportunities for peak motivational states, and diminish awareness of internal bodily states. Accumulations of such experiences may help account for an array of mental health risks that disproportionately affect women: unipolar depression, sexual dysfunction, and eating disorders. Objectification theory also illuminates why changes in these mental health risks appear to occur in step with life-course changes in the female body.     

Treatment outcome in personality disorder: The effect of social,psychological and behavioural variables

The study followed-up 245 patients referred to the Henderson Hospital (194 admitted for treatment and 51 not admitted) and for whom information had been collected on their social background and certain psychological variables allowing a classification and typology of personality disorder to be worked out. The study indicates that the therapeutic community treatment is effective with selected individuals showing the antisocial behaviour associated with such disorder. In particular this treatment is of benefit to the offenders with only one conviction and who are able to persevere with treatment for a period of 6 months for treatment to be maximally effective. The variation of psychological types within the broad category of personality disorder was demonstrated and this has a bearing on the outcome of treatment, the extrapunitive neurotic being of poorest prognosis with or without treatment. Yet even in this group, therapeutic community treatment can be effective.     

Linear systems analysis of infant visual pattern preferences

Karmel's check-pattern preference data for 13-week-old infants were reanalyzed using linear systems analysis. The two-dimensional Fourier amplitude spectrum was calculated for each of his eight checkerboard and random check patterns. The mean contrast sensitivity data for 3-month-old infants of Banks and Salapatek and the spatial frequency amplitudes of the patterns were used to derive three metrics to predict the looking times observed by Karmel. One was based on the sensitivity of the visual system to the single pattern component highest above threshold (maximum amplitude), the second was based on the total amount of pattern energy above threshold (total summation), and the third was based on the maximum amplitude with summation over nearby spatial frequency components (limited summation). The predictive power of the maximum amplitude and the total summation metrics depended on whether the pattern type was checkerboard or random check. The limited summation metric predicted looking times well for both pattern types. A linear function of the logarithm of the limited summation metric accounted for 91% of the total variance in looking time.