The effect of alcohol on male aggression toward female targets

This study attempted to determine the effects of alcohol, verbal provocation, and target strategy on male aggression toward female targets. Intoxicated and nonintoxicated male research participants competed with a female confederate in a reaction time task designed to measure aggression. Intoxicated participants responded more aggressively than did nonintoxicated participants. Verbal provocation had no effect on participants' aggressive response. Effects of target strategy and trial outcome lent support to a cognitive disorganization interpretation of the effect of alcohol on aggression.     

Locus of control and self-esteem as correlates of role orientation in traditional and nontraditional women

This research attempted to establish relationships between locus of control, self-esteem, and traditional-nontraditional behavior. It was hypothesized that (1) women tending toward internality and high self-esteem should be more likely to manifest nontraditional behaviors, as evidenced through career-oriented roles, and to rank these roles as their primary source of satisfaction; and (2) women tending toward externality and low self-esteem should be more likely to manifest traditional behavior, as evidenced through family-oriented roles, and to rank these roles as their primary source of satisfaction. The sample consisted of 91 White females in a southern metropolitan area. The data were collected using a survey design. As expected, high self-esteem internals were more likely to manifest nontraditional behavior. Contrary to expectation, low self-esteem externals were more nontraditional in role orientation.     

Assessment of social anxiety: a controlled comparison among social phobics,obsessive-compulsives,agoraphobics, sexual disorders and simple phobies

The construct validity of the Willoughby Personality Schedule (WPS) as an index of social anxiety was established in the present study. The WPS correctly identifies social phobics from controls in 88% of the cases.     

The effects of hand and direction parameter preknowledge on choice reaction times

The two studies undertaken investigated how reaction times are affected by preknowledge concerning hand and direction parameters, and the order in which these data are disclosed. In the first experiment, preknowledge was manipulated by selecting 2-CRT pairs which had either a common hand or direction component. Reaction signal information content (as defined by the number of unknown response parameters) was controlled, but no parameter differences emerged. When parameter order was manipulated by sequential precuing, the ‘hand then direction’ order conferred a significant advantage. Motor preparation and response selection explanations for this effect are considered. Various difficulties with the paradigms used are discussed, including those of distinguishing between response selection and motor programming contributions, controlling and inferring the strategies adopted by subjects, and defining task difficulty. The prospects for independently fostering either response identification or motor preparation by means of an appropriate selection of precues are also discussed.     

Interview with Dr. Peter Rutter,author ofSex in the Forbidden Zone,July 27, 1990

Articles

Interview with Dr. Peter Rutter, author ofSex in the Forbidden Zone, July 27, 1990     

Somatic complaints in anxious children

Although stomachaches and headaches are considered characteristic of children with anxiety disorders, there is converging evidence that a broader range of somatic symptoms may be associated with children's expressions of anxiety. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of somatic complaints in anxious children. The results indicated that children with anxiety disorders endorsed the presence of many different somatic complaints, and that contrary to clinical intuition, stomaches and headaches were not among the most commonly reported symptoms. In addition, the anxious children endorsed significantly more somatic complaints when compared to normal controls. Furthermore, the symptom pattern reported by anxious children indicated the presence of both the somatic and cognitive components usually associated with panic attacks, although none of the children met diagnostic criteria for panic disorder. The results are discussed in terms of the contribution of somatic symptoms to the understanding of anxiety disorders in children.     

Perceptions of parenting behavior and young women's gender role traits and preferences

This study examines the effect of perceptions of mothers' and fathers' parenting behavior on their college-aged daughter's gender role development. Unlike in previous studies, in this analysis we consider both the gender role traits of young females (their instrumentality and expressiveness) and their gender role preferences (modernity vs. traditionalism) simultaneously. Three alternative empirical models are tested with data from 163 randomly selected college-aged females using analysis of covariance structures in LISREL VII. Findings substantiated the hypothesis that perceptions of earlier parenting behavior exert a substantial influence on gender role developments of children, particularly regarding mothers' influence on the instrumentality and expressiveness of their daughters. Mothers' parenting, measured along the dimensions of encouragement and control, was generally more strongly related to their daughters' gender role traits than was fathers'. Little influence of parenting behavior on daughters' gender role preferences was found.The authors wish to acknowledge Dr. Hyman Rodman for his comments on earlier drafts of this paper.     

China's importation of Western psychiatry: Cultural relativity and mental disorders

As one aspect of China's modernization, the importation of Western psychiatric ideas poses a mystery. How are such ideas integrated with traditional assumptions? The apparently wholesale adoption of Western psychiatric categories runs counter to the fact that the Chinese have been generally reluctant to define problems in highly individualized psychiatric terms. Our lack of knowledge as to how the Chinese and Western medical models interface raises questions about the cross-cultural applicability of psychiatric theory. Ironically, the very conceptual categories intended to facilitate professional discourse obscure cultural, political, and epistemological differences between Chinese and Western thought. This paper focuses on certain incongruities in psychiatric theory and practice in order to underscore many unresolved issues that still exist with respect to our cross-cultural understandings of ‘mental illness’. Insofar as the trend has been towards standardizing methodology, taxonomies have been generated without a corresponding development in textured comparison. Originating from Western theoretical frameworks, comparative analyses have been otherwise devoid of culture-specific knowledge. The goal of this paper is to show that these categorical assumptions are still premature, and that examining the meaning of current ‘rates of mental illness’ in China specifically raises more questions than it answers. Hopefully, this discussion will stimulate a renewed interest in ethnographic methods that would uncover locally-based understandings and thereby create the basis for a more sophisticated epidemiological comparison.