Motivational Dynamics of Disadvantaged Women

Two hundred and five disadvantaged women completed standardized psychometric inventories (Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire, Motivation Analysis Test, Tennessee Self-Concept Scale, Internal-External Control Scale, Work Attitude Scale) and a structured interview (attitude-value, activity, life concerns items). Factor analysis was used to organize these data; correlational analyses indicated that the inventory and interview dimensions tapped essentially independent aspects within the total motivation domain. Compared with inventory norms, these women exhibited torpidity and submissiveness, depressed motivation, poor selfesteem, but positive work attitudes. Differences between dichotomous subgroups defined by six major demographic variables were consistent with previous literature; the most salient pattern of subgroup differences showed that black, less intelligent, and less educated women were less positive toward work and more externally oriented. In sum, these women appeared resigned and lethargic; no causal inference was drawn, but it was cautioned that choice of counseling procedures should be based on a differentiation of diminished from initial lack of motivation.     

The brain and sodium homeostasis

Sodium homeostasis continues to be one of the principal areas of intense investigation in humoral physiology. This is not only because of its central role in major medical problems such as hypertension and edema. It also follows from the many intriguing problems of adaptations involving sodium control by animal species in the course of phylogenetic emergence from the oceans and irradiation into diverse ecological niches of terrestrial existence. Many of the central problems of this wide field of inquiry remain unsolved.     

Emotional play and resonating to the shape of the valued self with fellow-feeling: Therapeutic conversations in Brief Dynamic Therapy

Drawing from the work of Meares and Hobson the author outlines a conceptual framework that places the valued self and the sanctuary within which it is located at the centre of human development and of the therapeutic process. The experience of being valued is seen to be the basis upon which a capacity for intimacy develops. In contrast, failures of empathic resonance to the shape and texture of the valued self by significant others are seen to result in the development of an unconscious trauma system and a diminished sense of self. A consequence of this is the development of an expectational field which shapes the interpersonal patterns and experiences of the individual. A feature of this expectation field is the development of an Alien self which can manifest in the phenomenon of role reversals in the therapeutic relationship. The function of maintaining a sense of fellow-feeling in the therapeutic relationship is highlighted. Comparisons are made between the concept of an Alien self and Woodmansey’s conceptualisation of the punitive or humiliating super-ego and its distinction from the ego-ideal which in contrast contributes positively to the development of intimacy. These themes are illustrated by a case example.     

The effect of developmental regulation on visual attention: The example of the "biological clock"

The current study investigated the attentional mechanisms associated with goal engagement and disengagement in a lifespan context. Women approaching the end of their childbearing years (N = 29) were compared with women who had passed that deadline (N = 28). Participants' goal engagement was measured with a goal nomination task, an incidental recall task of goal-relevant sentences, visual attention to goal-relevant vs. goal-irrelevant images, and a memory task of goal-relevant images. The attention data indicated that women approaching the deadline had a longer first fixation on baby images than women who had passed the deadline. This novel finding was supported by a replication of the previous finding that women approaching the deadline were more engaged with the goal of childbearing than women who had passed the deadline. The connection between attention and memory of goal-relevant information is explored as evidence of cognition working in the service of motivation and developmental regulation.     

Semantic priming of person recognition: Categorial priming may be a weaker form of the associative priming effect

An interactive activation and competition account (Burton, Bruce, & Johnston, 1990) of the semantic priming effect in person recognition studies relies on the fact that primes and targets (people) have semantic information in common. However, recent investigations into the type of relationship needed to mediate the semantic priming effect have suggested that the prime and target must be close associates (e.g., Barry, Johnston, & Scanlan, 1998; Young, Flude, Hellawell, & Ellis, 1994). A review of these and similar papers suggests the possibility of a small but non-reliable effect based purely on categorial relationships. Experiment 1 provided evidence that when participants were asked to make a name familiarity decision it was possible to boost this small categorial effect when multiple (four) primes were presented prior to the target name. Results from Experiment 2 indicated that the categorial effect was not due to the particular presentation times of the primes. This boosted categorial effect was shown to cross domains (names to faces) in Experiment 3 and persist in Experiment 4 when the task involved naming the target face. The similarity of the pattern of results produced by the associative priming effect and this boosted categorial effect suggests that the two may be due to the same underlying mechanism in semantic memory.