Relations Among Ethnicity, Gender, Beliefs, Attitudes, and Intention to Pursue a Career in Information Technology

Using data from 159 African Americans and 98 Anglo Americans, we examined relations among ethnicity, gender, information technology (IT) self-efficacy, occupational stereotypes, attitudes toward IT, and IT career intentions. Results revealed that IT self-efficacy and occupational stereotypes were related to attitudes toward IT jobs, and these attitudes were positively related to career intentions. In addition, there were ethnic and gender differences in IT self-efficacy and occupational stereotypes. In particular, African American men reported higher levels of IT self-efficacy, whereas Anglo American women reported lower levels of IT self-efficacy than did members of all other groups. Furthermore, Anglo Americans had more negative stereotypes of IT professionals than did African Americans. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Neuroendocrine regulation and physical and relational aggression: the moderating roles of child maltreatment and gender

The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the association between circadian rhythms of cortisol and physical and relational aggression. Morning arrival, prelunch, and afternoon predeparture salivary cortisol were assessed among 418 maltreated and nonmaltreated children (52% maltreated; 49% female) attending a summer day camp. Counselors and peers rated participants' involvement in physically and relationally aggressive behaviors. Results indicated that physical aggression was associated with heightened cortisol following morning arrival and relatively steep declines in cortisol over the day, whereas relational aggression was associated with low cortisol following morning arrival and blunted diurnal change in cortisol. Moreover, maltreatment was a significant moderator of this relationship such that aggression was related to greater cortisol dysregulation among nonmaltreated than among maltreated children. The findings suggest that physiological correlates of aggression may differ for physical and relational forms of aggression and among maltreated versus nonmaltreated populations.     

Effects of Coworker Race and Task Demand on Task‐Related Outcomes as Mediated by Evoked Affect1

Using a 2 × 2 (Coworker Race × Task Demand) design and data from 180 White women who worked in dyads with a male confederate, the present study examined the effects of coworker race (White vs. Black) and task demand (low vs. high cognitive demand) on evoked affect, task attention, task performance, task satisfaction, and the desire to work alone (as opposed to with a coworker). As expected, results showed that coworker race and task demand evoked differing levels of affect, which, in turn, influenced several other outcomes. These findings have important implications for promoting racial diversity in organizations.     

Fokale psychodynamische Psychotherapie der Anorexia nervosa

The paper presents a manual for the focal psychodynamic psychotherapy of anorexia nervosa (AN). The manual was developed in the context of the largest randomized controlled trial of outpatient psychotherapy for AN so far [Anorexia Nervosa Treatment of OutPatients (ANTOP), n=234]. The study compares focal psychodynamic psychotherapy with cognitive-behavioral therapy and with a control group with free choice of therapy outside the study. The manual comprises instructions for the working through of typical focal emotional and interpersonal issues of AN. Also recommendations for anorexia-specific therapeutic difficulties in the course of treatment are given. First results concerning the efficacy of the therapies carried out based on the manual are expected after completion of the ANTOP study in the middle of the year 2010.     

Bilateral Ablation of Auditory Cortex in Mongolian Gerbil Affects Discrimination of Frequency Modulated Tones but not of Pure Tones

This study examines the role of auditory cortex in the Mongolian gerbil in differential conditioning to pure tones and to linearly frequency-modulated (FM) tones by analyzing the effects of bilateral auditory cortex ablation. Learning behavior and performance were studied in a GO/NO-GO task aiming at avoidance of a mild foot shock by crossing a hurdle in a two-way shuttle box. Hurdle crossing as the conditioned response to the reinforced stimulus (CR+), as false alarm in response to the unreinforced stimulus (CR−), intertrial activity, and reaction times were monitored. The analysis revealed no effects of lesion on pure tone discrimination but impairment of FM tone discrimination. In the latter case lesion effects were dependent on timing of lesion relative to FM tone discrimination training. Lesions before training in naive animals led to a reduced CR+ rate and had no effect on CR− rate. Lesions in pretrained animals led to an increased CR− rate without effects on the CR+ rate. The results suggest that auditory cortex plays a more critical role in discrimination of FM tones than in discrimination of pure tones. The different lesion effects on FM tone discrimination before and after training are compatible with both the hypothesis of a purely sensory deficit in FM tone processing and the hypothesis of a differential involvement of auditory cortex in acquisition and retention, respectively.     

Prediction of suicide: a replication study.

As part of an ongoing study on the prediction of suicide, a replication study was carried out on the Neuropsychiatric Hospital Suicide Potential Scale (NPHSPS), a recently constructed schedule for prediction of potentiality for committed suicide among hospitalized neuropsychiatric patients at the time of release from the hospital. The population consisted of 54 patients who had committed suicide and 50 patients who had not. Overall accuracy of the scale was 81.7 percent, with 95.2 percent accuracy for prediction of the high risk group and 80.0 percent accuracy for prediction of nonsuicidal controls. By computation of posterior probability, the scale is shown to increase accuracy of prediction more than five-fold over use of the base rate (or prior probability) alone, but it is also evident the level of prediction of suicide is still too minimal to permit individual clinical application.     

Partial reinforcement (acquisition) effects within subjects

Acquisition performance of 22 rats in a straight alley runway was examined. The animals were subjected to partial reinforcement when the alley was black (B±) and continuous reinforcement when it was white (W+). The results indicated (a) higher terminal performance, for partial as against continuous reinforcement conditions, for starting-time and running-time measures, and (b) lower terminal performance under partial conditions for a goal-entry-time measure. These results confirm within subjects an effect previously demonstrated, in the runway, only in between-groups tests, where one group is run under partial reinforcement and a separate group is run under continuous reinforcement in the presence of the same external stimuli. Differences between the runway situation, employing a discrete-trial procedure and performance measures at three points in the response chain, and the Skinner box situation, used in its free-operant mode with a single performance measure, are discussed in relation to the present findings.