Adolescents' Conceptualization of Adult Roles: Relationships with Age,Gender, Work Goal,and Maternal Employment

This study concerns the construction of thepersonal stereotypes of “adult” andadulthood roles and the influence of gender, maternalemployment, and employment goals of adolescents informulating a concept of “adult” during twoperiods in adolescence. A sample of 237 adolescents, 12%non-Caucasian, responded to statements reflectinginterpersonal expectations and gender responsibilities attributed to adults. Exploratory factoranalysis indicated a four-factor structure in attitudestoward familial and career roles, ideology of fairness,social status, and rational characteristics, which were gender differentiated by contexts and normreferences. Analyses of variance on the factor scoreindicated girls' and young boys' conceptualizations of“adult” were related to maternal employment status and their career goals; older adolescentboys structured the roles ofparent,worker,and spouse astraditionally gender typed.     

Verbal recoding of visual stimuli impairs mentalimagetransformations

Two experiments were carried out to test the hypothesis that verbal recoding of visual stimuli in short-term memory influences long-term memory encoding and impairs subsequent mental image operations. Easy and difficult-to-name stimuli were used. When rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise, each stimulus revealed a new pattern consisting of two capital letters joined together. In both experiments, subjects first learned a short series of stimuli and were then asked to rotate mental images of the stimuli in order to detect the hidden letters. In Experiment 1, articulatory suppression was used to prevent subjects from subvocal rehearsal when learning the stimuli, whereas in Experiment 2, verbal labels were presented with each stimulus during learning to encourage a reliance on the verbal code. As predicted, performance in the imagery task was significantly improved by suppression when the stimuli were easy to name (Experiment 1) but was severely disrupted by labeling when the stimuli were difficult to name (Experiment 2). We concluded that verbal recoding of stimuli in short-term memory during learning disrupts the ability to generate veridical mental images from long-term memory.     

On the perception of shape from shading

The extraction of three-dimensional shape from shading is one of the most perceptually compelling, yet poorly understood, aspects of visual perception. In this paper, we report several new experiments on the manner in which the perception of shape from shading interacts with other visual processes such as perceptual grouping, preattentive search (“pop-out”), and motion perception. Our specific findings are as follows: (1) The extraction of shape from shading information incorporates at least two “assumptions” or constraints—first,that there is a single light source illuminating the whole scene, and second, that the light is shining from “above” in relation to retinal coordinates. (2) Tokens defined by shading can serve as a basis for perceptual grouping and segregation. (3) Reaction time for detecting a single convex shape does not increase with the number of items in the display. This “pop-out” effect must be based on shading rather than on differences in luminance polarity, since neither left-right differences nor step changes in luminance resulted in pop-out. (4) When the subjects were experienced, there were no search asymmetries for convex as opposed to concave tokens, but when the subjects were naive, cavities were much easier to detect than convex shapes. (5) The extraction of shape from shading can also provide an input to motion perception. And finally, (6) the assumption of “overhead illumination” that leads to perceptual grouping depends primarily on retinal rather than on “phenomenal” or gravitational coordinates. Taken collectively, these findings imply that the extraction of shape from shading is an “early” visual process that occurs prior to perceptual grouping, motion perception, and vestibular (as well as “cognitive”) correction for head tilt. Hence, there may be neural elements very early in visual processing that are specialized for the extraction of shape from shading.     

Time urgency: the construct and its measurement

Time urgency may be an important construct in industrial and organizational psychology. Preliminary analyses have indicated that time urgency may be multidimensional, and available self-report measures have been criticized on psychometric grounds. The present research addressed the dimensionality of time urgency. Behaviorally anchored rating scales (BARS), in which behavioral statements are substituted for qualitative anchors, were used to construct time urgency measures. The BARS technique produced multidimensional measures of time urgency that possessed adequate reliability and construct validity. The scales were tested on a wide variety of subjects. It is concluded that time urgency is a multidimensional construct. Relationships between the time urgency measures, job satisfaction, and work stress are discussed in light of previous research findings.     

Measuring post-traumatic stress: A psychometric evaluation of symptom- and coping questionnaires based on a Norwegian sample

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the psychometric characteristics of the Norweigian versions of the Impact of Event Scale, the Post Traumatic Stress Scale-10 item version and General Coping Questionnaire-30 item version. A group of 40 male and 56 female medical students was tested one week and four months after having started dissection of cadavers for the first time. The results showed that all scales had good internal consistency and test-retest reliability. The student sample scored lower on the IES and PTSS-10 than comparable groups of traumatized subjects. A gender difference emerged, with female subjects scoring higher than male subjects. The factor analysis of the instruments indicated good construct validity for the symptom scales. The analysis of content validity related to DSM IV criteria indicated that the IES and PTSS-10 may have some limitations in their predictive validity of PTSD. Taken together, the three scales have shown good psychometric properties and could be used in future research and clinical work.     

Talk About School Between Mothers and Children With or Without ADHD

Twenty mother-child dyads including a child with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and 20 mother-child dyads containing a child without ADHD recorded a conversation about the children's school experiences. Mothers' ratings of their children's school-related performance were also assessed. Mothers of children with ADHD rated their children's behavioral conduct lower than did other mothers, and dyads including children with ADHD discussed behavioral conduct more and academics and interpersonal relationships less than did the other group of dyads. For ADHD dyads, less elaboration about children's interpersonal relationships was related to lower maternal ratings about children's school-related performance. The results are discussed in relation to potentially poorer developmental outcomes for many children with ADHD.     

Pharmacological and Behavioral Strategies for Smoking Cessation

After over two decades of intensive research, a variety of smoking cessation strategies, both behavioral and pharmacotherapeutic, have been developed and clinically validated. In this review, pharmacological products available for smoking cessation are profiled and examined for efficacy. Results of a recent comprehensive review and meta-analysis by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research on the effects of behavior therapy on smoking cessation are also discussed. Further, meta-analyses and studies exploring the important interaction between pharmacological and behavioral therapies are considered. Applications of the growing wealth of smoking cessation strategies are discussed with respect to the needs of some special subpopulations of smokers including highly nicotine-dependent smokers and smokers with comorbid psychiatric diagnoses.     

Simplified formulas for item selection and construction

The formula for the Pearson correlation coefficient of a dichotomous variable with a multiple-categoried variable is simplified for computational purposes by effecting in the multiple-categoried variable two types of arbitrary distributions: (1) rectangular and (2) proportional to binomial expansion coefficients. The formulas which result are convenient for the selection of test items and are applicable to the objective estimation of the comparative merits of the alternatives in multiple-choice test items. It is shown that the authoritative answer should have a high positive criterion coefficient, while the omissions and several wrong-answer alternatives should each have low (algebraic) negative criterion coefficients.