Australian professional women's evaluations of male and female written products

Goldberg's provocative evidence of 1968 suggesting that female evaluators may be biased against females has initiated extensive research efforts in the last two decades to investigate the nature and extent of any possible prejudice. Recent reviews have concluded that the accumulated evidence is not strongly supportive of the initial claims. However, most of the available research has been conducted in only one country (America), and most of the subject samples have been from a restricted group (college age students). This study was designed to test for evaluative prejudice in a different society, with professional women of Anglo-Australian background, and across the age range from 20 to 60 years. Despite these variations, no evidence of bias against women was detected. The result are discussed with reference to changing societal attitudes and legislation.     

Perspectives on personality: the relative accuracy of self versus others for the prediction of emotion and behavior

This study compares the relative accuracy of targets' self-reports and other-reports of personality in predicting two criteria: (a) emotional experience in daily life and (b) behavior in the laboratory. Ratings of the targets' extraversion and neuroticism were obtained from two knowledgeable informants and the targets themselves. Target participants wore an electronic signaling device ("beeper") for eight days and rated positive and negative emotions at four randomly selected times each day. The participants also interacted with an opposite-sex stranger in a laboratory context and their behavior was coded from videotapes. Targets' self-reports of personality were consistently more accurate than other-reports in predicting daily emotional experience. Self-reports also outperformed other-reports in predicting extraversion-related laboratory behaviors, but not neuroticism-related behaviors. The relative accuracy of self- and other-reports of personality would seem to depend on the criterion employed; self-reports are clearly better for the prediction of emotional experience, while for behavior the picture is mixed.     

Responses of seventh grade students to "do you have a partner with whom you would like to have a baby?"

This study investigated differences in demographic data, self-esteem, and coping skills for 225 students in Grade 7 who reported having a partner with whom they wanted to have a baby and 946 students who did not. Data were collected on the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale, the Family Crisis-oriented Personal Evaluation Scale, and questions related to attitudes towards teen pregnancy and demographic data. The sample included 548 (46.8%) boys and 624 (53.2%) girls whose mean age was 13.2 yr. Students with a partner had significantly lower scores on the curriculum questions, self-esteem, and family coping skills, combined with higher scores in passivity. They indicated a desire to have a greater number of children, beginning by having their first child at a younger age and believed that having a baby improves a couple's relationship. Possible approaches may include effective teaching methods to overcome passivity through boosting self-confidence, goal-setting, and acquiring a purpose in life besides parenting a child.     

Effect of respite care on dementia and nondementia patients and their caregivers

The impact of a respite program on the cognitive and physical functioning of dementia and nondementia patients, and on the burden perceived by their caregivers, was assessed in a pretest-posttest design. A total of 55 caregivers were interviewed twice, 5 weeks apart. In the respite group, the caregiver's patient experienced a 2-week respite stay in a nursing home during the 5-week interval, whereas in the waiting-list comparison group, the patient experienced ongoing in-home care during the interval. We hypothesized that patient diagnosis (dementia vs. nondementia) would interact with respite exposure, with nondementia patients showing more improvement from respite than dementia patients. Regardless of diagnosis, however, positive effects from respite exposure were found for caregiver reports of the patient's memory and behavior.     

Associations of depression status and hopelessness with blood pressure: a 24-year follow-up study

Hypertension is estimated to cause 12.8% of all deaths worldwide. Both literature and well-supported cognitive models indicate that hopelessness predicts depressive symptoms. This study aimed to test whether high levels of hopelessness are associated with increased blood pressure, as well as whether depression acts as a mediator between hopelessness and blood pressure. Data from the original 24-year longitudinal Baltimore Epidemiologic Catchment Area Study (ECA) were analyzed via linear regression (N = 917; 60.3% female; 62.9% European American; mean age = 42.96 years, SD = 16.94). Hopelessness was found to have a significant direct relationship with systolic blood pressure (SBP, p < .05), but not with diastolic blood pressure (DBP, p > .05); while depression had no significant direct relationship with SBP or with DBP. Overall, findings indicated that hopelessness has a significant relationship with SBP. Limitations and implications are discussed.     

Personality and career success: Concurrent and longitudinal relations

The present research addresses the dynamic transaction between extrinsic (occupational prestige, income) and intrinsic (job satisfaction) career success and the Five‐Factor Model (FFM) of personality. Participants (N = 731) completed a comprehensive measure of personality and reported their job title, annual income and job satisfaction; a subset of these participants (n = 302) provided the same information approximately 10 years later. Measured concurrently, emotionally stable and conscientious participants reported higher incomes and job satisfaction. Longitudinal analyses revealed that, among younger participants, higher income at baseline predicted decreases in Neuroticism and baseline Extraversion predicted increases in income across the 10 years. Results suggest that the mutual influence of career success and personality is limited to income and occurs early in the career. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Equivalent inter- and intramodality long-term priming: Evidence for a common lexicon for words seen and words heard

Weaker inter- than intramodality long-term priming of words has promoted two hypotheses: (1) separate visual and auditory lexicons and (2) modality dependence of implicit memory. In five experiments, we employed manipulations aimed to minimize study-test asymmetries between the two priming conditions. Activities at visual and auditory study were matched, words were phonologically consistent, and study modality was manipulated between subjects. Equal magnitudes of inter- and intramodality priming were found in experiments with visual and auditory stem completion at test, with visual fragment completion at test, and with visual and auditory perceptual identification at test. A within-subjects experiment yielded the conventional intramodality advantage. The results point to a single amodal lexicon and to modality-independent phonological processing as the basis of implicit word memory.     

Career decision-making self-efficacy of South African high school boys and girls

Social cognitive career theory suggests that males and females may not differ in career decision-making self-efficacy, but this statement requires extension of research to high school samples. The Career Decision-making Self-efficacy Scale-Short Form was administered to white South African high school students in Grades 9 to 11, of whom 368 were boys and 494 girls. No significant sex differences were found, suggesting that career interventions based on social cognitive career theory in high school need not be sex-specific in content.     

Vowel duration affects visual word identification: evidence that the mediating phonology is phonetically informed

What form is the lexical phonology that gives rise to phonological effects in visual lexical decision? The authors explored the hypothesis that beyond phonological contrasts the physical phonetic details of words are included. Three experiments using lexical decision and 1 using naming compared processing times for printed words (e.g., plead and pleat) that differ, when spoken, in vowel length and overall duration. Latencies were longer for long-vowel words than for short-vowel words in lexical decision but not in naming. Further, lexical decision on long-vowel words benefited more from identity priming than lexical decision on short-vowel words, suggesting that representations of long-vowel words achieve activation thresholds more slowly. The discussion focused on phonetically informed phonologies, particularly gestural phonology and its potential for understanding reading acquisition and performance.