Directional responses to sounds in young gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus)

Three experiments were conducted to determine the ability of infant gerbils to approach an auditory stimulus. In the first experiment, gerbil pups, 16-23 days of age, were tested in a circular apparatus with a central start area and a movable sound source located at one of eight positions around the perimeter. Stimuli included high- and low-intensity presentations of a tape-recorded gerbil social call, a broad-band white noise stimulus, and a no-stimulus control condition. The subjects showed a strong tendency to approach the low-intensity social call and a less pronounced tendency to approach the white noise. In the second experiment, gerbil pups were tested in the same apparatus with or without ear blocks to determine the role of binaural cues in directional approach responding. The tendency to approach a low-intensity vocalization was disrupted by obstruction of one ear but not by blocking both ears. Thus, binaural balance was shown to be important for early sound localization. In the third experiment, the tendency to approach a social call was compared at different ages, 12-15, 16-19, 20-23, and 24-27 days after birth. Approach responses were first seen at 16-19 days. The responses continued during the 20-23-day period but began to wane at 24-27 days of age.     

Personality and loneliness

The relationship between Eysenck's major personality factors and responses to the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale were examined. E was related to loneliness for both males and females. Females also showed a moderately high correlation between N and loneliness. Regression analyses indicated a substantially stronger relationship between the Eysenck factors and loneliness for females than males.     

Context and process: An ecological view of the interdependence of practice and research

Conclusion The future for the field of community psychology is promising as we visualize that our key resources are citizens, colleagues in pyschology, and those persons in the social sciences who share a commitment to collaborative research.An antidote for coping with the regal quality of our scientific heritage and the discomfort about not being able to reduce the barriers between research and practice is to develop an investigative style that makes inquiry not just a right or privilege but makes community research a genuinely collaborative process. Without such collaboration our ideas run the risk of being sterile and our impact puny and shallow. With such collaboration researchers and citizens have the opportunity to generate a style of work that will contribute to our own personal development and to the evolution of our social setings.As a distinct bonus we can construct a philosophy for our work that is truly democratic — where research and practice are integrated by a process of conjoint ownership. In this sense, the interdependence of research and practice can be realized: for the science, for the profession, and for the citizens of community psychology.Invited Address requested by the Social Ecology Interest Group of the Division of Community Psychology (Division 27), of the American Psychological Association. The address was given on August 24, 1985, at the 93rd annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Los Angeles, California.Robert L. Burgess, Fern Chertok, Robert A. Rubinstein, Myrna Beth Shure, and David Mark Todd read drafts of the address and gave me helpful and challenging reviews. I am grateful to them! The following persons also, in conversations or reading early drafts, gave me editorial and substantive suggestions. My appreciation is expressed to Dirk Bethe, Paul Dalinko, Nancy Dassoff, Jack Glidewell, Michael Holz, Phil Mann, Dan Romer, Janice Schreckengost, Lonnie R. Snowden, Steve Stelzner, Dan Stokols, Dave Tobin, Ed Trickett, Trudy Vincent, and Marc Alan Zimmerman.     

Religious orientation and coping with cancer

In this study we investigated the role of religious orientation in coping with stresses associated with cancer. A measure of daily coping and the Religious Orientation scale were administered to forty hematology-oncology patients in order to examine frequency of eight coping responses across religious orientations. It was found that proreligious and intrinsic participants used religion significantly more often than nonreligious and extrinsic types to cope with stresses associated with their cancer. We concluded that religious orientation and commitment influence the coping process, and suggest that religious commitment be included in studies of coping with cancer.     

Dreams,spirituality, and root metaphors

The subject of dreams and spirituality has received a great deal of attention in recent years. It has not, however, been seriously examined by religious studies scholars; thus, our ability to explore the spiritual potentials of dreams has been left sadly undeveloped. This essay attempts to improve that understanding. The concept ofroot metaphors will be presented as a means of developing a sophisticated, critical understanding of dreams and spirituality. Three dreams in which root metaphors emerge to provide important spiritual meanings for the dreamer will be discussed. Some practical guidelines, oriented around the model ofplaying with dreams, will also be presented to help make the spiritual dimension of dreams more accessible to psychotherapists, pastoral counselors, and lay people.A member of the Board of Directors of the Association for the Study of Dreams, and Chairman of the ASD Education Committee.     

Geophysical variables and behavior: LXVIII. Distal and lunar variables and traffic accidents in Saskatchewan 1984-1989.

The daily total number of traffic accidents and traffic accident severity for the years 1984 to 1989 in Saskatchewan were analyzed to estimate relationships with day of the week, season of the year, and various lunar variables (lunar phase, distance of the moon from the earth, and moon-sun tidal index). A regression model with both a linear term and a trigonometric term was fitted to the data. No relationship between lunar cycles and total accidents or severity of accident was found. A larger number of total accidents was found during the winter months and weekends; however, more severe accidents tended to occur during the summer months. A slight linear trend was uncovered for total accidents over the time period under consideration.     

Negative cognitive errors and positive illusions for negative divorce events: Predictors of children's psychological adjustment

This study examined the relations among negative cognitive errors regarding hypothetical negative divorce events, positive illusions about those same events, actual divorce events, and psychological adjustment in 38 8- to 12-year-old children whose parents had divorced within the previous 2 years. Children's scores on a scale of negative cognitive errors (catastmphizing, overgeneralizing, and personalizing) correlated significantly with self-reported symptoms of anxiety and self-esteem, and with maternal reports of behavior problems. Children's scores on a scale measuring positive illusions (high self-regard, illusion of personal control, and optimism for the future) correlated significantly with less self-reported aggression. Both appraisal types accounted for variance in some measures of symptomatology beyond that explained by actual events. There was no significant association between children's negative cognitive errors and positive illusions. The implications of these results for theories of negative cognitive errors and of positive illusions, as well as for future research, are discussed.     

Narcissism and body image

This research examined the relationship between narcissism, as measured by the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI; Raskin & Hall, 1979), and body image, as measured by the Body-Self Relations Questionnaire ( Winstead & Cash, 1984), in a nonclinical sample of college students. Also examined were narcissism's relationships to masculinity, femininity, and self-esteem. Results indicated that more narcissistic individuals had more favorable body images and were higher in masculinity and self-esteem. No gender differences were observed in either the levels of narcissism or its body image correlates. Overall, the findings suggest that the NPI measures “adjusted” narcissism rather than the “maladaptive” narcissism emphasized in theoretical and clinical accounts of the construct.     

Self-stereotyping,sex role ideology,and menstrual attitudes: A social identity approach

Two studies were conducted to explore the effects of self-stereotyping (SS) and sex role ideology (SRI) on Australian women's menstrual attitudes. In Study 1 a sample of undergraduate women at a small regional college showed significant menstrual attitude differences when grouped according to Traditional, Moderate, and Feminist SRI. In Study 2 the SRI effect was replicated in a more ethnically diverse sample of undergraduate women at a large metropolitan university. Women's own attitudes were separated from their stereotyped beliefs about most women and further analyses were conducted within the framework of social identity theory to explore the role self-stereotyping. The hypothesis that the difference between women's own menstrual attitudes and their ratings of most women's attitudes would vary as a function of degree of SS and perceived Prototype was supported. Further research is needed to clarify the SS bias.An abridged version of this paper was presented at the 20th annual meeting of Australian Social Psychologists at Ballarat, Victoria, April 1991. The authors wish to acknowledge the contribution of Dr. Sung Mook Hong to Study 1. For comments and suggestions on Study 2, we would like to thank Professor Marilyn Brewer, Dr. Pip Pattison, and Dr. Michael Hogg.