Semantic organization in deaf and hearing subjects

Hierarchical cluster analysis of data from the sorting of noun words was used to compare semantic structures in 63 profoundly deaf and 63 hearing adolescents. In the first study, performance differed only for a set of words referring to sounds, where deaf persons have no experience, and not for a set of common noun words and pictures. In the second study, differences between matched sets of high- and low-imagery words were comparable for 63 deaf and 63 hearing subjects. It is concluded that deaf subjects manifested abstract hierarchical relations and were not dependent on visual mediators or hindered by the absence of acoustic mediators.This investigation was supported in part by National Institutes of Health Research Grant NS-09590-03 from the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke and in part by a Faculty Research Grant from Bowling Green State University.Portions of Study 1 were previously reported at the Eighty-first Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, Montreal, 1973.     

How Television News Viewers Deal with Facts that Contradict Their Beliefs: A Consistency and Attribution Analysis1

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of a counterattitudinal news story on the perceived credibility of a television newscaster. In the basic 2 × 2 design, subjects, who were either pro-student or pro-police, viewed a newscast in which either students or police were blamed for initiating a violent confrontation. The results indicated that subjects, for whom the newscast's conclusion was counterattitudinal (as compared to those for whom the conclusion was consistent with initial student-police attitudes), rated the newscast as less objective, rated the newscaster as less credible and more intending to persuade, and attributed to the newscast and newscaster more extreme political positions consistent with the newscast's conclusions The implications of these results for the problem of newscaster credibility are discussed, as are the connections between the present results and previous research on communicator credibility.     

The lost self changes: Gestalt and Christian concepts of rebirth

It is not for me to speak in general terms of the inner reality of him who refuses to believe in a transcendent being with whom he can communicate. I have only this to report: that I have met many men in the course of my life who have told me how, acting from the conscience of men who had become guilty, they experienced themselves as seized by a higher power. These men grew into an existential state to which the name of rebirth is due.Barrie Ryan, M. A., has taught English at the University of Arizona and children of varying ages in several experimental schools in Tucson. She is currently teaching extension courses for the University and a class in Ivan Illich for the Free University also in Tucson.     

Cognitive behavioral perspectives on women and guilt

This paper discusses the application of cognitive behavior therapies to the treatment of the guilt difficulties that women experience in Western industrialized societies. Evidence on the relevance of guilt to women is reviewed, including psychological problems common to women that involve high guilt, sex differences in personality traits, and sex-typing in social roles. Cognitive behavioral theories of guilt are summarized. Areas of inquiry in assessment of dysfunctional guilt are discussed. Three cognitive behavioral treatment strategies for women's guilt are presented. In permission-giving, guilt-provoking behavior is reframed as acceptable. Interventions to lessen discrepancies between guilt-provoking behavior and core roles that are central to self-definition can focus on revising core role requirements and on making behavior more consistent with core roles. Rational-emotive therapy focuses on reduction of irrational beliefs that support self-blame and conditional selfworth and developing more adaptive cognitions. Treatment recommendations for specific guilt problems in assertive refusal and in the aftermath of assault are also reviewed.Ellen Tobey Klass, PhD, associate professor of psychology at Hunter College, City University of New York, and has a private practice in New York City.     

BELIEFS ABOUT THE CONSEQUENCES OF MATERNAL EMPLOYMENT FOR CHILDREN

A 24-item scale was developed to measure Beliefs about the Consequences of Maternal Employment for Children (BACMEC), including beliefs about both benefits (13 items) and costs (11 items). Studies of five samples ( n = 375) demonstrate that the total BACMEC scale and its subscales are highly reliable and have good convergent, divergent, and con-current validity. Scores on the Costs Subscale predicted greater sex-role traditionalism, women's employment status (not employed), and an older age of child at which mother's employment was deemed acceptable. Benefits scores predicted women's employment status (employed) and work hours (longer), younger age of child when maternal work is accept-able, and greater support for policies to aid working parents. The scales were not susceptible to a social desirability bias. Suggestions are provided for the use of the BACMEC scale in future research concerning employment and families.     

Perceptions of self-disclosure as a function of gender-linked variables

One hundred and sixty raters with either an androgynous, masculine, or feminine sex role orientation judged the intimacy and commonness of masculine and feminine self-disclosures attributed to either men or women speakers. Feminine disclosures were rated as significantly more intimate and more common than masculine disclosures. Masculine disclosures made by women were rated as significantly less common than either feminine disclosures by women, or masculine or feminine disclosures by men. Although rater sex role orientation had no significant effects, physical gender did. Female raters judged all disclosures as more intimate than male raters. Implications for future research are discussed.We express our appreciation to Camille DeBell, to the late JoAnn Mantovani, and to Christine Robitschek for their assistance in this research.     

Through a different lens: Examining professional women's interrole coping by focus and mode

An alternative method for classifying women's interrole coping efforts is proposed based upon current stress and coping theory. This coping classification method is then used to examine the coping responses and reported satisfaction of a sample of 135 professional women employed full-time as college faculty. Distinctive patterns of coping response use emerged for this group of women when the coping response strategy was expanded to include whether the response was problem focused or emotion focused and active or passive. The women report greater use of problem-focused than emotion-focused coping responses across several different types of work role conflict situations. Differences in rated satisfaction were reported, with the highest satisfaction reported when active coping responses that involved others were used.