THE IMPACT OF ROLE STRESSORS AND PERSONAL RESOURCES ON THE STRESS EXPERIENCE OF PROFESSIONAL WOMEN

This study explored the contributions of role stressors and personal resources in predicting strain symptoms experienced by 117 professional women employed full-time in academia. Results of multiple regression analyses revealed that, while role stressors alone accounted for only a moderate amount of the variance in reported strain symptoms, 51 % of the variance was explained when both stressors and personal resources were combined. Womend, who experienced higher levels of personal control and social support as well as a greater number of roles occupied reported lower levels of strain symptoms. These results support the use of a transactional model of stress in future multiple role research.     

Relative influence of sincere,insincere, and neutral symbolic models

The study investigated how the sincerity of models affects their influence, using a delay-of-reward paradigm. Subjects were 40 fifth and sixth graders (ages 9 and 10 years, respectively), selected for delayed gratification patterns. In the experimental manipulation, sincerity or insincerity was explicitly attributed to the model or, in a neutral-model condition, no information about the model's sincerity was given. Subjects then observed the symbolically presented model's immediatereward choices, opposed to their own preferences. Immediately after treatment, children in all model conditions and in a fourth, no-model control group responded to a second delay-preference test. It was found that the influence of models varied substantially as a function of experimentally attributed sincerity. Insincere models had considerably less effect than sincere and neutral models, who provoked substantial and equivalent changes. Insincere models did not evoke significantly different change than occurred in the control group. A postexperimental inquiry showed the experimental manipulation had affected perceptions of the model's sincerity and liking for the model, with the insincere model rated considerably lower than the sincere and neutral models. The relevance of cognitive appraisal in observational learning was discussed.     

Androgyny: Some audacious assertions toward its coming of age

It is proposed that the field of research on psychological androgyny has entered a crucial period during which its development will not be optimal unless the following problems are recognized and corrected for: (a) the dangers of too rigidly held values; (b) the prevalence of dubious definitional assumptions; (c) the pervasity of diffuse and/or atheoretical research directions; and (d) alienation from certain basic concerns in mainstream personality research. The origins and nature of each of these problems are discussed, and in each case recommendations for future research are made. Finally, broad outlines are proposed for an idiographic model of sex roles designed to increase the predictive utility of assessment in the area of androgyny research.     

The sensory basis of avoidance responding in the rat : Relative dominance of auditory or visual warning signals and safety signals

Three experiments determined the relative degree of stimulus control exerted by the elements of a compound auditory-visual stimulus when this stimulus was presented in various temporal relationships to a barpress avoidance response. When the compound discriminative stimulus for barpress avoidance responding consisted of onset of white noise and onset of either light or darkness, the white noise always exerted dominant control. When the compound discriminative stimulus consisted of offset of white noise and onset of light, neither element controlled avoidance responding. On the other hand, when a barpress avoidance response produced a compound feedback stimulus consisting of onset of white noise and onset of either light or darkness, the visual element always exerted dominant control. When the compound feedback stimulus consisted of offset of white noise and onset of light, both elements exerted stimulus control.     

The relationship between auditory recall and dysfluency in young stutterers

This study examined the relationship between auditory recall and dysfluent behavior in children. Subjects were 11 stutterers and 11 nonstutterers, ages 4.9–11.10. The Auditory Sequential Memory subtest of the ITPA and the Auditory Attention Span for Related Syllables subtest of the Detroit Test of Learning Aptitudes were administered to both groups. Results indicated that scores on the ITPA were not significantly different. Comparison of the group's scores on the DTLA were highly significant with the control group's scoring 35 months higher. After 6 months of therapy, six children in the experimental group were fluent. Posttests revealed no significant differences on the ITPA. On the DTLA, the experimental group's mean scores significantly increased by 13.9 months. The gain in auditory recall of meaningful material substantiated the hypothesized relationship between auditory recall and dysfluency. This relationship was not viewed as causative of stuttering; data were interpreted as evidence that increased fluency allows children to use previously suppressed linguistic data.     

What's fine for the gander isn't always good for the goose: Sex differences in self-confidence as a function of ability area and comparison with others

Previous investigators have suggested that women display lower self-confidence than men across almost all achievement situations. The empirical validity of this suggestion is assessed in an experiment testing the following hypotheses: (1) Sex differences in self-confidence depend upon the particular ability area. (2) Women's self-confidence is more influenced than men's by characteristics of the particular individual with whom they compare themselves. Undergraduates completed verbal, interpersonal perceptiveness, spatial-mechanical, and creativity subtests. After each subtest, subjects estimated both their own score and that of the average undergraduate, the average male undergraduate, or the average female undergraduate. Self-confidence was operationally defined in terms of how favorably subjects compared their work to that of their peers. As predicted, women's self-confidence was lower than men's in only the spatial-mechanical and creativity subtests; and for women, but not for men, self-confidence depended upon which peer was specified. It is concluded that situation variables do determine sex differences in self-confidence and that women's self-confidence may be unduly affected by situation-specific comparison cues.The preparation of this article was supported in part by a Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship in Women's Studies awarded to the author by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. Some portions of the study reported in this article were presented at the Western Psychological Association 1976 Convention (Lenney, Note 1) and were briefly abstracted in another article (Lenney, 1977). The author wishes to express her deep appreciation to Walter Mischel and to Sandra Bem for their invaluable consultations on the writing of this article.