Videotaped simulated families as a tool in family therapy outcome research

Twenty-two therapists who had treated 57 families in brief conjoint family therapy under supervision responded to a videotaped simulated family as if they were treating it. Their responses were audiotaped and coded on a system devised for this study. Positive relationships were found between the ratings of expertise based on the coding system, and independent ratings of the treated families' satisfaction with treatment and the status of the presenting symptoms 6 months after termination. Videotaped simulated families are potentially useful as standardizable methods of revealing individual differences in therapists for family therapy outcome research.     

Effect of forget instructions with and without the conditions for selective search*

A PA probe experiment was conducted to determine whether a mechanism other than selective search is involved in the Only effect of directed forgetting. To accomplish this, a small number of trials which tested all pairs in the list successively (“all” trials) were intermixed with the standard single-probe trials. On “single” trials, both pretest mechanisms and selective search may operate, but on “all” trials, selective search was eliminated. The analysis compared the Only effect and intrusion data under these two conditions and examined the fate of to-be-forgotten (TBF) recall on “all” trials. The evidence confirmed the major role of selective search in producing the Only effect. It was concluded that if a pretest mechanism was operative, it did not have the properties of a voluntary forgetting mechanism and it had only a small effect on the first half of the list.     

Reaction to a Campus Confrontation1

Students' reactions to the occupation of a university building were surveyed on the first and last day of the occupation as well as several weeks following the end of the occupation. Respondents were either day or evening school students at two different campuses of the same university. Results of the survey indicate that: (1) The majority of students, both day and evening, believe that the university should negotiate with the occupiers. The only exception to this trend is a group of political conservatives who advocate punishment. (2) The conflict tends to polarize attitudes about radicals, but mostly against them rather than in their favor. (3) A striking net increase is found in attitudes favorable to conventional political groups. (4) The closer the physical proximity of the respondent to the scene of the conflict, the more negative are his attitudes toward those who are seen as responsible for the disruption. (5) Evening school students are more negative toward the occupiers than are day school students. (6) The attitudes of young evening students are more similar to those of their older classmates than to those of their day school agemates.     

Does retinal size have a unique correlate in perceived size?

Subjects estimated the size and distance of a single electroluminescent disc in the absence of distance cues and without the use of visual comparators. For different groups of Ss the disc subtended a visual angle of 1, 2, 4, or 8 deg. The size estimates varied directly with visual angle and the distance estimates varied inversely with visual angle. These results were considered in relation to the question of whether or not retinal size hasa direct correlate in perceived size.