Having it all? Combining work and family in a male and a female profession

Are women in a female-dominated profession more successfully able to combine work and family obligations than women in a male-dominated profession? To explore this question, a comparison was made between the family status and careers of 747 women librarians (a female-dominated profession) and those of 449 women MBAs (a male-dominated profession). It was expected that the librarians would marry earlier and have more children. This general prediction was not supported. Over half of both groups of women were married, and after controlling for age, there were no differences in number of children. However, many women without children in both groups reported that they would like to be mothers. This disparity between wanting children and not having them was more common for women MBAs than women MLSs. MBAs and librarians were about equally likely to have had job interruptions, but librarians were more likely to have worked part-time. Reasons for an interruption to full-time work were as likely to be for problems finding (full-time) work as for family responsibilities. Librarians' salaries were much lower, but job interruptions and part-time work had a more negative effect on the salaries of women in business. In sum, the data suggest that many of the women surveyed have not combined motherhood with a professional career and that it is probably somewhat more difficult to combine a family with a career in business than with a career in library science.     

The Future of Psychology in Medicaid's Health Delivery System for People with Disabilities

State Medicaid programs are rapidly converting fee-for-service health delivery systems to managed care for people with disabilities. In theory, managed care models of health delivery will substantially improve the quality of care for people with disabilities, but in reality, few successful models exist. This period of transition holds both opportunities and challenges for psychologists in medical settings. Because Medicaid reforms for people with disabilities may herald similar reforms for both the public and the private sectors, psychology's response will determine its role in the future of health care delivery for this population. Changes in training and increased attention to outcomes research, innovations in practice, and advocacy will be the keys to success.     

Effectiveness of School-Based Mental Health Services for Children: A 10-Year Research Review

A review of the literature from 1985 to 1995 on school-based mental health services for children was conducted using a computerized data-base search. Of the 5,046 references initially identified, 228 were program evaluations. Three inclusion criteria were applied to those studies: use of random assignment to the intervention; inclusion of a control group; and use of standardized outcome measures. Only 16 studies met these criteria. Three types of interventions were found to have empirical support for their effectiveness, although some of the evidence was mixed: cognitive-behavioral therapy, social skills training, and teacher consultation. The studies are discussed with reference to the sample, targeted problem, implementation, and types of outcomes assessed, using a comprehensive model of outcome domains, called the SFCES model. Future studies of school-based mental health services should (a) investigate the effectiveness of these interventions with a wider range of children's psychiatric disorders; (b) broaden the range of outcomes to include variables related to service placements and family perspectives; (c) examine the combined effectiveness of these empirically-validated interventions; and (d) evaluate the impact of these services when linked to home-based interventions.     

The Future of Psychology in Departments of Psychiatry

Health care reform has put increasing pressure on faculty of medical schools to become self-supporting. Opportunities for clinical revenue will decrease, but psychologists who are able to generate research funding will become increasingly competitive, albeit as mercenaries, i.e., capable of paying their own way plus generating a profit to support departmental operations and educational programs. Changes in the health care system signal an end to psychiatry's paternalistic relationship to psychology and present opportunities for psychology proactively to influence its future role in health care. Research, political action, and revised scientific mission, models, and roles represent important strategies in the redefining of psychology as a basic science and major profession in health care.     

2-Deoxy-d-Galactose Effects on Passive Avoidance Memorization in the Rat

2-Deoxy-d-galactose (do-gal) hinders glycoprotein fucosylation. This compound was intracerebroventricularly administered to male adult Wistar rats in order to assess whether it could exert amnesic effects on a passive avoidance response (PAR) to be learned in the light–dark box apparatus. Three experiments were performed. In the first, do-gal was administered immediately after the acquisition trials at three dosages (2, 4, and 8 μmol). It was found that only the 4-μmol dosage was followed by PAR disruption. In the second, do-gal was administered at the adequate dosage (4 μmol) either 30 min before the acquisition trial or 30 min before retrieval testing. It was found that only the preretrieval administration was followed by PAR impairment. In the third, do-gal (4 μmol) was administered in postacquisition, at increasing postacquisition delays (0.25, 1.5, 4, and 6 h). It was found that there was PAR disruption only after do-gal administration at the shortest (0.25 h) delay. The results confirm that in the rat, glycoprotein fucosylation is involved in some of the phases of memory trace processing, and they are discussed in relation to other findings in the rat and the chick.     

Do substance abuse and mental health clients prefer automated assessments?

In both psychiatric and substance-abuse services, clinicians have been concerned with the introduction of automated assessments and with their clients’ reactions toward those assessments. The positive reactions of psychiatric clients have been well documented, but little has been known about substance-abusing clients’ impressions of automated assessments. The impact of automated assessment on clients seeking substance-abuse services was evaluated and compared with a previously analyzed sample of clients seeking mental health services. On the whole, both groups responded similarly and positively to automated assessments. Factor analyses revealed three underlying dimensions in client attitudes toward automated assessment,Completeness and satisfaction,Ease of use and enjoyment, andNegative attitudes. In addition, statistically, though not clinically, significant differences in attitudes were found between various demographic groups. Overall, the results support the use of automated assessments with individuals seeking either substance-abuse or mental-health services.     

The organization of multidimensional selection on the basis of color and shape: An event-related brain potential study

In this paper, we examine whether color and shape, tied to a single object in space, (1) are identified and selected in series or in parallel, (2) are identified and selected in a dependent, self-terminating manner or in an independent and exhaustive manner, and (3) are conjoined by a feature integration process before or only after an initial stage of separate attribute analyses has finished. We measured response time and the selection negativity (SN) derived from event-related brain potentials when participants responded to a unique conjunction of color and shape in a go/no-go target detection task. The discriminability of the color and the shape of the conjunction was manipulated in three conditions. When color and shape were easy to discriminate, the SNs to color and shape started at the same time. When one attribute was less discriminable, the SN to that attribute started later, but not the SN to the complementary attribute. This suggests that color and shape are identified and selected in parallel. In all three discriminability conditions, the SNs to color and shape were initially independent but later interacted. This suggests that color and shape are initially selected independently and exhaustively, after which their conjunction is analyzed. The SN to local shape features started later than that to the conjunction of color and global shape features, which suggests that feature integration can start before the analyses of the separate attributes have finished.     

Isoluminance and contingent color aftereffects

In the typical induction of the orientation-contingent color aftereffect (CCAE), the stimuli are composed of elements that differ in both color and luminance. Three experiments are reported that show that chromatic contrast between stimulus elements is insufficient for the induction of the orientation-CCAE and that luminance contrast is necessary. These experiments expand on previous research concerned with the role of luminance contrast in the induction of orientation-CCAEs by eliminating alternative explanations.