Stability of personality self-ratings over 30 years: evidence for an age/cohort interaction

An investigation was made of the hypothesis of Bloom (1964) and others that the stability of personality is greater among older than younger adults. The subjects were 459 men in two cohorts, followed from 1947 to 1977 as part of a longitudinal medical study. Self-ratings were obtained over the 30-year period on 15 item-factor scales from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory and on two higher order factors. There was no selective attrition in the sample with respect to baseline personality scores. Thirty-year uncorrected stability coefficients ranged from .08 to .88 across the two cohorts. There was substantial evidence of greater stability on many traits in the older than in the younger age/cohort group. Furthermore, in late adulthood, traits related to the higher order factor Constraint were more stable than were traits related to Positive vs. Negative Affectivity. The study is not a definitive test of Bloom's hypothesis because cohort and age effects are confounded. However, the results are supportive of the hypothesis and the study improves on existing research in a number of ways.     

Inherited predisposition to alcoholism: characteristics of sons of male alcoholics

Sons of male alcoholics (SOMAs) are at markedly heightened genetic risk for the development of alcohol abuse. Study of SOMAs could therefore conceivably increase the efficiency of research aimed at uncovering those heritable factors that predispose to alcoholism. SOMAs manifest observable behavioral, cognitive, and psychophysiological abnormalities while sober and react idiosyncratically to alcohol intoxication. They are most commonly described as conduct disordered and hyperactive, appear heir to a variety of deficits in verbal and abstract cognition, and perform more poorly in the academic environment. SOMAs are characterized by abnormal patterns of cued psychophysiological response, and appear more sensitive to the putatively reinforcing aspects of alcohol intoxication. Various methodological weaknesses permeate the relevant literature. Some straightforward improvements are suggested.     

Instrumentation for an electrocutaneous communication device

The device described is a prototype that uses spatiotemporal resolution for electrocutaneous stimulation. Signals initiated through a keyboard activate a matrix of four electrodes that may be applied to the fingers, forearm, abdomen, back, or other parts of the integument. The instrumentation described includes a pulse generator, the active time and delay time controls, the control of the total length of a pulse train, and the constant-current generators whose output is fed into the electrodes. This device may be used as an interface with an alphanumeric device (e.g., a calculator or computer) and as a basic instrument in research investigating the spatial and temporal resolving capacities of the skin senses.     

Evidence-based treatment of stuttering: II. Clinical significance of behavioral stuttering treatments

An evidence-based framework can be described as an empirically-driven, measurement-based, client-sensitive approach for selecting treatments. It is believed that using such a framework is more likely to result in a clinically significant outcome. For this paper, a clinically significant outcome was defined as a meaningful treatment change. It was suggested that there are at least three groups for whom a treatment's outcome is meaningful. These groups include clinicians/clinical researchers, the clients, and relevant others who have some interest in the outcome (e.g., parents of a child who stutters). The meaning and measurement of clinical significance was discussed for each of these three groups, based on research from the behavioral stuttering treatment literature. EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES: The reader will learn about and be able to (1) broadly define a clinically significant outcome and identify some of the groups who are interested in such an outcome and (2) describe how clinical significance has been evaluated in stuttering treatment within an evidence-based framework.     

Towards a functional neural systems model of developmental stuttering

This paper overviews recent developments in an ongoing program of brain imaging research on developmental stuttering that is being conducted at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio. This program has primarily used H₂¹⁵O PET imaging of different speaking tasks by right-handed adult male and female persistent stutterers, recovered stutterers and controls in order to isolate the neural regions that are functionally associated with stuttered speech. The principal findings have emerged from studies using condition contrasts and performance correlation techniques. The emerging findings from these studies are reviewed and referenced to a neural model of normal speech production recently proposed by Jürgens [Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev. 26 (2002) 235]. This paper will report (1) the reconfiguration of previous findings within the Jürgens Model; (2) preliminary findings of an investigation with late recovered stutterers; (3) an investigation of neural activations during a treatment procedure designed to produce a sustained improvement in fluency; and (4) an across-studies comparison that seeks to isolate neural regions within the Jürgens Model that are consistently associated with stuttering. Two regions appear to meet this criterion: right anterior insula (activated) and anterior middle and superior temporal gyri (deactivated) mainly in right hemisphere. The implications of these findings and the direction of future imaging investigations are discussed.

Educational objectives: The reader will learn about (1) recent uses of H₂¹⁵O PET imaging in stuttering research; (2) the use of a new neurological model of speech production in imaging research on stuttering; and (3) initial findings from PET imaging investigations of treated and recovered stutterers.     

Profiles of Counseling Pioneers: A Visit With Kathleen and Gilbert Wrenn

The authors have had the honor of knowing Gilbert and Kathleen Wrenn for 20 years; this story is about them. As Gilbert stated, “I am not a lone star, but part of a constellation… ”(Wachowiak & Aubrey, 1976, p. 76). The authors are privileged to know that for Gilbert, Kathleen (his partner of 72 years in 1996) is the center of that constellation. This article briefly captures pieces of the journey of 72+ years, on which Gilbert and Kathleen, each at 96 years of age, are continuing to travel together.     

Clergy involvement in occupational safety and health

The toll exacted by occupational injuries and illnesses on employed people involves a degree of personal and family suffering of such magnitude that clergy can legitimately consider it a part of their pastoral responsibilities to address the problem. Several cogent reasons for clergy involvement in occupational safety and health are provided, along with approaches clergy can implement to help parishioners reduce their workplace risks. Resources for assistance in engaging in these activities are suggested.This article represents an expansion of a paper that appeared originally inCurrents in Theology and Mission, Fall 1979.     

Leadership Style and Leader Title

In a 2 by 4 design, leadership style (authoritarian versus democratic) was varied against form of address (Mr., Ms., Miss, Mrs.) in a simulated small group case study. Subjects (374 college and high school students) read the case study and then rated their reactions to the leaderson behavioral differential factors of "subordination" and "friendship." These ratings indicate significant effects due to leader style (i.e., greater subordination and stronger friendship attraction to democratic rather than authoritarian leaders). Leader title produced no significantmain effects although authoritarian leaders using the title Ms. evoked higher subordination (p <.001) than other authoritarian leaders.     

Constraint, alcoholism, and electrodermal response in aversive classical conditioning and mismatch novelty paradigms

This study investigated whether low levels of the personality trait of constraint and early-onset alcoholism would be associated with deficits in aversive conditioning and smaller responses to novelty in a stimulus mismatch protocol. Personality traits (constraint and socialization) and skin conductance responses (SCRs) during conditioning and novelty paradigms were assessed in alcoholics (n=41) and non-alcoholics (n=32). The conditioning protocol involved measuring SCRs after conditioned stimuli (CS+: tones) paired with shock, CS− tones unpaired with shock, and CS+ probes unpaired with shock. The mismatch protocol involved measuring SCRs to auditory stimuli consisting of a series of 5 pure tones of the same pitch followed a shorter white noise stimulus (the novel stimulus). Contrary to the hypothesis, alcoholics did not differ from non-alcoholics in SCRs to CS+ probes or on the mismatch measure (SCR novel tone—SCR to 5^th tone). Higher levels of constraint and self-reports of fear during conditioning were associated with smaller responses to both the CS+ probes and the CS− tones as well as the mismatch measure within non-alcoholics, but not within alcoholics. In alcoholics, low constraint was associated with greater habituation to CS+ probes, and poor differential conditioning on measures of change across trials in SCR to CS+ probes and CS− stimuli. The results suggest that different processes influence levels of constraint in non-alcoholics and alcoholics. The data indicate that low constraint in non-alcoholics is associated with allocating fewer processing resources to potentially significant stimuli, rather than being associated with a specific deficit in aversive conditioning per se.