TWO GENERATIONS OF MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS: ROLE POSITION AND INTERDEPENDENCE

Using both partners as informants and three interdependence measures (contact, aid, and attachment) as criterion variables, we address the assumption that women's orientation to and dependence on other generations differ because of unique roles. In 135 pairs of student women and their mothers and 119 pairs of middle-aged women and their mothers, we ask how a woman's role position interacts with her partner's role position in regard to interdependence. Both dyadic and individual role combinations are examined. In younger pairs, we examine the combination of daughter's marital status and both mother's launching and work statuses; in older pairs, we examine the combination of mother's marital status and both daughter's launching and marital statuses. Regression analyses demonstrate that, except for younger pairs where married daughters and their mothers are less interdependent than single daughters and their mothers, interdependence is remarkably unrelated to role positions, singly or in combination. Results suggest normative pressures toward new conjugal bonds and stability in women's family roles.     

Reading,spelling, and vigilance in attention deficit and conduct disorder

A group of 51 male children, average age 9.1 years, presenting at a child psychiatric clinic because of attention and conduct problems were investigated for reading and phonetic spelling ability, vigilance, and intellectual level. Each child was given a DSM- III diagnosis prior to being tested. The Boder Test of Reading and Spelling patterns was used to obtain scores for reading age, number of syllables read correctly in the word list at the child's reading level, and number of phonetically correct syllables spelled in the known and unknown word lists, at and just above the child's reading level. A factor analysis with varimax rotation produced two significant factors, a Reading factor with high loadings for verbal and reading scores, aand a second Vigilance factor. Phonetic spelling ability loaded separately from reading into the Vigilance factor. The Vigilance factor was significantly related to the diagnosis of moderate and severe attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity (ADDH). The correlation of short- term working memory with vigilance in moderate to severe ADDH children is discussed.Fundling assistance was provided by the New South Wales Institute of Psychiatry.     

Individual differences for sex differences in achievement attributions?

Past research has found a self-defensive bias in males and a self-derogatory bias in female achievement attributions. Dispositional explanations for these differences were examined in the present study. Subjects completed measures of Need for Achievement, Self-Esteem, Fear of Success, Attitudes Toward Women, and Androgyny. They later competed in same- or mixed-sex pairs on an anagram task which was prearranged in difficulty so that one subject clearly defeated his/her partner. Consistent with past research, males were more likely to attribute their outcomes to ability, and less likely to attribute their outcomes to effort and luck, than were females. Achievement motivation was the most consistently successful predictor of these sex differences.     

Book reviews

Early Behavior: Comparative and Developmental Approaches. Edited by H. W. Stevenson, E. H. Hess, and H. L. Rheingold. London and New York: Wiley. 1967. Pp. xii + 303 75s.

Current Research in Motivation. Edited by Ralph Norman Haber. London and New York: HOlt, Rinehart and Winston. Pp. xii + 800. £5

Language and Thought. Edited by Donald C. Hildum. London: Van Nostrand, Insight Book No. 37. 1967. Pp. vi + 2 00. $1.95. 16s.

Hormones and Behavior. Edited by Richard E. Whelan. London: Van Nostrand. Insight Book No. 39. I967. Pp. vi + 266. $2.95. 24s.     

Book reviews

Machine Intelligence. Edited by N. L. Collins and D. Michie. Edinburgh: Oliver & Body. 1967. Pp x + 278. 63s.

Mechanisms of Animal behavior. By P. R. Marler and W. J. Hamilton III. London and New York: Wiley. 1966. Pp. xi + 740. 113s.

Animal Behaviour: A Synthesis of Ethology and Comparative Psychology. By Robert A. Hinde. London: McGraw-Hill. 1966. Pp. x + 534. 84s.

Manual of Psychophysiological Methods. Edited by P.H Venables and Irene Martin. Amsterdam: North-Holland publishing Co. 1967. Pp ix + 557. £4 10s. od.

The Senses. By Lowenstein. London: Penguin Books. Pelican Original. 1966. Pp. 217. 5s.

Human Spatial Orientation. By I. P. Howard and W. B. Templeton. London and New York: Wiley. 1966. Pp. 553. 84s. net.

Attention: An Enduring Problem in Psychology. Edited by Paul Baskan. London: van Nostrand. Insight book No. 34. 1966. Pp. iv + 225. 14s. $1.75.

Amnesia. Edited by C. W. M. Whitty and O. L. Zangwill. London: Butterworths. 1967. Pp. x + 217. 64s.

Brain Function. Volume III: Speech, Language and Communication. Edited by Edward C. Carterette, UCLA Forum in Medical Sciences. No. 4. University of California Press. London: Cambridge University press. 1967. Pp. xiii + 279. 96s.

Annual review of Psychology. Volume 18. Edited by P. R. Farnsworth, O. McNemar and O. McNemar. Palo Alto, California: Annual Reviews Inc. 1967. PP. 606. $9.00 ($8.50 in U.S.A.).

Contemporary Approaches to Psychology. Edited by H. helson and W. bevan. Princeton, New Jersey and London: Van Nostrand Company. 1967. Pp. xii + 596. £5 16s.

The Hypnotic Investigation of Dereams. By C. scott Moss. London and New York: Wiley. 1967. Pp. xi + 290. 60s.

The Dynamics of Behavior Development: An Epigenetic View. By Zing-Yang Kuo. Random House Studies In Psychology (Consulting Editor, L. J. Stone) New York: Random House. 1967. Pp. xii + 240. $2.45.

Self-Evaluation: Concepts and Studies. By James C. Diggory. London and New York: Wiley. 1966. Pp. xiii + 477. 80s.

The Psychology of Interpersonal Behaviour. by Michael Argyle. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd. 1967. Pp. 223. 4s. 6d.

The Causes of Behaviour II. Second edition. Edited by Judy F. Rosenblith and Wesley Allinsmith. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. 1966. Pp. xv + 608. $6.95.     

Effects of discriminability and irrelevant information on absolute judgments’

The effects of irrelevant information (0, 1, 2, or 3 bits stimulus) on absolute judgments of size were measured at different levels of discrimination difficulty. The stimuli were 7 small circular spots of light of different sizes, selected from an eaual-discriminability scole, and arranged into 6 pairs that represented different levels of stimulus dissimilarity. Three of the pairs comprised a low-dissimilarity (LD) subgrouping in which different lepels of dissimilarity and discriminability were confounded, whereas the remaining three pairs comprised a high-dissimilarity (HD) subgrouping in which different levels of dissimilarity occurred at a single high level of discriminability. Different colors were used to provide the four levels of irrelevant information; 240 Ss (10 in each of the 24 experimental conditions) made absolute judgments of size under the classical procedure for the method of single stimuli. Separate analyses of errors, reaction times, and rates of information transmission indicated that irrelevant information had an increasingly detrimental effect on absolute judgments as discrimination difficulty was increased (in the LD subgroup), but essentially no effect where discriminations were easily modefin the HD subgroup).