The effects of a career course on undecided college students

The effects of a career course taught by 11 instructors (two sections each) for college students, who were undecided about a major field or career, were evaluated in a pre-post design using the Vocational Identity, Occupational Information, and Barrier scales of the My Vocational Situation (J. A. Holland, D. C. Daiger, & P. G. Power, Palo Alto, Calif.: Consulting Psychologists Press, 1980). Large main effects were observed for the Identity and Occupational Information scales, but not for the Barriers scale. No interactions by instructor or student characteristics were found by using a simple ANOVA procedure or by using a split plot factorial design. The implications for new research and career instructors were discussed.     

A criminal offender introspective report.

The development of a new scale suitable for research with the criminal offender was described. Based on the factor analysis of an item pool delineating sociopathic personality traits, five factors were derived to compose an 80-item criminal offender introspective report (COIR).     

Differential encoding as a function of semantic polarity and form of visual stimulus presentation

The present study investigated the saliency of form of visual stimulus presentation (printed word or picture) and of the semantic evaluative dimension (positive or negative) as encoding attributes for fifth-grade children. Three short-term memory trials within one visual form of presentation or one pole of the evaluative dimension were followed by a fourth short-term memory trial on which the stimulus material was shifted on one or both attributes (experimentals) or held constant (controls). The recall of the experimental groups consistently exceeded that of the control groups on the shift trial, providing evidence for a release from proaetive inhibition and implying the saliency of both the form of visual stimulus presentation and the evaluative polarity of the stimulus concepts as encoding dimensions.     

Undergraduates' punish-help judgments: The effect of transgressor's and victim's sex

Thirty-six undergraduates were presented with four hypothetical court cases in which the negligent actions of one individual (male or female) resulted in harm to another individual (male or female). Each participant read one case from each of the four sex of transgressor— sex of victim dyads. The sex dyads associated with the cases were counterbalanced across the four nine-member groups. Following each case, the subjects were asked to (1) rate the importance of punishing the transgressor and aiding the victim, (2) allocate $1000 of tax revenues to punishing the transgressor and/or helping the victim, (3) select either punishing or helping if the available resources could be used for only one, and (4) rate how angry and how sad they thought the victim felt. Although the undergraduates generally favored helping over punishing, their ratings indicated that they perceive female victims as more emotional and as meriting more assistance than males experiencing the same misfortunes. The relation of the present findings to those of a similar study involving children is discussed.     

Women's involvement in multiple roles and psychological distress

Women's involvement in multiple roles was examined in relation to three stress indices: role overload, role conflict, and anxiety. Using hierarchical multiple regression analyses, effects of number of roles occupied; occupancy of the particular roles of paid worker, wife, and mother; and the quality of a woman's experience in her roles were analyzed. Data were from a disproportionate stratified random sample (N = 238) of Caucasian women between 35 and 55 years of age. For the total sample and for employed women, occupancy of the role of mother was related to two stress indices; occupancy of the role of paid worker was related to none. The quality of experience in the work and parental roles was a significant predictor of role overload; quality of parental role experience was a significant predictor of role conflict and of anxiety.     

Enjoyment of Sexualization and Feminism: Relationships with Sexual Self-Schema and Psychosexual Health

Feminists have debated whether enjoyment of sexualization (ES)—when women find sexualized attention from men rewarding—represents empowerment or patriarchal oppression. The purpose of this study was to investigate the psychosexual correlates of ES—sexual self-schema (SSS) and psychosexual health—among heterosexual college women (n?=?754) and men (n?=?389). Among women, ES was associated with a SSS in which women saw themselves as more heterosexual, more attractive, more open to unconventional sex acts, and having greater sentimentality about romantic relationships. Regarding psychosexual health, ES was not linked with general self-esteem but was associated with higher sexual esteem and lower sexual depression. Among men, ES was not related to SSS or psychosexual health. Overall, among women, ES was linked with positive outcomes, and it may represent women conforming to societal norms and using sexualized attention in order to obtain romantic intimacy. Rather than internalized misogyny, ES may represent an open approach to sexuality in which women take advantage of their sexualized position in society for their own empowerment.     

A multigroup confirmatory factor analysis of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 among English- and Spanish-speaking Latinas

Depression is a significant problem for ethnic minorities that remains understudied partly due to a lack of strong measures with established psychometric properties. One screening tool, the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), which was developed for use in primary care has also gained popularity in research settings. The reliability and validity of the PHQ-9 has been well established among predominantly Caucasian samples, in addition to many minority groups. However, there is little evidence regarding its utility among Hispanic Americans, a large and growing cultural group in the United States. In this study, we investigated the reliability and structural validity of the PHQ-9 in Hispanic American women. A community sample of 479 Latina women from southern California completed the PHQ-9 in their preferred language of English or Spanish. Cronbach's alphas suggested that there was good internal consistency for both the English- and Spanish-language versions. Structural validity was investigated using multigroup confirmatory factor analysis. Results support a similar one-factor structure with equivalent response patterns and variances among English- and Spanish-speaking Latinas. These results suggest that the PHQ-9 can be used with confidence in both English and Spanish versions to screen Latinas for depression.