Personality and modulation of the startle reflex by emotionally-toned filmclips

Several researchers have found that pleasant foreground stimuli attenuate the eyeblink component of the startle reflex while unpleasant foreground stimuli potentiate it. The effects of personality factors on such modulation of the eyeblink response, as measured by electromyographic (EMG) activity in reaction to loud acoustic startle probes, were examined in subjects viewing emotionally-toned (pleasant, unpleasant and neutral) filmclips. During the main part of the experiment, introverts had higher baseline EMG activity and lower response probability than extraverts; no differences were observed at the beginning of the experiment, during an acclimatization session. Reflex modulation, as measured by response latency, was influenced by the Psychoticism (P) factor of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire: subjects high on P showed longer latencies to eyeblink onset when probed during viewing of pleasant filmclips than subjects low on this dimension; no significant differences were observed between subjects low and high on P for neutral and unpleasant filmclips. No influence of personality factors was found on affective modulation as measured by response amplitude/magnitude. The results are discussed in relation to Gray's and Eysenck's theories of personality.     

Guilt and self-sacrifice: The plight of the better-off sibling

In this article, the experience of guilt and its behavioral sequelae, self-sacrifice, in the lives of certain therapy clients is explored. Subjects are adults who perceived as children that they were more gified in some area critical to their parents' values than was a sibling. These clients were successful children, but have come to therapy unsuccessful in some crucial area of their adult lives. Their sibling relationship was of primary importance to them. The relationship was very relevant to the lack of adult success they had experienced. Theory is developed to explain this phenomenon, and illustrative case examples are presented and suggestions are made for treatment.     

The real as illusion: deconstructing power in family therapy

This paper examines the current issue of power and intervention in family therapy from the perspective of Jacques Derrida's philosophy. In a deconstructive reading which presents power as both real and socially constructed, it negotiates the border between such dualities as knowing/ not-knowing, intervention/non-intervention, and power/non-power. The paper tracks Goolishian and Anderson's approach to therapy as deconstructive in practice, but not in theory, and discusses a double view of power in relation to both Bateson and Foucault. It suggests that power is both endemic to the context of family therapy and an illusion of epistemology. The paper concludes with a discussion of the wider question of ethics in relation to technology.     

Habituation of cognitive and physiological arousal and social anxiety

This study examined differences in habituation between high and low socially anxious Ss. Participants gave three impromptu speeches, each separated by a brief rest interval. Skin conductance and heart rate were monitored during the speeches. Following each speech participants completed self-ratings of nervousness, heart rate, and palmar sweat activity as well as a modified Social Interaction Self Statement Test. Low anxious controls showed significant reduction of negative expectations and self-reported nervousness, heart rate, and sweat activity across the three trials. Actual heart rate of low-anxious subjects also decreased significantly across trials. In contrast, high anxious subjects did not evidence significant decreases in any of the above measures of anxiety and stress across the three trials. Skin conductance measures increased across trials for both groups, but increased more for the high anxious group than low-anxious controls. Results indicate that high anxiety participants are slow to decrease cognitive and autonomic responsiveness to stressful social situations.     

EVALUATING MEASURES OF CONTEMPORARY SEXISM

Two recently published measures of contemporary sexist attitudes were examined and compared with a sample of 106 Canadian college students. Swim, Aikin, Hall, and Hunter's (1995) Modern Sexism scale was found to be an acceptable measure of sexist attitudes in terms of its internal reliability and its ability to predict other gender-related political attitudes. Although the Modern Sexism scale and the Neosexism scale (Tougas, Brown, Beaton, & Joly, 1995) were equally good at predicting support for the feminist movement and attitudes toward lesbians and gay men, the Neosexism scale had better internal reliability and exhibited stronger gender differences. Moreover, the Neosexism scale was superior at predicting value orientations relevant to modern prejudices.     

Social problem-solving in depressed,conduct-disordered,and normal adolescents

Although past theory and research implicate social problem-solving deficits in both depression and aggressive disorders, research examining carefully diagnosed groups of adolescent depressed and conduct-disordered groups had not previously been conducted. In the current study three groups of adolescents (major depression, conduct-disordered, and normal) were studied using two social problem-solving measures. Both the Means-Ends Problem-Solving task (MEPS) and the Social Situations Analysis measure (SSA) failed to show social problem-solving problem deficits in the depressed group relative to their normal age peers, but did provide corroborative evidence for social problem-solving deficits in the conduct-disordered sample. Relative to the other two groups, the conduct-disordered adolescents were found to generate fewer means to a social end, to anticipate fewer obstacles in the pursuit of solutions to interpersonal situations, and to generate fewer assertive behavioral solutions to difficult social situations. The results are discussed in relation to other work with depressed and aggressive youth, and directions for future research are given.     

Facing up to the issues: Reply to Hellige (1983)

In a recent article in this journal, Hellige (Brain and Cognition, 2, 199-203, 1983) presented a critique of the chimeric-face technique that was used by us to validate a hand preference questionnaire. Data were presented by Hellige to show that the left visual field (LVF) bias that occurs on this task is due primarily to differences in detail in the features of the two faces and not because of right hemisphere dominance for face perception. In our rebuttal, we acknowledge that the two faces are not mirror-image duplicates of each other, but contend that this fact does not explain why differences between left-handers and right-handers have been observed on this task. Further data on the role of handedness as well as other variables impacting on this task are presented. A possible explanation is also offered for the rather small extent of LVF bias that Hellige obtained when he used corrected (i.e., true mirror-image) versions of Jaynes' chimeric faces.