Neighborhood, family, and subjective socioeconomic status: How do they relate to adolescent health?

This study investigated the role of neighborhood, family, and individual subjective socioeconomic status (SES) in predicting adolescent physical health and psychological characteristics. Three hundred fifteen adolescents completed assessments of blood pressure, cortisol, and body mass index (BMI). Results revealed that lower neighborhood SES was associated with higher BMI and lower basal cortisol levels and that these effects persisted after controlling for family SES. Both family SES and neighborhood SES predicted negative psychological characteristics and experiences such as hostility and discrimination. In contrast, only subjective SES predicted positive psychological characteristics. These findings suggest the importance of understanding influences at the individual, family, and neighborhood levels for optimally targeting interventions to reduce health disparities earlier in life.     

Low-ball and compliance to a request: an application in a field setting

The low-ball refers to a compliance technique in which a demand of someone to agree to a request is followed by telling the person the real cost of the request. The number of people who maintain their first decision is larger than the number in the condition in which the real cost of the request is stated prior to the initial compliance. Researches in this paradigm traditionally included a request addressed by a professor to students but was never tested between strangers. So, an experiment was carried out in which people were solicited to keep a dog (8 kg) on a lead until a male confederate returned from a visit to someone in a hospital. In low-ball condition, the confederate told the subject who agreed to the request that it would take 30 min., whereas in the control condition the confederate gave this information when stating his request. Analysis showed that low-ball technique leads people to maintain their first decision.     

Touch,awareness of touch,and compliance with a request

In certain situations it has been shown that touch has a positive effect on the compliance with a request expressed by a stranger. However, the difference between the effect of touch on request compliance between people who had noticed and those who had not noticed this contact has never been taken into account. In this experiment a female confederate asked 227 women to answer a questionnaire. When asking for their collaboration the forearm was or was not touched for a brief period of 1 to 2 seconds. Analysis showed that touch was associated with significantly higher compliance to the request but no difference was found between subjects who had noticed the tactual contact and subjects who had not noticed.     

MMPI-2 typology of pregnant drug-dependent women in treatment

The present study examined the validity of Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) typology for pregnant drug-dependent women. A 3-cluster solution based on 7 MMPI-2 clinical scales emerged as the best model and was replicated across split-half samples and different primary substance-use diagnoses and treatment modalities. The 3 subtypes identified included Type I (n = 40, 24%) with no clinical elevation, Type II (n = 72, 42%) with elevated psychopathic deviate scale, and Type III (n = 58, 34%) with elevations on all 7 scales. Analyses with interview and self-report measures showed good concurrent validity. Type II had higher retention than Type I and Type III across methadone and medication-free treatments, showing some predictive validity. An a priori method for classifying new cases on the basis of the proposed typology was developed and validated. Study findings support MMPI-2's use with pregnant drug-dependent women for assessment and possibly treatment planning.     

Effects of number and strength of competing solutions on the perceptual interference effect

Five-letter fragments of recently studied 8-letter words are easier to solve when presented all at once than when clarified from a more degraded form (i.e., by starting with a 2-letter fragment and adding letters). The competition explanation proposes that highly degraded stimuli activate alternative hypotheses that interfere with target identification. In Experiment 1, the number of solutions that fit the initial, 2-letter fragment was varied. Performance was better in the 2-solution than in the 1-solution condition. In Experiment 2, distractor solutions (solutions that fit the 2-letter fragment but not subsequent fragments) were either primed (previously studied) or unprimed. Solution performance was better when distractors were primed rather than unprimed. Perceptual interference appears to result from negative feedback operating on a prematurely activated correct hypothesis, rather than from competition between hypotheses.     

中国古代心理学思想中的注意问题

本文根据古代思想家的有关言论,探讨了他们的注意心理思想,即注意的慨念。特征,分心与分散,分配与集中,注意与感知、记忆、思维的关系,注意在学习中的作用。     

航空安全文化评估新进展

安全文化作为组织文化的重要组成部分,是影响组织成员安全态度和行为的核心价值体系,通过个体变量对组织安全保健和安全绩效产生深远的影响。在安全态度与价值观层面上利用问卷调查的形式探讨航空安全文化的结构成份,不仅揭示了安全文化现象背后的基本隐形内涵,同时也有助于我们理解特定文化因素在现代航空安全管理中的重要作用。该文阐述了安全文化与航空安全管理的关系问题,介绍了不同航空组织内安全文化的作用及评估机制,并进一步指出了目前研究中存在的不足和对未来研究的展望。     

Neuropsychological findings of extrapontine myelinolysis without central pontine myelinolysis

Central pontine myelinolysis (CPM) and extrapontine myelinolysis (EPM) are well recognized syndromes related to the rapid correction of hyponatremia, which are reported to show brain stem signs and various movement disorders. Cognitive dysfunction and neuropsychological findings, however, have seldom been reported. Cognitive manifestations in osmotic myelinolysis may have been underestimated due to the prominent brain stem symptoms and movement disorders. We report a case of EPM without CPM and describe the neuropsychological findings of EPM. The absence of CPM in this case made it possible to test neuropsychological function in the acute stage. Neuropsychological testing showed severe impairment of attention, verbal and visual memory, visuospatial function, and frontal/executive function. Language and language-related functions were normal except naming.