Pressures from work,self, and home in the life stages of married women

Following Lopata's (1966) model of the life cycle of the married woman's role, it was predicted and found that a woman's life stage would be related to her role pressures (work, home, self, and time), conflict, and satisfaction. Age and number of roles were not as strongly related to these variables as was life stage. Work activities and pressures declined through the peak child-rearing stage and then increased for women with older children, while pressures from home generally rose throughout the life cycle. The differential impact of various sources of conflict in different life stages was reported, and forms of organizational career support oriented toward particular life stages were suggested.     

Orogastric, hydrational, and behavioral controls of drinking following water deprivation in rats.

Drinking and its associated behaviors were studied in rats deprived of fluid for 8,24, or 48 hr. The behavior of rats drinking water could be divided into three successive stages: (a) an initial intense burst of drinking that could not be easily disrupted; (b) intermittent drinking, often distinguished by the brief appearance of conflict behavior directed at the drinking spout; and (c) termination of drinking. Drinking stopped well before the fluid loss, reflected in a sizable extracellular deficit, was restored. Intake of water was terminated when serum hyponatremia and hypoosmolality (and presumably cellular overhydration) developed in temporal continguity with drinking. These and other considerations suggest that the cellular fluid phase exerts significant inhibitory as well as excitatory control over drinking.     

The effects of ventriloquism on the right-side advantage for verbal material

Subjects were asked to recall one of two simultaneous messages coming from hidden loudspeakers situated either at 90° or at 45° from the median plane to the left and to the right. They were told that the messages were coming from two visible dummy loudspeakers which were also situated either at 90° or at 45°. Pre-stimulus cueing of the side to be recalled was given. Significant right-side advantage was obtained in the 90° real-fictitious condition, not in the other conditions. These results show that right-side advantage can be obtained with presentation over loudspeakers and unilateral recall, and dismiss a purely structural or purely cognitive view of lateral asymmetries in audition. Role of structural and cognitive factors is discussed.     

Book reviews

BLACKMAN, D. Operant Conditioning: An Experimental Analysis of Behaviour. London: Methuen. 1974. Pp. 248. £3.20.

Bower, G. H. (Ed.). the Psychology of Learning and Motivation: Advances in Research and Theory. Vol. 7. Academic Press: New York. 1973. Pp. 370. £.15.

Lehrman, D.S., Hinde, R. A. and Shaw, E. (Ed.). Advances in The Study of Behavior. Vol. 4. Academic Press: New York. 1972. Pp. 217. £4.70.

MARK, R. Memory and Nerve Cell Connections. Oxford University Press. 1974. Pp. 156. E2.95.

HABER, R. N. and HERSHENSON, M. The Psychology of Visual Perception. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. 1973. Pp. 398.

ESSMAN, W. B. and NAKAJIMA, S. (Eds.). Current Biochemical Approaches to Learning and Memory. New York: Spectrum/Wiley. 1973. Pp. ix+205. £8.40.

GIBBS, M. E. and MARK, R. F. Inhibition of Memory Formation. New York and London: Plenum. 1973. Pp. x + 554. $29.00.

ZIPPEL, H. P. (Ed.). Memory and Transfer of Information. New York and London: Plenum. 1973. Pp. xxiv+582. $33.50.     

Visual stream Segregation

A visual analog of auditory stream segregation occurs when a dot moving in discrete, jumps, alternates between positions on two regular trajectories. At slow speeds, one dot in irregular motion is seen. At higher speeds, two dots are seen, each moving in a regular trajectory.     

Token economy systems: breakdown and control

Attention is drawn to the relatively high rate of breakdown of token economy programmes, and the reasons for this are considered. Reference is made to the results of a questionnaire circulated to British token economy programmes. Reasons for breakdown are considered in five categories, these being: nonexistent or poor patient selection; inadequate selection and training of nursing and ward staff; lack of definition of the functions of the supervising psychologist; poor co-operation from, and communication with, administrative staff; and active interference by the community. Solutions to these problems are suggested. The value of alternative or additional theoretical frameworks in promoting positive control of token systems is discussed.     

The relationship between goals,performance, success,self-image,and involvement under different organization climates

This is an attempt to test the following causal chain of relationships: →support←goals→performance→success→self-image→involvement→future goals as hypothesized in Hall's (Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 1971, 6, 50–76) model of the development of work involvement. It was further hypothesized that there would be more evidence for the existence of this “success cycle” in an organization with a climate of high support and feedback than in an organization with lower levels of support and feedback. Data were collected near the beginning and end of the school year in two primary schools and analyzed with correlations and path analysis. The hypotheses received moderate support. As expected, more evidence for the success cycle was found in the high-support school. In the high-support organization, the person's own goals correlated with success, while in the lower-support school, the person's self-image was the main correlate of success.