Secobarbital and perceptual processing

An experiment which employed each of 18 subjects in four days of testing was used to examine acute secobarbital dose treatment effects on choice reaction time in a Cooper and Shepard (1973) character recognition task. Manipulations of visual stimulus degradation, character difficulty, 180 degree rotation, and mirror-image reversal were included in order to evaluate the hypothesis that the drug affects performance by disrupting early stimulus input processing. The results indicate significant increases in the effect of secobarbital on reaction time and errors under conditions of visual stimulus degradation. The effects of the drug, however, were not changed by 180 degree rotation of the target character or by the other task variables. The results were interpreted to indicate that secobarbital impairs performance primarily by placing selective stress on hypothetical early encoding activities and that later processing operations (associated with use of an internal representation of the target character) are not affected by the drug. Strengths and weaknesses of the two-stage model of visual stimulus processing are discussed and implications of the model for future drug research are indicated.     

The relationships among gender concepts and cognitive maturity in preschool children

Several aspects of gender concept development were investigated in 60 children of mixed socioeconomic background ranging in age from 3 to 6 years. Tasks were designed to assess gender constancy, knowledge of sex stereotypes, differential memory and preference for sex-typed material, and gender categorization. Cognitive maturity was assessed with a conservation task and total recall on a memory task. Performance improved linearly with age on the gender concepts, individual children of both sexes learned the gender concepts in the same sequence, and cognitive maturity measures were positively related to performance on the gender concept tasks.This research was supported by grants from the Graduate School and the Women's Studes Program, Indiana University. An earlier report of this research was presented at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, San Francisco, August 1977. The author thanks John E. Bates and Candace Schau for their advice and help throughout the project.     

Effect of perceived public stigma on internalized homophobia,anticipated stigma,shame, and guilt: Outness as a moderator

Although previous studies found that distal minority stress contributes to proximal minority stress and shame/guilt among the lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) population, it is unclear whether the extent to which LGB individuals' open display and discussion their sexual orientation moderates these relationships. A total of 1,452 Chinese LGB adults provided demographic information and completed measures of outness, perceived public stigma, internalized homophobia, anticipated stigma, shame, and guilt. Structural equation modelling was conducted to test the hypothesized moderation analyses. Perceived public stigma had positive associations with internalized homophobia, anticipated stigma, shame, and guilt. Outness played a moderating role in the associations of perceived public stigma with internalized homophobia, anticipated stigma, shame, and guilt. Specifically, when LGB individuals had higher levels of outness, the effects of perceived public stigma on internalized homophobia, anticipated stigma, shame, and guilt were lower. Moreover, such moderating effect did not differ by sexual orientation. The degree to which sexual minority individuals' sexual orientation is known by and openly discussed with others may lower the extent to which LGB individuals internalize sexual stigma, expect rejection after coming out, and develop shame and guilt as a result of perceived social prejudice and discrimination.     

The Development of an SVIB Interest Scale for School Counselors

A professional school counselor key was developed on the Strong Vocational Interest Blank using Campbell's revised procedures. Of the 403 counselors initially contacted, 340 responded. Of this number, 203 were identified as professional counselors and were included in the professional school counselor scale. Each of these individuals was fully certified, possessed three or more years' experience as a counselor, was a member of a professional guidance association, and was thoroughly satisfied with his job as a counselor. Differences between professional counselors and non-professional counselors seemed to indicate a greater people-orientation in the professional counselor group. This was further supported by relationships of the professional counselor key with other scales on the SVIB.     

Relational perception and modes of perceiver operation

Judgments were made of the size of a small, luminous (inner) square appearing in the center of a somewhat larger, variable (outer) square, the whole pattern appearing in the dark. Accuracy of judgment was greatest when the outer square was constant from trial to trial but deteriorated when the outer square also varied in size, reaching a lower limit less than the accuracy produced under the absolute judgment condition (no outer square presented). An application of multiple discriminant analysis and the use of a maximum likelihood observer model provided estimates of the extent to which Os responded to inner and outer size variation as separate aspects of stimulation. Although Os differed markedly in this respect, their ability to identify inner square size under the various conditions did not reflect this difference.     

National-Level Projection for Elementary School Guidance

This paper offers a series of proposals for furthering the development of elementary school guidance. Certain assumptions underlying future action were stated. In proposing a national-level plan to determine the nature and characteristics of guidance in the elementary school, several possibilities were offered as to organizational plans and leadership responsibility. The main proposal offered in this paper discussed functional operations both in the area of research and experimentation as well as in theory construction. Specific areas of investigation were proposed. A position statement was recommended and several features of such a position statement were suggested.     

Family therapy alone is not enough or the dirty story of Dorian

When serious malfunctioning of an individual occurs in a secondary system (school, hospital, rehabilitation center, dormitory setting), the tendency often is to focus on the family as both the cause of the malfunctioning and the arena of intervention. Many times, family therapy alone is not enough because a parallel destructive constellation has formed around the Identified Patient in the secondary system as well and the symptoms catalyze that system's own maladaptive patterns. Often the IP is caught in the web of rigid pathological patterns of interactions between the two systems. A unique model of conjoined intersystemic intervention for dealing with such resistance to change is presented.