Development of the Career Exploration Survey (CES)

The development, properties, and uses of the Career Exploration Survey (CES) are described. The CES is intended to (a) facilitate further theory development and empirical research on how exploration affects career decisions, development, and job outcomes, such as job satisfaction, commitment, and turnover; (b) provide a network of variables for investigating the dynamics of the exploration process; and (c) provide a set of criterion measures for examining the effects of personal characteristics and educational treatments on career exploration behaviors and beliefs. The CES is based on a conceptual framework derived from theories of exploration, stress, motivation, and career preference. It consists of seven measures of the career exploration process, three reactions to exploration, and six beliefs about exploration. Dimensionality, reliability, and validity data are presented for four studies comprising 680 observations across 601 individuals.     

Relationship factors in the treatment of sexual dysfunction

The role of marital harmony in the development, assessment and treatment of sexual dysfunction is addressed in the present study. Twelve couples with mixed sexual dysfunctions received both sex therapy and marital therapy in a balanced cross-over design. The major variables investigated were therapy outcome on measures of sexual satisfaction and marital adjustment as a function of treatment modality (sexual or marital) and relationship functioning. Findings showed significant differences in outcome between treatment approaches with a strong mediating effect of relationship factors. Limited interpersonal understanding and inaccurate perceptual agreement in relationship functioning characterized those couples who failed to exhibit a differential response to treatment in favour of sex therapy over marriage therapy. Implications of these findings for the assessment and treatment of sexual dysfunction are discussed.     

Divided attention and indirect memory tests

Attentional state during acquisition is an important determinant of performance on direct memory tests. In two experiments we investigated the effects of dividing attention during acquisition on conceptually driven and data-driven indirect memory tests. Subjects read a list of words with or without distraction. Memory for the words was later tested with an indirect memory test or a direct memory test that differed only in task instructions. In Experiment 1, the indirect test was categoryexemplar production (a conceptually driven task) and the direct test was category-cued recall. In Experiment 2, the indirect test was word-fragment completion (a data-driven task) and the direct test was word-fragment cued recall. Dividing attention at encoding decreased performance on both direct memory tests. Of the indirect tests, category-exemplar production but not word-fragment completion was affected. The results indicate that conceptually driven indirect memory tests, like direct memory tests, are affected by divided attention, whereas data-driven indirect tests are not. These results are interpreted within the transfer-appropriate processing framework.     

Disentangling Discrimination: Victim Characteristics as Determinants of the Perception of Behavior as Racist or Sexist

The present experiment examined the impact of victim characteristics on the judgment of behavior as being sexist or racist. Freshmen from the University of Amsterdam read eight scenarios describing instances of everyday discrimination. The race, gender, and socioeconomic status (SES) of the victims in the scenarios were varied systematically. Each scenario was followed by three consecutive questionnaires designed to assess the degree to which research participants perceived the behavior of the agent as racist, sexist, or otherwise. The asymmetry hypothesis for blacks of high and low SES was confirmed Blacks of low SES were more often considered to be victims of racism than blacks of high SES. However, contrary to the asymmetry hypothesis, we found that women of high rather than low SES were more likely to be considered victims of sexism. This finding is inconsistent with other results, and demonstrates that it is not always the less empowered group that is judged as being the most discriminated against. Further, this study demonstrates the relevancy of victim's SES in discrimination research. Finally, the importance of disentangling sexist and racist elements of discrimination is stressed, especially in research involving black women.     

Calibration of "pokes": psychophysical measurement of computer-generated temporal intervals.

To answer questions raised about the accuracy of temporal intervals used to produce perception of apparent motion, interstimulus intervals generated by a computer were measured using physical and psychophysical procedures. Calibration of such devices was assumed initially to be routine but search of the literature indicated that calibration has been ignored in studies of motion and masking. Direct/physical methods of calibration proved unfeasible for assessing the accuracy of a computer programmed through "poke" procedures because signals for temporal intervals could not be differentiated from the output controlled by the machine's "hardwired" program. The results of psychophysical measurement of temporal intervals indicated that, on the average, differences, "constant errors" between expected/programmed intervals and matches of those intervals generally were less than six milliseconds.     

The development of curriculum-based measurement norms in literature-based classrooms

Few published reports exist on the appropriateness of curriculum-based measurement (CBM) procedures for literature-based reading programs. The purpose of this paper is to describe a preliminary study of the development and psychometric integrity of CBM norms for literature-based reading using children's literature books. During the 1993–1994 and 1994–1995 school years, the reading achievement of 403 first, second, and third grade students in two rural elementary schools was assessed with CBM methods modified for a literature-based curriculum. Based on the results of this study, standard CBM procedures can be modified to develop local norms for the literature-based classroom. Furthermore, these literature-based CBM norms were found to have adequate test/retest reliability and criterion-related validity. No sampling bias in the selection of individual reading passage probes was found. The extent to which these norms can be used to monitor reading progress must be determined. Further study is necessary before CBM procedures with literature-based reading programs can be used to inform policy and practice.     

An analysis of age differences in perceptual speed

Tests of the generalized slowing hypothesis have demonstrated the strong predictive power of tests of perceptual comparison speed in accounting for age differences across a range of cognitive domains. The goals of this study were to determine whether short-term memory (STM) and perceptual demands contribute to age differences on two commonly used tests of perceptual comparison speed, the letter and pattern comparison tests, and to test whether these task components account for unique variance in predicting age differences in working memory and reasoning. Results showed that, after controlling for visual contrast sensitivity and a general slowing factor, age differences increased with increases in both STM load and perceptual degradation. Only STM load, however, accounted for a significant portion of the relationship of age with higher level cognition. We concluded that perceptual comparison tests are dependent on multiple age-sensitive abilities, not all of which are related to age differences in higher level cognition.     

How Undergraduate Engineering Students Perceive Women’s (and Men’s) Problems in Science, Math and Engineering

This paper compares perceptions of problems for women and men in the fields of science, math, and engineering among undergraduate engineering students surveyed at a mid-Atlantic American university over a period of 5 years. Gender differences in these perceptions are analyzed, as are changes in these perceptions over the course of the undergraduate years. Undergraduate exposure to female role models in these fields has little impact on these perceptions, but exposure to professional engineering experiences reduces the seriousness with which some problems are perceived, especially by women. While perceived problems do not seem to be related to engineering self-confidence, they are related to men’s satisfaction with engineering, and to women’s intentions to persist in the engineering field after graduation.     

Comparison of two alternative measures of the boundary construct

'Mental boundaries' is a traditional concept in psychology, although attempts to conceptualize and measure such boundaries empirically have only recently been pursued. Two major efforts in this respect are Hartmann's Boundary Questionnaire and the Revised Transliminality Scale of Lange, Thalbourne, Houran, and Storm. We administered both along with the Briggs-Nebes Handedness Scale to a convenience sample of 268 participants to assess the convergent validity of the two boundary measures and to replicate previous evidence that the boundary construct involves body boundaries as well, such as a tendency toward mixed-handedness. As predicted, scores on the Revised Transliminality Scale correlated .66 positively with total scores on the Boundary Questionnaire, but neither measure was associated with the handedness scale. Each of the 12 domains of the Boundary Questionnaire correlated significantly with total scores on the Transliminality Scale, yet only five domains contributed significantly to the prediction of variance in transliminality scores in a standard multiple regression analysis. Analysis suggests that transliminality is related to specific domains of the Boundary Questionnaire, and we hypothesize that the other domains of the Boundary Questionnaire represent higher levels of the boundary construct than what is measured by the Revised Transliminality Scale. This idea is discussed within the context of Werner's 1948 theory of syncretic versus symbolic cognition.