Assessing the Current Validity of the Bem Sex-Role Inventory

The Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI) is a widelyused instrument in measuring gender role perceptions.Recent concerns regarding the validity of the adjectiveshave arisen as changes in the roles of men and women have occurred in American society sincethe 1970's. A partial replication of the method that Bem(1974) used to validate the masculine and feminineadjectives comprising the instrument was conducted. All but two of the adjectives were validatedusing Bem's criteria. These findings suggest that theBSRI may still be a valid instrument for assessing genderroles. However, evidence was revealed that traditional masculine and feminine gender role perceptionsmay be weakening. Future validation of the BSRI iswarranted in light of these patterns.     

Depression, self-focused attention, and expectancies for positive and negative future life events for self and others

In two studies, we examined depressed and nondepressed persons' judgments of the probability of future positive and negative life events occurring to themselves and to others. Study 1 demonstrated that depressed subjects were generally less optimistic than their nondepressed counterparts: Although nondepressed subjects rated positive events as more likely to happen to themselves than negative events, depressed subjects did not. In addition, relative to nondepressed subjects, depressed subjects rated positive events as less likely to occur to themselves and more likely to occur to others and negative events as more likely to occur to both self and others. Study 2 investigated the role that differential levels of self-focused attention might play in mediating these differences. On the basis of prior findings that depressed persons generally engage in higher levels of self-focus than nondepressed persons do and the notion that self-focus activates one's self-schema, we hypothesized that inducing depressed subjects to focus externally would attenuate their pessimistic tendencies. Data from Study 2 supported the hypothesis that high levels of self-focus partially mediate depressive pessimism: Whereas self-focused depressed subjects were more pessimistic than nondepressed subjects, externally focused depressed subjects were not. The role of attentional focus in maintaining these and other depressive pessimistic tendencies was discussed.     

The development of primary process in children's Rorschachs

Three cohorts of normal Italian schoolchildren, 55 boys and 47 girls, were given Rorschachs at ages 6, 7, and 8; 9, 10, and 11; and 12 and 13. Regardless of sex or score, primary process (scored by Holt's method) tends to diminish with age; but significantly among the boys only for the sums of all primary process, of Level 2 responses, and of content. Measures of control showed similar developmental trends, mean form level advancing significantly in the total sample and among girls. Even stronger trends within cohorts were confounded by retest effects.     

Clinical and statistical prediction: a retrospective and would-be integrative perspective

One of the early participants in the clinical-statistical controversy describes his effort to mediate the dispute and to direct attention to the underlying issues, to most of which the box scores were irrelevant. A previously undiscussed undercurrent of the controversy is the conflict between different metaphysical world views, the history of which for the past few hundred years is quickly sketched. The mechanist metaphysics of behaviorism, which has long been dominant in American mainstream psychology, favors objective and statistical approaches and discourages interest in judgement, an issue that nevertheless refuses to go away. Systems philosophy is proposed as an integrative alternative.     

Sensitivity to Levels of Importance in the Logical Memory Subtest

The performance of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and neuropsychiatric patients was examined using the Logical Memory (LM) subtest of the WMS-R, utilizing a levels of importance methodology described by Haut et al. (1990). Although patient groups were matched for dementia severity, we found the expected differences between groups in terms of absolute level of performance. There was considerable variability, however, in the AD patients' performance. AD patients' recall and sensitivity to levels of importance depended on the story (Anna or Robert), and when the passages were recalled (immediate or delayed recalls). Results suggested that AD patients were able to utilize semantic information in their immediate recall, though this was dependent on individual story characteristics. AD patient's delayed recall was essentially absent. Thus, no conclusions could be drawn with respect to the level of importance factor. NP patient's recall performance was similar to patterns observed in other clinical samples for both immediate and delayed memory.     

THE EFFECTS OF TOKEN REINFORCEMENT ON THE BEHAVIOR OF DELINQUENTS IN COTTAGE SETTINGS1

A token economy designed to modify the behavior of 125 adolescent males committed to a state correctional institution was implemented in the boys' cottages, focusing on social behavior (peer interaction), rule following, and task completion. The program was sequentially introduced in a multiple-baseline design in three independent cottages; a fourth group served as a comparison cottage. Appropriate behavior increased when the token program was introduced in each cottage. Data were collected for 14 months. Thus, the long-term effects of initial behavior change were assessed.     

Physiological reactivity to stressors in irritable bowel syndrome patients, inflammatory bowel disease patients and non-patient controls.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) patients were compared with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) patients and non-patient controls on four separate physiological measures (heart rate, finger-tip temperature, skin resistance level, and forehead EMG) for their physical reactivity to 'laboratory stressors'. It was predicted that the IBS patients would respond to these stressors with more physiological reactivity than the two other groups. There were initial basal differences among the groups on heart rate and finger-tip temperature: in general, the IBS patients had lower basal heart rates and the non-patient controls had lower finger-tip temperatures. These findings are contrary to the previous body of literature regarding possible sympathetic nervous system (SNS) arousal states in the IBS patient. The results also indicated IBS patients were not significantly different than the IBD patients or the non-patient controls in their reactivity to stressors. Previous literature has suggested that IBS in their reactivity to stressors. Previous literature has suggested that IBS patients have an enhanced SNS arousal or an SNS mediated reactivity to environmental stressors, our current study has not found these results.