The self and dreams during a period of transition

The content of dreams and changes to the self were investigated in students moving to University. In study 1, 20 participants completed dream diaries and memory tasks before and after they had left home and moved to university, and generated self images, “I am…” statements (e.g. I am an undergraduate), reflective of their current self. Changes in “I ams” were observed, indicating a newly-formed ‘university’ self. These self, images and related autobiographical knowledge were found to be incorporated into recent dreams but not into dreams from other periods. Study 2 replicated these findings in a different sample (N = 55). We suggest that these data reflect a period of self-consolidation in which new experiences and self images are incorporated into autobiographical memory knowledge structures representing personal goals during sleep.     

Narcissistic Responding to Ego Threat: When the Status of the Evaluator Matters

ABSTRACT Narcissists and nonnarcissists were insulted by high-status and low-status evaluators and were given an opportunity to self-protect with a comparative (evaluator derogation; Experiment 1 ) and noncomparative (inflated state self-esteem; Experiments 1 and 2 ) strategy. Narcissists engaged in comparative self-protection indiscriminately (i.e., derogating both low-status and high-status evaluators), whereas nonnarcissists showed some mercy to low-status evaluators. With regard to noncomparative protection, the findings were consistent across studies: Evaluator status interacted with narcissism such that narcissists engaged in noncomparative self-protection more than nonnarcissists when the evaluator was high, but not low, in status. Evaluator status and, more generally, source of feedback are worth serious consideration when untangling the intricacies and flexibility of narcissistic self-protection.     

Examining Attachment to God and Health Risk-Taking Behaviors in College Students

Drawing on insights from attachment theory, this study examined whether three types of attachment to God—secure, avoidant, and anxious—were associated with health-risk behaviors, over and above the effects of religious attendance, peer support, and demographic covariates, in a sample of 328 undergraduate college students. Contrary to prior theory, secure attachment to God is not inversely associated with recent alcohol or marijuana use, or substance use prior to last sexual intercourse. Instead, avoidant and anxious attachment to God are associated with higher levels of drinking; anxious attachment to God is associated with marijuana use; and avoidant attachment to God is associated with substance use prior to last sexual intercourse. These patterns are gender-specific; problematic attachment to God is linked with negative outcomes solely among men.     

Helping High School Students Read Like Experts: Affective Evaluation,Salience, and Literary Interpretation

This study explored whether a month-long instructional intervention in affective evaluation can help struggling high school readers to engage in literary interpretation in ways similar to expert readers’ practices. We compared pre- and post-intervention think-aloud protocols from five high school students as they read a literary short story with the protocols from five experienced English teachers for the same story. After the intervention, student readers attended more frequently to story details that expert readers also found salient to interpretation. Students also made interpretive moves similar to those made by experts, such as inferences about character goals, interpretation of potential symbols, and attention to patterns and juxtapositions in the text. Further, students’ focus on interpretively salient details influenced their thematic inferences. These findings suggest that the recruitment of everyday, affect-based practices can help novice readers develop more “expert-like” literary schemata and construct more meaningful interpretations of a literary text.     

On the Variability of Anger Cross-Culturally: An Assessment of General Strain Theory's Primary Mediator

This article assesses general strain theory's (GST) primary mediator, anger, as a process that exhibits important variability across cultures. It presents data from structured interviews and fieldwork in India and the United States that suggest variations in the understanding and experience of anger across three samples: Americans, lay Tibetans, and Tibetan Buddhist clergy. Findings suggest cultural differences in normative social approval of anger, perceived effects for self of becoming angry, reaction tendencies, and emotional memory. Future research should test and map variations in anger across and within populations and explore implications for macro-level GST in explaining cross-cultural differences in crime.     

Computerized interpretation of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery: a pilot study

Programs for the computer analysis and interpretation of neuropsychological test data have been developed in recent years. In this paper, a new computer program, with initial validation data, is presented. Diagnostic hit rate for brain damage was 80% (52 of 65). For the extent of brain damage the hit rate was 60% (12 of 20). When laterality was considered, the hit rate was 71% (10 of 14). These results are comparable with computer programs for data from the Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychology Test Battery.     

Analyzing estimates of automatic and conscious retrieval in between- and within-subjects designs

The process dissociation procedure (PDP) was developed as a means of quantifying the contributions of conscious and automatic retrieval to memory performance. Although the required inclusion and exclusion conditions are manipulated within subjects in most experiments, several researchers have expressed concerns that the instructions may be particularly difficult to follow under these conditions. Thus, manipulating instructions between subjects may have some advantages, although some aspects of the statistical analysis of conscious and automatic estimates are not routine in such a design. We describe a procedure for this analysis and present some initial data to illustrate its application to PDP. We also comment on other issues related to the calculation of estimates of automatic and conscious retrieval in between- and within-subjects designs.     

Holland's theory and college-degreed working black and white women

The main concern of this study was to investigate differences between black and white women employed in traditional male occupations who took the Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI) and the Self-Directed Search (SDS). The VPI and the SDS were administered to 155 black and white college-degreed workers in three occupations (engineering, medicine, and law) corresponding to three of Holland's environmental categories (Realistic Investigative, and Enterprising). In general, the findings for the three VPI and SDS scales for these occupational groups indicate that white women when compared to black women in the same occupation tend to report similar mean raw scores.