The Papago Psychology Service: A community mental health program on an American Indian reservation

A community psychology service run by the Papago Indian tribe and staffed largely by Papago Indians who have been trained as mental health workers is described. This service is unique among mental health services for Indians in that the tribe has complete control of the funds for the service and sets its own policies. It was developed for a rather traditional Indian group, and the culture, the traditions, and the wishes of the Papago community were respected. Consultation with medicine men was built into the program from the start, and adaptation of mental health techniques to fit the culture is stressed. Before this clinic was established, few mental health resources were directly available to the reservation. Similar to other Indian tribes, the Papagos are economically disadvantaged, with an unemployment rate of over 50%, low educational attainment, and very high rates of alcoholism, suicide, and vehicular accidents. The topics covered are the tribe's view of health programs for its people, the present Papago community and traditional means of treatment, traditional psychotherapy adapted to Papago culture, the indigenous Papago mental health worker, and the non-Indian professional consultant.     

Punitiveness in response to films varying in content: A cross-national field study of aggression

Punitiveness in male movie-goers in London, Philadelphia, Rome and Toronto was measured before or after they attended films varying in content (aggressive, sexual, neutral) and arousal potential (low, high). A second dependent variable, altruism, was also assessed for some Ss. Hypotheses stemming from social learning theory and arousal theory were tested by comparing changes in punitiveness at aggressive, nonaggressive arousing (sexual) and nonaggressive nonarousing (neutral) films. At aggressive films there was an increase in punitiveness whereas a reduction in punitiveness was found at neutral films. Sexual films led to a smaller (nonsignificant) increase in punitiveness than aggressive films. The findings implied that arousal was a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for increasing punitiveness. There were no significant cross-national differences in response to the films. Since the results did not generalize to other, nonaggressive responses, the film effects may be aggression-specific. Two additional findings in the U.S. sample were that urban Ss were more punitive than rural Ss and that the length of urban residency correlated negatively with altruism.     

Binocular fusion and contour suppression

Data from three separate investigations are presented to support the conclusion that suppression of visual contours occurs during binocular fusion of identical figures. These data are discussed in relation to examples of confirming and disconfirming results of other investigators.     

Geometry or not geometry? Perceived orientation and spatial layout in pictures viewed at an angle

Cutting (1988) suggests that changes in the perceived orientations of pictured objects that occur with changes in viewing angle are caused by the geometrical changes that accompany these changes in viewing angle. His geometrical analysis does predict the differential rotation effect reported by Goldstein (1979, 1987), but fails to predict other important aspects of the data. Cutting's analysis does, however, support Goldstein's (1987) conclusion that in future research on picture perception it is important to clearly distinguish between the attributes of perceived orientation and spatial layout.     

Spatial layout, orientation relative to the observer, and perceived projection in pictures viewed at an angle

Judgments of the spatial layout of a three-dimensional array of pictured dowels remain relatively constant as viewing angle changes, whereas judgments of their orientation relative to the observer (perceived orientation) vary. These changes in perceived orientation as viewing angle changes, called the differential rotation effect (DRE), also occur for stimuli such as the eyes in portraits, which are not extended in pictorial space. Thus, the mechanism for the DRE does not depend on the extension of pictured objects in depth. The DRE is decreased when back-illuminated pictures are viewed in the dark so that the picture plane is not visible. This result suggests that the DRE depends on information that defines a pictured object's direction relative to the picture plane. The difference in the way spatial layout and perceived orientation are affected by changes in viewing angle suggests that it is important to distinguish between these two attributes of pictures. In addition, another attribute, the picture's projection, should be distinguished from spatial layout and perceived orientation. When these distinctions are not made, the result is confusion, particularly when discussing whether or not pictures viewed at an angle appear distorted.     

Expressed emotion and reciprocal affective relationships in families of disturbed adolescents

Relatives' expressed emotion (EE) is a known risk factor for relapse among recovering psychiatric patients. Recent research has focused on the behavioral correlates of EE, seeking better understanding of the family processes associated with this important variable. The present study used sequence analysis to explore interactions of high-EE and low-EE parent-child dyads in a sample of disturbed adolescents. High-EE mother-child interactions were characterized by bidirectional influence, and, in contrast to adolescents in low-EE dyads, adolescents in high-EE dyads had an oppositional style of responding. In Low-EE mother-child interactions, the adolescents showed more temporal consistency (stability) of affect than their high-EE counterparts. Overall, the results suggest that high-EE mother-child dyads constitute more tightly joined emotional systems than low-EE dyads. Consequently, interventions designed to reduce this connectedness might also reduce the risk of adolescent psychiatric problems.     

Concurrent validity of the Gardner Test of Visual-Motor Skills

Scores on the Test of Visual-motor Skills, Developmental Test of Visual-motor Integration, and Bender-Gestalt test were compared for a sample of 44 elementary school children referred for evaluation of learning disorders. While the tests shared common variance, the mean standard score on the Test of Visual-motor Skills was significantly lower than the means of the other two tests, suggesting caution in the clinical use of the new scale.     

Internal-external control of reinforcement and embedded-figures performance

Male and female Ss were tested in an extended series of 68 embedded figures. Rate of decrease in discovery time was related to Ss’ attitudes about locus of control of reinforcing outcomes. Results confirmed those of an earlier study, showing that practice dissipated sex-related performance differences observable in early trials.