Youth attitudes and perspectives on HIV infection and AIDS

Conclusions As an adolescent, I am concerned that as a society we are not doing enough to curb the spread of HIV infection and AIDS, particularly in those of my age-group. Current school curriculum on sex education is ineffective and inappropriate. The focus of educational programs must change from increasing knowledge to changing attitudes and behavior. Such education must begin early in the lives of children, perhaps as early as in the latter part of elementary school. Parents should be aware that it is their responsibility not only to teach their children about the dangers of engaging in behaviors that are high risk for infecting HIV but also that they themselves should not engage in behaviors that they do not wish their children to imitate, often with deadly consequences.     

Increasing Marital Intimacy: Lessons from Marital Enrichment

Both marriage and family therapists and family life educators work to increase marital intimacy. In this study the effectiveness of two marriage enrichment programs was assessed with implications for practicing therapists. Participants were randomly assigned to an Adventure or ACME (Association for Couples in Marriage Enrichment) treatment group or to a control group. Marital intimacy was assessed before and after treatment. Findings demonstrated that both enrichment groups had a statistically significant increase in marital enrichment. Suggestions for adopting adventure-based interventions for traditional therapy are discussed.     

Asian American Identity Development: A Culture Specific Model for South Asian Americans

Ethnic identity development of South Asian Americans, primarily Indian and Pakistan Americans is explored. Cultural identity is placed in the context of the social, psychological, political, and historical context of the Indian subcontinent and the United States. A framework for understanding South Asian American identity development is proposed for both the immigrant, and the native born. Cultural and gender identity, and the worldview of South Asian Americans is also addressed.     

Homeless women and their families: Characteristics,life circumstances,and needs

This study investigated the needs of a sample of 100 women from shelters for the homeless in Richmond, Virginia. The women's responses to a 117-item interview were used to obtain information regarding their domicilary status, work history, educational background, family and health history, social support, reasons for homelessness, and social service needs. The results indicated that a significant number of the women had moved as many as six times within the past five years for various reasons, including domestic violence, interpersonal conflict, overcrowding, and eviction. Many women were high school graduates and had job skills in the health care, educational, and clerical fields. Most women were raised by their natural or extended family and the majority of them had a friend or family member who provided social support. Identified needs included housing, food, clothing, and transportation. The needs of homeless women and their children were different from the needs of the homeless chronically mentally ill and require specialized services as well as an increase in the available number of low-income housing units.     

Degree of asymmetry in lateral preferences: eye, foot, ear.

Lateral asymmetry in eye, foot, and ear preference was measured using a 15-item questionnaire administered to 442 subjects. Degree and magnitude of asymmetry were greatest for eye, followed by foot and ear. Intercorrelations of lateral preferences were all positive and significant. Two primary factors, eyedness and earedness, were established.     

Lesbian erotic role identification: behavioral, morphological, and hormonal correlates.

Lesbian scholars hotly debate the validity of "butch" and "femme" erotic roles. Although some dismiss them as social constructs, others maintain they are natural expressions of lesbian sexuality. The authors compared self-described butch and femme lesbians on gender-discriminating behavioral, morphological, and hormonal measures. Butch and femme lesbians did not differ from heterosexual women on sex role personality traits, depressive symptomology, eating disorders, or body dissatisfaction. Butch lesbians, however, recalled more childhood gender-atypical behavior and had higher waist-to-hip ratios, higher saliva testosterone levels, and less desire to give birth. These findings support the validity of butch-femme classification and suggest that butch lesbians are more male-typical compared to femme lesbians. The butch-femme classification may reflect a within-group difference caused by differential exposure to prenatal androgens.     

Contour Completion And Relative Depth: Petter's Rule and Support Ratio

The ability to see complete objects despite occlusion is critical to humans' visual success. Human vision can amodally complete visual objects that are partially occluded, and modally complete visual objects that occlude other objects. Previous experiments showed that the perceived strength of a completed contour depends on its support ratio: the ratio of the length of the physically specified contour to the total length of the contour. Other experiments showed that human vision prefers to make modal completions as short as possible, an effect known as Petter's rule. The experiment reported here examined the relationship between Petter's rule and support ratio, showing that both affect modal completion in figures of homogeneous color, but that when they compete Petter's rule dominates. Finally, our results confirm that Petter's rule is an effect of relative gap lengths and not of relative size.     

PSYCHOLOGY IN INDIA: A SURVEY OF DOCTORAL STUDENTS

This study examines profile, research area, research activities, perception of psychology, self-image and profession-related satisfaction doctoral students of psychology in India. Seventy-seven participants responded to a mailed questionnaire. It has subsections related to self-image as researcher, student-supervisor relationship, research process, profession-related satisfaction, and status of psychology in India. It was observed that most participants belonged to urban background, middle class, and nuclear family. They perceived job opportunities in various fields and aspired most for teaching and research. Further, gender and financial assistance did not influence self-image and student-supervisor relationship. However, financial assistance influenced satisfaction with different aspects of profession. Implications of the findings are discussed in light of doctoral training of psychology in India and reorientation of psychology as a profession.