Worry and emotionality components of test anxiety

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between trait measures of Worry and Emotionality and test anxiety related variables. Ninety-eight undergraduate students completed the Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI) and the following self-report measures toward the end of the psychology exam: Checklist of Positive and Negative Thought, Checklist of Body Sensations (CBS), and Subjective Units of Discomfort Scale (SUDS). Further, the students' scores on the psychology exam and the students' grade point averages (GPA) served as outcome measures of test anxiety. In general the results supported the discriminant validity of the Worry and Emotionality subscales of the TAI. Worry was found to be correlated with measures of internal dialogue and Emotionality was found to be correlated with the self-reported arousal measures.     

Hemispheric resource limitations in comprehending ambiguous pictures

Ambiguous pictures (Roschach inkblots) were lateralized for 100 msec vs. 200 msec to the right and left hemispheres (RH and LH) of 32 normal right-handed males who determined which of two previously presented words (an accurate or inaccurate one) better described the inkblot. Over the first 32 trials, subjects receiving each stimulus exposure duration were less accurate when the hemisphere receiving the stimulus also controlled the hand used to register a keypress response (RH-left hand and LH-right hand trials) than when hemispheric resources were shared, i.e., when one hemisphere controlled stimulus processing and the other controlled response programming. These differences were eliminated when the 32 trials were repeated.     

Systems analysis and school psychology

Traditionally the activities of professionals supplying mental health services to schools have been guided by a medical model which stressed intrapsychic dysfunction. This model is contrasted with an ecological orientation utilizing a systems approach for preventing or alleviating problems. The case history method is used to demonstrate how school psychologists actually perform within this model and to illustrate some of the general characteristics of the ecological approach; it also demonstrates how teacher consultation, family therapy, and student role-playing are organized into a meaningful and unified strategy directed at helping a child in trouble.     

Stressor Controllability and Learned Helplessness Research in the United States: Sensitization and Fatigue Processes

Recent work in the learned helplessness paradigm suggests that neuronal sensitization and fatigue processes are critical to producing the behavioral impairment that follows prolonged exposure to an unsignaled inescapable stressor such as a series of electric tail shocks. Here we discuss how an interaction between serotonin (5-HT) and corticosterone (CORT) sensitizes GABA neurons early in the pretreatment session with inescapable shock. We propose that this process eventually depletes GABA, thus removing an important form of inhibition on excitatory glutamate transmission in the amygdala, hippocampus, and frontal cortex. When rats are re-exposed to shock during shuttle-escape testing 24 hrs later, the loss of inhibition (as well as other excitatory effects) results in unregulated excitation of glutamate neurons. This state of neuronal over-excitation rapidly compromises metabolic homeostasis. Metabolic fatigue results in compensatory inhibition by the nucleoside adenosine, which regulates neuronal excitation with respect to energy availability. The exceptionally potent form of inhibition associated with adenosine receptor activation yields important neuroprotective benefits under conditions of metabolic failure, but also precludes the processing of information in fatigued neurons. The substrates of adaptive behavior are removed; performance deficits ensue.     

Clarifying the linguistic signature: measuring personality from natural speech

In this study, we examined the viability of measuring personality using computerized lexical analysis of natural speech. Two well-validated models of personality were measured, one involving trait positive affectivity (PA) and negative affectivity (NA) dimensions and the other involving a separate behavioral inhibition motivational system (BIS) and a behavioral activation motivational system (BAS). Individuals with high levels of trait PA and sensitive BAS expressed high levels of positive emotion in their natural speech, whereas individuals with high levels of trait NA and sensitive BIS tended to express high levels of negative emotion. The personality variables accounted for almost a quarter of the variance in emotional expressivity.     

Career Counseling Specialty: History,Development, and Prospect

This article contains an overview of the historical development of the specialized practice, preparation standards, and credentialing of career counseling. Discussion also focuses on commonalities of career counseling, general counseling, and other specialized forms of counseling, with attention to questions and implications for the future of career counseling practice and standards.     

Effects of task-irrelevant cues and reinforcement delay on choice-escape learning following inescapable shock: evidence for a deficit in selective attention

Prior exposure to inescapable shock has been reported to interfere with choice-escape learning, but several investigators have failed to obtain this effect. A series of five experiments examined the conditions under which choice-escape learning in an automated Y-maze is impaired by pretreatment with inescapable shock. Inescapably shocked rats made more errors and responded more slowly than did controls only when shock termination was delayed and task-irrelevant cues were present during choice-escape training. These findings are discussed in terms of information processing and neurochemical consequences of exposure to inescapable shock.     

An Experimental Computer-Based Educational and Career Exploration System

A major objective of the student guidance and counseling centers in high schools, junior colleges, and universities is to provide individualized aid to each student to help him reduce the uncertainty of his educational and vocational plans. Frequently, this objective is not fully satisfied because of information-handling problems. Two such problems are: (a) the fallibility of both counselor and student in memorizing, associating, and selectively recalling educational and vocational facts; and (b) the inability of the counselor and the student to devote sufficient time, patience, and energy to performing the enormous number of clerical steps involved in relating educational and occupational facts to pertinent information about the student. Computer-based information systems may be able to reduce these deficiencies considerably. This paper describes an experimental information system designed to be used by students as part of the total guidance services offered in schools. Such systems may aid both the student and the counselor.