Cognitive, Dispositional, and Psychophysiological Correlates of Dependent Slot Machine Gambling in Young People

In Study 1, young dependent and nondependent slot machine gamblers were interviewed, assessed for locus of control and administered the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. Dependent gamblers were revealed as reliably more internal in terms of locus of control than their nondependent counterparts, and, in the interview, were much more likely to affirm that they could exercise control over the slot machines they played. Dependent gamblers registered higher psychoticism scores than both the nondependent gamblers and appropriate age-group norms. Their high psychoticism scores resonated well with interview revelations that boredom mitigation frequent underlay dependent gambling.
In Study 2, blood pressure was monitored in dependent and nondependent gamblers at rest and before, during and after slot machine play. Subjects were given £5 for this purpose and the time it took them to use up this money was recorded, as was the extent of any returns they received. They were also asked how much they expected to recoup. The £5 lasted a similar amount of time for the two groups, and they managed similar rates of return on their stake. However, the dependent gamblers expected to win more than the nondependent gamblers and their estimates of returns exceeded what they actually recouped. Slot machine play was associated with an increase in blood pressure, and while groups did not differ in terms of the magnitude of the rise provoked, there was a general trend for dependent gamblers to show lower basal levels of cardiovascular activity, although this was statistically reliable only in the case of diastolic blood pressure.     

Evolution of the African American Family Personality: Considerations for Family Therapy

Both internal and external factors help to determine the personality of the African American family. Personality traits of the African American family include adherence to historical values, diversity in family structure, and family communication. A review of the history of the African American family from its African roots to contemporary America is presented here.     

The estimation of ultrametric and path length trees from rectangular proximity data

A least-squares algorithm for fitting ultrametric and path length or additive trees to two-way, two-mode proximity data is presented. The algorithm utilizes a penalty function to enforce the ultrametric inequality generalized for asymmetric, and generally rectangular (rather than square) proximity matrices in estimating an ultrametric tree. This stage is used in an alternating least-squares fashion with closed-form formulas for estimating path length constants for deriving path length trees. The algorithm is evaluated via two Monte Carlo studies. Examples of fitting ultrametric and path length trees are presented.G. De Soete is Aspirant of the Belgian Nationaal Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek at the University of Ghent, Belgium. W. S. DeSarbo and J. D. Carroll are Members of Technical Staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, N.J. G. W. Furnas is Member of Technical Staff at Bell Communications Research, Murray Hill, N.J.     

Androgen administration to hypogonadal and eugonadal men—effects on measures of sensation seeking,personality and spatial ability

A group of hypogonadal and a group of eugonadal (endocrinologically normal) men complaining of sexual dysfunction were treated with androgens. Psychometric measures of sensation seeking, personality and spatial ability were made before and after treatment. Short-term androgen administration had little effect on these measures. However when the two patient groups were compared while receiving no androgen treatment, the eugonadal men produced significantly higher scores on the Sensation Seeking Scale.     

Confidence regions for INDSCAL using the jackknife and bootstrap techniques

Bootstrap and jackknife techniques are used to estimate ellipsoidal confidence regions of group stimulus points derived from INDSCAL. The validity of these estimates is assessed through Monte Carlo analysis. Asymptotic estimates of confidence regions based on a MULTISCALE solution are also evaluated. Our findings suggest that the bootstrap and jackknife techniques may be used to provide statements regarding the accuracy of the relative locations of points in space. Our findings also suggest that MULTISCALE asymptotic estimates of confidence regions based on small samples provide an optimistic view of the actual statistical reliability of the solution. The authors wish to thank Geert DeSoete, Richard A. Harshman, William Heiser, Jon Kettenring, Joseph B. Kruskal, Jacqueline Meulman, James O. Ramsay, John W. Tukey, Paul A. Tukey, and Mike Wish. Sharon L. Weinberg is a consultant at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey 07974.     

Spatial versus tree representations of proximity data

In this paper we investigated two of the most common representations of proximities, two-dimensional euclidean planes and additive trees. Our purpose was to develop guidelines for comparing these representations, and to discover properties that could help diagnose which representation is more appropriate for a given set of data. In a simulation study, artificial data generated either by a plane or by a tree were scaled using procedures for fitting either a plane (KYST) or a tree (ADDTREE). As expected, the appropriate model fit the data better than the inappropriate model for all noise levels. Furthermore, the two models were roughly comparable: for all noise levels, KYST accounted for plane data about as well as ADDTREE accounted for tree data. Two properties of the data proved useful in distinguishing between the models: the skewness of the distribution of distances, and the proportion of elongated triangles, which measures departures from the ultrametric inequality, Applications of KYST and ADDTREE to some twenty sets of real data, collected by other investigators, showed that most of these data could be classified clearly as favoring either a tree or a two-dimensional representation.A portable PASCAL program implementing the Sattath and Tversky [1977] ADDTREE algorithm is available from J. Corter, Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305.