Comparison of the Matthews Youth Test for Health and the Hunter-Wolf A-B Rating Scale: measures of type A behavior in children

This study evaluated the extent to which two youth measures of Type A behavior--the Matthews Youth Test for Health (MYTH) and the Hunter-Wolf A-B Rating Scale--similarly assess the Type A construct. Data from 25 elementary teachers and from 300 of their students revealed that these scales are weakly correlated and that the concordance of their Type A-Type B classifications was only slightly above that expected by chance. Weak agreement was found even when teachers and students rated the same Type A behaviors, which suggests that variability in content was not the principal reason for the lack of agreement between these measures. The major implication of this study is that the MYTH and the Hunter-Wolf scale should not be considered interchangeable measures of Type A behavior. The study reveals that investigators' choice of a Type A measure may strongly affect the nature of their research findings and may inhibit the integration of their data with data from other investigators who employ different measures of the Type A construct. It is recommended that, if multiple measures cannot be used in a study, the investigator employ the MYTH.     

Gender and self-concept: A reexamination of stereotypic differences and the role of gender attitudes

Sex Roles - Gender differences in overall self-evaluation and in specific dimensions of self-concept were examined in primarily White Caucasian college and high school students. The role of gender...     

Attributions about spouse abuse: It matters who the batterers and victims are

The present study examined college students' (86% white) reactions to scenarios of three types of domestic violence situations. Subjects read a brief newspaper report of a battering incident and afterwards rated the situation and participants on a variety of scales. The scenario described either a (1) husband battering his wife, (2) wife battering her husband, or (3) gay male battering his lover. In addition, there was or was not an apparent verbal provocation by the victim. Results showed the harshest evaluation of a batterer who was not provoked. A greater responsibility was placed on the victim in the battered husband scenario, which generally was taken less seriously than the battered wife case. Results suggest the need to examine a diversity of battering situations and variables in order to fully understand attributions made about such situations.     

Personality, learning style and work performance

Just over two hundred telephone sales staff completed the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) and Honey and Mumford's Learning Styles Questionnaire (LSQ). Extraversion was highly correlated both positively and negatively with three of the four LSQ measures. The lie scale from the EPI was also systematically correlated with the Activist and Reflector scales of the LSQ. Both the EPI and LSQ traits were modestly correlated with two criteria: ratings of Actual Performance and Development Potential. Regressions were used to determine the best predictors of the two ratings measures. Personality variables (extraversion, neuroticism) and certain learning styles (reflector, pragmatist) were statistically significant predictors of rated performance, though they accounted for less than 10% of the explained variance. The results concur with recent meta-analytical studies that show personality variables account for a small but important amount of variance in measures of work performance.     

The team meeting on a rapid turnover psychiatric ward: clinical illustration of a model for stages of group development.

This article illustrates stages of group development in a semi-structured team meeting of staff and patients in an inpatient psychiatric unit. Clinical material drawn from such a group at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center is presented in support of the view that, even in a rapid-turnover ward, group process in a mixed-level, mixed-diagnosis "ward meeting" follows some predictable lines and responds to the articulation of certain predictable concerns. Garland's (1981) model of group development is adapted to show the cyclical nature of group process in a teaching hospital, where doctors as well as patients may make only brief stays. Effective leadership strategies are suggested.     

Body-size estimations in children six through fourteen: a longitudinal study.

Estimates of perceived and ideal body size were collected in 216 boys and girls ages 6 through 14 years. Video methodology was used to adjust the width of a life-size frontal image of the children. Longitudinal data were collected annually for three years, beginning at ages 6, 9, and 12. Three psychological methods were used, including the method of adjustment, staircase method, and adaptive probit estimation technique which permitted separate measures of the children's point of subjective equality and just noticeable difference values. The point of subjective equality is the body size which is subjectively equal to the child's perception of self. The just noticeable difference is the amount of change in body size necessary to detect the difference 50% of the time. Acceptable size boundaries were also measured, using the method of adjustment. Over-all, children were accurate in estimating their body width, with average overestimation of less than 2%. Overestimation decreased within each age group during the three years of the study. There were no differences between ages or sexes. Both point of subjective equality and just noticeable difference values decreased significantly during the three years of the study. The latter values significantly decreased as children became older. Body dissatisfaction (the discrepancy between perceived and ideal size) remained low for boys in all age groups. Girls' body dissatisfaction significantly increased across ages, beginning at age 9. Test-retest consistency of both perceived and ideal size judgments at intervals of one and two years were low. Acceptable boundaries in body width were similar between sexes and across age cohorts.     

Preferences for body type and body characteristics associated with attractive and unattractive bodies: Jackson and McGill revisited

The present investigation replicates Jackson and McGill's study (1996) and extends it by considering the effects of respondents' own height, weight, and body mass on perceptions of attractiveness. Results, although generally supportive of those found by Jackson and McGill, point to the influence of respondents' own physical characteristics in the process of perceptions of attractiveness: only 1 of Jackson and McGill's 3 (of a possible 19) differences between responses of African- and Euro-American women was corroborated (the importance of silky hair for Euro-American women), whereas a second difference (the importance of round buttocks for African-American women) disappeared when controlling for respondents' weight, height, and body mass. Although differences between the two investigations may be attributed to regional differences in the surveyed students (Michigan and North Carolina), the small effect of one's own weight, height, and body mass in assessing an other-sex person's attractiveness may reflect adherence to norms learned very early in life that are subject to regional variations.