Launching themes in Israeli fathers and mothers

This study focused on launching processes as reflected in the reactions of Israeli parents to the drafting of their eldest son. A questionnaire tapping parents' reactions was constructed and administered to 237 couples. Factor analysis delineated eight substantive factors: Emotional Investment, Parent-Child Strains, Fostering Son's Maturity, Parental Disengagement, Parent's Transitional Phase, Dissatisfaction with Army, Son's Unpreparedness, and Strengthening Family Relations. The factors depicted modes of coping with launching and transitional midlife processes. The construct validity of the factor scales was examined in a multivariate regression analysis with 12 predictor variables related to sociodemographics, attitudes, personal concerns, and satisfactions. Mothers differed from fathers in some factor scale means as well as in the pattern in which the predictor variables related to the factor scale scores. The results are interpreted in terms of ambivalent launching reactions involving distress on the one hand and a sense of growth on the other. While adaptation to this transition in the family takes place within a specific cultural context, its implications for universal launching features are also discussed.     

The effect of number of stimulators on the optimal interstimulus onset interval in tactile apparent movement

The effect of variations in the number of sequentially activated electromechanical stimulators on tactile apparent movement was examined in nine subjects. Judgments of successiveness or simultaneity were obtained as well. It was observed that four stimulators produced more frequent reports of apparent movement and resulted in optimal movement at shorter interztimulus onset intervals than did two stimulators, regardless of stimulus duration. Stimulus duration and interstimulus onset interval and their interaction were again found to be important determinants of tactile apparent movement.     

Intergroup competition and its effect on intragroup and intergroup relations

Seventy-two male subjects from lower technical schools were divided into groups of three and assigned to three conditions in which they expected to work together in competition with another group, to work together but independently of the other group, or did not anticipate to work together at all. Subjects who anticipated working together showed a more favorable attitude toward their group and its members than subjects who did not. Moreover, actual social interaction increased in-group attractiveness. Intergroup competition led to a more differentiated leadership structure and a greater consensus about the distribution of influence in the group. Contrary to our predictions, intergroup competition produced no greater in-group solidarity, nor any over-evaluation of the group's product. Low influence persons felt comparatively more positive about their group even before they actually had the opportunity to work together. An attempt was made to relate this finding to the ordinal position of the low status figure, his affiliative tendencies under stress, and his greater social dependence.     

Diet, exercise, and physical discomfort in college students

778 students in a 4-yr. urban commuter college were tested to determine the effects of exercise and diet on self-reported discomfort. High exercisers reported significantly less physical discomfort than moderate or low exercisers. Greater consumption of sweets and fast food were significantly related to reported physical discomfort regardless of levels of exercise. High levels of fruit and vegetable consumption were associated with less discomfort in high exercisers. High dairy consumption was significantly related to fewer symptoms for high exercisers. Men who reported high ingestion of caffeine had significantly more discomfort than those who reported moderate to lower ingestion of caffeine.     

Is psychoanalysis alive and well at 85? A rejoinder

Psychoanalysis has declined in public interest and scientific validity. It has become a “dead science” and an anachronistic system of beliefs. Its goal of total personality reconstruction is frustrating and futile. Psychoanalytic practice became a form of “exclusive salvationism,” and unconscionable, when it excluded the spouse from participation in the total treatment plan. More frequent interviews over a longer period of time do not produce a therapeutic effect that is “deeper,” and there is no reason to believe that fewer interviews are superficial, or temporary, and that prolongation of an analysis is more likely to produce better therapeutic results. Research studies do not produce any clear-cut winners when psychotherapies are compared. Psychoanalytic theories rest more on argument than on scientific evidence. The patient’s needs seldom, if ever, correspond to the therapist’s theoretical preoccupations, system of beliefs, and indoctrination. Research psychologists, philosophers of science, and eclectic psychiatrists have expressed their dissatisfaction with unproven psychoanalytic doctrines and the concept of “mental energy.” Psychoanalysis is not a pseudoscience, but a “half-science,” whose poetic mythology requires translation into the prose of science.     

Correspondence between parents' reports on the Behavior Problem Checklist

Interparent agreement on the Behavior Problem Checklist (BPC) was assessed in relation to several potentially influential variables. Major findings indicated parent agreement to be of a moderate level, generally higher in nondistressed than distressed samples, lower on Personality Problem items than Conduct Problem items, very low regarding presence of specific behaviors, and importantly related to type of reliability index employed. Issues deserving additional research effort are discussed.This research was supported in part by NIMH Grant No. 2R01 MH25802 and by NIAAA Research Scientist Development Award No. 1K01 AA00027 to the first author.     

Threatened leadership and intergroup competition

In this paper three experimental studies are reported in which leaders were given a choice between intergroup competition or -cooperation under the threat of being deposed or not by their followers. Consistent with our predictions, threatened leaders were more likely to opt for intergroup competition, especially when their group was internally divided and when they had a strong bargaining position. However, they only chose intergroup competition, regardless of their chances of bringing the intergroup conflict to a successful conclusion, when their tenure of power was very precarious.     

Formal and informal classroom settings: Effects on hyperactivity

The behavior of hyperactive children was compared to controls in two different classroom settings. One setting (Informal) involved choice and variety of tasks; the other setting (Formal) involved teacher specification of a small number of tasks. As assessed by a composite observational measure of hyperactivity, there were significant differences between the hyperactive and control groups in the Formal but not in the Informal setting. Analyses of five individual categories of hyperactive behavior showed that, with one exception, the hyperactive group tended to display higher frequencies of behavior than did controls in both settings. For two of the categories, the difference between the groups was significantly larger in the Formal than in the Informal setting. Finally, a modified observational code was suggested that differentiated hyperactives from controls equally in the two settings.