Career stages: A partial test of Levinson's model of life/career stages

This study purports to test a theory of life and career stages developed by Daniel Levinson and his associates. The theory suggests four distinct stages between ages 20 and 45 each with their own developmental tasks and related behaviors and attitudes. Subjects (759 managerial, professional, and technical employees) were selected randomly from levels and departments of a major public sector employer in the midwest United States. The measure of career stage asked respondents to indicate whether they had passed through, were still in, or had not yet reached each stage as operationalized by a short vignette. Attitudinal and behavioral measures were abstracted from previously developed instruments. Only moderate support for the theory was found with little or no evidence to support the age-linked notion of these stages. Stages were found to be discriminable in terms of certain attitudes (upward mobility, career and overall job satisfaction, and job commitment) as predicted. Suggestions are given for improvements in measurement, research design, and theory refinement.     

Stress and strain in blue-collar and white-collar management staff

Previous research has demonstrated the relationship of work stress to indices of job strain, as well as underscoring the importance of moderating variables. In the present study of a mining organization it was hypothesized that personnel associated with actual mining operations would demonstrate stress-strain relationships different from those associated with administrative and staff work. Measures of stress and strain were obtained from management staff of blue-collar and white-collar groups to assess the moderating influence of collar color. Results strongly support collar color as a moderator variable. In particular, the two groups differ significantly with respect to how role conflict, job security, quantitative work load, variation in work load, and utilization of skills impact various strains. The effect of job function on stress and strain and possible practical implications of these results are discussed.     

Sex differences in knowledge of occupational dimensions across four age levels

The purpose of the present study was to better understand the development of children's occupational knowledge, as assessed by their ability to give ratings to jobs along various dimensions that were similar to ratings given by adults, and to investigate differences in boys' and girls' ratings. Overall, younger students gave higher ratings to the jobs pictured than did older students. Also, females gave higher ratings to three of the four dimensions investigated. Girls rated traditionally female jobs higher on respect and service, while boys rated traditionally male jobs higher on respect and service. Both males and females agreed that more education would be required for the female jobs pictured, but that males would be paid more money for the male jobs pictured.     

Spatial frequency content of visual imagery

Three experiments employing the McCollough paradigm were conducted to determine the spatial-frequency content of visual imagery. In Experiment 1, large and reliable pattern-contingent color aftereffects were obtained after adaptation to visual imagery. The direction of the aftereffects indicated that subjects were adapting to higher spatial frequencies in their imagery. These results contrast with the data of Experiment 2, which demonstrate that color aftereffects obtained with adaptation to physically present stimuli are mediated by the fundamental spatial frequency components. The magnitude of the imagery-induced aftereffects in Experiment 1 equaled the magnitude of the externally induced aftereffects obtained in Experiment 2 with the same subjects. By blurring the to-be-imaged patterns (Experiment 3), the fundamental Fourier components became the salient perceptual features of the stimuli, and the direction of the imagery-induced aftereffects was reversed from that of Experiment 1, indicating that the spatial frequency content of the imagery had changed from higher to lower frequencies. Under normal viewing conditions, subjects use the higher spatial frequencies associated with the perceptually salient edges of stimuli to construct their images. The results of Experiments 1 and 3 are discussed in light of a current controversy over the nature of information representation in imagery, and it is concluded that support has been obtained for the analog model of visual imagery.     

Picture perception: An analysis of visual compensation

Although geometric information is altered when a picture’s viewing point is changed, such changes often do not affect perception. Two experiments assessed pictorial perception relative to the distortions introduced by viewing point dislocation. Results provide a psychophysical demonstration of pictorial compensation and suggest that it is based on the discrepancy between the actual and an assumed-correct viewing position. An explanation of pictorial compensation is offered that could be applied to direct picture perception and to picture-in-a-picture perception.     

Flow thresholds of nonodorous air through the human naris as a function of temperature and humidity

The process of olfactory sensation is probably a Gestalt consisting of motor, physical, and chemical components formed during the transport of the odor-bearing airstream past the olfactory epithelium. In studying a sensory process, it is often necessary to examine the components independently. Apart from its contribution to the olfactory Gestalt, in dynamic olfactometry airflow may distract from, compete with, or mask chemical sensation. Four nonsmoking male subjects were employed to obtain flow thresholds of nonodorous air at eight temperature/ humidity combinations. The stimulus-generating apparatus was housed in a temperature-regulated oven. All materials in contact with the airstream were thoroughly cleaned and were constructed of nonreactive materials to avoid olfactory cues. An evaluation of the quality of the output demonstrated purity. A Béésy technique was used to deliver stimuli via a nasal catheter to the subject. Thresholds were found to be nearly identical for the lowest humidity levels regardless of the temperature. In general, the closer the temperature/humidity was to physiological normal, the higher the threshold. Since the thresholds were so strongly functions of temperature and humidity, it is likely that transduction was by trigeminal thermoreceptive afferents. The utilization of subthreshold flows in olfactory research may reduce the trigeminal component in olfaction, thus permitting better assessment of the contribution of the olfactory nerve to olfactory sensation.     

A simple special-purpose interval-duration timer for acoustic research

A special-purpose interval-duration timer is described. The device is designed to interface with commercially available psychophysical packages, to be used in time interval calibration. The extremely low cost of materials justifies the construction of this essentially single-purpose device.     

Free classification: Element-level and subgroup-level similarity

Subjects classified sets of multidimensional stimuli into two groups in any way they wished. The sets were composed of 6 or 12 stimuli: 2 or 4 instances of 3 different stimuli (e.g., 2 blue circles, 2 green circles, 2 red circles). There were striking individual differences in the preferred classification. Some subjects maximized the similarity between subgroups by matching the composition of the subgroups--one instance of each stimulus was placed in each group. The other subjects maximized the similarity among stimuli within each subgroup by placing similar stimuli in each group (the blues and greens in one group, the reds in the other). The nature of the stimuli as well as the relationships among the three stimuli had little effect on classification. In this case, cognitive styles specific to individuals but general across diverse dimensions and stimulus sets determined classification.     

Contextual effects in vowel perception II: Evidence for two processing mechanisms

Recent experiments have indicated that contrast effects can be obtained with vowels by anchoring a test series with one of the endpoint vowels. These contextual effects cannot be attributed to feature detector fatigue or to the induction of an overt response bias. In the present studies, anchored ABX discrimination functions and signal detection analyses of identification data (before and after anchoring) for an [i]-[I] vowel series were used to demonstrate that [i] and [I] anchoring produce contrast effects by affecting different perceptual mechanisms. The effects of [i] anchoring were to increase within-[i] category sensitivity, while [I] anchoring shifted criterion placements. When vowels were placed in CVC syllables to reduce available auditory memory, there was a significant decrease in the size of the [I]-anchor contrast effects. The magnitude of the [i]-anchor effect was unaffected by the reduction in vowel information available in auditory memory. These results suggest that [i] and [I] anchors affect mechanisms at different levels of processing. The [i] anchoring results may reflect normalization processes in speech perception that operate at an early level of perceptual processing, while the [I] anchoring results represent changes in response criterion mediated by auditory memory for vowel information.