The relationship between personal authority in the family system and discovery of meaning in life

This study investigated the relationship between intergenerational family relationships and Frankl's concept of meaning in life. Intergenerational family relationships were measured by the Personal Authority in the Family System Questionnaire (PAFS-QE) by Bray, Williamson, and Malone. The meaning in life variables were measured by the Life Attitude Profile-Revised (LAP-R) by Reker. This quantitative study, using the BMDP Statistical Package (Dixon, 1990), correlated the scores on various subscales from both instruments, resulting in seven statistically significant relationships. The findings, although modest, suggest the existence of a relationship between these two theoretical areas.This article is based in part on the first author's doctoral dissertation at Texas Woman's University.A copy of the PAFS-Q may be obtained from: James H. Bray, PhD, 5510 Greenbriar, Houston, TX 77005. A copy of the LAP-R may be obtained from: Gary Reker, PhD, Trent University, Psychology Department, Peterborough, Ontario Canada K9J 7B8.     

Stories and tales in logotherapy with Urban-Appalachian families

In this article the authors describe and illustrate the use of stories and tales for metaphorical communication in family logotherapy with the Urban-Appalachian family. In this logotherapy approach, stories and tales are used to help the Urban-Appalachian family bring repressed meanings and meaning potentials to the conscious level of family awareness.James Lantz, Ph.D, and Karen Harper, Ph.D, are staff members at the Urban-Appalachian psychotherapy project and associate professors at the Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.     

Making peace in gestational conflicts

Mary Anne Warren's claim that there is room for only one person with full and equal rights inside a single human skin ([1], p. 63) calls attention to the vast range of moral conflict engendered by assigning full basic moral rights to fetuses. Thereby, it serves as a goad to thinking about conflicts between pregnant women and their fetuses in a way that emphasizes relationships rather than rights. I sketch out what a care orientation might suggest about resolving gestational conflicts. I also argue that the care orientation, with its commitment to the significance of the partial and the particular, cannot be absorbed within standard, impartialist moral theory.     

Low-dimensional chaos maps learning in a model neuropil (olfactory bulb)

Quantification of a chaotic system can be made by calculating the correlation dimension (D2) of the data that the system generates (Packard et al., 1980). The D2 algorithm, however, requires stationarity of the generator, a feature that biological data rarely reflect (Mayer-Kress et al., 1988). So we developed the “point correlation dimension” (PD2), an algorithm that accurately tracks D2 in linked data of different dimensions (Carpeggiani et al., 1991). We now present a mathematical argument that, for stationary data, individual PD2s converge to D2 and we demonstrate that the algorithm rejects contributions made by bursts of noise. Data were obtained from the surface of the olfactory bulb of the conscious rabbit (64 electrodes, 640 Hz each, 1.3 sec epochs) before and after presentation of a novel or habituated odor. D2 could be calculated in only 1 of 10 novel-odor trials, whereas PD2 could be calculated in all. Both algorithms indicated that a novel odor evokes a spatially uniform dimensional increase. The PD2 uniquely exhibited the dimensional decreases that occur during inspiration and the gradients of mean dimension present during the nonstimulated control state. These control gradients remained unchanged without odor experience, but showed spatially specific PD2 increases following odor habituation. It is interpreted that, 1) the PD2 issensitive, accurate, and appropriate for dimensional assessment of biological data, 2) that during analysis of unfamiliar information a singleglobal process is transiently evoked in the neuropil, and 3) after experience multiplespatially specific processes tonically map the sites of learning. Grant Support: National Institutes of Health, HL 31164 and NS27745     

Increasing the intelligibility of speech through multiple phonemic restorations

Outside of the laboratory, listening conditions are often less than ideal, and when attending to sounds from a particular source, portions are often obliterated by extraneous noises. However, listeners possess rather elegant reconstructive mechanisms. Restoration can be complete, so that missing segments are indistinguishable from those actually present and the listener is unaware that the signal is fragmented. This phenomenon, called temporal induction (TI), has been studied extensively with nonverbal signals and to a lesser extent with speech. Earlier studies have demonstrated that TI can produce illusory continuity spanning gaps of a few hundred milliseconds when portions of a signal are replaced by a louder sound capable of masking the signal were it actually present. The present study employed various types of speech signals with periodic gaps and measured the effects upon intelligibility produced by filling these gaps with noises. Enhancement of intelligibility through multiple phonemic restoration occurred when the acoustic requirements for TI were met and when sufficient contextual information was available in the remaining speech fragments. It appears that phonemic restoration is a specialized form of TI that uses linguistic skills for the reconstruction of obliterated speech.     

Parent attributions of emotion to their children and the cues children use in perceiving their own emotions

A number of studies have demonstrated stable individual differences in the cues that generate emotions and other feeling states. These differences are assumed to arise from the cues parents use to identify their children's emotional states. As children learn about their own emotional states, they come to rely on these same cues. To test one implication of their view, the facial expressions of children (N=41) were manipulated and their feelings assessed. Some children reported emotions consistent with their expressions, while others reported emotions appropriate to the situation. In a separate procedure, their mothers were asked to identify the emotional states of children whose expressions were inconsistent with an account of their circumstances. Mothers who paid more attention to their children's expressive behavior had children who were more responsive to their own expressive behavior. In contrast, the mothers who were more responsive to situational cues had children whose emotions arose from the situational cues as well.The authors would like to thank numerous teachers and administrators of the Worcester Public School system in Worcester, Massachusetts, for their assistance.     

Common problems and coping strategies II: Findings with adolescent suicide attempters

This study investigated the most common precipitants of adolescent suicide attempts and the strategies used to cope with such problems. Adolescent suicide attempters were compared with both distressed and nondistressed nonsuicidal adolescents on problems reported and coping strategies utilized. All three groups reported four problems as occurring most frequently: school, parents, friends, or boyfriend/girlfriend. The suicide attempters and distressed controls reported problems with parents more frequently than did nondistressed controls, while this latter group reported problems at school more frequently than did suicide attempters or distressed controls. Suicide attempters used social withdrawal, problem solving, and emotional regulation more than did nondistressed controls, but not more frequently than distressed controls. Distressed controls used wishful thinking and resignation more than did suicide atempters. Results are discussed in terms of the similarities between suicide attempters and nonsuicidal distressed adolescents and the need to more closely investigate specific subgroups of suicide attempters.     

Effects of gender roles and self perceptions on affective reactions to horror films

Responses to graphic horror films have been shown to be modified by a number of personality variables, and in particular, by gender-specific rules for social conduct. In earlier horror research it has been assumed that gender-specific responses are largely determined by biological gender. More recent research has focused on psychological patterns of gender identity that often transcend biological gender lines. This investigation sought clarification by examining the impact of individuals' self-perceived gender role and other personality characteristics on affective responses to horror. Subjects' perceptions of how same- and opposite-gender peers would respond to such materials were also assessed. Consistent with theoretical expectations, the findings revealed strong effects on the estimation of opposite-gender target's reactions as a function of both the rater's gender role characteristics and biological gender. Other personality factors were found to influence responses to horror only marginally, however. The results are discussed in terms of the gender role socialization model of affect.