Monitoring simultaneous auditory messages

If a S is asked to monitor two simultaneous auditory speech messages and to report only on the occurrence of target words appearing at random in either message, then it is shown that he witt fail to detect all of them but will detect significantly more than half. The targets used in these experiments were immediate repeats of text words. The results reject theories that part of the sensory input is blocked or that all is recognized. Detection performance was a function of rate of speech and of intertarget interval; there was a small, not significant, effect of instruction to recognize message content.     

Student Attendance at University Co-curricular Activities

Over 18,000 students at Michigan State University reported their attendance at 46 campus events. Student characteristics were analyzed in terms of student attendance patterns. The 46 events were grouped into 4 independent categories that were attended by students with different characteristics. Students who attended cultural events were mostly single upperclassmen majoring in liberal arts; musical events were attended mostly by music majors; those attending athletic events tended to be single male undergraduates from the more applied disciplines; and social events were attended mostly by undergraduate girls.     

Orlo Strunk Jr.

Pastoral Psychology -     

The minimal transformation to orthonormality

The solution is presented to the problem of finding that orthonormal matrix closest in the least-square sense to a given matrix of full rank. An application is shown to the problem in multiple regression analysis of determining the importance of each independent variable.     

Willingness to Seek Help as a Function of Self-Disclosure and Problem Severity

In this study the authors examined the effects of problem severity, amount of self-disclosure, and self-disclosure flexibility on willingness to seek help for a problem. The participants were 101 midwestern university students enrolled in an introductory psychology course who had not had previous counseling experience. The participants completed the Jourard Self-Disclosure Questionnaire (SDQ), the Chelune Self-Disclosure Situations Survey (SDSS), and responded to questions after reading a scenario depicting a personal problem of either high or low severity. The results indicated that the factors that predicted the greatest amount of variance in willingness to seek help were the interaction of problem severity with willingness to self-disclose to a counselor, followed by problem severity; no gender differences were found. Implications for counseling and further research are discussed.     

Grandparents Affected by Parental Divorce: A Population at Risk?

When parents divorce, grandparents who have bonded with grandchildren may be affected, particularly when denied visitation. In this article the author reviews normative aspects of grand-parenthood and how grandparents are affected by parental divorce. Legal and ethical issues and counseling interventions are discussed.     

Influences of Acculturation on Mexican-American Drinking Practices: Implications for Counseling

Literature on the drinking practices of Mexican Americans is discussed from the perspectives of three acculturation models: linear acculturation, acculturative stress, and marginality stress. Culturally competent alcohol counseling practices are proposed.