The Rotter locus of control scale: The comparison of alternative response formats and implications for reliability, validity, and dimensionality

Participants completed the Rotter internal/external (IE) instrument using three different response formats before and after completion of the Outward Bound program, and were evaluated by external observers at the end of the intervention. Multitrait-multimethod analyses indicated that five specific IE facets identified in previous research were consistently distinguished with each of the response formats. While responses were substantially more internal after the intervention, effect sizes varied with the IE facet and with the response format. Observer responses were significantly correlated with self-responses, and provided additional support for the construct validity of responses to the Rotter instrument and the interpretation of the intervention effect. Nevertheless, problems with the Rotter instrument were identified, and the implications for further research were discussed.     

Glucose effects on memory: behavioral and pharmacological characteristics

Recent findings indicate that post-training glucose injections can modulate memory storage for inhibitory (passive) avoidance training. Experiment I extended these findings to determine whether glucose, like other memory modulating treatments, enhances memory storage when administered after training with low footshock and impairs memory storage after high footshock training. In Experiment I, male Sprague-Dawley rats were trained in a one-trial inhibitory avoidance task using either a brief footshock (0.5 mA, 0.7 s) or slightly more intense footshock kept on until escape (0.7 mA, mean escape latency = 3.4 s). Immediately after training, each rat received a subcutaneous injection of glucose (100 mg/kg). When tested for retention performance 24 h later, the glucose-injected animals exhibited enhanced retention performance for low footshock training and impaired retention for high footshock training. Experiment II determined whether pretreatment with adrenergic antagonists blocked the effects of glucose on memory. Pretreatment with the alpha- or beta-adrenergic receptor antagonists, phenoxybenzamine, or propranolol, respectively, had no effect on acquisition or retention in animals trained with the brief footshock and did not affect glucose facilitation of that memory. In animals trained to escape footshock, phenoxybenzamine did not attenuate the amnesia produced by glucose. Propranolol-pretreated animals had impaired retention whether or not they received post-training amnestic injections of glucose; glucose had no effect on retention in these amnestic animals. These findings add further support to the view that glucose release after training and treatment may represent a physiological response subsequent to epinephrine release in modulating memory storage processing.     

Counseling Clients with AIDS

The authors discuss issues and suggestions relative to counseling clients with AIDS. Several psychosocial issues are presented, and a psycho-educational model of treatment to meet the needs of AIDS clients is described.     

In-Service Courses in Human Relations: One Teacher's Learning

Human relations training includes counselling as an important ingredient. This case-study reports the learning of one primary deputy headteacher during a six-day course, and her continuing efforts to use and extend that learning during the following year. She reported an improvement in classroom discipline, and less stressful and more effective relationships with colleagues and pupils, linking these gains with insights and skills developed on the course. The value to course designers of goal-setting structures is illustrated by the study. Such structures provide an opportunity to take part in, and study, counselling interventions which have real problems as their focus.     

AN IDIOGRAPHIC APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF WOMEN'S ACHIEVEMENT STRIVING

Biographical interviews with 80 women ranging in age from the late teens to the 80s (Mean Age = 46.8 years; SD = 7.8 years) elicited information concerning personality characteristics that predispose women toward achievement-striving behavior, taking into account the effects of family, friends, and role models. When asked if they had ever been in a situation where they were about to succeed and feared the success, the majority of women (91 %) replied "no". A large percentage of women (96%) did report that they wonder if their achievements are worth it and asked "success at what cost?" In addition, compared to older women, younger women were more concerned with interpersonal relationships and less concerned with competitive achievement. The reality status of the fear of success construct as well as methodological advances in its measurement are discussed.     

Spatial attention in vision

Summary Human observers can selectively allocate processing resources to different areas of the visual field within a single fixation. This spatial attention system may affect either the quality of information extraction or the decisions and responses based on this information. This paper reviews evidence from behavioral, single-unit, and event-related potential paradigms; the evidence suggests a relatively early locus of spatial attention.This research was supported by the U. S. Army Research Office under contract DAAG 29-83-K-0049. Portions of this paper were presented to the Conference on Attention and Action, Bielefeld, West Germany, in July 1985     

Book reviews

Current Psychology -     

Training non-native speech contrasts in adults: Acquisition of the English /ð/-/θ/ contrast by francophones

Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics - Speech perception abilities are modified by linguistic experience to maximize sensitivity to acoustic contrasts that are important for one’s...     

The electronic chalkboard

The present paper describes “the electronic chalkboard” (TEC), a teaching innovation made possible by the recent development, under a FIPSE grant to CONDUIT, of specialized instructional software. The instructional power of TEC casts the computer in the role of catalyst in the student-teacher dyad and leads to the emergence of the more powerful student-computer-teacher triad. Relevant educational principles and CAI techniques that should ensure the intelligent use of TEC are discussed.     

Minicomputer-administered tasks in the study of effects of sustained work on human performance

Six tasks administered on a MINC-11 minicomputer were used in studying the effects of long, continuous work periods and fatigue on physical and cognitive task performance. Submaximal physiological workload measurement was done during one of these tasks for a subject walking on a treadmill. The MINC-11 system is described, as are the six tasks programs. Four of these tasks measured various types of reaction times, another involved complex information processing, and one appraised moods, physical symptoms, fatigue, and the physiological status of subjects.