Self-concept and delinquency proneness

Contrary to the theory of the homeostatic model of self-concept, i.e., the expectancy that engaging in anti-social or pro-social behavior results typically in shifts in the self-concept (Graf, 1968; Deitz, 1970 shifts did not occur. Subjects, 12- 14-year-old boys enrolled in junior high school, delinquent prone (DP) and non-delinquent prone bright (NDPB), reacted to manipulation by engaging in reparative behavior as indicated via an aggression module in a fashion generally expected but the expected shift from chronic self-images did not occur. Both DP and NDPB viewed themselves similarly on self concept. The authors postulated that if shifts would occur for the delinquent prone it would be after they left school with its accompanying identification with a sub-culture outside the school setting.     

Patterns of transactional style deviance in the TAT's of parents of schizophrenics

Parents of schizophrenics show more transactional style deviance in diverse situations than do other parents. In a sample of families of nonschizophrenic outpatient adolescents, a manual for scoring such deviance on stories told for seven TAT cards was developed. This scoring system was shown to be composed of six meaningful factors. When this system was applied to the TAT's of parents of offspring with a variety of psychiatric diagnoses, a total deviance score did not discriminate among the parents. High scores on two particular factors were found only in parents of hospitalized schizophrenics, but four factors were nondiscriminating. Parents of young adults with schizophrenia spectrum disorders were more likely to show high scores on at least one of these six factors than other parents. Considering the scores of mothers and fathers together yielded the best discrimination of parents of schizophrenia spectrum disorders from other parents.     

Humanistic behaviorism: A tool for creating healthy learning environments

Behavior modification techniques have been both highly revered and highly criticized by educators. Unfortunately, both viewpoints have often been based on a superficial understanding of theory and research. More significantly, the application of behavioristic principles has frequently failed to integrate techniques derived from research in the areas of personality development and communication (much of which is currently incorporated under the term humanistic psychology). This article presents a school-based model for creating a synthesis of behavioristic and humanistic technologies. Examples from the author's work as a teacher and consultant are combined with an examination of associated research findings to demonstrate the practical application of such a synthesis.     

Encoding origin of the terminal asymmetry effect in recall

Jones (1976) found that the accuracy of recall of the order in which a series of pictures was seen was dependent upon the way in which recall was cued. For the latter part of a series, sequential position was a more effective cue for the recall of the corresponding picture than the picture was for sequential position. Two experiments reported here (testing altogether 100 subjects) investigated whether this terminal asymmetry effect (TAE) arises at encoding or only at retrieval. It was found that the TAE was affected by the conditions of presentation of the series but not by the post-presentation factors studied.     

Recognition vs recall of visually vs acoustically confusable letter matrices

In an attempt to separate auditory and visual components in short-term memory, five subjects were exposed to letter matrices composed of six visually confusable letters, six acoustically confusable letters, or a mixture of the two, under two response conditions: recognition and recall. A 50-msec stimulus presentation was followed by a variable dark interval of 1, 250, 1,000, or 3,000 msec. In the recall condition, the interval was followed by a buzzer which signaled the subject to recall, in any order, as many letters as possible. In the recognition condition, the variable interval was followed by a second letter matrix which was either identical to the first matrix or differed from is by one letter. Subjects responded either "same" or "different." The results support the notion that the auditory component plays a major role in recall, whereas the visual component dominates in recognition.     

Cultural and sex differences in touch avoidance

250 male and female respondents from American, Mediterranean, Near Eastern, and Far Eastern cultures completed a self-report measure of touch-avoidance. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated factors for opposite-sex and same-sex touch-avoidance. These factors were used as dependent variables in a 4 x 2 (culture by sex) multivariate analysis of variance which yielded a significant interaction of culture by sex on opposite-sex touch-avoidance and a main effect of the respondents' sex on same-sex touch-avoidance.     

The Daily Stress Inventory: Validity and effect of repeated administration

The Daily Stress Inventory (DSI) is a self-report measure of minor stressors which is administered daily. One test of the validity of a measure of daily stress is its sensitivity to the difference between the stressors of workdays and those of weekends. A second concern in establishing the validity of a test administered repeatedly is that self-monitoring may influence the obtained scores. The present study investigated these two issues using a sample of 70 community adults who reported full-time employment. These subjects provided a week of self-monitoring with the DSI. The results indicated that the DSI was sensitive to the difference between weekends and weekdays. The analyses of the effect of repeated administration suggested that the first day of self-monitoring may differ from the other days of self-monitoring. When the first day was eliminated, there was no significant difference among the days of self-monitoring, and the difference between the weekdays and the weekends remained. The data suggest that the DSI is a valid measure of the construct of daily stress and that any influence of repeated self-monitoring with the scale may be easily resolved.     

Changes in sexist attitudes toward women during introductory women's and men's studies courses

Sexism toward women scores of university students at the beginning of an introductory women's and men's studies (gender studies) course were compared with sexism levels of the same students at the end of the course and with sexism levels of controls. Differences in sexism levels associated with Bem's sex role categories were investigated. Sexism levels among students in every category, except undifferentiated, were significantly lower at the end of the course, while controls showed no pre/post differences. As expected, males were higher than females both at pretest and at posttest, and sexism in both sex groups decreased significantly by equivalent amounts; but androgynous males in the introductory course were lower in sexism than sex-typed males and androgynous females were lower than sex-typed females. Undifferentiated subjects decreased in sexism least during the course, and cross-typed and androgynous males decreased most. The relationship of sexism to several additional variables not included in formal hypotheses also is discussed. These variables were age, religion, ethnicity, SES, and grade earned in the gender studies course.