Sex differences in communication skills as measured by a modified relationship inventory

Previous studies have provided some indication that females are more empathic than males and that individuals show greater empathy when relating to persons of the same sex. Because the research has been equivocal, the present study attempted to replicate these findings for not only empathy but also three other communication skills measured by the Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory: congruence, regard, and unconditionality of regard. The subjects for this study were 20 male and 41 female students in an undergraduate experiential course in interpersonal relations. All students were placed in training groups, and the co-trainers for these groups completed ratings on a modified Relationship Inventory for each of their students. Reliability data on this inventory were satisfactory. Female students were given slightly higher ratings on all skills at both the beginning and end of the group experience, but none of the differences were significant. Male co-trainers rated the skills of male students higher than did female co-trainers, but a comparable same-sex effect for female students was not demonstrated. Thus, the experimental hypotheses were partially supported.     

Conflict,learning, and Piaget: Comments on Zimmerman and Blom's “Toward an empirical test of the role of cognitive conflict in learning”

A brief historical account dealing with the concept of psychic conflict is first presented, followed by an examination of Piaget's equilibrium/equilibration model and the relevance of the concept of conflict to that model. A critical analysis of B. J. Zimmerman and D. E. Blom (Developmental Review, 1983, 3, 18–38) is then presented, after which suggestions are made regarding future directions research efforts pertaining to Piaget's conflict/learning formulation might fruitfully take.     

Combined group and individual treatment for the borderline patient

This article discusses the attenuating mechanisms of group psychotherapy that support and enhance analytic work with borderline patients in combined group and individual psychotherapy. A group case study is presented which addresses the manifestations and management of transference and countertransference in a combined treatment approach. Combined treatment was observed to respond effectively to both the intrapsychic and interpersonal difficulties of borderline patients. A multidimensional model for treating these patients in a community mental health setting is proposed.     

Malpractice in clinical social work: A perspective on civil liability in the 1980's

Recently reported cases involving the malpractice of psychiatrists have also focused attention on the potential liability for similar acts by clinical social workers. While there is no appellate case authority holding social work clinicians liable for malpractice at this time, the potential for such litigation is enormous. This article explores some of the more common areas of concern and suggests several prophylactic measures that clinicians may employ to safeguard both their professional career and their continued financial independence.     

A precision electronic timer for the measurement of acoustic signals

An electronic speech timer that uses only relatively inexpensive and readily available electronic components and common circuitry is described. This device rapidly and accurately measures the durational characteristics of speech and the durations of other acoustic signals over extended lengths of time. Its application to the measurement of total speaking time, articulation time, and phonation time are outlined. Accuracy, reliability, and validity are discussed and compared with other, more time-consuming and cumbersome methods of durational measurement.     

Preparing dichotic tapes using a digital music synthesizer

Digital music synthesizers represent audio signals in the form of binary coded numbers. These binary coded numbers can be manipulated by the operator, thereby altering the audio signal in a variety of ways. The present article describes how these capabilities can be used to produce perfectly aligned dichotic tapes in which the stimulus items are matched on all extraneous (timbre, amplitude, duration) factors.     

Self-esteem,need gratification,and work satisfaction: A test of competing explanations from consistency theory and self-enhancement theory

A sample of 112 administrators provided self-report data used to test two hypotheses derived from Korman's consistency model of work behavior. As predicted, those with high self-esteem experienced significantly greater need gratification than did those with low self-esteem, and self-esteem also significantly positively moderated the relationship between n gratification and work satisfaction. Need gratification was assessed for only those needs that were most salient for each person, thus eliminating a rival interpretation of the findings derived from the self-enhancement model of self-esteem. The moderating effect of self-esteem on the n gratification-work satisfaction relationship was limited to those experiencing low levels of n gratification, indicating a possible “boundary condition” of consistency theory. A problem with the use of moderator variables in behavioral science was also discussed.     

Compliance with a behavioural weight-loss programme: Target setting and locus of control

The effects on weight loss of two ‘target-setting’ strategies were compared for a sample of obese females following a dietary/behavioural weight-loss programme. Predictions concerning the interaction between target-setting strategy and Locus-of-Control orientation were examined. The option of adopting a ‘variable’ food intake strategy, which allowed compensations or planning variations around an average target, was associated, for externals, with greater weight loss than a ‘consistent’ strategy, in which daily targets for food intake were always the same. Internals did not respond differentially to the two conditions. A measure of verbal intelligence was significantly correlated with control orientation but intelligence was not significantly correlated with weight loss. Some theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.     

Distribution of visual attention over space

Subjects viewed 3 X 3 grids in which different subsets of the nine squares were designated as "figure," either by physical shading of those squares or by a verbal instruction to imagine those squares as shaded. The time taken by participants to respond "on" or "off" the figure was measured for single or multiple probe dots, which all appeared on or off the figural subset together, and which had already been shown to be equally detectable against shaded or unshaded squares and in all nine locations within the grid. In contrast to the set-size effect generally found in experiments on memory scanning, reaction time did not necessarily increase with the number of squares in the figural subset. Instead, the critical variable, which in previous research may often have adventitiously covaried with set size, was the spatial compactness of the subsets (as indexed by square-root-area over perimeter): Probes of less compact figures required more time to classify correctly. Subjects were evidently more successful in confining their attention to sets of mutually proximal items. Reasons are given for believing that this principle may also apply in the more abstract representational or semantic spaces that determine reaction times and errors in various other cognitive tasks.