On the development of national attitudes in children

The present study consists of three related experiments which are concerned with the development of national attitudes in children between the ages of seven and twelve. It was predicted on the basis of a structural interpretation of Allport's three-stage developmental theory of prejudice that national attitudes will increase at first due to increasing consistency of judgment and decrease afterwards due to cognitive differentiation. The hypothesis is partially confirmed with respect to the attitudes of children towards other countries but not confirmed with respect to the attitudes of children towards people who are perceived as foreigners. A tentative explanation is offered for the last finding. It was shown moreover that the attitudes of older children display more cognitive balance than those of younger children. In connection with the last problem, a quantified modification Bf Heider's theory of balanced states was introduced.     

Assessing the effects of factors that might underlie the differential perception of acquaintance and stranger rape

There is evidence to suggest that in an acquaintance rape the victim is perceived less favorably and there is more leniency toward the perpetrator than in a stranger rape. The purpose of the present study was to assess the perceptual effects of factors that might underlie this differential perception. Victim-perpetrator attraction and ambiguity in victim's desire for intercourse were varied since both are often perceived to occur at a much higher frequency in acquaintance rape than stranger rape. The design of the study was a 3 (victim-perpetrator attraction — minimal, moderate, maximal) × 2 (ambiguity in desire for intercourse — ambiguous, relatively unambiguous) × 2 (gender of subject — male, female) factorial. The results indicated that ambiguity had a significant effect on perceptions. More specifically, perception tended to be less favorable toward the victim and more lenient toward the defendant when there was ambiguity in the victim's desire for intercourse. Additionally, when compared to females, males' perception tended to be less favorable toward the victim and more lenient toward the perpetrator. There were no other significant main effects or interactions. The implications of these findings for the differential perception of acquaintance and stranger rape are discussed.     

Risk taking as a predictor of adolescent sexual activity and use of contraception

A hypothesis of high-risk behaviors associated with adolescent sexual activity and lack of contraceptive use was tested in a longitudinal random sample of both male and female youths. The data were part of the Rutgers Health and Human Development Project. 1380 subjects were ascertained by random telephone calling were given self-report questionnaires and personality profiles including the Zuckerman's Sensation Seeking Scale, and Jackson's Personality Research Form in 1979 and 1981. Incidence of sexual activity and use of contraceptives increased with age from age 12-21. Cohort effects were apparent with use of some contraceptive methods. Of the variables indicating risk- taking, disinhibition, impulsivity and experience seeking, there were significant associations between sexual activity and disinhibition and experience seeking, for females. There were no significant associations between these variables and sexual activity in males. Contrary to the hypothesis, there were no relationships between either consistency of birth control use or reliability of the method used and behavioral indicators of risk-taking. Thus this 1st study in the field that included both males and females from the general population, as opposed to college students, found that sexually active adolescents were higher risk-takers than virgins, but no relationship between risk-taking and effectiveness of contraception was observed.     

Assessing treatability in mentally disordered offenders: A conceptual and methodological note

The assessment of treatability in mentally disordered offenders has rarely been addressed through empirical research, despite its frequent use in clinical and legal decision-making. We describe four necessary steps for establishing the requisite research base for treatability evaluations: (a) criterion specification, (b) the development of reliable measures, (c) the validation of these measures with treatment outcome data, and (d) the incorporation of environmental and base rate information.     

Self-focused attention, gender, gender role, and vulnerability to negative affect

Research has independently shown that both gender and self-focused attention are linked to depression. In this article, we report a series of studies investigating the relation between these variables. Using a standard self-focusing manipulation, Study 1 suggested that women evidence a greater propensity to self-focus than men. We replicated these findings in Study 2. In Study 3, we conducted an experiment to determine if sex role in conjunction with experimentally increased self-focused attention would lead to more emotional distress after a negative event had occurred. Results suggested that feminine individuals who received a self-focusing manipulation responded with greater levels of self-focused attention and negative affect than did any other group. We interpreted findings in terms of a tendency to self-focus that might prime feminine people to experience depression, or alternately, as a lack of self-focusing that may insulate masculine individuals from the experience of depression.     

Adolescent Nonsmokers,Triers, and Regular Smokers' Estimates of Cigarette Smoking Prevalence: When Do Overestimations Occur and by Whom?1

The present study tested three assumptions often made by smoking prevention researchers and practitioners regarding the nature and causes of smoking prevalence estimates. Specifically, it is often assumed that (a) adolescent prevalence estimates of all levels of smoking are inflated, (b) youths at different stages of smoking onset all overestimate smoking prevalence, and (c) the predictors of these estimates are the same for youths at different stages of smoking onset. Measures of smoking behavior based on self-reports using a bogus pipeline procedure, estimates of cigarette smoking prevalence (trying behavior and weekly use), and reports of smoking in significant others were obtained by the same youths when they were in eighth and ninth grades. Results indicated that, taken over all youths, estimates of trying cigarettes were accurate, whereas estimates of weekly use were inflated. When responders were defined by their stage of smoking onset, either as a nonsmoker, trier, or regular smoker, analyses revealed that triers were accurate regarding prevalence estimates of trying, whereas non-smokers made gross underestimations and regular smokers made overestimations of trying. All groups of youths overestimated prevalence of weekly smoking. Analyses of variance revealed that both youths' smoking status and interpersonal smoking environment additively predicted prevalence estimates, and estimates of smoking prevalence were relatively higher in youths who began to smoke, or increased their levels of smoking, within the next year. Thus, previous assumptions were partially confirmed. Future research and prevention programming should focus more on regular smoking as the focus of normative smoking distortion effects and correction efforts.     

An inverse relationship between baseline fixed-interval response rate and the effects of a tandem response requirement.

Previous experiments examining the effects of adding a tandem fixed-ratio response requirement on fixed-interval schedule performance have reported inconsistent results. One variable that may account for such inconsistencies is the baseline response rate in the fixed-interval condition. This possibility was investigated in the present study. Rats were given histories with either interresponse times greater than 11 s or fixed-ratio 40 schedules of reinforcement, which engendered either relatively low or high rates of responding, respectively, in the subsequent fixed-interval condition. A tandem ratio response requirement (fixed-ratio 9) was then introduced. The effects of adding this tandem response requirement were inversely related to the baseline fixed-interval response rates; low rates of responding in the fixed-interval condition were markedly increased, whereas high rates of responding were relatively unaffected. This inverse relationship appears to be similar to the rate-dependent relations observed in behavioral pharmacology. These results may provide an explanation for the inconsistent findings reported in previous studies on tandem fixed-interval fixed-ratio schedules and suggest that principles of behavioral pharmacology research may be applicable to the study of the effects of nonpharmacological variables on schedule-controlled behavior.     

FAMILY AND WORK PREDICTORS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING AMONG HISPANIC WOMEN PROFESSIONALS

This study examines the relative contributions of job- and gender-related variables to the mental health of Hispanic women professionals. Hispanic women professionals, managers and business owners ( n = 303) were surveyed using the mailing list of a Hispanic professional women's organization. Results of multiple regression analyses indicate that income and Hispanic group were consistently related to mental health measures. Spouse support and ethnicity of spouse were associated with measures of stress in balancing roles and psychological distress symptoms. Marital status was related to personal life satisfaction (married women reported more satisfaction), and having young children was negatively associated with personal and professional satisfaction. Experience of discrimination, job stress and peer support were also significantly related to mental health measures. Although preliminary, this study underscores the importance of both job- and gender-related factors in research on the effects of employment on Hispanic women's mental health.     

Primary prevention of behavior problems in mexican-american children

A primary prevention program, the Houston Parent-Child Development Center, directed towards infants and their parents, has effectively reduced the frequency of behavior problems for these children 5 to 8 years after the program's completion. Teacher ratings showed significantly fewer acting-out, aggressive behaviors for program children. Ratings of classroom behaviors found program children significantly less hostile and more considerate than control boys. This appears to be the first primary prevention program to have demonstrated effectiveness in reducing behavior problems over such a long time.     

Unexpected reading precocity in a normal preschooler: implications for hyperlexia

This is a case study of a left-handed, preschool boy of superior intelligence who read very early and at a level well beyond what his IQ would predict. He is developmentally normal with no signs of autism or related disorders. His reading age was 9.3 at age 2-11 and 11.2 at 4-2; these levels are considerably beyond what would be predicted by his IQ or language age. He was able to read nonwords and both regular and irregular words equally well, indicating his mechanisms of lexical access in reading are similar to those of normal readers. Unlike classical hyperlexics, his reading comprehension for both single words and sentences was well above age level. When his precocious reading first appeared, he was also advanced in reading-related linguistic skills, such as phoneme awareness, auditory verbal short-term memory, and word retrieval, but not in visuospatial skills. These results imply that neither pathological language and/or social development, nor pathological variation in the normal mechanisms of lexical access in reading are necessary causes for reading precocity in early childhood. A model for integrating subtypes of precocious readers with subtypes of normal and dyslexic readers is proposed.