The role of brothers and sisters in the gender development of preschool children

The study examined whether the sex of older siblings influences the gender role development of younger brothers and sisters of age 3 years. Data on the Pre-School Activities Inventory, a measure of gender role behavior that discriminates within as well as between the sexes, were obtained in a general population study for 527 girls and 582 boys with an older sister, 500 girls and 561 boys with an older brother, and 1665 singleton girls and 1707 singleton boys. It was found that boys with older brothers and girls with older sisters were more sex-typed than same-sex singletons who, in turn, were more sex-typed than children with other-sex siblings. Having an older brother was associated with more masculine and less feminine behavior in both boys and girls, whereas boys with older sisters were more feminine but not less masculine and girls with older sisters were less masculine but not more feminine.     

Ongoing postdivorce conflict and child disturbance

This paper reports on the disturbed behavior of children who are subject to entrenched parental disputes over their custody and care after separation and divorce. The 56 children who varied in racial and socioeconomic origin were 4 to 12 years old at entry into the study. They were assessed at two points: at the time of the custody dispute and 2.5 years later. The extent of the child's involvement in the dispute and the amount of role reversal between parent and child predicted total behavior problems and aggression at the time of the legal dispute. These same factors, together with the rate of verbal and physical aggression between parents, predicted total behavior problems, depression, withdrawn/uncommunicative behavior, somatic complaints, and aggression at the 2-year follows-up. There were no main effects for sex and age. However, at the 2-year mark, girls in high-conflict families were more depressed and withdrawn, and older children in high-conflict situations had more somatic complaints and were more aggressive. The findings are considered in the light of a number of etiological mechanisms by which parental conflict affects children. Funds for the clinical work were provided by the Zellerbach Family Fund and the San Francisco Foundation the Van Loben Sels Foundation, and the Morris Stulsaft Foundation. Support for the first author was provided by an NIMH Fellowship in Social Structure, Personality and Mental Illness, Department of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley.     

Lost properties? Retrieval differences between name codes and semantic codes for familiar people

Summary Two experiments compared decision times for matching tasks involving the names and faces of familiar people. In Experiment 1 category and property judgements were compared when subjects were asked to respond to simultaneously presented stimuli: blocks of either faces or surnames. The results showed that the advantage known to exist for category statements extended to these types of materials. In Experiment 2 the same type of property judgement was compared with a first-name-matching task. The finding was that forename judgements required a longer decision time than property judgements when faces were the presented stimuli, bot not when surnames were used. This result lends further support to the Bruce and Young (1986) model of face recognition. It is additional evidence for sequential access to identity-specific codes and name codes from faces and for the functional separation of these two types of information.Robert Johnston is supported by a grant from the Science and Engineering Research Council     

Impasse-directed mediation with high conflict families in custody disputes

In this article we review current mediation models for resolving custody and visitation disputes and their success rates and identify the characteristics of a subpopulation with poor outcome: those parents who are in high conflict, ambivalent about separation, emotionally distressed, and limited in their capacity to protect their children. Based on an understanding of what creates impasses, and how children are affected, we present a new model of mediation for this subpopulation. Preliminary outcome data using this model with 80 families is reported. Implications for establishing a network of services for divorcing families are discussed.     

Depersonalization, vertigo and Ménière's disease

Ménière's disease is generally accepted to be a consequence of distention of the endolymphatic sac of the inner ear. Although the exact etiology is unclear, there is a body of research suggesting that Ménière's disease is of psychosomatic origin. While we do not intend to review the literature exhaustively, we briefly review several frequently cited studies. Even though this literature is so severely flawed that no solid conclusions may be drawn from it, certain questions about the psychological aspect of this disorder continue to surface. Our limited access to patients with vertigo has not allowed us to undertake a carefully designed study. However, in clinical practice we have noted that many persons who complain of vertigo (whether due to Ménière's disease or other causes) also report symptoms of depersonalization and derealization. In this paper we present the cases of two women with Ménière's disease who also experienced concurrent feelings of unreality. It appears likely that feelings of unreality may occur regularly in association with syndromes causing vertigo, presumably as a consequence of vestibular dysfunction. We argue that emotional disturbances previously identified as predisposing causes of Ménière's disease are more likely effects of the disease. Although the discussion of two uncontrolled cases can do little to help solve nagging questions about a psychosomatic component to this disorder, we believe it may suggest a different perspective from which to investigate these complex phenomena.     

Describing behavior with ratios of count and time

Describing behavior with ratios of count and time is a popular measurement tactic in the field of behavior analysis. The paper examines some count and time ratios in order to determine what about behavior each describes and why one ratio may sometimes be more useful than another. In addition, the paper briefly considers some terminological issues, derived quantities, dimensional analysis, some advantages and disadvantages of ratios, and selection of useful quantities for measurement.     

An evaluation of the Takeda UA751 automatic sphygmomanometer

The Takeda UA751, a simple automatic blood pressure measuring device, was compared with standard osciltatory measurement. There was little or no systematic difference in pressure determined by the automatic or manual method and the correlation between the two devices for both systolic and distolic pressure was satisfactory. This suggests that the Takeda UA751 is an appropriate device for patient self monitoring of blood pressure or as a measure of pressure in group outcome trials. The results essential replicate an evaluation by Steptoe and Molineux (Behav. Res. Ther. 24 223-226, 1986) of an earlier version of the Takeda (the Copal UA251) that used a different method for determining blood pressure.