Measuring stress resilience and coping in vulnerable youth: the Social Competence Interview

A brief interview to measure stress coping capabilities was developed and tested in 4 samples of African American and White adolescents in low-income neighborhoods of 2 large U.S. cities. The Social Competence Interview (SCI) is a 10-min social stressor that assesses physiological and social-emotional responses to a recurring real-life problem. A new behavioral coding system using audiotapes permits reliable and valid assessment of components of social competence, including Interpersonal Skills (expressiveness, empathy), Goal-Oriented Strivings in coping (self defense, social acceptance, competitiveness, stimulation-pleasure, approval, self improvement), and Social Impact (high vs. low affiliation/control). High SCI expressiveness and self-defensive striving create a critical-aggressive social impact, which is correlated with increased hostility and anger.     

Anxiety management training in the treatment of essential hypertension

The study was conducted to assess the efficacy of Anxiety Management Training as an adjunctive treatment for essential hypertension. Twenty-one patients with essential hypertension, all but one of whom were on antihypertension medication, were randomly assigned either to an Anxiety Management Training condition or a waiting-list control condition. At the time of a posttest assessment session, compared to subjects in the control condition, subjects in the Anxiety Management Training condition manifested a decrease in resting systolic and diastolic blood pressure and a decrease in systolic and diastolic blood pressure following a stressful task. At the time of a follow-up assessment session, subjects in the Anxiety Management Training condition not only manifested good maintenance of reduced blood pressure but also exhibited a further decrease in resting systolic blood pressure and a decrease in systolic blood pressure during the stressful task.     

The type a behavior pattern,sex differences,and cardiovascular response to and recovery from stress

Sixty-one subjects performed a Stroop Color-Word Interference task, a mental arithmetic task (serial subtraction of 7s), and a shock avoidance task (repeating digits backward while expecting to be shocked for mistakes). Systolic and diastolic blood pressure and pulse rate were recorded while subjects anticipated, undertook, and recovered from the shock avoidance task, and undertook and recovered from the Stroop and mental arithmetic tasks. The results revealed that, compared to Type B subjects, Type A subjects manifested higher diastolic blood pressure during the Stroop and shock avoidance tasks and higher pulse rate following the mental arithmetic and shock avoidance tasks. No significant interactions were found between sex and A/B Type. The results are congruent with the notion that greater sympathetic nervous system activity among Type A individuals, both men and women, contributes to greater coronary atherosclerosis and heart disease in this group.     

A WORKER MOTIVATION SCALE

A 70 item questionnaire was constructed using the rationale of several current value/expectancy theories of motivation and the results of two prior factor analyses of motivation items. It was completed anonymously by 240 employed adults in 35 organizations and the resulting factor analysis yielded a hierarchical structure of motivation and eight reliable subscales. Direct and indirect criterion measures also obtained via the questionnaire and covering job characteristics/components; satisfaction (need) levels for n ach, n affil, n power ; the four elements of Heider's attribution theory of motivation; and salary, education and job classification were used to validate the subscales. Support for the criteria was found and promising validities were indicated. Lastly, personal, job and organizational variables were included with the motivation subscales and criteria in a subsequent factor analysis to examine moderator effects of the obtained validities. Results are discussed in terms of motivation theories, validities, moderator effects in study designs, and future use of the questionnaire by other researchers with business-industrial samples.     

Encounter group counsellor training with pre-service industrial psychologists: A pilot study

This study explored the efficacy of an encounter group counsellor training protocol to prepare pre-service industrial-organisational (I-O) psychologists as workplace counsellors. The participants included 48 master’s degree students enrolled for I-O professional education at a South African university over the span of two years (female = 59%, aged 23 to 30 years, white = 79% and Afrikaans speaking = 70%). They were engaged in an encounter group training process as part of their professional preparation. Qualitative impressions on the students’ experiences impacting on their intra-and interpersonal awareness were gathered after the training using a structured observation design. The data were thematically analysed and the findings indicated the participants portrayed a higher sense of inter-and intrapersonal awareness following the encounter group training. Encounter group experiences might be of added value in the training of future I-O psychologists for interpersonal awareness.     

Patterns of social desirability and anger in young men with a parental history of hypertension: association with cardiovascular activity.

We identified, via cluster analysis, subgroups of young men with a parental history of hypertension (PH+) who differed in their profiles of need for approval, covert experience of anger, and extent to which they express anger when provoked. The PH+ subgroup with high need for approval and low anger acknowledgment scored higher on denial but lower on measures of angry temperament and overt display of anger than did the PH+ subgroup with low need for approval and high anger acknowledgment or men without a parental history of hypertension (PH-). Moreover, the PH+ subgroup with high need for approval and low anger acknowledgment manifested significantly higher stressor-induced blood pressure (BP) responsivity than did the other two groups. Possible relations between parental history status, need for approval, anger, BP reactivity, and essential hypertension are discussed.     

Autoeroticism,sexual satisfaction,and sexual adjustment among university females: Past and current patterns

A review of the research literature reveals a general paucity of rigorous scientific analyses of masturbatory behavior in adult females. The availability of a data base from a pilot study concerned with self‐perceptions of the orgasmic response during masturbation and sexual intercourse has provided the opportunity to investigate the role of masturbation in the sexual repertoire of university female students. This data base also permitted an assessment of what differences, if any, exist among those respondents who are currently masturbating, have masturbated but not currently masturbating, and have never masturbated.

Questionnaire data were obtained from 512 never‐married, female university students enrolled in lower and upper division courses in anthropology, biology, psychology, and sociology. Respondents in the currently masturbating group were more likely to have experienced their first orgasm via masturbation, to have had greater success in achieving orgasm via masturbation, and to enjoy masturbating alone more when contrasted with the not currently masturbating group. Other findings suggest that masturbating to orgasm serves as an enhancement and/or supplement to sexual intercourse. The currently masturbating respondents were more likely to have experienced sexual intercourse and those who had experienced sexual intercourse reported a greater number of sex partners than those respondents in the never masturbated group. Finally, no statistically significant differences were found in sexual adjustment, using self‐evaluations of physiological satisfaction and psychological satisfaction, between the three respondent groups.