Boundary regulation in family and personal systems: Perceptions of late adolescents

Examination of boundary regulation can provide family therapists with a framework to describe both the functioning of family systems and personal systems (i.e., the intrapsychic functioning of individual family members). In the present study, late adolescents' perceptions of boundary regulation within their family systems (i.e., ratings of family health, communication, leadership, expressiveness, cohesion, and family conflict) were related to regulation of their personal boundaries (i.e., self-reported personal competence, distress, and patterns of defense mechanism use). In addition, personal system variables reliably discriminated between adolescents who described their families as psychologically healthy versus psychologically unhealthy.     

An injection olfactometer for humans and a new method for the measurement of the shape of the olfactory pulse

An injection olfactometer for human psychophysical experiments is described. The olfactometer is capable of presenting, either mono- or birhinally, single odorants and binary mixtures. The pulse form of the olfactory stimulus at the exit of the olfactometer approaches a rectangular form, which makes the olfactometer well suited for olfactory reaction time measurements. Since stimulation periods are independent of the subject’s inhalation, time-intensity measurements over prolonged periods of time are possible as well. In the second part of this paper, a new technique is described for the measurement of the stimulus pulse form at the exit of the olfactometer.     

Cartesian or condillacian linguistics?

This paper intends to deal with Condillacian Linguistics. Although the Condillacian philosophy of mind and analysis of language were the most important in the late eighteenth century, none of them is mentioned in Chomsky's work (1966, Cartesian Linguistics). It would be useful for the history of Western thought if Chomsky's monumental error were generally recognized and if Condillacian Linguistics were at last to find the place it rightly deserves. The main thesis of Condillac's linguistic ideas (language is the first step in the analysis of thought) is briefly presented with reference to its context and consequences.     

The effects of graphemic,phonetic, and semantic relationships on access to lexical structures

The question of whether or not lexical information is accessed directly from a visual code or by a process of phonetic mediation was investigated in three lexical decision experiments. Phonetic similarity influenced decisions about visually presented words only when they were to be discriminated from orthographically regular nonwords. When consonant strings or random letter strings were used as nonwords, phonetic similarity effects were absent, and graphemic similarity exerted a powerful effect while evidence of semantic priming was found. This pattern was interpreted as evidence of direct lexical access, which is probably the normal processing mode for skilled readers. Phonetic coding, when it occurs, may be a storage strategy rather than a part of the addressing chain for lexical structures.     

Masculinity and femininity as factors in feminism

The relationship between feminism and sex roles was explored in two studies. In female college students, sex-role types were measured by Baucom's (1976) MSC and FMN scales and by Bem's Sex-Role Inventory (Bem, 1974). Feminism was measured by the Attitude Toward Women Scale (AWS, Short Form) (Spence & Helmreich, 1972) and the Women's Liberation Scale (WLS) (Goldberg, 1976). Two groups of women were predicted to be more profeminist than others. (a) those scoring high on both masculinity and femininity and (b) those scoring high on masculinity and low on femininity. Results of the study supported both hypotheses using the AWS but not the WLS. In the second study, MSC and FMN served as the basis for forming sex-role types, and feminism was measured by participation in NOW. Again, a large number of women high on masculinity and low on femininity were feminists: however, women high on both masculinity and femininity were underrepresented in NOW. Different results in the two studies are discussed in terms of the different ways that feminism was measured.     

TRAINING PARENTS IN BEHAVIORAL SELF-MANAGEMENT: AN ANALYSIS OF GENERALIZATION AND MAINTENANCE

This study examined the generalization and maintenance effects of three phases of parent training (Instructions plus Feedback and two Self-management Training phases) on levels of disruptive child behavior and the accuracy with which parents implemented programs. Data were collected from five families in three main settings: the initial training setting (the home), a variety of generalization settings in the community, and the family breakfast. A multiple baseline across subjects design was used. Instructions plus Feedback comprised instructing parents to use a range of behavior management procedures and provided home-based differential feedback concerning accuracy of program implementation. Self-management Training phases involved training parents in goal setting, self-monitoring, and planning skills, specific to their performance of appropriate parenting skills in generalization settings. Results indicated that the Instructions plus Feedback phase was sufficient to produce reduced levels of problem behavior at home and high levels of accurate implementation, but generalization effects out of home were equivocal. Self-management maintained reduced levels of problem behavior at home but, in addition, resulted in generalization effects in community settings for both children and parents. Maintenance probes 3 months following the program revealed the effects had been maintained.     

A generalization of Kristof's theorem on the trace of certain matrix products

Kristof has derived a theorem on the maximum and minimum of the trace of matrix products of the form \(X_1 \hat \Gamma _1 X_2 \hat \Gamma _2 \cdots X_n \hat \Gamma _n\) where the matrices \(\hat \Gamma _i\) are diagonal and fixed and theX _i vary unrestrictedly and independently over the set of orthonormal matrices. The theorem is a useful tool in deriving maxima and minima of matrix trace functions subject to orthogonality constraints. The present paper contains a generalization of Kristof's theorem to the case where theX _i are merely required to be submatrices of orthonormal matrices and to have a specified maximum rank. The generalized theorem contains the Schwarz inequality as a special case. Various examples from the psychometric literature, illustrating the practical use of the generalized theorem, are discussed.     

Towards a model of stress and human performance

An outline is presented of a model that aims to relate energetical and structural mechanisms of human information processing and to incorporate an interactionally defined stress notion in performance research. The first section summarizes objections to unidimensional notions of arousal and stress. It is concluded that further progress requires the analysis of joint cognitive-energetical processing structures. In the second section two current performance models - in terms of linear stages and resources - are briefly reviewed. Despite a number of problems and objections, it is decided to base the model upon linear stage notions of information processing. This is further elaborated in the third section. In accord with Pribram and McGuinness (1975) three energetical supply systems are proposed which are selectively related to specific cognitive processing mechanisms. Stress is defined as a state of imbalance in the energetical supply which is difficult to restore or to compensate. The final section is devoted to the discussion of some lines of evidence and to suggestions for future research.     

Feature-positive effect in adults and attention to portion of stimulus array

In three experiments, adult humans were tested in a feature-positive or feature-negative simultaneous symbol task. In Experiment 1, some persons focused on the correct side of the stimulus cards, whereas other persons focused on the not-correct side of the stimulus cards. The feature-positive group learned faster than the feature-negative group did in the correct side condition; the feature-negative group learned faster than the feature-positive group did in the not-correct side condition. In Experiments 2 and 3, all persons focused on both the correct and not-correct sides of the stimulus cards. Under these circumstances, feature-positive and feature-negative performances were comparable. These results indicated that the usual superiority of feature-positive over feature-negative learning results from a tendency to attend to only a portion of the stimulus array.