The Portrayal of Aggression on North American Television1

The past decade has seen an accumulation of evidence that TV viewing influences beliefs about social reality, particularly in areas related to violence. Detailed content analyses of the portrayal of aggression on North American television were conducted in an attempt to document some of the symbolic messages in television content and the extent to which those messages vary according to program category. The TV sample analyzed consisted of 109 programs (81 hours) chosen on the basis of audience viewing figures; 76% were produced in the U.S.A. and 22% in Canada. An average of 9 acts of physical aggression and 7.8 acts of verbal aggression per program hour were observed, but both type and rate of aggression varied by program category. Other methods of conflict resolution occurred rarely, and few witnesses sought alternatives to aggression. Less than 2% of the aggression observed was accidental, and most (69%) was incidental to the plot. Aggression, especially verbal abuse, was often portrayed as humorous, and there was little evidence of consequences. Some differences between Canadian and U.S. programming were noted. The possibility of using schema theory to understand the role of television in the development of beliefs about social reality is explored.     

Does treatment modality affect career counseling effectiveness?

This meta-analysis involved the direct comparison of treatment modalities used in career interventions. In general, interventions that did not involve a counselor were found to be less effective than other modalities. Results also indicated that workshops or structured groups tended to produce better outcomes than non-structured career counseling groups. Furthermore, participants who used a career computer system supplemented by counseling had better outcomes than those who just used a computer system. Many of the comparisons involved comparing counselor-free interventions to other counselor-free interventions; however, this analysis did not find any significant moderators to effect size variation. There was also significant variation in workshops/structured groups and additional research is needed to analyze workshop content and client attributes.     

A Comparison of Five Reinforcement Schedules for use in Contingency Management-Based Treatment of Methamphetamine Abuse

The Psychological Record - One variation of contingency management involves providing vouchers with monetary value for the provision of a biological sample indicating no recent drug use. These...     

Group Counseling for Aged Women

Because of the benefits of group-counseling experiences, the lack of psychological services for older adults, and the unique concerns of aged women, a group-counseling program for aged women was conducted. The results of these efforts are presented for the purposes of sharing the proposed program sequence, describing what actually took place during the group sessions, conveying the comments and reactions offered by the group participants, and summarizing what we learned about facilitating groups for aged women.     

Need for affiliation and sex as moderators of the relationship between need for achievement and academic performance

Sex and need for affiliation (n Aff) were investigated as potential moderators of the association between need for achievement (n Ach) and academic performance. Measures of n Ach and n Aff, based on the Personality Research form, were obtained or 78 male and 114 female grade 11 students. On the assumption of a conflict between n Ach and n Aff, it was hypothesized that high n Ach, low n Aff students earn higher grades than high n Afh, high n Aff students. The results for both males and females supported the hypothesis. Evidence was available which suggested that the poorer academic performance of the high n Ach, high n Aff students was due to an inability to maintain effectively their attention while studying. The results also indicated that, relative to other students, high n Ach females displayed a markedly superior academic orientation. Attention was drawn to the fact that the formance of the high n Ach girls appears incconsistent with some current theorizing regarding the achievement orientation of females.