Temporal clause comprehension in fluent and nonfluent aphasics

Ten fluent and ten nonfluent aphasics participated in this study. Their ability to comprehend before and after clauses which mirrored the order of occurrence and those which did not mirror the order of events was investigated. Results indicate that type of aphasia was not a significant variable related to comprehension but that sentence type was a significant variable. Aphasics' comprehendbefore clauses better thanafter clauses. Nonfluent aphasics were able to comprehend those temporal clauses that mirror the order of occurrence better than those that do not. Order of mention was not a significant factor related to comprehension in the fluent group.     

TV commercials as achievement scripts for women

This study suggests that sex stereotypes implicitly enacted, but never explicitly articulated, in TV commercials may inhibit women's achievement aspirations. Men and women (N=180) viewed locally produced replicas of four current, sex-stereotyped commercials, or four replicas that were identical except that the sex roles were reversed, or (control) named their favorite TV programs. All subjects then wrote an essay imagining their lives “10 years from now.” The essays were coded for achievement and homemaking themes. Women who viewed traditional commercials deemphasized achievement in favor of homemaking, compared to men and compared to women who had seen reversed role commercials. The reversed role commercials eliminated the sex difference in net achievement focus. Control subjects were indistinguishable from their same-sex counterparts in the traditional condition. The results identified some social changes needed to make “equality of opportunity” a social reality for women as well as men.     

Transgression and altruism: A case for hedonism

A model to account for the positive relationship between transgression and altruism was proposed and tested against three alternative formulations—Guilt, Social Justice, and Self-esteem Bolstering. The proposed model, Negative State Relief, asserts that people in a transgression situation behave charitably in order to reduce a general, negative affective state which is induced by exposure to harm-doing and that if the negative state is relieved by some other means, benevolent activity will be rendered unnecessary. All of the experimental subjects were exposed to an act of transgression; half performed the act themselves while half only witnessed it. In one set of experimental conditions (the relief conditions), a positive event—the receipt of either money or approval—was interposed between the harmful act and a fellow-student's request for aid. In another set of experimental conditions (the norelief conditions), no such positive event occurred. It was found, as predicted, that subjects who received a positive event were significantly less helpful than those who did not, but were not different from a control group which had never been exposed to the transgression. It was also found that harm-doers and harm-witnesses were identical in benevolent tendency. The results were interpreted as favoring a hedonistic conception of the nature of altruism. Finally, it was contended that a U-shaped relationship exists between mood state and helping tendency.     

The development of the ability to assess recall performance

The ability of first and third graders to evaluate their recall performance was assessed. Third graders were more accurate in estimating the number of items they had recalled, although both groups showed considerable accuracy. The subjects' accuracy in assessing their recall after the fact was contrasted with indications that children are poor predictors of their recall performance.     

Target position and practice in the identification of letters in varying contexts: A word superiority effect

A forced-choice detection paradigm controlling for postperceptual inference was used to investigate letter identification in three-position displays. Letters from a predesignated set of four targets appeared singly, in strings of noise characters, in unpronounceable nonsense strings, and in words. Subjects knew which context would occur, but did not know which of the three display positions would contain the target. Correct detection data were collected at constant exposure duration over five testing sessions. Overall identification accuracy was higher in words than in all other contexts, the first word superiority effect to be found with targets specified in advance since Reicher’s (1969). This effect remained constant over sessions. An interaction between context type and target position showed enhanced accuracy for initial and terminal letters in words, but depressed accuracy at initial and terminal positions in other contexts. This was interpreted to mean that prior knowledge of context is used to alter the dynamics of perceptual analysis.     

An exploration of women's expectations of effective male and female leadership

University women (N=188) of varying ages (19–53) and work experience described their behavioral expectations of an effective male and female leader for levels of Consideration, Initiating Structure, Role Assumption, and Production Emphasis. In line with a sex role congruency view, it was hypothesized that an effective female leader would be expected to exhibit higher levels of Consideration behaviors, while an effective male leader would be expected to exhibit more Initiating Structure, Role Assumption, and Production Emphasis behaviors. The results provided only partial support for the sex role congruency hypothesis since an effective female leader was expected to exhibit higher levels of Consideration as well as higher levels of Initiating Structure. No sex differences were detected for Role Assumption or Production Emphasis behaviors. Further, while many similarities were noted among the women in their views of effective leadership, there were also systematic age-related differences among the women in their expectations, particularly with regard to their views of effective female leadership.Portions of this paper were presented at the annual meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association, Orlando, Florida, March, 1986.     

Stepmothers and natural mothers: A study of maternal attitudes

The maternal attitudes of 15 natural mothers (M_d age 46) and 15 stepmothers (M_d age 47) were compared. The HerefordParent Attitude Survey was the instrument used to assess differences between the two populations on five scales measuring confidence, causation, acceptance, understanding, and trust. No significant differences were found between the two populations with the exception of the causation dimension (t=2.4840 p<.05), which indicated that stepmothers attribute the problem behavior of the child to genetic and environmental factors while natural mothers accept the influence of the maternal role in the child's problem behavior. It is the authors' opinion that the statistical similarities and differences found between the two samples is a reflection of the common problem they share, that of a child in treatment.     

Fear of success,sex role attitudes,and career salience and anxiety levels of college women

This study examined, for 99 female undergraduate students, both the relationship between fear of success, sex role attitudes, and career salience, and the relationship between fear of success, career salience, and trait anxiety. Fear of success was assessed using the Fear of Success Scale, while sex role attitudes were assessed using the Attitudes towards Women Scale. Career Salience was measured by the Career Salience Scale, and trait anxiety was assessed by the trait subscale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. The results indicated that fear of success and sex-role attitudes, in combination, significantly predicted the level of career salience in a multiple regression analysis. The women higher in fear of success and more traditional tended to be lower in career salience. Trait anxiety levels of women did not differ significantly as a function of fear of success, career salience, or the combination of the two.     

The Marital Communication Rating Schedule: An instrument for clinical assessment

The Marital Communication Rating Schedule (MCRaS) is presented as an observationally based clinical rating system for assessing verbal behavior in marital communication. Data from 35 response display discussions lasting from 20 to 30 min each, which took place between 11 married couples, were used to examine aspects of the reliability and validity of the instrument. Three raters made independent ratings of 37 MCRaS categories for each husband and wife for each discussion period. Reliability among the raters was shown to be high when calculated within one scale point. Concurrent validity was assessed by comparing MCRaS ratings for four categories with observationally based validation criteria independently coded and measured. Results indicated that for three categories — negative statements, overgeneralizations, and amount of talk — ratings produced results that were similar to those yielded by laborious coding of audiotapes. For one category, opinions requested, a relationship between the ratings and coded data was not found. The validation results were discussed in terms of possible differences in the basis of ratings for the categories subjected to validation. Although further research is needed, it was concluded that MCRaS has many of the desirable qualities needed in a clinically useful, observationally based rating system.This investigation was conducted in connection with the Sociobehavioral Research Project at The University of Michigan when Joyce Borkin and Claude L. Walter were affiliated with the project.