The prediction of drug use among college students from MMPI, MCMI, and sensation seeking scales

This study examines the ability of five self-report assessment measures to predict college students' drug use across 12 pharmacological drug categories. Subjects were 125 female and 61 male university undergraduate students. The test battery included the following instruments: the Psychopathic Deviancy (Pd) scale of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI); the MacAndrew Alcoholism scale (MAC), a special scale of the MMPI; the Sensation Seeking Scale (SSS); the Millon Alcohol Abuse Scale; and the Millon Drug Abuse Scale. Scores from these instruments were utilized in linear combinations to predict individual drug use outcomes as well as polydrug versus single drug use patterns. The drug categories included in this investigation are coffee, tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, tranquilizers, depressants, amphetamines, LSD, other hallucinogens, solvents, narcotics, and cocaine. Results demonstrate significant and meaningful relationships between predictors and drug use levels among college students. Weighted equations derived from linear discriminant function analyses were generally capable of accurately classifying subject's drug use levels across drug categories and in discriminating single drug use from polydrug use patterns. Typically, the Sensation Seeking Scale entered as the most powerful predictor of substance use and abuse.     

Conditional relations by monkeys: Reflexivity, symmetry, and transitivity

Two cynomolgous macaques categorized six colors into two groups of three after conditional discrimination training (zero-delay symbolic match-to-sample). The procedures resulted in the establishment of relations among the elements of each set-relations that were not specifically trained and that can be characterized by the properties of reflexivity, symmetry, and transitivity. Each set of colors was related to a characteristic pattern of responding: One response pattern involved temporal duration (press and hold the response keys); the second response pattern entailed repeated pressing and releasing of the response keys (fixed ratio 8). Six combinations of two colors were trained, three combinations from each set. After discriminative performance stabilized for each monkey, they were tested with 10 additional color combinations, all of which differed from the training combinations. The conditional relations established between test combinations can be characterized as stimulus equivalence. The training procedures were analogous to the procedure of using category names, and have implications for understanding the function of language in the formation of equivalence classes.     

The perception of continuous curves in dot stimuli

Two categorisation experiments are reported in which the perceptual phenomenon that some simple arrays of discrete dots appear as a continuous curve whereas others are perceived as an angular contour or as consisting of separate groups of dots was investigated. Triplets of dots were presented in the first experiment, and complete or incomplete regular dot polygons (ie dots positioned on the vertices of imaginary regular polygons) in the second. In both experiments the perception of a curve versus an angle was determined mainly by the relative orientations of the dots, ie by the angles between successive virtual lines, whereas the lengths of the virtual lines had relatively little influence. In experiment 2 the number of displayed dots was shown to be a second independent factor for perceiving continuity. These results are in agreement with results from experiments on dipole textures discrimination, and suggest the psychological existence and importance of virtual lines in the visual processing of dot stimuli.     

Individual differences and measures of aggression in laboratory studies

After inducing hostility toward a confederate by threatening subjects' self-esteem, subjects were then given the opportunity either to deliver shocks (Experiment 1) or to withhold rewards (Experiment 2) from their confederate. Physiological measures were taken prior to the hostility induction, shortly after the induction and, finally, after the opportunity to aggress. Measures of individual differences relating to aggressive behavior were also considered. While the experimental manipulation was the best predictor in the ‘withholding rewards’ condition, measures of dissipation-rumination tendencies and emotional vulnerability were the best predictors in the ‘shock administration’ condition. In both conditions, systolic blood pressure seemed to reflect differences in arousal as a function of the hostility induction procedure, while subjects in the withhold rewards procedure also showed a decrease in systolic pressure after having an opportunity to aggress toward the confederate. It was concluded that not only is the withholding of rewards a more ethically acceptable procedure than shock administration, but it is also more likely to reflect experimental rather than individual difference affects.     

Learning and motivation: Computer simulations of the Rescorla-Wagner,Solomon-Corbit,and Schull models

A suite of programs is described for simulating the Rescorla-Wagner (1972) model of associative learning, the Solomon and Corbit (1974) opponent-process theory, and Schull’s (1979) extension of the latter. The programs are written for the Commodore 64 computer.     

Units of analysis and kinetic structure of behavioral repertoires

It is suggested that molar streams of behavior are constructed of various arrangements of three elementary constituents (elicited, evoked, and emitted response classes). An eight-cell taxonomy is elaborated as a framework for analyzing and synthesizing complex behavioral repertoires based on these functional units. It is proposed that the local force binding functional units into a smoothly articulated kinetic sequence arises from temporally arranged relative response probability relationships. Behavioral integration is thought to reflect the joint influence of the organism's hierarchy of relative response probabilities, fluctuating biological states, and the arrangement of environmental and behavioral events in time.     

Visual dominance in the cross-modal kinesthetic to kinesthetic plus visual feedback condition

In previous studies subjects who have learned a positioning response with kinesthetic feedback tended to make greater errors when visual feedback was provided during later trials. These subjects have always performed with both kinesthetic and visual feedback available. This study determined whether subjects with only visual feedback would produce errors similar to those who received kinesthetic plus visual feedback. Blindfolded subjects learned to move a handle to a criterion location with knowledge of results following each trial. Subjects then were assigned to one of three experimental groups, with only kinesthetic feedback, with kinesthetic plus visual feedback, or with only visual feedback. Subjects had 9 trials without knowledge of results in these feedback conditions. When visual feedback was available, subjects tended to make longer response errors. This finding replicates previous studies. Also, the similarity of performances from the conditions with visual feedback indicated the dominance of visual information in the condition with kinesthetic plus visual feedback.     

WAGE SURVEYS: DISPELLING SOME MYTHS ABOUT THE "MARKET WAGE"

The comparable worth controversy has generated much discussion about the appropriate valuation of job worth. To date, academic inquiries into the measurement of job worth have focused primarily on job evaluation; however, recent court decisions suggest that market wages are a more compelling indicator of job worth than are job evaluation results. This paper examines the construct of "market wage" and the process by which it is measured (wage surveys). It is argued that both the construct and the measurement of the market wage have not been sufficiently examined by either academics or the courts. Implications for pay administration and future research are noted.     

A comparison of three predictors of an individual's memory performance: the individual's feeling of knowing versus the normative feeling of knowing versus base-rate item difficulty

Distinctions are drawn between different predictors of an individual's memory performance, with emphasis on the notion of privileged access to idiosyncratic knowledge. Research is reported in which undergraduates attempted to recall the answers to general-information questions, then made feeling-of-knowing judgments on nonrecalled items, and subsequently had a criterion test (relearning, perceptual identification, or one of two versions of recognition). For predicting an individual's criterion performance, the individual's own feeling-of-knowing predictions were intermediate between two kinds of normative predictions: The individual's feeling-of-knowing predictions were more accurate than predictions derived from normative feeling-of-knowing ratings but were less accurate than predictions derived from base-rate item difficulty (normative probabilities of correct recall). Subsidiary analyses showed that factors other than unreliability are responsible for the partial inaccuracy of the individual's feeling of knowing. Ramifications are discussed for possible ways to improve the accuracy of an individual's feeling-of-knowing predictions.