Self-report measurement of type A behavior: toward refinement and improved prediction

Self-report measures of Type A personality receive wide research usage despite mounting evidence that they are poor predictors of coronary heart disease. It was proposed that the limited prediction results in part from the failure to restrict measurement to only those Type A characteristics that are demonstrably related to excessive stress. The first study in this article reports a factor analysis of all items on the Jenkins Activity Survey (JAS), the most popular Type A questionnaire, along with 25 stress symptoms. Self-ratings were obtained from both male and female college students. Only one stress-related factor emerged including 12 JAS items out of 44. These were relevant to (a) hard-driving and competitive, (b) time-urgent, and (c) hostile/irritated characteristics. Study 2 reports correlations of +.50 and +.43 between the stress-relevant JAS items and stress for new samples of female and male college students. Study 3 considers the broader personality correlates of scores on the stress-relevant Type A items and reports markedly different patterns for male and female college students. Predicted correlations were found on new samples between these personality correlates, considered as scales, and stress-relevant Type A scores and stress.     

The Separation-Individuation Test of Adolescence

The procedures undergone to establish the validity of the Separation- Individuation Test of Adolescence (SITA) are described. The test consists of six scales designed to measure key dimensions of adolescent separation-individuation. Each scale was subjected to three stages of validation: theoretical-substantive, internal-structural, and external-criterion. The results of data with 305 adolescents are reported. Although particular modifications from the original form are planned, appreciative levels of validity were established for the SITA's various scales.     

Latency and frequency reports to the Necker cube illusion: effects of hypnotic susceptibility and mental arithmetic

An experiment (N = 32) was conducted to assess latency of first apparent reversal (AR) and AR frequency while observing the Necker cube illusion. Subjects who were either high in hypnotic susceptibility (susceptibles) or low in hypnotic susceptibility (resistant subjects) observed the cube either while performing or not performing mental addition problems. Susceptibles reported perceiving the first AR more quickly and a greater frequency of ARs than did resistant subjects. Also, latency of the first AR was negatively correlated with AR frequency. These results were interpreted in terms of the ability of susceptibles to allocate concentrative or selective attention in a manner that was conducive to faster performance, when faced with competing tasks.     

Type A behavior pattern and the judgment of control

We investigated the control judgments of Type A and B actors and observers after five tasks in which actual response-outcome contingency and success were varied systematically. Results indicated that, overall, actors provided higher control judgments than did observers, and both actual contingency and success influenced judged control. Type A and B actors did not differ in their self-perceptions of control but observers judged the Type A actors to have exerted more control than the Type B actors, primarily on positive contingency tasks. These findings suggest that Type As, because of their more active, dynamic style, may be credited by observers with more control or competence than is warranted. By contrast, the more relaxed style of the Type B may lead to lower than warranted evaluations of control or competence. Lastly, Type As were found to learn the contingencies better than Type Bs with important implications for the actual exercise of control.     

Adjustment to rape

This questionnaire study of rape victims' reactions, causal attributions for the rape, coping behaviors after the rape, and psychological adjustment to the rape were examined. As in previous research, high levels of behavioral and characterological self-blame for rape were found. Contrary to prior hypotheses, behavioral self-blame was not associated with good adjustment. Rather, both behavioral and characterological self-blame were associated with poor adjustment. Societal blame was the only causal attribution for rape that was unassociated with adjustment. Remaining at home and withdrawing from others were both associated with poor adjustment, and the use of stress reduction techniques was associated with good adjustment. The implications of the results for theories of victimization and for clinical interventions with rape victims are discussed.     

Peers' granting of control to women with different sex role identities: implications for depression

This investigation is one of a series of studies seeking to determine the degree of control given to women with different sex role identities. This study focused on the extent to which peers were willing to grant control to women with different sex role identities if working individually with each woman on various two-person tasks. The results indicated that women with different sex role identities were granted different amounts of control by their peers as a function of the type of two-person task under consideration. Women rated high on masculinity were granted greater control on enjoyable and creative tasks, whereas women rated low in masculinity were given more control on methodical and less enjoyable tasks. Women judged high in femininity were given control on tasks requiring interpersonal skills. These findings were discussed within the context of learned helplessness theory as a possible aid in understanding why more women than men become depressed.     

Syntactic decoding times of learning disabled children

Syntactic decoding reaction times of 20 learning disabled children comprising two groups of subjects (mean age of 8 and 13 yr., respectively) were compared to the responses of normal controls matched for age and sex. An analysis of variance procedure showed that the learning disabled children and their normal peers did not differ significantly in responses to the experimental stimuli. This held true regardless of linguistic complexity, suggesting that delays in processing elementary syntactic constructions are not a concomitant of learning disabilities.     

Significance of psychopathological findings for early detection and prognosis of intracranial tumors

Psychic findings of 266 patients suffering from cerebral tumor have been analysed. Psychopathological findings, therefore, were among the most frequent symptoms, at the same time being the second most frequent primary symptom after headache. Disturbance of consciousness and orientation were primarily an indication of malign tumors with increase in cerebral pressure whereas disturbance of motive and cognitive functions were more an indication of slowly growing tumors. Despite the same kind of tumors, same localisation and same duration of anamnesis psychic primary symptoms and disturbance of consciousness and orientation have been found considerably more frequently in older patients than in younger patients.