Care and the dynamics of social world

The concept of social world is formulated for the purpose of deepening our understanding of the dynamics of inclusion, exclusion, and care in interpersonal interaction. World is defined as an irreducible subject-object polarity.Social world is the extremely fragile environment within which people meet, and is easily destroyed. With special attention to family and church life, the conditions for maintaining or losing this environment are examined. Three levels of social world are defined. On the highest level, mutual care, rather than shared opinion, is seen as the factor that facilitates the preservation of social world in the face of world-threatening issues.     

Development and psychometric properties of the Children's Assertive Behavior Scale

The purpose of this paper is to present the psychometric properties and individual items comprising the Children's Assertive Behavior Scale (CABS). The CABS is a behaviorally designed self-report instrument for children which measures general and specific social skills and covers many socially relevant situations which are problematic for children. Acceptable psychometric properties of the 27-item test were obtained in several independent investigations across both geographical regions and grade levels. The CABS showed significant concurrent validity with peer, parent, and teacher measures of social competency. The CABS also discriminated trained versus untrained children participating in social skills versus a placebo discussion group. The instrument is presented, along with recommendations for future applications and research.Both authors share equal responsibility for the development and evaluation of the Children's Assertive Behavior Scale.     

Cued recall in anterograde amnesia

After a single presentation of a word list, normal subjects exhibited better retention when prompted with semantic cues than with rhyme or letter cues. Alcoholic Korsakoff patients, patients receiving electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), and the patient N.A. exhibited impaired retention and, unlike control subjects, did not exhibit an advantage of semantic cues over letter and rhyme cues. Two experimental manipulations designed to equate the level of performance of amnesics and controls indicated that these amnesias could be understood as a reflection of weak memory strength that results from deficiencies in initial learning and retention. In addition, alcoholic Korsakoff patients appeared to have greater difficulty utilizing semantic cues than patients receiving ECT or patient N.A.     

Attitude bolstering when behavior is inconsistent with central attitudes

An experiment was conducted to study the effects of behaving inconsistently with a central attitude. In a theoretical account, it is suggested that subjects who score high on a feminism scale and who fail to solve a sex-role problem and thus demonstrate sexist thinking will be motivated to adopt feminist (nonsexist) behavior more than subjects who are either lower in feminism or who don't fail such a problem. Since the attitude is central, attitude bolstering rather than change in the direction of the behavior should be the preferred mode of inconsistency reduction for such subjects. Bolstering, in the form of positive affirmative action decisions, was generally demonstrated by subjects who failed the sex-role problem. This effect was more pronounced for those highest in feminism. No such effects on affirmative action decisions were observed for subjects who didn't fail the sex-role problem. Results support the view that threats to one's self-image caused by one's own counter-attitudinal actions lead to attempts to reestablish those threatened values. A conceptual analysis of the conditions under which bolstering rather than attitude change in the direction of the behavior should be expected is presented.     

Training needs of prospective school psychologists: The practitioners' viewpoint

Based on a national sample (N = 516) of practicing school psychologists who are members of the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), present and future training needs for prospective school psychologists are addressed. Data from five research questions dealing with preferred course work, current course trends, rankings of categories of courses, practica, and internship are analyzed. The results indicate that, although assessment remains the dominant training need, roles for school psychologists have greatly expanded. The discussion is centered around roles expansion and how the profession may want to address the question of securing training, certification, and accreditation both now and in the future.     

Cognitive problem-solving and life event correlates of depressive symptoms in children

This study examined the relationship between a number of cognitive problem-solving and life event variables and depressive symptoms in a sample of non-referred grade school children. The results indicated that higher levels of depressive symptoms were associated with an external locus of control, increased levels of objective and subjective life stress, and lower performance levels on an impersonal problem-solving task. Level of depressive symptoms was also found to be inversely related to socioeconomic status as measured by father's occupation. Contrary to prediction, no consistent relationship was found between depression and interpersonal problem-solving ability.This research is based on the first author's master's thesis submitted under the supervision of the second author to the Department of Psychology, University of Missouri-Columbia.     

Predicting young women's role preference for parenting and work

Young women's motivations for two sex-role options were predicted with scores describing perceived rewards/costs of parenting. Using a sequence of multiple regression analyses it was found that the reward-cost perceptions of parenting and work were predictors of the two motivational options. Individual rewards/costs of parenting and work items were better predictors than summed items. It was found that a preference for the career choice was produced by not viewing parenting as rewarding. The preference for parenting choice was influenced most by perceiving parenting as rewarding. The perceived cost and rewards of work were not predictors of a career choice. The items found to be the best predictors for either the parenting or career choice all dealt with perceptions of parenting. It was concluded that these parenting perceptions are the key elements for young women's role motivations.     

AIDS and ‘dirt’: Reflections on the ethics of ritual cleanliness

AIDS and the responses and attitudes it evokes surpass the analytic abilities of standard bioethics. These responses and attitudes are explored in terms of literary and anthropological categories, such as dirt, disorder, pollution and ritual cleanliness. Implications for medical education are suggested.