Use of a “balance-sheet” procedure to improve the quality of personal decision making: A field experiment with college applicants

This study tested the effectiveness of a “balance-sheet” or tallying procedure used to induce high school seniors to think carefully about considerations relevant to their choice of college. Students who were exposed to the balance-sheet procedure three months before their choice of college were compared with a control group six weeks after making their decision. In comparison with control subjects, students administered the balance-sheet procedure tended (though the findings were not always significant at the 0.05 level) (1) to select a wider array of alternatives in formulating the decision, (2) to take into account more self-related and fewer social considerations, (3) to express less regret and report less concern about their choice following the decision, and (4) were less interested in receiving supportive, dissonance-reducing information. The balance-sheet procedure appears to make salient the importance of the decision, helps clarify the merits of the choice alternatives, and stimulates a search for feasible alternatives.     

Classical conditioning and extinction of human systolic blood pressure

Fifty-five male and female undergraduates underwent 3 sessions of conditioning and one of extinction. Shock (UCS) occurred intermittently during light-on (CS+) and never in light-off (CS-). Results showed that (1) pressure in CS+ was significantly higher than CS-throughout all sessions; (2) within session adaptation was significantly retarded while incoming pressure levels did not adapt across sessions; (3) conditioned effects persisted 6 months after the last shock session; (4) verbal information as to non-appearance of shock significantly dropped pressure levels and reduced the discriminative light effect; (5) the post-shock unconditioned pressure response was a peak rise at 52 seconds, then a decrease which stabilized to the pre-shock level at 2 minutes. Pavlovian control of blood pressure was demonstrated and the present methodology offers an explicit procedure for further laboratory exploration.     

Focused videotape feedback psychotherapy: An integrated treatment for emotionally and behaviorally disturbed children

This controlled study describes the development and therapeutic effectiveness of Focused Videotape Feedback Psychotherapy. FVFP integrates parent-training, family therapy, and psychodynamically-oriented therapy as a treatment for children with emotional and behavioral disorders. Of the 105 children and their families, ages 4-10 years, referred for the study, only 40 met the strict diagnostic, research, and randomisation criteria for inclusion in one of the three research groups: FVFP, Psychodynamically-oriented, or Control. Evaluation was at pretreatment, 8 weeks, 16 weeks, and 20th week follow-up. Both treatment procedures were effective. FVFP produced more positive behavioral and affective changes at follow-up and was more time and cost effective.     

SEX ROLES AND PERCEPTIONS OF FEMININITY AND MASCULINITY OF HISPANIC WOMEN

This article evaluates the research conducted on sex roles and perceptions of femininity and masculinity of Hispanic women. It begins with a critical review of early social and anthropological studies in which the roles of Hispanic women before the advent of the women's movement in the 1960s are described. The paper continues with more recent psychosocial studies that question the traditional portrayal of male–female roles and allocation of power in Hispanic families. Finally, the studies on Hispanics that measure the psychological dimension of femininity and masculinity are reviewed and summarized in a table including authors, sample, methodology and results.     

Resolutions of control episodes between well and affectively ill mothers and their young children

Control interactions between 87 well and affectively ill mothers and their 15- to 51-month-old children were studied. Spontaneously occurring control interventions (conceptualized as episodes of interaction between mother and child) were coded from 90 minutes of videotaped interactions in a naturalistic laboratory apartment setting. The results suggest developmental changes in mother-child interaction in the 2nd to 4th years of life: the increase of the rate of immediate maternal success (p less than .05) and compromise (p less than .05), on the decrease in maternal use of power (ultimate success by enforcement, p less than .01). Well mothers achieved compromise with their children, particularly daughters, more often than did affectively ill mothers (p less than .05). Affectively ill mothers more often than well mothers avoided confrontation with their children (p less than .05). The impairments in control interventions of affectively ill mothers were exacerbated by the severity of the disorder.     

Visual laterality effects: A signal detection analysis

Subjects were asked to indicate, by a simple motor response, the presence or absence of a pre-designated target letter in unilaterally presented consonant trigrams. For horizontally oriented stimuli (Experiment 1), perceptual sensitivity was greater in the right visual hemifield. For vertically oriented stimuli (Experiment 2), perceptual sensitivity did not differ between visual hemifields. Decision making was less conservative and reaction time was shorter with right hemifield presentation, regardless of stimulus orientation. Practice effects and serial position curves were examined. Implications of these results attribute laterality effects to iconic scanning patterns and to postperceptual decision processes.     

The development of a child assessment interview for research and clinical use

The Child Assessment Schedule (CAS) was developed to address the need for a standardized child interview that could be used for research and clinical purposes. The CAS has several distinguishing characteristics: (1) Questions and responses are standardized, (2) the format was designed to enhance rapport with the child, and (3) information necessary for DSM III childhood diagnoses is explicitly solicited. The CAS was administered to 32 child outpatients, 18 inpatients, and 37 normal controls. Derived scores were obtained for total psychopathology, 11 content areas, and 9 symptom complexes. Interrater reliability for the total CAS score was quite high. The CAS was able to discriminate among the three groups in total score indicating degree of psychopathology, on 9 of the 11 content areas, and on 8 of the 9 symptom complexes. Significant correlations were found between the CAS and maternal report of child behavior and between the CAS and child selfreport of internal affects. It was concluded that the CAS has adequate reliability and validity, although further research is indicated.     

Determinants of processing for a propositional structure

The main purpose of this study was to characterize differences among propositions within a propositional structure. Propositions were described in terms of degree (the number of other propositions to which each is connected) and in terms of a kind of hierarchical level. Paragraphs having a given structure were tested in three tasks: selection of the most important proposition, free recall, and reading under two orienting instructions. Performance was analyzed according to degree and level of the individual propositions and according to the sequences of propositions within the paragraphs. All of these variables affected performance in various tasks. The results were discussed in terms of the distinction between initial encoding and subsequent recall.