Observational couple assessment: a cross-model comparison

This study compared the clinical rating scales from the Circumplex Model (CCRS), the McMaster Model of Family Functioning (MCRS) and the Family Health Scales (FHS). A central purpose was to investigate whether observational rating scales designed to measure family functioning can also be used to assess couple functioning. One hundred and sixty-six drug abusing women, receiving primary drug treatment in two metropolitan drug agencies in the southwest of the US, and their partners were videotaped while engaged in three couple tasks prior to receiving any treatment. The main findings indicated that all three rating scales have: (1) sufficient interrater reliability; (2) good construct validity, as reflected in factor analyses; and (3) very good convergent validity. However, there was some concern about whether these scales are as discriminating when measuring couples as they are when assessing families.     

Contextualism and the issue of continuity

In the study of continuity development, two models have predominated in the research literature: organismic vs. contextual model. The first, the organismic, is characterized by the claim that early individual characteristics—what I refer to as traits—have predictive power in relation to subsequent behavior. The contextual model, on the other hand, stresses that predictive power of early individual characteristics is rather weak and that the best predictor of later behavior is the nature of the environment the individual occupies at that point in time. In this paper, both models are presented (including an interactive one), using data from a longitudinal study of attachment. Findings from children 1 to 18 years reveal that 18-year-old models of attachment, as well as the level of psychopathology shown, are best predicted by concurrent family status (whether the mother and father are divorced), rather than early attachment or the interaction between early attachment and family status.     

PRENATAL COCAINE EXPOSURE AND NEONATAL CONDITION

Infants who are prenatally exposed to cocaine have an increased risk of suffering neonatal medical complications. We hypothesized that this effect is mediated by the relation between cocaine use and prenatal medical risk of the mother, birth weight, and intrapartum risk, that would lead to increased neonatal complications. This study used structural equation modeling to assess the direct and indirect effects of prenatal cocaine exposure on neonatal medical risk in a sample of 337 neonates. Prenatal cocaine exposure had a significant indirect, but not direct effect on neonatal medical risk. Several paths contributed to this indirect effect. The strongest was via cocaine's impact on birth weight, and birth weight's effect on neonatal medical risk. The paths through prenatal risk and intrapartum risk also contributed to the total indirect effect. These results suggest that the observed relation between prenatal cocaine exposure and neonatal medical complications is mediated by prenatal and intrapartum risk factors.     

Coloured overlays, text, and texture

In four studies children were asked to read aloud a passage of randomly ordered common words with and without a coloured sheet of plastic (overlay) placed upon the page. The children's rate of reading increased with the overlay, for some children more than for others. The children were also asked to undertake a test of texture segmentation in which targets consisting of a structured texture had to be distinguished from within a random background texture. The texture segmentation was improved when the overlay was used, again for some children more than for others. The improvement in texture segmentation was, in general, correlated with the improvement in rate of reading. Slower readers were generally poorer at texture segmentation. The implications for reading, for texture segmentation, and for clinical tests of vision are discussed.     

In charge but not in control: the management of teaching relationships by adults with low perceived power

The paradoxical use of punitive force by adults with low perceived power was explored in teaching interactions. Punitive force was measured by the intensity of physical effort used in operating controls that displayed negative feedback to child trainees. Women who differed in perceived power were assigned to (a) situations in which they had high, low, or ambiguous control and (b) responsive, unresponsive, or ambiguously responsive children. Women with low perceived power--when given ambiguous control--were more likely than other women to (a) use high levels of punitive force and (b) show elevated levels of autonomic arousal. Arousal, in turn, partially mediated the relationship between perceived power and use of force. Women with low perceived power were also more likely to attribute intentionality to children whose behavior was ambiguous. Results were interpreted as having implications for violence within adult-child relationships.     

Self-deprecation and estimates of body size in women.

The subject of body image in women has received considerable attention particularly with concern about its relationship to behaviours such as dieting. This study investigated the reported tendency of women to see thinness as desirable and to perceive themselves as fatter than others do. This tendency is inconsistent with the general findings on self-enhancement that show that people (including women) generally overestimate the extent to which they possess desirable characteristics. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate whether the tendency for women to report themselves as fatter than others perceive them is part of a general tendency to deprecate themselves on socially desirable qualities or whether this deprecation is restricted to body size. To investigate this, 29 female undergraduates in psychology participated in a study comparing own and others' perceptions of body size, attractiveness, sexiness, intelligence, and friendliness. Compared with the ratings of them given by others, women tended to make self-enhancing judgements of their attractiveness, sexiness, intelligence, and friendliness. This was not found for body size, however, for which self-ratings tended to be the same as those made by others. The failure to find self-enhancing judgements of body size is discussed in terms of the relatively unvarying standards presented to women concerning ideal body size compared to the more subjective standards used to evaluate other qualities.     

The Reliability and Validity of the ‘Rejection of Christianity Scale’ among Northern Irish Students

The present aim was to examine the reliability and validity of the ‘Rejection of Christianity Scale’ (Greer & Francis, 1992) among a sample of Northern Irish undergraduate students. A slightly modified version of the ‘Rejection of Christianity Scale’ was administered alongside questions of religiousness and practice. Among a sample of 217 Northern Irish undergraduate students, support was found for the reliability and unidimen‐sionality of the ‘Rejection of Christianity Scale’. The construct validity of the scale was demonstrated with males displaying more signs of rejecting Christianity than females. Furthermore, higher scores on the ‘Rejection of Christianity Scale’ were significantly associated with lower levels of self‐reported religiousness, and lower frequency of church attendance. Limitations of the present study are presented and a further possible modification of the ‘Rejection of Christianity Scale’ is presented.     

Relation between cognitive and motor-oriented systems of visual position perception

Although subjects failed to detect a target displacement if it occurred near the time of a saccadic eye movement (a cognitive visual task), they were still able to point to the center of the target with an unseen pointer (a motor visual task). Pointing performance was not affected by detecting or failing to detect a stimulus displacement. The experiments demonstrate that some information that is available to a motor-oriented visual system is unavailable to the cognitive visual system, under conditions simulating normal perception.     

Perceived infant temperament,locus of control,and maternal physiological response to infant gaze

Maternal physiologic response was used as an index of maternal attention to infant eye contact. Thirty-six women, each of whom had a 3-month-old infant, were shown 10-sec silent images of a 3-month-old infant on a videotape monitor. In one condition the en face position offered eye contact, in the other condition eye contact was not possible. Each woman viewed a sequence of six identical episodes of one condition followed by six episodes of the other condition. Heart rate and skin conductance were recorded continuously during the session. Skin conductance response did not differentiate between reciprocated and unreciprocated gaze. Cardiac response elicited by reciprocated gaze viewed first shifted from a predominately orienting response on early trials to an acceleratory response on Trial 6. The acceleratory response was most pronounced in those women identified as Externals by the Locus of Control Inventory (Rotter, J. B. Psychological Monographs, 1966, 80, [No. 609]). Initial viewing of the infant looking away elicited a predominantly deceleratory heart-rate response that did not habituate. Mothers who described their infants as being difficult as assessed by the questionnaire method (Carey, W. B. Journal of Pediatrics, 1970, 77, 188–194) were physiologically less sensitive to the change from the infant's averted gaze to its direct gaze. Results are discussed in terms of the role of direct and averted gaze during social transactions.