Accuracy in the judgment of in-group and out-group variability

The accuracy of in-group and out-group variability judgments was examined by comparing those judgments with the variability of self-ratings provided by random samples of group members. Following Park and Judd (1990), perceptions of both group dispersion and group stereotypicality were examined. Accuracy was examined both by within-subject sensitivity correlations and by simple discrepancies between perceived and actual variability estimates. In-group-out-group differences in sensitivity were shown, particularly for judgments of stereotypicality. These differences were related to differences in the degree to which out-group variability is underestimated relative to in-group variability (i.e., the out-group homogeneity effect). Out-group stereotypicality judgments were overestimated, supporting the view that out-group stereotypes are overgeneralizations. Whether dispersion judgments were over- or underestimated depended on their measurement.     

Three methods of developing MMPI taxonomies of sexual offenders

In a sample of 261 state hospital sexual offenders, Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) profiles did not differ for offenders with adult victims versus offenders with child victims when offender age was controlled. MMPI 2-point analyses for the whole sample revealed five common codes that were independent of victim maturity. The sample was randomly divided in half and subjected to a cluster-analytic procedure which revealed two MMPI clusters. The first cluster was unelevated, with Scale 4 as its high point. The second cluster had multiple elevations, with Scales 8, 4, 2, and 7 as the highest scales. These clusters were replicated in a cluster analysis of the second half of the sample. However, when the sample was recombined, the two clusters were not externally validated basis on demographic and criminological variables. The results suggest that common psychological variables among sexual offenders may have more discriminative value than victim maturity in developing sexual offender taxonomies.     

Courtesy stigma: the social implications of associating with a gay person

We investigated the operation of courtesy stigma with American male college students who reacted to a fictitious male student described as gay, rooming by choice with a gay male student, involuntarily assigned to room with a gay, or rooming with a male heterosexual. Among respondents who expressed strong intolerance of gays, the voluntary associate of a gay was perceived as having homosexual tendencies and as possessing the same stereotyped personality traits attributed to a gay. No such courtesy stigma was attached to the involuntary associate of a gay by these respondents. Relatively tolerant respondents engaged in no courtesy stigmatization at all. Thus, courtesy stigmatization occurred only under circumscribed conditions and appeared to depend more on the tendency of highly intolerant individuals to infer that a male student who apparently liked a gay individual was himself gay than on a motivation to maintain cognitive consistency.     

A Rorschach investigation of mothers of behaviorally disturbed infants

This investigation focuses on one facet of the interactional family, parent-child, mother-infant matrix of behaviorally disturbed infants: the personality of mother as primary caregiver. Rorschach test behavior of mothers (N = 30) of behaviorally disturbed infants were compared with two normative samples. The Rorschach test was found to indicate certain atypical psychological patterns among these mothers. Differences emerged in intellectual sphere variables: number of responses (R), common detail responses (D), rare detail responses (Dd), number of accurate form percepts (F+), percentage of form percepts that are accurate (F+%), percentage of responses with animal content (A%), and popular percepts (P). Other response trends emerged in the affective sphere: percentage of pure form responses (F%) and in the interpersonal sphere: whole human content (H) and the ratio of the whole human content to human detail content (H:Hd), as well as to the test as a whole. Based on these results, hypotheses are generated for further investigation, particularly of traits in the areas of cognitive processing and the capacity for interpersonal relations.     

The interaction between stimulus and reinforcer control on remembering.

In a symbolic matching-to-sample task, 6 pigeons obtained food by pecking a red side key when the brighter of two white lights had been presented on the center key and by pecking a green side key when the dimmer of two white lights had been presented on the center key. Across Part 1 and Parts 6 to 10, the delay between sample-stimulus presentation and the availability of the choice keys was varied between 0 s and 25 s. Across Parts 1 to 5, the delay between the emission of a correct choice and the delivery of a reinforcer was varied between 0 s and 30 s. Although increasing both types of delay decreased stimulus discriminability, lengthening the stimulus-choice delay produced a greater decrement in choice accuracy than did lengthening the choice-reinforcer delay. Additionally, the relative reinforcer rate for correct choice was varied across both types of delay. The sensitivity of behavior to the distribution of reinforcers decreased as discriminability decreased under both procedures. These data are consistent with the view, based on the generalized matching law, that sample stimuli and reinforcers interact in their control over remembering.     

The knowledge and use of quantitative research by pastoral counselors

This study investigated the degree of training, experience and interest in quantitative research among pastoral counselors. It was found that a little over half of the subjects had had at least one statistics course and thought that research was valuable. However, less than 6% had ever published research and only one subject (less than 1%) had published more than two quantitative articles. This suggests there is a research vacuum in the field of pastoral counseling. There is no scientific core of scholars publishing a systematic program of research. Recommendations for ways to involve pastoral counselors more actively in research are made.New Perspectives, Owings Mills, MD.