Cardiovascular reactivity and interpersonal influence: active coping in a social context

Previous studies have demonstrated that effortful attempts to secure positive outcomes or avoid negative outcomes produce significant increases in systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and heart rate (HR). Although these effects of active coping on cardiovascular reactivity are central in current psychosomatic theories, virtually all of the research to date has used impersonal, asocial tasks. Our two studies examined the cardiovascular effects of effortful attempts to influence other people. In Study 1, male subjects attempting to influence the opinions of their discussion partner to improve their own chances of winning money displayed significantly greater SBP, DBP, and HR reactivity. In Study 2, we obtained similar effects on SBP and DBP reactivity in men and women, while both preparing an influence attempt and making that attempt. Furthermore, reactivity levels were larger as the magnitude of incentive for successful persuasion increased. Implications of this interpersonal equivalent of active coping for the development of cardiovascular disease are discussed.     

Predicting Contraceptive Efficacy: A Discriminant Analysis of Three Groups of Adolescent Women1

The relationship of knowledge and attitudes to adolescent contraceptive efficacy was investigated in a multivariate study, with demographic and sexual history variables covaried. Subjects were unmarried, sexually active 15- to 19-year-old women. Two studies were conducted: one using a large and representative sample and the second using a smaller, high socioeconomic status sample that is more typical of samples generally used in earlier research. Subjects were classified as effective, ineffective, or nonusers of contraception, based on both frequency of use and effectiveness of the method(s) they used. Two discriminant function analyses were performed to determine (a) whether knowledge and attitudes contributed to discrimination among the groups over and above discrimination attributable to demographic and sexual history variables, and (b) which variables distinguished ineffective users from both other groups. The results of both studies indicate that attitudes, particularly attitudes toward contraception, are strong predictors of patterns of contraceptive use. Ineffective users were distinguished from nonusers by their greater knowledge of contraception, and from both other groups by their greater sexual activity and more positive attitudes toward intercourse. The discussion focuses on the theoretical implications of the results, the usefulness of the effective/ineffective/nonuser categorization, and applications of these findings to design of interventions.     

Prejudice Toward Contemporary Outgroups as a Generalized Attitude

The interrelatedness of attitudes toward homosexuals, Blacks, women, and old people was studied, as well as attitude differences on demographic variables. Three hundred and nine White undergraduates responded to the Homosexual Attitude Scale, The Attitudes Toward Women Scale, Multifactor Racial Attitude Inventory, and two attitudes toward old people scales. Nine of the ten possible intercorrelations were significant beyond the .01 levels. Prejudice toward quite distinct outgroups appears to be a generalized attitude. Attitude differences were found on the demographic variables of sex, political party, and religion. Women expressed more tolerant attitudes than men toward all four outgroups studied. Republicans were more prejudiced toward homosexuals and women than were Democrats or Independents. Participants who identified themselves as Christians were less supportive of equality between the sexes than were Catholics, Protestants, or those with no religion Christians were also more prejudiced toward homosexuals than were Catholics or those with no religion.     

Do children use similar processes to read and spell words?

The use of spelling-sound information in both reading and spelling was evaluated by having children read and spell nonwords and five types of words that differed in terms of their regularity for reading and spelling. The subjects were grade 3 children who had been psychometrically defined as good readers and good spellers (“good”), good readers and poor spellers (“mixed”), or poor readers and poor spellers (“poor”). Results indicated that all children attempted to use spelling-sound correspondences in both reading and spelling, although children in both the mixed and the poor groups had weaker knowledge of these correspondences and were less systematic in their use of them. Furthermore, even though the children in the mixed group had been matched with children in the good group on reading comprehension, the number and type of errors made by the mixed subjects on both the reading and spelling tasks were more similar to those of the poor subjects than to those of the good subjects.     

Fathers' expectations and aspirations for their children

Do contemporary fathers have the same kinds of goals, beliefs, aspirations, and expectations about their children that fathers had 30 years ago? To answer this question, we interviewed 102 White fathers of 133 daughters and 126 sons about the topics probed by Aberle and Naegele (1952). We also asked about how the fathers expressed approval and disapproval of their children's behaviors, about their techniques for encouraging their children to develop the traits the fathers considered desirable, and about the sources of sex education for children. In general, our contemporary fathers mimicked some of the expectations of the earlier group and differed in others. Like the earlier group, some expectations were gender stereotypic. These expectations presumably function to restrict or limit the socialization of their children. More striking were the differences in the two sets of responses. In contrast to the statements from Aberle and Naegele's fathers, our fathers expressed many similar expectations for their daughters and sons. The educational and occupational levels of the fathers and the family composition qualified only a few of the above results.     

Selective attention and priming: Inhibitory and facilitatory effects of ignored primes

The priming effects of ignored information have been studied in Stroop displays (Neill, 1977) and with spatially superimposed drawings (Tipper, in this issue); naming of probes related to ignored primes is delayed in these experiments (“negative priming”). This negative priming effect is confirmed in a list reading task in Experiment 1, which used partially superimposed letters, and Experiment 2, which used spatially separated letters. Furthermore, Lowe (1979) using Stroop colour words observed that changing the nature of the probe such that it did not require selection from a competing word reversed the priming effects of the ignored word from inhibition to facilitation. Experiment 3 confirmed this observation when subjects selected a red letter from a green letter. Two models are suggested to account for this result. In the first, negative priming is a product of the ignored prime and subsequent probe being encoded both as a stimulus to be ignored and one to be named (Allport, Tipper and Chmiel, in press; Lowe, in press). This dual encoding is ambiguous, requiring further processing before response can be output. The other model suggests that negative priming reflects inhibition of response to ignored information, slowing naming latencies to probe stimuli that require the same response. Experiment 4 attempts to differentiate between the models, and the latter inhibition view is preferred.     

Anomalous dominance in sibling stutterers: Evidence from CT scan asymmetries, dichotic listening, neuropsychological testing, and handedness

Two left-handed siblings with developmental stuttering are comprehensively described. The methods of study included speech and language evaluation, neurological and neuropsychological examinations, dichotic listening, auditory evoked responses, electroencephalogram, and CT scan asymmetry measurements. The data from each sibling showed evidence of anomalous cerebral dominance on many of the variables investigated. The CT scan measurements showed atypical asymmetries, especially in the occipital regions. These findings support the theory that stuttering may be related to anomalous cerebral dominance, both on functional as well as structural bases. Implications of anomalous dominance and the resultant effect of hemispheric rivalry on speech fluency are discussed.     

Lexical contribution to nonword-repetition effects: Evidence from event-related potentials

Two experiments investigated the modulation of event-related potentials (ERPs) by the repetition of orthographically legal and illegal nonwords. In Experiment 1, subjects silently counted occasional words against a background of nonwords, a proportion of which were repetitions of an immediately preceding legal or illegal item. ERPs to repeated legal items showed a sustained, topographically diffuse, positive-going shift. In contrast, repeated illegal nonwords gave rise to ERPs showing a smaller and temporally more restricted positive-going modulation. In an attempt to equalize depth of processing across legal and illegal nonwords, subjects in Experiment 2 were required to count items containing a nonalphabetic character against the same background of nonword items. ERPs to repeated legal items showed a modulation similar to, although smaller than, that found in Experiment I, but no effects of repetition were observed in the ERPs to the illegal nonwords. It was concluded that the effects of repeating nonwords, at least as manifested in concurrently recorded ERPs, differ as a consequence of whether items can access lexical memory, and that this is inconsistent with the attribution of such effects solely to the operation of episodic memory processes.     

An assessment of decision-making as a possible factor in the age-related loss of contrast sensitivity

The possibility that changes in decision-making may contribute to the age-related decline in contrast sensitivity has been investigated in nineteen young subjects (ages 21-38 years) and twenty-seven old subjects (ages 55-92 years). A signal detection paradigm was employed in which the detection of stationary sinusoidal grating patterns was measured at 3 and 15 cycles deg-1 for a range of contrasts which were psychophysically equivalent for each subject. A decline in contrast sensitivity with age at the spatial frequencies studied was confirmed for contrast thresholds obtained both by the ascending method and from the 50% hit rate for detection of the grating pattern. The criterion adopted for decision-making, expressed as both beta and percentage bias, did not change significantly between young and old subjects at 15 cycles deg-1. At 3 cycles deg-1, criterion beta did not change significantly at X0.8, X1.0, or X1.2 contrast threshold, but at contrast giving 50% hit rate there was a significant increase with age. The percentage bias increased significantly at contrast threshold but not at 50% hit rate. It is inferred from the results that the loss of contrast sensitivity was not accountable in terms of the adoption of a more conservative criterion by older subjects. Hence visual loss in ageing is attributed to changes within the visual pathway rather than within higher decision-making centres.