Trauma in the Lives of Older Men: Findings from the Normative Aging Study

Research on the prevalence of traumatic exposure has tended to focus on younger populations, limiting our knowledge about trauma and its effects in older adults. In this study, lifetime trauma exposure was assessed in a sample of 436 male military veterans of World War II and the Korean Conflict (age 59–92). A clinician-administered screening measure, the Brief Trauma Interview, was developed to assess lifetime exposure to 10 categories of trauma using DSM-IV criteria. PTSD was assessed in interview and questionnaires. Despite a high prevalence of trauma exposure, symptom levels were relatively low. Few men met criteria for current or lifetime PTSD. Secondary analyses found that lifetime symptom severity was higher in men who met the DSM-IV A.2 criterion, in contrast with men who did not meet A.2. Findings indicate that trauma is highly prevalent among older men, although many may be asymptomatic.     

The Effects of Subtle Sexual Harassment on Women’s Performance in a Job Interview

Although we now know about the long-term consequences of moderate to severe sexual harassment, little is known about the immediate effects of more subtle harassment. The present study was designed to examine real-time consequences of subtle sexual harassment in a job interview using objective indicators of job performance. Fifty women were recruited for a job interview. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two interview conditions during which they were asked either three sexual or non-sexual questions interspersed with standard interview questions. In the former, women applicants spoke less fluently, gave lower quality answers, and asked fewer job relevant questions than did those in the non-sexual interview. It thus appears that even relatively mild harassment disrupts immediate performance.     

Reactance in affective-evaluative learning: Outside of conscious control?

Recent studies have shown that the basic evaluative conditioning (EC) effect (originally neutral stimuli acquiring an affective value congruent with the valence of the affective stimulus they were paired with) seems to be limited to participants who are unaware of the stimulus pairings. If participants are aware of the pairings, reactance effects occur (i.e., changes in the opposite direction of the valence of the affective stimulus). To examine whether these reactance effects are due to processes of conscious countercontrol or whether the ratings reflect intrinsic feelings towards the stimuli, a new procedure was developed that included a bogus-pipeline condition. In this procedure, which was adapted from attitude research, participants were connected to bogus lie detector equipment leading them to believe that their "true" affective-evaluative responses were being observed. In Experiment 1, reactance effects occurred also in this procedure, suggesting that the effect is spontaneous and not due to processes of conscious countercontrol. In Experiment 2, these effects were replicated using a between-subjects design in addition to the standard within-subjects control condition.     

Attractiveness of own-race, other-race, and mixed-race faces

Averaged face composites, which represent the central tendency of a familiar population of faces, are attractive. If this prototypicality contributes to their appeal, then averaged composites should be more attractive when their component faces come from a familiar, own-race population than when they come from a less familiar, other-race population. We compared the attractiveness of own-race composites, other-race composites, and mixed-race composites (where the component faces were from both races). In experiment 1, Caucasian participants rated own-race composites as more attractive than other-race composites, but only for male faces. However, mixed-race (Caucasian/Japanese) composites were significantly more attractive than own-race composites, particularly for the opposite sex. In experiment 2, Caucasian and Japanese participants living in Australia and Japan, respectively, selected the most attractive face from a continuum with exaggerated Caucasian characteristics at one end and exaggerated Japanese characteristics at the other, with intervening images including a Caucasian averaged composite, a mixed-race averaged composite, and a Japanese averaged composite. The most attractive face was, again, a mixed-race composite, for both Caucasian and Japanese participants. In experiment 3, Caucasian participants rated individual Eurasian faces as significantly more attractive than either Caucasian or Asian faces. Similar results were obtained with composites. Eurasian faces and composites were also rated as healthier than Caucasian or Asian faces and composites, respectively. These results suggest that signs of health may be more important than prototypicality in making average faces attractive.     

Are first impressions lasting impressions? An exploration of the generality of the primacy effect in memory for repetitions

In five experiments, we investigated the primacy effect in memory for repetitions (DiGirolamo & Hintzman, 1997), the finding that when participants are shown a study list that contains two very similar versions of the same stimulus, memory is biased in the direction of the version that was presented first. In the experiments reported, the generality of the effect was examined by manipulating the orientation and features of the repeated stimuli. The results confirmed that the effect is reliable when stimulus changes affect the accidental properties of the stimulus (properties of the stimulus that give information about distance or angle but do little to aid in identification). However, the effect was not found when changes were made to other aspects of the stimulus. The results suggest that the primacy effect in memory for repetitions is not robust across all stimulus changes and converge with previous findings that have demonstrated that such properties of stimuli as orientation and size are represented differently in memory than are other stimulus characteristics.     

Rorschach comprehensive system variables in relation to assessing dynamic capacity and ego strength for psychodynamic psychotherapy

Few studies have concerned the relation between Comprehensive System (CS; Exner, 1991, 1993, 2003) Rorschach variables, and suitability for psychodynamic psychotherapy. In this study, I predicted correlations between 17 rationally selected CS variables and suitability for psychotherapy as represented by ratings of Dynamic Capacity and Ego Strength. The participants were 52 psychotherapy applicants between 20 and 57 years old. The ratings were performed after clinical interviews and decisions concerning selection of the applicants. EA, FC, Blends, Zf, and MQo correlated positively and YFY negatively with Dynamic Capacity ratings, whereas EA, FC, and Blends correlated positively and YFY and F% negatively with Ego Strength ratings. EA, FC, YFY, Zf, MQo, and F% also differed between the applicants selected and those not selected for psychotherapy. Considering earlier research, the results for Blends, Zf, and F% were interpreted as replications and for MQo and EA as showing satisfactory consistency.     

Soft tissue contributions to impact forces simulated using a four-segment wobbling mass model of forefoot-heel landings

The purpose of this investigation was to develop and evaluate a wobbling mass model of a female performing a drop landing and to examine the influence of soft tissue properties on the impact loads experienced. A planar model comprising a foot, shank, thigh and upper body segment was developed. Spring-damper systems coupled the foot to the ground and the wobbling masses to the rigid masses. Unlike traditional wobbling mass models of landing, the model included a foot segment, which allowed replication of forefoot-heel landing techniques and also used subject and movement-specific properties to simulate the landings. Kinematics and force data collected for three drop landings (height 0.46 m) performed by a female were separately used to drive and evaluate the model. The wobbling mass model successfully reproduced the measured force profiles to 9% (RMS differences) of the measured range and replicated the measured peak vertical ground reaction forces to 6%. The accuracies of the wobbling mass model and a corresponding rigid mass model were compared. The inclusion of soft tissue properties in the model contributed up to an 8.6 bodyweights reduction in peak impact loading and produced a 52% more accurate replication of the measured force profiles. The prominent role soft tissues have in load attenuation and the benefits of modelling soft tissue in simulations of landings were therefore highlighted. The success of the wobbling mass model in replicating the kinetics of actual landing performances suggests the model may be used in the future to gain a realistic insight into load attenuation strategies used by females.     

Women's advantage at remembering others' appearance: A systematic look at the why and when of a gender difference

Women recall the appearance of others better than men. The goal of the present research was to shed light on the explanations and boundary conditions of this gender difference. In three studies (592 participants), the authors tested potential mediators and moderators of the gender difference. Results corroborated the robustness of the gender difference. General task motivation, general memory ability, importance of appearance, appearance knowledge, attention paid to target, gazing at target, and communal or agentic orientation could not explain why women were better at recalling others' appearance than men were. Except for importance of appearance and appearance knowledge, which both decreased the magnitude of the gender difference, general task motivation, attention paid to target, length of exposure to target, delay in responding, cognitive load, and response format (verbal vs. nonverbal) had no effect on the gender difference. Results are discussed in relation to gender differences found in the nonverbal sensitivity literature.     

Shaping approach responses as intervention for specific phobia in a child with autism

We evaluated contact desensitization (reinforcing approach responses) as intervention for specific phobia with a child diagnosed with autism. During hospital-based intervention, the boy was able to encounter previously avoided stimuli. Parental report suggested that results were maintained postdischarge.     

Culture and egocentric perceptions of fairness in conflict and negotiation

In this article, the authors advanced a cultural view of judgment biases in conflict and negotiation. The authors predicted that disputants' self-serving biases of fairness would be more prevalent in individualistic cultures, such as the United States, in which the self is served by focusing on one's positive attributes to "stand out" and be better than others, yet would be attenuated in collectivistic cultures, such as Japan, where the self is served by focusing on one's negative characteristics to "blend in" (S. J. Heine, D. R. Lehman, H. R. Markus, & S. Kitayama, 1999). Four studies that used different methodologies (free recall, scenarios, and a laboratory experiment) supported this notion. Implications for the science and practice of negotiation are discussed.