Sex role as a mediator of achievement in task performance

Participants in a test of the influence of sex role on performance in a masculine task were 96 male and female undergraduates. Subject sex, norm (challenging or not challenging), and experimenter (male, female, or no experimenter present) were varied in a 2×2×3 design. When challenged, subjects worked more successfully in the presence of a female than before a male or with no experimenter present. Results support the hypothesis that the arousal of achieving tendencies may depend in part on the importance and conspicuousness of role cues. Implications for industrial performance and for future research are discussed.The authors would like to acknowledge the thoughtful assistance of Barbara Moely and Beverly Jafek, who commented on earlier drafts of this paper.All correspondence should be sent to Dr. Laurie Larwood, Claremont Men's College Claremont, California 91711. Portions of this paper were presented at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, Chicago, August 1975.     

Quality of life: Criteria for behavioral adjustment(1)

New insights into potentially harmful consequences of modern technology have increased efforts to use the methods of the social, behavioral, and biological sciences in searching the psychosocial environment for aversive factors and in identifying high-risk individuals and groups. Examples are given from an ongoing project concerned with the impact of technology on workers, health and satisfaction, in particular problems concerned with adjustment to underload and overload associated with automation and mechanization in industry. Furthermore, the stress involved in urban commuting is illustrated with psychophysiological data. On the basis of results obtained in these and related studies it is argued that a moderately varied flow of stimuli and events, opportunities to engage in psychologically meaningful activities and to exercise personal control over external conditions, may be considered key components in the quality-of-life concept. Health risks associated with adjusting to demands characteristic of life in technologically advanced countries are discussed in this context.     

The effects of practice with one positive set in a memory scanning task can be completely transferred to a different positive set

Recognition tasks in which the items have been assigned to one and only to one response category throughout an experiment typically reveal that the functions relating reaction time and positive set size are negatively accelerated and have slopes which decrease significantly with practice. The present experiments were designed to determine whether this practice effect is specific to the individual items practiced or if it depends, at least partially, on relations built up among the positive set items. The results permit rejection of both alternatives. In the extreme case tested, it was found that, after prolonged practice with the same items composing nested positive sets, these items could be replaced with unpracticed ones without producingany significant change in the effect of set size, reaction times, or error levels. Absence of change in overall reaction times in combination with stability of slope values leads to the conclusion that not only do those practice effects which are related to the set-size effect transfer exceedingly well to unpracticed items, but practice effects on all other stages involved in item recognition also show almost total transfer to unpracticed items. It is concluded that, under the conditions of these experiments, the gain (through practice) in efficiency in processing the stimulus is independent of the stimulus.     

Anticipation of electric shock: A psychophysical study

Successive measures of emotional intensity were obtained by a two-step scaling procedure from 23 subjects anticipating an electric shock to be given at the end of a 45-min period. Half of Ss had a clock available, while the other half had to estimate apparent time. The emotional reaction was shown to increase exponentially as time before shock decreased. Heart rate also increased as time for shock was approaching, but the trend was not regular.     

A comparison of two psychological treatments for bulimia nervosa

Two standardized psychological treatments for bulimia nervosa were studied. A cognitive behavioural approach was compared with a form of short-term focal psychotherapy. Twenty-four patients who met strict diagnostic criteria for bulimia nervosa were randomly allocated to the two treatments. All the interviews were tape-recorded so that checks on their content could be made. Assessments took place at the beginning and end of treatment, and at 4-, 8- and 12-month follow-up. None of the patients dropped out of treatment or follow-up, but 1 patient from each treatment group had to be withdrawn on clinical grounds. Patients in both groups made substantial improvements which were well maintained over the 12-month treatment-free follow-up period. The cognitive behavioural approach was superior to short-term focal psychotherapy in terms of its effect on the patients' overall clinical state, their general psychopathology and social adjustment, and their assessment of their outcome.     

Concurrent treatment of mother and child in resolution of multigenerational separation and individuation difficulties

This case serves as a paradigm of concurrent treatment of a mother and child, where the central problem was one of separation-individuation. The nature of the child's presenting symptom of night terrors, the overinvolvement of the mother and the child, and the tendency of the child to withdraw from the outside world, all pointed to a child at risk for the more symptomatic development of school refusal and greater psychopathology. Since the treatment took place within a full service community mental health clinic, it was possible to provide psychiatric evaluation and consultation of both mother and child and the use of two therapists working collaboratively. With this method of treatment, the unfolding of both mother's and child's separation-individuation processes could be identified and utilized. Since she was an electively mute child who refused to come into the treatment room, another therapeutic tool became the use of the younger brother as a facilitator.     

Unilateral agraphia after section of the posterior half of the truncus of the corpus callosum

A Japanese patient who had undergone section of the posterior half of the truncus of the corpus callosum in the process of removing an arteriovenous malformation was examined with a battery of special tests. He showed agraphia only with the left hand (unilateral agraphia). The agraphia was more prominent for the words written in Kana characters (phonograms) than for the words written in Kanji characters (ideograms). The patient showed neither unilateral apraxia, nor tactile alexia, nor tactile anomia.     

Abnormal articulatory dynamics in a patient with apraxia of speech: X-ray microbeam observation

The temporal organization of articulatory movements in a patient diagnosed as having apraxia of speech was explored by means of pellet tracking techniques using an X-ray microbeam system. The results indicated that the temporal organization among different articulators of the patient was sometimes disturbed in his production of a meaningful Japanese word /deenee/. It was also observed that the pattern and velocity of the articulatory movements of the patient in repetitions of monosyllables were different from those of typical dysarthric patients.     

Career pathfinders: a qualitative study of career development

This paper examined the perceptions of career path and issues of MBA students in response to Lore's The Pathfinder, a comprehensive career-planning model. Using internet discussion boards, an interactive dialogue was mentioned by participants in response to the components of Lore's model. The sample consisted of 50 fully employed MBA students enrolled in a course on self-assessment and career planning. A total of 1,781 separate postings were made and analyzed, using inductive analysis derived from discussion threads based on Lore's categories: comments on Lore's Pathfinder model, living a life you love (what's the holdup, career fantasies, work and family issues, and career selection), how to get there from here (commitment and future from the present), and designing your future career. Findings indicated several interesting trends in the career planning of current MBA students, particularly the importance of self or self-reflective observations in real time as students who are also fully employed formulate career plans. Implications for psychologists and career counselors, career development models, and suggestions for research are presented.     

Influence of vision and static stretch of the calf muscles on postural sway during quiet standing

The purpose of this experimental study was to evaluate the effects of vision and stretching of the calf muscles on postural sway during quiet standing. Under pre-stretch conditions, participants stood on a force plate for 30s and the sway of the ground reaction force center of pressure was recorded. The following postural sway variables were calculated off-line: sweep speed, sway speed, standard deviation, maximal mediolateral range, maximal anteroposterior range, mean mediolateral position and mean anteroposterior position. For post-stretch conditions, participants stood quietly on a device that was utilized to impose a static 3 min ankle joint dorsiflexion stretch. Immediately thereafter, participants moved onto the force platform where postural sway parameters were again recorded. Randomized eyes-open and eyes-closed conditions were tested in both cases. Results showed that postural sway significantly increased due to stretch (sweep speed, sway speed, standard deviation, maximal anteroposterior range, mean anteroposterior position), as well as eye closure (sweep speed, sway speed, standard deviation, maximal mediolateral range, maximal anteroposterior range). The interaction between stretch and eye closure was also significant (sweep speed, sway speed, standard deviation, maximal mediolateral range), suggesting that there were only minor increases in postural sway after stretch under the eyes-open condition. It was suggested that stretching of the calf muscles has the effect of increasing postural sway, although this effect can be greatly compensated for when vision is included.