Coping and learned helplessness: Effects of coping strategies on performance following unsolvable problems

The current study assesses the effects of individuals' coping strategies for dealing with stress on cognitive performance following unsolvable problems. In this study, subjects responded to a questionnaire tapping the use of problem-focused and emotion-focused coping strategies in dealing with failure in achievement settings. Then they were exposed to either no-feedback or failure in four unsolvable problems. Upon completing these problems, subjects performed a visual search task with a memory component. Results showed that failure, as compared with no-feedback, produced performance deficits among subjects who habitually relied on a single coping strategy, either problem- or emotion-focused, and among subjects who did not rely on any coping response. Only subjects who relied on both problem-focused and emotion-focused strategies did not show any performance deficit following unsolvable problems. The results are discussed in terms of Lazarus and Folkman's stress-coping model.     

Causal attribution,coping strategies,and combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder

The present study assesses the intervening role of ways of coping in mediating the effects of causal attribution for negative events on combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The sample consisted of Israeli soldiers who suffered a combat stress reaction episode during the 1982 Lebanon War and were followed 2 and 3 years after their participation in combat. The results showed that an attribution of negative events to stable and uncontrollable causes was associated with both a more frequent use of emotion-focused coping and a less frequent use of problem-focused coping. It was also found that emotion-focused coping and problem-focused coping were more direct antecedents of combat-related PTSD than causal attribution. Finally, it was found that the association between causal attribution and combat-related PTSD was mediated by variations in emotion-focused coping. The discussion attempts to integrate theoretical notions derived from attributional models and Lazarus and Folkman's stress-coping model.     

Delayed search for a concealed imprinted object in the domestic chick

Five-day-old chicks were accustomed to follow an imprinted object (a small red ball with which they had been reared) that was moving slowly in a large arena, until it disappeared behind an opaque screen. In experiments, each chick was initially confined in a transparent cage, from where it could see and track the ball while it moved towards, and then beyond, one of two screens. The screens could be either identical or differ in colour and pattern. Either immediately after the disappearance of the ball, or with a certain delay, the chick was released and allowed to search for its imprinted object behind either screen. The results showed that chicks took into account the directional cue provided by the ball movement and its concealment, up to a delay period of about 180 s, independently of the perceptual characteristics of the two screens. If an opaque partition was positioned in front of the transparent cage immediately after the ball had disappeared, so that, throughout the delay, neither the goal-object nor the two screens were visible, chicks were still capable of remembering and choosing the correct screen, though over a much shorter period of about 60 s. The results suggest that, at least in this precocial bird species, very young chicks can maintain some form of representation of the location where a social partner was last seen, and are also capable of continuously updating this representation so as to take into account successive displacements of the goal-object. Received: 17 January 1998 / Accepted after revision: 29 March 1998     

SOCIAL CONFORMITY AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DIFFERENTIATION12

This study examined the role of socialization experiences in the development of psychological differentiation. In each of three countries (Holland, Italy, Mexico) two villages were selected as presenting a contrasting picture with regard to degree of emphasis on conformity to family, religious and political authority. It was hypothesized that within the pair of villages in each country children from the village which stressed social conformity would tend to be more field dependent and show other signs of less developed differentiation than children from the village in which social conformity was less emphasized. In each of the six villages approximately 100 children (boys and girls, aged 9–11 and 13–15) were studied. Differentiation was assessed by a battery of tests of field-dependence-independence and the figure-drawing test. In every comparison of mean test scores between pairs of villages, in each of the three countries, children from the village in which social conformity was stressed obtained scores reflecting less differentiated functioning. Village differences were significant for every measure of differentiation in all three countries. Addition alanalyses of the data from the tests of differentiation and other tests used yielded results essentially consistent with findings from previous studies.     

Salivary output of the alcoholic: Effect of treatment with amitriptyline

In a group of alcoholic patients salivary output was measured before stimulation, during anticipation of tasting lemon juice, and after stimulation with lemon juice. These measures were obtained twice a day (a.m.-p.m.). Either amitriptyline or a placebo had been administered to each patient. The dental-roll technique for measuring salivary output was demonstrated to be reliable over time. In patients who had received the placebo salivary output in anticipation of the taste of lemon juice demonstrated an extinction phenomenon. Amitriptyline inhibited this anticipatory response. No relationship between the subjective symptom of dry mouth and salivary output was found. The results are interpreted as indicating that amitriptyline inhibits welldeveloped conditional anticipatory responses and that the symptom of dry mouth probably occurs predominantly during the hours immediately preceding mealtimes.     

Probability kinematics

Probability kinematics is studied in detail within the framework of elementary probability theory. The merits and demerits of Jeffrey's and Field's models are discussed. In particular, the principle of maximum relative entropy and other principles are used in an epistemic justification of generalized conditionals. A representation of conditionals in terms of Bayesian conditionals is worked out in the framework of external kinematics.     

Sense of Closeness to Parents and Family Rules: A Study of Arab and Jewish Youth in Israel

The present study investigated adolescents' perception of closeness to their parents and family rules restricting their conduct, in Arab and Jewish Israeli samples. A total of 854 11th-grade high school students reported their perceptions by a self-report questionnaire. Overall, the results indicate that the Arab youths perceived more closeness toward their parents and more rules restricting their conduct, compared with their Jewish counterparts. In both cultures, girls reported more restrictions on dating and leaving home than boys. Among Israeli Arab adolescents a positive association was uncovered between closeness to parents and number of rules. No such pattern was evident among Israeli Jewish youth. These and additional findings are discussed within the context of Triandis' cross-cultural dimension of collectivism-individualism.