The desire to lose one's identity

The desire to merge identities with an intimate partner was found to be negatively related to psychoticism but related to other social desires, such as the desire for physical closeness and identifying with the achievements of others.     

The real and the ideal; gender differences in heterosexual behaviour among Norwegian adolescents

This article focuses on gender differences in early heterosexual behaviour among Norwegian adolescents. The material comprised a random sample of 3000 Norwegian adolescents aged 17–19 years. The response rate was 63%. Data were collected by means of anonymous self-administered questionnaires. Sixty-nine per cent of the girls and 59% of the boys had had sexual intercourse. The majority of the adolescents, and a larger percentage of girls than of boys, had their first intercourse within a relationship of mutual commitment. The boys' first coital partners were 0.2 years younger than the boys themselves and the girls' partners were 2.8 years older than were the girls. Boys had had more coital partners than girls but girls had had intercourse more often than boys. Coital frequency was affected more by how long the adolescents had known the partner than by gender as such. In conclusion, boys and girls aged between 17 and 19 years form part of couples at two different stages of development. For this reason, boys and girls accumulate different sexual experiences in the early stage of their sexual careers.     

A flavor paired with lithium chloride blocks the formation of a pentobarbital-lithium chloride association

Thirsty rats were used in order to determine whether a vinegar solution, which had been paired with an injection of lithium chloride, could block the formation of an association between a pentobarbital- and a lithium chloride-induced state. During phase 1 the rats in the blocking group had a 2.0% vinegar solution paired with an injection of 240 mg/kg of lithium chloride, during phase 2 these rats were reexposed to the vinegar prior to each injection of 20 mg/kg of pentobarbital and 240 mg/kg of lithium chloride, and during phase 3 these rats were given access to a novel 0.75% saccharin solution and were injected with pentobarbital after saccharin removal. Animals with this history did not form an association between the pentobarbital- and lithium chloride-induced states during phase 2 as evidenced by their refusal to consume the saccharin solution over repeated pairings of saccharin with pentobarbital during phase 3. Control groups that received forward pairings of pentobarbital and lithium chloride, in the absence of a previously conditioned vinegar solution during phase 2, formed an association between pentobarbital and lithium chloride. These findings indicate that drug states and flavors can interfere with each others' capacity to predict the occurrence of lithium chloride.     

HyperCard administration of a block-design task

HyperCard (Atkinson, 1987) is a new development environment for the Macintosh that shows promise for use in psychological research and testing. In this paper, we discuss the development of HyperCard stackware with which a block-design task similar to that of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) can be administered. The reliability and validity of the computerized block-design task was evaluated by administering both the computerized task and the WAIS-R subtest to college undergraduates. Results indicated that the computerized task’s reliability compared favorably with that of the WAIS-R subtest. Validity coefficients were equivocal; although an elapsed-time measure showed moderate correlation between the tasks, the numbers of designs correctly completed in each condition were not significantly correlated.     

Cerebral laterality and depression: differences in perceptual asymmetry among diagnostic subtypes

Examined the influence of diagnostic subtype of depression on perceptual asymmetry for dichotic listening and visual tachistoscopic tasks. A total of 65 unmedicated patients with major depressive disorders and 30 normal controls were tested on a verbal and nonverbal task in each modality. Patients diagnosed according to the DSM-III with melancholia had abnormal perceptual asymmetry for dichotic nonsense syllable and complex tone tasks. In contrast, patients having a nonmelancholic "atypical depression" (reactivity of mood with preserved pleasure capacity and associated features) did not differ from normal controls on these tasks, but had an increased incidence of left handedness. Bipolar depression (history of hypomania) differed from unipolar depression in showing abnormal perceptual asymmetry for a tachistoscopic dot enumeration task. Alterations of perceptual asymmetry in melancholia and bipolar depression were consistent with hypothesized right hemisphere dysfunction.     

Residential density and psychological health: the mediating effects of social support

People report excessive, unwanted social interactions, insufficient privacy, and are observed to be more socially withdrawn under crowded living conditions. If people socially withdraw from one another as a way to cope with crowding, this could lead to an unintended side effect of breakdowns in socially supportive relationships. A breakdown in socially supportive relationships could, in turn, account for some of the pathological consequences of chronic, high density living conditions. An empirical study of 175 male heads of household among inner city residents in India suggests that the adverse effects of residential crowding on psychological health are mediated by a breakdown of social support systems. The study also points to the value of examining social support as an endogenous variable in the stress and health process.