Psychotherapists and the clergy: Fifty years later

Jung's two powerful articles on psychotherapy and the clergy, written in 1928 and 1932. are looked at from the vantage point of fifty years later and the author's experience in conducting analysis with many people from both vocations. He notes that relatively few people achieve the kind of integration of the ego that Jung writes about-an essentially religious experience-wherein the center of their existence now gravitates about the Self. Yet Jung's work and views have had a profound effect on spiritually inclined people of all ages. The predictions of Jung's articles, regarding therapy, the dissemination of pyschology to the masses, and other issues are examined.     

The proliferation of prizes: Nobel complements and Nobel surrogates in the reward system of science

In the last two decades, prizes in the sciences have proliferated and, in particular, rich prizes with large honoraria. These developments raise several questions: Why have rich prizes proliferated? Have they greatly changed the reward system of science? What effects will such prizes have on scientists and on science? The proliferation of such prizes derives from marked limitations on the numbers and types of scientists eligible for Nobel prizes and consequent increases in the number of uncrowned laureate-equivalents. These would-be surrogates for Nobel prizes extend the reward system of science in its upper reaches but this change is not fundamental. The spread of rich prizes to new fields provides added incentives to potential winners, which has its own disutilities; it reinforces competitiveness, concern for priority and attendant secrecy, all this amplifying ambivalence toward the reward system in science. There may also be modest positive effects of such new awards in the form of heightened popular esteem for science and interest in it.     

Cognitive and projective measures of differentiation and their relationship to empathy

The present investigation compared cognitive and projective methods of assessing “differentiation,” Witkin's Embedded Figures Test (EFT) and Blatt's Concept of the Object Scale (COS), and reexamined expectations concerning the relationship between level of differentiation and capacity for empathy. Whether lesser or greater differentiation would promote empathy was of specific interest. Two forms of empathy were investigated, an “affective” form assessed by the Mehrabian Empathy Scale and a “cognitive” form assessed by the Hogan Empathy Scale. Expected sex differences in differentiation and empathy were also investigated. Results demonstrated consonance between COS and EFT measures of differentiation within the male sample only (p < .05). Individuals classified by EFT as relatively less differentiated (“field dependent”) produced more part object responses (p < .02) and those classified as more differentiated (“field independent”) showed a trend toward more whole object responses (p < .10) on the COS. Associations between measures of differentiation and empathy reached significance or showed trends in the male group only. Men with relatively lesser differentiation on the EFT (“field dependent”) showed greater “affective empathy” (p < .10) and men with greater differentiation on the COS showed greater “cognitive” empathy (p < .05). Women demonstrated higher levels of “affective” empathy than men (p < .001).     

Predictive validation of an insurance agent support person selection battery

This study investigated the predictive validity of a selection battery for insurance agent support persons. The selection battery included cognitive tests, personality scales, and biodata scales. Predictor data were collected as part of the agent support person selection process. Behavior summary scale ratings made by immediate supervisors of agent support persons were used as criteria in this study. Uncorrected correlations for six matched predictor composite-criterion dimension combinations identified in a previous concurrent validation study (Ashworth, Barge, Dunnette, & Carter, 1987) ranged from .17 (p<. 01) to .28 (p< .01) (M=.21, N=357).     

The family as portrayed on prime-time television, 1947–1990: Structure and characteristics

Successful family series across four decades of American prime-time television were examined. Family portrayals were defined as either conventional or nonconventional. Conventional families were categorized as couples without children and couples with children. Nonconventional families were categorized as single parent or contrived. Additional family characteristics were also recorded including sex of single parent, reason for singleness, social class status, females employed outside the home, live-ins, race, and whether the presentation was dramatic or comedic. The data show a trend toward more equal presentation of conventional and nonconventional families, few divorced or female single parents, and few minority families. Implications of findings are discussed and future research questions suggested.     

Spatial problem solving: The integration of independently learned cognitive maps

The process of mentally integrating separate regions of a layout into a unified representation is a critical component in generating inferred spatial information. Blindfolded subjects learned two different paths by tactual exploration. The subjects were then given information that permitted them to integrate the two cognitive maps of the paths into one map. In Experiment I, the speed and accuracy of originally learned and inferred movements within a path were equivalent, whereas inferred movements between the two paths were significantly slower and less accurate. In Experiment 2, the subjects could request additional training on the paths before they were given the integration information, and they also rated how well they knew the path on which they were tested. When the subjects judged that they remembered all or most of the path information, movements between two paths and within one path were performed with the same accuracy. The equivalent accuracy of all the movements suggests that cognitive integration can generate an accurate representation of an integrated layout when the path information is recalled.     

An investigation of some hypotheses concerning rape and murder

The study compared three groups of incarcerated criminals, including 40 men convicted of rape, 40 convicted of murder (of another male) and 40 sentenced for property offenses. A number of personality and attitude scales, behavioral records and a binocular rivalry test were used to test various hypotheses concerning rape and murder. Rapists and murderers did not differ on general control of aggressive behavior but both showed more control than convicted felons. In the binocular rivalry task rapists and murderers were less prone to perceive sexuality than property felons, but the three groups did not differ on perceived aggression toward women. Rapists and murderers were more prone to deny feminine traits than property felons. Rapists had heterosexual experience with more partners than property felons. The three groups did not differ on attitudes toward women or on disinhibition as a mode of sensation seeking. In general, rapists resemble murderers more than ordinary felons and the evidence does not support hypotheses that characterize them as significantly more hostile toward women than are other types of criminals.     

Biochemical correlates of personality traits in normals: An exploratory study

This study attempted to identify biochemical systems associated with the personality dimensions of Extraversion (E), Neuroticism (N), Psychoticism (P), Sensation Seeking (SS) and Impulsivity (Imp). The subjects were 43 normal volunteers who volunteered to take a battery of psychological tests and allow investigators to obtain samples of blood, urine and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) for biochemical assessment.Substantial positive correlations were found between CSF norepinephrine (NE), MHPG (the principal metabolite of NE), DBH (an enzyme involved in the production of NE) and plasma MHPG and DBH; all of these are regarded, in some part, as putative indicators of central noradrenergic activity. After partialling out the influences of age, height and weight, a number of significant relationships were found between psychological traits and biochemical variables. Extraversion correlated positively and introversion and neuroticism correlated negatively with CSF Ca. Neuroticism also correlated negatively with plasma MHPG. Ego Strength (inversely related to Neurotic Introversion), P and Disinhibitory SS correlated negatively with CSF cort. General SS correlated negatively with CSF NE and plasma DBH, and these correlations were significant in both males and females, as well as in the total group. The results are consistent with some biological models of personality, but suggest the need for modification in others.     

Family background,sex-role attitudes,and life goals of technical college and university students

Questionnaires that assessed family background, educational goals, career goals, preferred and expected career commitment, and sex-role attitudes were completed by 763 male and female undergraduates. The women expressed significantly more nontraditional goals and attitudes than women in previous studies, but the female respondents' goals and attitudes differ significantly from their male classmates. The correlations between several sex-role-related goals and attitudes are significant for both men and women. Parents' educational attainment, mothers' careers, and religious upbringing are the background variables that most strongly predict traditional/nontraditional goals and sex-role attitudes. The predictive powers of the background traits differ for men and women, and these results are often inconsistent with results of previous studies. Implications for related research are discussed.This article is based in part on the author's doctoral dissertation, submited to The Ohio State University, Department of Psychology, August 1977. The author wishes to thank Susan R. Vogel and Martha Romeskie for their thoughtful criticisms of an earlier draft of this article, and committee members Samuel Osipow, Saul Siegel, Nancy Betz, and Mari Jones for their assistance with the dissertation.