Stressors, Stress Mediators, and Emotional Weil-Being Among Spouses of Soldiers Deployed to the Persian Gulf During Operation Desert Shield/Storm

The Family Factors Field Study of Operation Desert Shield/Storm (ODS) was designed to collect data on the impact of the Persian Gulf deployment on soldier/family well-being, and the effectiveness of Army and community resources in assisting and supporting families of deployed soldiers. In October 1990, a task force was assembled, and multi-agency research teams visited several Army installations. Informal individual and group interviews were conducted with spouses, unit family support leaders, unit rear detachment personnel, garrison leaders, and local Army program/service providers. The questions were aimed at identifying key stressors which spouses and children experienced in relation to the sudden deployment, as well a stress mediators such as social supports and personal coping skills. Anecdotal information collected during the site visits, combined with findings from previous research on Army families, was used to develop a questionnaire designed to quantify those variables which emerged as relevant to a study of stressors and stress mediators in the context of the ODS deployment.     

TEMPORAL CONTROL ON INTERVAL SCHEDULES: WHAT DETERMINES THE POSTREINFORCEMENT PAUSE?

On fixed-interval or response-initiated delay schedules of reinforcement, the average pause following food presentation is proportional to the interfood interval. Moreover, when a number of intervals of different durations occur in a programmed cyclic series, postreinforcement pauses track the changes in interval value. What controls the duration of postreinforcement pauses under these conditions? Staddon, Wynne, and Higa (1991), in their linear waiting model, propose control by the preceding interfood interval. Another possibility is that delay to reinforcement, signaled by a key peck and/or stimulus change, determines the subsequent pause. The experiments reported here examined the role of these two possible time markers by studying the performance of pigeons under a chained cyclic fixed-interval procedure. The data support the linear waiting model, but suggest that more than the immediately preceding interfood interval plays a role in temporal control.     

Dynamic spatial performance and general intelligence

A computerized video-game-like dynamic spatial ability measure and a paper-and-pencil group test of intelligence were administered to 94 university students. The purpose of the study was threefold: (a) to evaluate the reliability of the dynamic spatial measure; (b) to investigate the extent to which the dynamic spatial measure is saturated with variance associated with traditional measures of fluid and crystallized intellectual ability; and (c) to explore the possibility that dynamic computer based performance measures define factors that are distinct from those associated with traditional paper-and-pencil measures. The number of times the participant hit a moving target served as the dependent variable for the dynamic spatial measure. Number of hits proved to be correlated with Performance IQ, but was not significantly correlated with Verbal IQ. Maximum likelihood factor analysis revealed that the dynamic spatial measure did not load substantially on a factor of general intellectual ability but provided additional evidence that it is related to a performance component.     

Why Religion Should Be an Integral Part of Public School Education

Studies of classroom climates completed in the 1980s concluded that religion, even broadly defined, is seldom discussed in public schools. This situation is inconsistent with important precedents of our society, and therefore, public schools ought rightly to provide opportunities for students to discuss religion, broadly defined, in a scholarly fashion throughout their normal school routine. This article delineates 10 logical and cultural underpinnings for religious instruction in public schools.     

Singles ads: Gender,social class,and time

The contents of 800 singles ads were examined. They were compared by the gender of the advertiser, the year of appearance (1991 and 1986), and the SES of the target readership (affluent and general). There were very few advertisers who listed themselves as black, so these ads were not included in the study. Gender differences were most important. Men were more likely to offer financial security and seek attractiveness. Women were more likely to offer attractiveness and seek financial security. The gender differences were in agreement with those reported for over a decade and from many geographical areas, although less than half of the advertisers mentioned either finances or attractiveness. Contrary to our hypotheses, the contents of mens' and womens' ads were more different in 1991 than they had been in 1986 and more in conformity with sexual stereotypes. Ads in a paper with an affluent readership were more likely to mention educational and financial status while ads in a paper with a readership throughout the metropolitan area were more likely to mention physical characteristics.     

Panic disorder: cognitive-behavioral treatment

The effectiveness of an integrated treatment program utilizing cognitive-behavioral therapies for Panic Disorder was examined. Treatment was comprised of Cognitive Model of Panic-derived procedures, Cognitive Therapy and Applied Relaxation Training. Subjects meeting DSM-III-R criteria for Panic Disorder received thirteen 2.5-hr sessions of outpatient therapy in small groups, over a 12-week period. Subjects were given an extensive rationale of the etiology, development and maintenance of Panic Disorder, within the framework of the Cognitive Model of Panic, and controlled behavioral experiments in panic evocation to internal panicogenic cues, cognitive reappraisal of somatic and ideational cues, breathing retraining, Applied Relaxation Training and Cognitive Therapy to identify and remediate maladaptive beliefs and dysfunctional cognitive schemas. A comprehensive assessment battery was given at pre-mid-post-treatment which included measures of tripartite functioning, global severity, panic, fear, anxiety, depression and psychiatric symptomatology. Analyses indicated statistically significant improvements across all outcome domains. All subjects were free of spontaneous (uncued) panic attacks at post-treatment, and all met operationalized criteria for high endstate functioning. These findings are discussed, with recommendations for future research.