Arousal and imitation of aggression

Forty boys, aged 5 and 6 years, viewed either an aggressive or nonaggressive film and were tested for imitation of the behavior displayed in the film. On the next day, before being tested again for imitation of the film, half the subjects in each film condition engaged in arousing play with the experimenter, and half in quiet play. According to the prediction, those aroused on the second day displayed more imitative behavior than those not aroused, regardless of which film they had seen. The results are discussed in terms of arousal as a performance variable in social learning.Thanks are due to Louis Morris, for advice and suggestions, and to Jeffrey Cohen, for assistance in data collection. This research was facilitated by funds from the Tulane University Council on Research.     

A note on the factor analysis of partial covariance matrices

A relationship is given between the joint common factor structure of two sets of variables, and the factor structure of the partial covariance matrix of one of the sets with the other partialled out.     

A unified treatment of the weighting problem

A general procedure is described for obtaining weighted linear combinations of variables. This includes as special cases, multiple regression weights, canonical variate analysis, principal components, maximizing composite reliability, canonical factor analysis, and certain other well-known methods. The general procedure is shown to yield certain desirable invariance properties, with respect to transformations of the variables.The author wishes to thank Dr. A. J. Cropley for preparing the necessary computer programs for this study.     

Attitudes of male and female cadets toward military sex integration

Two studies examine the attitudes of male and female Army ROTC cadets toward the movement of women into nontraditional and leadership positions in the military. As expected, female cadets reacted more favorably toward women than did male cadets. The time spent in sexually integrated school year ROTC units did not appear to influence opinions, while experience of the integrated summer training camp produced more negative attitudes on the part of men. The results suggest that the ROTC socialization process is ineffective in overcoming traditional sex-role biases against women in the military and that alternative structural changes may be needed to facilitate sexual integration.     

On Meaningfulness and Truth

We show how to construct certain L _{M, T} -type interpreted languages, with each such language containing meaningfulness and truth predicates which apply to itself. These languages are comparable in expressive power to the L _T -type, truth-theoretic languages first considered by Kripke, yet each of our L _{M, T} -type languages possesses the additional advantage that, within it, the meaninglessness of any given meaningless expression can itself be meaningfully expressed. One therefore has, for example, the object level truth (and meaningfulness) of the claim that the strengthened Liar is meaningless.     

On asymmetries in cross-modal spatial attention orienting

In a previous study, Ward (1994) reported that spatially uninformative visual cues orient auditory attention but that spatially uninformative auditory cues fail to orient visual attention. This cross-modal asymmetry is consistent with other intersensory perceptual phenomena that are dominated by the visual modality (e.g., ventriloquism). However, Spence and Driver (1997) found exactly the opposite asymmetry under different experimental conditions and with a different task. In spite of the several differences between the two studies, Spence and Driver (see also Driver & Spence, 1998) argued that Ward's findings might have arisen from response-priming effects, and that the cross-modal asymmetry they themselves reported, in which auditory cues affect responses to visual targets but not vice versa, is in fact the correct result. The present study investigated cross-modal interactions in stimulus-driven spatial attention orienting under Ward's complex cue environment conditions using an experimental procedure that eliminates response-priming artifacts. The results demonstrate that the cross-modal asymmetry reported by Ward (1994) does occur when the cue environment is complex. We argue that strategic effects in cross-modal stimulus-driven orienting of attention are responsible for the opposite asymmetries found by Ward and by Spence and Driver (1997).     

The Development and Process Evaluation of PEER: A Camp-based Programme for Adolescents Impacted by Cancer

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Adolescents impacted by their own or a relative’s cancer diagnosis experience significant psychosocial needs. Residential programmes provide...     

Evaluation of the Self-Report Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits in a Sample of Urban Middle School Students: a Multidimensional Rasch Analysis

Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment - Callous-Unemotional (CU) traits are characterized by limited empathy, lack of guilt, and callous use of others. The Inventory of Callous...     

The Use of Prospective Versus Retrospective Pretests with Child-Welfare Involved Families

The purpose of the current study is to examine the use of both a prospective and a retrospective pretest in evaluating the impact of the Strengthening Families Program on foster care involved families affected by parental substance abuse. Debate has existed in the literature for over 60 years regarding the use of retrospective pretests in assessing self-reported program impact, with key stakeholders often arguing strongly that, due to response-shift bias, sensitization, and the nature of many human service settings, retrospective pretesting may be more appropriate. However, program evaluators must also incorporate into the evaluation design funding mandates to collect data at specific points in time. In order to mitigate potential pretest-only biases and enhance the evaluation’s rigor, this study sought to address the pretest debate through the use of both a traditional, prospective pretest and a retrospective pretest. Using data provided by 411 caregivers, program effectiveness was measured in the areas of family, child and parent functioning. Statistical significance tests and effect sizes were analyzed to compare traditional prospective pretest to posttest scores and retrospective pretests to posttest scores. Findings indicate that overall, the Strengthening Families Program positively impacted family, child and parent functioning and that there were few differences between testing approaches when testing for statistical significance; however, relative differences between prospective pretests and retrospective pretests appeared more prominent in effect size computations. This research informs the longstanding debate, and suggests that program evaluators consider the advantages and disadvantages of using a retrospective pretest in design planning.