Do the sources of the urban elderly's social support determine its psychological consequences?

This article examines whether the psychological impact of different kinds of social supports varies according to who provides them. Data on 82 older adults' social relationships, measured as social provisions (Weiss, 1974), were used to evaluate whether the relationship between social provisions and emotional well-being varied when kin and, alternatively, nonkin, made the provisions. Findings showed that, although most social provisions were valuable regardless of their source, reassurance of worth was distinctly more beneficial when provided by nonkin than by kin, and reliable alliance, or instrumental assistance, was more strongly related to well-being when provided by kin than by nonkin. Analysis of social network structure showed that "multiplexity" was negatively related to well-being, and having duplicate providers for a given social provision was uniquely important in offsetting negative affect.     

Asymptotic clarifications,generalizations, and concerns regarding an extended class of matched pairs tests based on powers of ranks

Recent studies pertaining to an extended class of matched pairs tests based on powers of ranks are discussed. Previous questions regarding the asymptotic properties for this class of tests are clarified and a generalization of this class is described. This generalization raises a previously unanticipated concern about whether or not the analytic comparisons resulting from these tests correspond with an intuitive notion of what is being compared.     

Euthanasia,the terminal patient,and the physician's role

A random sample of Cleveland clergy was asked to assess 1) the terminal patient's views on death, 2) the desires of some terminally ill patients to find an easy and dignified death, and 3) the role the physician ought to play in treating terminal patients. Protestant clergy more than their Catholic counterparts are substantially in favor of 1) disclosure of terminal illness, 2) allowing an easy death for the terminal patient at his request, and 3) facilitating the role of the physicians in cases of terminal illness. Fundamentalist Protestants are less approving than liberal Protestants. Clerics who saw their role extend beyond man's spiritual need approve of the physician's disclosure of terminal illness and his cooperation with patients who request with-holding or terminating medical treatment.This work was supported by the office of Research Development at Bowling Green State University and the College of Arts and Sciences.     

Primary prevention of acculturative stress among refugees. Application of psychological theory and practice

Primary prevention in refugee mental health requires information from clinical, health, and cross-cultural psychology. Primary prevention's roots are in public health, which is distinguished by a communitywide perspective for addressing mental health concerns. This article summarizes research suggesting that refugees are an at-risk population, making them especially suitable for public health interventions. Research on stress and acculturation is highlighted, given its importance to prevention in refugee mental health. The opportunities for primary prevention programs and policies at 3 levels (i.e., local community, national, and international) are illustrated with case examples from both the United States and Canada. Prevention at the international level is highlighted by a World Health Organization Mental Health Mission to camps on the Thai-Cambodian border.     

Validation of a pictorial recall test in three visual formats.

This study describes the validation of a visual recall test which was constructed using three different levels of visual complexity, line drawing, monochrome photographic, and color photographic. For a sample of 111 college students, the test was significantly correlated (.42 and .92) with two recognized tests of visual memory.     

Implicit and explicit knowledge bases in artificial grammar learning.

Two experiments examined the claim for distinct implicit and explicit learning modes in the artificial grammar-learning task (Reber, 1967, 1989). Subjects initially attempted to memorize strings of letters generated by a finite-state grammar and then classified new grammatical and nongrammatical strings. Experiment 1 showed that subjects' assessment of isolated parts of strings was sufficient to account for their classification performance but that the rules elicited in free report were not sufficient. Experiment 2 showed that performing a concurrent random number generation task under different priorities interfered with free report and classification performance equally. Furthermore, giving different groups of subjects incidental or intentional learning instructions did not affect classification or free report.     

Auditory versus audio-visual intelligibility measurements of alaryngeal speech: a preliminary report.

This investigation supports the notion that audio-visual presentations of esophageal speech to 32 university student judges yield a relative increase in rated intelligibility in contrast with esophageal speech presented auditorily. Implications suggest that to construct realistic therapeutic goals of an esophageal speaker more effectively, the audio-visual component should be included in the clinical assessment.     

Empirical bayes point estimates of latent trait scores without knowledge of the trait distribution

In this paper, recent developments in empirical Bayes procedures are tied in with current work in mental test theory. Point estimators of true scores are derived for the binomial and Rasch test models. These estimators are shown to be asymptotically optimal. Smoothing and an empirical study of the behavior of empirical Bayes estimates are taken up in the final section.This research was supported by the National Science Foundation, Division of Biological and Medical Sciences, Program in Psycho-Biology, Grant No. NSF GB-30779.     

An extended class of matched pairs tests based on powers of ranks

A large class of rank tests, which includes the familiar sign test and the Wilcoxon signed-ranks test, is described and discussed. This class of distribution-free tests provides a flexible basis for testing research hypotheses of various forms. Exact small sample and approximate large sample procedures are considered. Applications of these procedures are presented, including simple numerical examples.The authors wish to acknowledge the constructive comments by the reviewers.