Explanatory style across the life span: evidence for stability over 52 years

Analyzed explanatory style across the life span. 30 Ss whose average age was 72 responded to questions about their current life and provided diaries or letters written in their youth, an average of 52 years earlier. A blind content analysis of explanatory style derived from these 2 sources revealed that explanatory style for negative events was stable throughout adult life (r = .54, p less than .002). In contrast, there appeared to be no stability of explanatory style for positive events between the same 2 time periods. These results suggest that explanatory style for negative events may persist across the life span and may constitute an enduring risk factor for depression, low achievement, and physical illness.     

Relations between anger expression and cardiovascular reactivity: reconciling inconsistent findings through a matching hypothesis

Previous psychophysiological research has demonstrated that both anger expression and anger suppression are related to cardiovascular responses, but in an inconsistent fashion. The present study tested the following hypotheses: (a) that the influence of anger expression style on psychophysiological responses would be limited to Ss exposed to an anger instigation, and (b) that the specific pattern of psychophysiological responses would vary as a function of whether Ss were induced to use their preferred vs. nonpreferred mode of anger expression style in response to the instigation. Seventy-eight male college undergraduates were randomly assigned to work on a task with either an annoying or a pleasant confederate and subsequently to write either a negative or a positive evaluation of the confederate. Blood pressure was measured intermittently and heart rate continuously throughout task performance and a subsequent 15-min rest period. Ss' preferred method of anger expression had been previously assessed by a self-report questionnaire. Systolic blood pressure results generally were consistent with the hypotheses. Implications of the findings for the etiology of cardiovascular diseases are discussed.     

Gender and Sex-Role Influences on Children''s Self-Esteem

This study examined direct and moderating influences of gender and sex-role orientations on children's general self-esteem. Moderating influences of these variables on the prediction of self-esteem were examined with respect to two sets of competence beliefs regarding school achievement: perceived capacities and perceived strategies for doing well in school. One hundred nineteen fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade children were assessed using the Perceived Competence Scale for Children (Harter, 1982), the Multidimensional Measure of Children's Perceptions of Control (Connell, 1985), and the Children's Personal Attributes Questionnaire (Hall & Halberstadt, 1980). Correlational and hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that upper elementary schoolchildren's general self-esteem is (a) marginally related to biological gender, with boys showing a slight advantage; (b) significantly related to masculinity and androgyny; and (c) predicted more strongly by perceived capacities to do schoolwork in girls than in boys, and by perceived (lack of) strategies for academic success in nontraditionally sex-typed children than in traditionally sex-typed children. Of the two nontraditionally sex-typed groups, androgynous children were found to have more positive school competence beliefs than were undifferentiated children.     

DISTRACTION: ITS UTILIZATION AND EFFICACY WITH CHILDREN UNDERGOING DENTAL TREATMENT

We investigated the utilization and efficacy of distraction in reducing the anxious and disruptive behavior of 4 children undergoing dental treatment. During the distraction procedure, the children were shown a poster and told a story about it during dental treatment. They earned a prize if they attended to the poster and story and could correctly answer questions about them following each intervention visit. The children's disruptive behavior was assessed via direct observation, and results were analyzed within a multiple baseline design. The children exhibited high levels of anxious and disruptive behavior across baseline visits, regardless of the length of time in treatment or number of visits. Anxious and disruptive behavior decreased upon introduction of the intervention for all children. This was accompanied by the children meeting the criterion for correct answers on the distraction quiz. However, 2 of the children demonstrated an increase in their anxious and disruptive behavior across intervention visits. Results are discussed in terms of the need to evaluate treatment strategies that promote maintenance as well as initial changes.     

An Exploratory Study of Perceived Career Change and Job Attitudes Among Job Changers

The study examined the effects of job change characteristics on perceived career change and attitudes toward the new job. The job change characteristics examined were content of change, magnitude of change, direction of change, volitionality of job choice, and duration of the unemployment period between the two jobs. The subjects were 222 university educated men and women. It was found that perceived career change was firmly related to job change characteristics reflecting both "internal" and "external" career perspectives. After controlling for the direction of change, the magnitude of change had a negative impact on satisfaction with the new job, while the volitionality of job choice and the duration of unemployment were positively associated with job satisfaction. Contrary to expectation, the volitionality of job choice and the duration of unemployment did not increase the commitment to continue in the new job.     

Response

The Psychologisation of the Church: on Jack Dominian's review of J.G. Sullivan's book 'Journey to Freedom: The Path to Self-Esteem for the Priesthood and Religious Life' (May, pp. 258—9).     

Perceived somatotype and stereotypes of physique among Nigerian schoolchildren

The influence of perceived somatotype on stereotypes of behavior associated with body build was investigated among 160 male and 140 female Nigerian children in secondary school. In both groups, the perception of subjects' own physiques and discrepancy between their perceived and preferred physiques significantly explained the variance in the character trait scores attributed to body types. In general, the subjects attributed positive character traits to their perceived somatotypes and undesirable traits to the physiques with which they were dissatisfied. Thus, the perception of somatotype and discrepancy between perceived and preferred physique could significantly differentiate the character traits attributed to body build among male and female children.     

Identification and adaptation of hue: Parallels in the operation of mechanisms that underlie categorical perception in vision and in audition

Summary Four experiments were conducted to examine processes in identification and selective adaptation of hues in color perception that exactly parallel processes in identification and adaptation of auditory detectors that provide information for phonemic perception. The first experiment demonstrated an effect of adaptation on identification of blue and green when a hue category center was used as the adaptor; this experiment also assessed recovery from adaptation. Adaptation to one hue was found to shift identification to favor the alternative hue, implicating a single detector underlying hue categorization. The second experiment demonstrated similar effects of adaptation between green and yellow. The third experiment compared the magnitudes of shift following adaptation with a category center, a near-boundary hue, and variously graded adaptation series. Adaptation was found to be related to the category representativeness of the adaptor(s). Results of the third experiment also provided support for the view that adaptation, rather than response bias, is responsible for shifts in the position of identification functions following extended stimulus exposure. The fourth experiment explored the neural loci of adaptation by an interocular transfer test. Hue adaptation was found to occur at both central and peripheral loci. In the four main experiments, reaction times to identify hues in unadapted and adapted states were also analyzed and compared. Subsidiary experiments assessed the effects of stimulus luminance on the magnitude of adaptation. General principles of categorical perception and its underlying bases, including the sweep, magnitude, and symmetry of adaptation, are discussed. The principal findings of these studies provide new data on hue perception which strikingly parallel findings in speech perception.     

Satisfaction with intimate exchange: Gender-role differences and the impact of equity,equality, and rewards

The relative effects of equity, equality, and reward level upon assessments of marital satisfaction are investigated. In doing so, the impact of gender-role orientation upon the relationship between the predictor variables and marital satisfaction is specified. The data indicate that reward level is the major variable affecting assessments of satisfaction for both moderns and traditionals. Further, the effect of reward level is more pronounced for those with modern gender-role orientations. Contrary to expectation, the effects of the exchange-related variables, equity and equality, are minimal for both moderns and traditionals. These findings suggest that intimates, regardless of gender-role orientation, tend to avoid the “bookkeeping” involved in global equity and equality comparisons and instead accentuate individual reward levels. It appears, however, that moderns are significantly more demanding than traditionals in their emphasis upon reward levels.