Stress and family support as predictors of distress and rejection in people who care for a relative with schizophrenia

Relatives (N=121) of adult schizophrenia patients were interviewed to investigate predictors of their level of psychological distress and of rejecting attitudes toward the sufferer. The relatives' total stress, particularly that associated with poor communication skills in the sufferer, predicted several measures of their psychological distress, and the same variables plus turbulence of sufferer behavior (i.e., violence and disruptiveness) predicted rejection of the sufferer by the relative. In each case, adequacy of family support moderated the influence of the stressors, although this effect was more marked for distress outcomes than for rejection. The results have important implications for the sorts of professional and peer support which relatives may need to encourage their performance of this potentially burdensome role. In addition, the results fit a classic stress management model and provide a feasible alternative to the Expressed Emotion Model of the relationship between relatives' rejection and patients' illness severity.     

Frequency ratios and the discrimination of pure tone sequences

We examined the effect of frequency ratios on the discrimination of patterns of alternating pure tones (ABABA). Listeners heard a repeating pattern presented in transposition (same frequency ratios between successive tones, different absolute frequencies) and were required to indicate when the pattern changed (different frequency ratios and absolute frequencies). Changes from patterns with simple frequency ratios to those with more complex ratios were more readily detected than were changes from complex ratios to simpler ratios.     

Social-Cognitive and Behavioral Correlates of Aggression and Victimization in Boys' Play Groups

A contrived play group procedure was utilized to examine the behavioral and social-cognitive correlates of reactive aggression, proactive aggression, and victimization via peers. Eleven play groups, each of which consisted of six familiar African-American 8-year-old boys, met for 45-min sessions on five consecutive days. Social-cognitive interviews were conducted following the second and fourth sessions. Play group interactions were videotaped and examined by trained observers. High rates of proactive aggression were associated with positive outcome expectancies for aggression/assertion, frequent displays of assertive social behavior, and low rates of submissive behavior. Reactive aggression was associated with hostile attributional tendencies and frequent victimization by peers. Victimization was associated with submissive behavior, hostile attributional bias, reactive aggression, and negative outcome expectations for aggression/assertion. These results demonstrate that there is a theoretically coherent and empirically distinct set of correlates associated with each of the examined aggression subtypes, and with victimization by peers.     

An Evaluation of the Health Belief Model for Predicting Perceived and Actual Dietary Quality1

The health belief model was evaluated for its ability to predict perceived and actual dietary quality. The assessment relied upon data collected from 1,502 respondents by the US. Department of Agriculture in its 1991 Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals and the Diet and Health Knowledge Survey. The health belief model provided good prediction of perceived dietary quality, but provided moderate to weak prediction of 7 measures of actual dietary quality that were calculated from food intake records. Implications are suggested for using the health belief model to understand the determinants of dietary quality.     

Further tests of a meta-model of youthful marijuana use

This paper tests a meta-model of youthful marijuana use on students in Grades 11, 12 and 13. Although the specific models for each grade varied in detail, all followed a meta-model making the following assumptions: (1) that use or nonuse of marijuana depends primarily on attitude towards use; (2) that attitude largely reflects the perceived functional and dysfunctional consequences of use; and (3) that what people perceive as functional or dysfunctional depends on relevant personality characteristics. All three models showed satisfactory goodness-of-fit in terms of nonsignificant overidentification tests (minimum P > 0.25) and small discrepancies between observed correlations and the corresponding theoretically implied correlations. A notable feature of the Grade 13 data in contrast to those for Grade 12 and previously reported findings was the seeming unimportance of the perceived value of marijuana use for gaining acceptance from peers. It was suggested that this might reflect the selective survival into Grade 13 in the sampled community of more independently-oriented students.     

Social attitudes of schizophrenics

The Wilson-Patterson Conservatism Scale was given to 34 schizophrenic and 34 non-schizophrenic patients in a Dutch mental hospital. The absence of liberal-scoring schizophrenics was interpreted as consistent with the theory that the social withdrawal seen in chronic schizophrenia represents a strategy for coping with stimulus overload. Internal consistency analysis of C scale performance indicated that this test might be used to assess thought disorder in much the same way as the Bannister and Fransella Grid Test, but a great deal more economically. Furthermore, the questionnaire permits a more detailed examination of the source of inconsistency than does the repertory grid method.     

When not to choose: A case study

Life situations often seem to require dualistic, either or decision making, but this common method does not always clarify moral decisions. To show this, standard arguments on why to choose or not to choose the sex or ones child are presented. Then, our feminist thinking, which regards clusters of values, and which reframes questions rather than choosing between desirable alternatives, suggests another possibility, in a gynandrous world vision.     

Sex-role behaviors and personality traits of male day care teachers

It was hypothesized that male day care teachers who had adopted the feminine role of caregiver would score feminine in their personality traits and would reinforce children for feminine behaviors and punish them for masculine behaviors. A random sample of 20 male caregivers was contrasted to 20 male engineers on personality traits as assessed by The Adjective Checklist (ACL). Twenty female caregivers were also contrasted to the personality traits and the sex-typed contingency behaviors of the male caregivers. Feminine traits were defined by raw scores on the Abasement, Nurturance, Affiliation, Succorance, and Deference scales of the ACL. Masculine traits were represented by raw scores on the Achievement, Dominance, Endurance, and Autonomy scales. The Fagot-Patterson Checklist was employed to determine sex-typed contingency behaviors. Both male and female caregivers reinforced children significantly more for feminine behaviors than masculine behaviors (as defined by The Fagot-Patterson Checklist) and punished masculine behaviors more than feminine behaviors. The personalities of the male caregivers corresponded to the feminine direction of their female counterparts, but they were not significantly more feminine than the male engineers. The female caregivers, however, scored significantly more feminine in personality than the male engineers.This study is based on a dissertation submitted by Bryan E. Robinson to the Department of Child Development — Family Relations, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Ph.D.     

Alcohol breath tests: Criterion times for avoiding contamination by “mouth alcohol”

Using either a gas chromatography or an infrared absorption technique, series of blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) determined by breath tests were obtained from human subjects immediately subsequent to their having only oral contact with beverages ranging in ethyl alcohol concentration from 4% to 95% +. Times for total dissipation of mouth alcohol residuals to a level of practical nonsignificance ranged from 10 to 19 min. Dissipation rates were an inverse and approximately exponential function of the ethyl alcohol concentration of the beverage and were greatly shortened by rinsing the mouth with warm (34°C) water prior to testing. The results are discussed in terms of their relevance to the methodology of a number of research studies employing BAC breath-testing equipment.