Preparing for vocational choice

Adolescents are often overwhelmed and disillusioned by the monumental and momentous task and risk of making a career choice. Adults in general and counselors in particular can assist them not only in being more realistic about their career expectations, but can be especially helpful by encouraging them to develop personal attributes and skills.     

Persistent repetition priming in picture naming and its dissociation from recognition memory

The current experiments investigated the longevity of repetition priming and dissociations between different memory measures. Picture-naming latencies revealed robust repetition priming in four separate studies: Previously named pictures were named faster than new pictures. The magnitude of this naming facilitation was stable across 1 to 6 weeks. The apparent temporal invulnerability of repetition priming was in marked contrast to the decline in episodic recognition memory across 6 weeks, suggesting a dissociation between implicit and explicit memory. Additional evidence of this dissociation was observed within each session: Naming facilitation for repeated pictures occurred regardless of whether those particular pictures were consciously recognized.     

Understanding identity disruption and intimacy: One aspect of post-traumatic stress

This paper details the change taking place in the mental processes of trauma victims and the subsequent disruption of identity and intimacy. For those who experience a traumatic incident concepts of self and world views may be broken. The psychic numbing and disruption of the symbolic processes attendant to traumatic events may interfere with recovery. Lacking a strong sense of self and feeling blameful for what they have experienced, trauma victims may become unable to sustain intimate relationships and romantic dyads. They may become isolated and withdrawn, fearing the closeness of others. Psychic numbing blocks emotions and impedes interpersonal relations and intimacy. At the same time, symbolic processes become impaired and identity is marked by separation, disintegration, and stasis.His major area of interest is the intersection of traumatic stress and the family.     

Relationship of femininity,masculinity, and gender to attribution of responsibility

Brickman, Rabinowitz, Karuza, Coates, Cohn, and Kidder (Models of Helping and Coping, American Psychologist, 1982, 37, 368–384) have proposed four attributional models defined by two dimensions: responsibility for causes of problems and for solutions to problems. The relationship of femininity masculinity, and gender to the attributtional models was explored in a sample of 205 subjects. Femininity and masculinity were measured with the Interpersonal Disposition Inventory (IDI) and the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ). Subjects also responded to two measures of the attributional models. Findings included a significant association between femininity and low internal attribution of responsibility for problem solving. Results are discussed in terms of sex role and gender differences in help seeking.This paper is based in part on a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Ph.D. degree at the University of Kentucky.I would like to thank Juris I. Berzins, Michael T. Nietzel, Jesse G. Harris, Jr., Caryl Rusbult, and Robert Straus for their assistance with the dissertation research; and Larry Panciera and Evelyn Crumpton for their comments on an earlier draft of the paper.     

Individuality and hubris in mythology: The struggle to be human

Mankind's social and psychological evolution require changing attitudes and behavior to maintain a harmony with the world, society, and his own self. Loss of immediacy with the world, power over it, and the increasing capacity for individuality pose special problems for the accomplishment of such harmony. How this is recognized, understood, and dealt with is a task undertaken through psychoanalysis, myth, philosophy, and literature. Various examples are given to show that the constancy of the basic truths about the nature of being human leads to a resonance among the diverse approaches and across the span of millennia and cultures.     

Accuracy versus speed in the generalized effort of learning-disabled children

Reinforcement of effortful performance in a given academic task has been found to increase the subsequent performance of other academic tasks. The learned-effort hypothesis assumes that individuals learn which dimensions of task performance are correlated with reinforcement of high effort, and generalize across tasks. Therefore, reinforcement of increased effort in a given dimension of one task should result in greater generalized effort in the same dimension of transfer performance than in another dimension. In accord with this view, preadolescent learning-disabled students who received points for high reading accuracy subsequently produced more accurate drawings and stories than did students whose points had been based upon high reading speed or upon mere completion of the reading task. Students who received points for high reading speed subsequently constructed stories more quickly than did children whose points had been based upon high reading accuracy or upon reading-task completion. Consistent with the more explicit and frequent feedback for accuracy than for speed in most academic tasks, generalized accuracy was much more durable than generalized speed.