Role conflict and perceptions of gender roles (the case of Israel)

The present study focuses on work—family role conflict among Jewish women employed in a female-typed occupation (secondary school teachers) and a male-typed occupation (university professors). The major hypotheses of the study are that women who work in different occupation types employ different strategies to reduce role conflict and that family roles contribute more to role conflict than work roles. The findings support the hypotheses and show that women in a male-typed occupation spend less time on family and domestic roles, and increase their hours of work. Consequently, their burden at home decreases while their burden at work increases. Because the burden at home contributes more to role conflict than the burden at work, women in male-typed occupations report less role conflict than women in a typically female occupation.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics Conference, Paris, 1994. We wish to acknowledge our gratitude to Dafna Izraeli for her insightful critique. We also thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. This research was funded jointly by Schein Institute and The Eshkol Foundation.     

Diagnosis of Mood Disorders

This article provides an overview of mood disorders according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.) criteria and other relevant information. Differential diagnosis is facilitated through discussion of differences and similarities among mental disorders, age and gender-related patterns of mood disorders, and useful diagnostic tools.     

Retention and treatment failure in Classwide Peer Tutoring: Implications for further research

Knowledge of basic arithmetic facts aids in the acquisition and speed of performance of arithmetic operations. A peer mediated instructional procedure, Classwide Peer Tutoring (CWPT), has been shown to increase the rates and accuracy of students responses to academic tasks and to improve student performance on a variety of academic tasks. The present investigation evaluated the retention of 100 subtraction items by primary grade-age children with mild disabilities using CWPT for 10 weeks. Short- and long-term retention of items, and rate of correct responding were assessed. Results indicated that the students' average pretest score was 58.0% correct, and their average weekly posttest score was 87.12 correct, a 27% improvement in accuracy. Short- and longer-term retention measured on posttests was 88.7 % and 85.0% correct, respectively. Improvement in students rate of accurate responding to subtraction items practiced during CWPT was obtained. Student failure to learn particular items was not attributable to fewer opportunities to practice these items, less accurate practice, or item difficulty. Students reported positive evaluation of CWPT and perceived positive social and self esteem outcomes. Directions for future research focusing on retention and analysis of treatment failure are suggested.     

Gender differences in differentiating terms expressing certainty

Women's and men's understanding of the certainty expressed in mental and modal terms was examined. Subjects were asked to decide on the location of a hidden object when the only clue available was coded in the mental or modal term used in two conflicting assertions made by a male and female experimenter, each specifying a different location. Results showed that both women and men discriminated the degree of certainty expressed in 11 of 12 pairs of terms presented. Gender differences existed in the understanding of terms which were close in pragmatic meaning, with females making the distinctions more equivocally than males. The gender of the speaker had no influence on subjects' responses to contrasts which differentiated certainty, but on the contrast in which no preference for a term was found, subjects chose the location indicated by the male experimenter significantly more often. This study highlights a point of difference in pragmatic understanding between women and men and invites explorations of its origin.This research was supported by grant 410-89-0352 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to both authors. We would like to thank Lisa Boudreau, Dana Bryant, Rob Landry, Kiran Pure, and Hal Thompson for help with various aspects of this research.     

Progamming time in serial tapping responses as a function of pathway constraint

Summary This study varied the accuracy demand within a linear series of targets to investigate the effect of movement-pathway constraints on response-programming time. Sidaway, Christina, and Shea (1988) have suggested that constraints placed upon movement initiation by the demand for response precision may play an important role in determining the length of the programming process. By varying the subtended angles of a series of three targets, this experiment tested the specific prediction of Sidaway et al. that programming time may be a function of the target, within a line of targets, that subtends the smallest angle at the start position. It is this target that demands the greatest precision in the movement pathway. Subjects participated in a series of conditions in which the size and placement of the target that imposed the maximal constraint was varied. In each condition the subjects were required to strike a series of three targets with a stylus in a simple reaction-time paradigm. Analysis of the reaction-time results revealed a significant effect of size of constraint, but no effect of position of constraint. Analysis of the movementtime data dispelled movement-duration and movement-velocity interpretations of the results and intimated a possible online trajectory-correction process.Portions of these data were first presented at the Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society in Atlanta, Georgia, November 1989.     

The origins and development of empathy

The idea for this special issue ofMotivation and Emotion grew out of a symposium held at the meeting of the American Association for Advancement of Science, held in New Orleans in February 1990.     

Conceptual contributions of Kantor's interbehavioral psychology

Kantor's interbehavioral psychology may be characterized by its conceptual emphases upon (a) naturalism, (b) scientific pluralism, (c) organism-environment interactions, and (d) integrated event fields of continuously interrelated and interrelating factors. Despite differences between Skinnerian and Kantorian classification schemes, the conceptual features of interbehaviorism are compatible with those of Skinner's behaviorism, and taken together the two provide a firm theoretical foundation for an authenticially behavioristic psychology.     

Hemispheric alpha asymmetries during an electromyographic biofeedback procedure for stuttering: A single-subject experimental design

A single-subject “double-reversal” experimental design was used to investigate the use of electromyographic (EMG) biofeedback on the dysfluent behaviors of a right-handed male stutterer. A systematic decrease in EMG amplitude accompanied a progressive approximation of increased verbal complexity resulting in increased fluent behavior. Electroencephalographic (EEG) alpha data (8–12 Hz) gathered during baseline and pre- and post- treatment sessions appeared to co-vary with changes in fluency with right hemispheric suppression associated with greater dysfluencies and left hemispheric alpha suppression with decreased dysfluencies. The results are discussed relative to stutterer's adoption of differing behavioral production strategies for fluent speech that are associated with hemispheric information processing strategies.     

Effects of type of center fixation stimulus on visual-field preferences: a preliminary study

60 normal subjects (30 males and 30 females) viewed bilateral presentations of pairs of CVC or CVVC English words high in imagery. Three types of central fixation stimuli were studied: numbers, letters, and geometric forms. A significant main effect for kind of fixation was found, but not for sex, visual fields, or their interactions. Results are discussed relative to the processing of high imagery words by both the left and right hemispheres.