Adolescent drug use and psychological health. A longitudinal inquiry

The relation between psychological characteristics and drug use was investigated in subjects studied longitudinally, from preschool through age 18. Adolescents who had engaged in some drug experimentation (primarily with marijuana) were the best-adjusted in the sample. Adolescents who used drugs frequently were maladjusted, showing a distinct personality syndrome marked by interpersonal alienation, poor impulse control, and manifest emotional distress. Adolescents who, by age 18, had never experimented with any drug were relatively anxious, emotionally constricted, and lacking in social skills. Psychological differences between frequent drug users, experimenters, and abstainers could be traced to the earliest years of childhood and related to the quality of parenting received. The findings indicate that (a) problem drug use is a symptom, not a cause, of personal and social maladjustment, and (b) the meaning of drug use can be understood only in the context of an individual's personality structure and developmental history. It is suggested that current efforts at drug prevention are misguided to the extent that they focus on symptoms, rather than on the psychological syndrome underlying drug abuse.     

Class,housework, and happiness: Women's work and life satisfaction

Large-sample surveys often fail to find a difference in self-reported satisfaction between housewives and employed women. Several explanations that have been offered for this failure are explored here in greater detail. The suggestion that the ease of housewives' lives is experienced as a benefit compensating for fewer satisfactions in other areas is rejected; greater time pressure is associated with greater satisfaction for housewives. The suggestion that working-class women are happier at home, while middle-class women prefer careers is also not supported; working-class women appear to be less satisfied with their lives and no more satisfied with their work whether the comparison group is working-class women with jobs or middle-class housewives. Social desirability, on the other hand, is found to be a major factor predicting the self-reported happiness of housewives, and the general issue of the role of social expectations in evaluating satisfaction is raised.     

The time required to compare extents in various orientations

In Experiment I, Ss compared the lengths of lines that varied in absolute and relative orientation. Their reaction times showed a constant error pattern of which the familiar horizontal-vertical illusion was a special case, but horizontals were underestimated (relative to other slopes) much more than verticals were overestimate. The effect of difference inorientation was not great, though RT did increase significantly as the difference neared 90 deg. Experiment II was similar except that the lengths of lines were compared withthe widths of bars in a grating. In this case, no consistent pattern of constant error emerged, and there was no suggestion that difference in orientation affected RT.     

The women's movement in the working class

Working-class women's reactions to the women's movement are frequently discussed, but there is little empirical research on the issue. The present study examines the dimensions of support in two planes: the particular issues that engender favorable or unfavorable reactions, and the characteristics of women who are generally supportive or hostile to the movement. Supporters are found to emphasize the movement's contributions to their sense of self-esteem and entitlement; opponents emphasize sexual morality and the social segregation of the sexes. The mildly sympathetic or tolerant, who comprise the majority of the sample, see the relevance of the movement primarily in terms of future generations. In a discriminant function analysis, work experience and personal satisfaction are found to significantly distinguish between these three attitudinal groups.     

New uses for the on-line computer medium in mental health care

A number of research projects related to new uses for computers in mental health service delivery are presented. These projects include work on software psychology, new computer applications in mental health care, and studies relating to the successful implementation of technology in mental health settings. Emphasis is placed on developing a better understanding of appropriate uses of technology rather than merely describing new applications.     

Life stress and maladaptation of children

Social environmental variables differentiating maladapting children from matched controls in four inner-city elementary schools were investigated. Teacher selection was used to identify the maladapting children. Identified maladapting children were more likely to have been on welfare and to have experienced significantly more stressful life events during the previous year than the matched control children. The maladapting group was subdivided into welfare and non-welfare groups. Comparisons between groups on the life stress event measures indicated that the nonwelfare maladapting group experienced more life events than either the nonwelfare controls or the maladapting welfare children. The measures of life events correlated with parent ratings of behavior problems for the nonwelfare maladapting group but not for the welfare maladapting or the control groups.     

Teaching reading and writing skills to a teenaged spastic cerebral palsied person: a long-term case study

After a 2-mo. combined reading and writing training period followed by a 1 1/2-yr. lapse, an initially 16-yr.-old paraplegic cerebral palsied boy received 1 yr. of reading training followed by 2 3/4 yr. of writing training. Reading speed increased from 5 pages/hr. to about 40 pages/hr. Tolerance for protracted reading increased from a maximum of 15 min. to well over 2 hr. Writing progressed from the printing of letters more than 1/2 in. high with a fist grasp of the pen, to cursive writing of letters 1/8 to 1/4 in. high. Writing speed increased to about one-third of the normal rate. Training modes ranged from biofeedback methods employing EMG, electrooculogram, inertia detector, strain gage, contact detector, and amplified-image closed-circuit TV to discussions of attitudes, task orientation, and time scheduling. Intermediate were methods employing intrinsic feedback mechansims. Results demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach, as well as trainability of this spastic boy well beyond childhood. The methods devised provide a base for further application and investigation.