Parental divorce during adolescence and adjustment in early adulthood

The present study examined the impact of parental divorce during adolescence, interparental conflict, and intimacy with parents on young adult adjustment. One hundred sixty-seven undergraduate students (146 females, 21 males) completed a questionnaire regarding their psychosocial adjustment, their present relationships with their parents, the level of interparental conflict experienced during adolescence, and the marital status of their parents during adolescence. High levels of interparental conflict were found to be negatively associated with adjustment and current intimacy with parents. A poor relationship with both parents was negatively associated with several domains of psychosocial adjustment, while high intimacy with at least one parent was positively associated with adjustment. Intimacy with mother and with father were found to be the most important predictors of psychosocial adjustment. This investigation highlights the importance of maintaining a good parent-young adult relationship, particularly in divorced families. The findings indicate that future research should examine multiple family variables when assessing the impact of parental divorce or conflict on young adult adjustment.     

Ego atrophy in substance abuse: addiction from a socio-cultural perspective

The use of intoxicants is indexed in American history adopting a social perspective of the role of alcoholism in traditional American society. Appealing to societal patterns, the elaboration of substance abuse as a disease is explored with a diagnostic focus on intervention as it relates to pathogenesis. Using clinical vignettes, the ego is proposed as the focus of pathology in the addiction process, featuring a regression to the defenses of projection and denial. Following the model proposed in Zinberg's seminal paper on addiction and ego function, various deficits are annotated that typify such regression. The ultimate clinical picture is one of ego atrophy, where basic interests and object relations are usurped by the all-consuming preoccupation with the substance of abuse.     

Abstract and concrete self-evaluative goals

Assuming that people often hold the abstract goal of acquiring accurate feedback but recognize that acquiring favorable feedback can make the self-evaluative process more comfortable, the authors posited that low-level construals (of how action is performed) would elicit greater self-enhancement motivation than would high-level construals (of why action is performed). Individuals chronically using low-level construals had greater interest in downward social comparison (DSC) and less interest in negative feedback (NF; Studies 1 and 3). Decreases in temporal distance (which foster low-level construals) also elicited greater interest in DSC and less interest in NF (Studies 2 and 4). The latter effect was explained by participants' aversion to inconvenience (Study 5) and not by approach-avoidance conflict (Study 6). These results suggest that the level of abstraction at which people construe self-evaluative situations can influence their feedback preferences.     

Daily interpersonal experiences, context, and alcohol consumption: crying in your beer and toasting good times

The authors explored a multidimensional view of drinking, whereby social and solitary drinking represent distinct behaviors associated with positive and negative experiences, respectively. Using daily diary methodology and multilevel analytic strategy, the authors examined, over 30 days, the within-person association of negative and positive experiences and alcohol consumption in different contexts and focused on interpersonal experiences. On days with more negative interpersonal experiences, participants engaged in more solitary drinking (i.e., drinking at home and alone), whereas on days with more positive interpersonal experiences they drank more in social contexts. The authors also demonstrated that individuals high on neuroticism drank more in solitary contexts on days with more negative interpersonal experiences, relative to those with lower neuroticism. These findings lend support to models linking daily drinking motivation and context-dependent drinking behavior.     

Loneliness and social dissatisfaction in Turkish adolescents

The present study is an investigation of the relationships of sociometric status, gender, and academic achievement to loneliness levels of Turkish adolescents. Participants were 370 secondary school students (186 girls and 184 boys). Data on loneliness and social dissatisfaction levels of students were collected with the Turkish version of S. R. Asher and V. A. Wheeler's (1985) Loneliness and Social Dissatisfaction Scale. Sociometric data were gathered by using a rating scale and a positive nomination measure devised by S. R. Asher and K. A. Dodge (1986) in which participants were classified into one of four groups (popular, rejected, neglected, and controversial). The scores obtained from these measures were treated by a method similar to that of J. D. Coie, K. A. Dodge, and H. Coppotelli's (1982) standard score approach. Results revealed that sociometric status was significantly related to loneliness and social dissatisfaction as a function of peer relations. Members of the rejected group reported significantly higher levels of loneliness and social dissatisfaction than did members of the controversial, popular, and neglected groups. The controversial group was also significantly different from the popular group in loneliness level. No significant gender differences were found. Results also revealed a significant negative relationship between achievement scores and loneliness, indicating that as the level of loneliness increased, academic achievement decreased.     

An openness scale for the California Psychological Inventory

We developed a 36-item scale to measure Openness, using items on the California Psychological Inventory (CPI; Gough, 1957, 1987, 1996), Form 434. Items were initially chosen on the basis of content validity. Five samples (N = 2,375) were used to establish reliability, validity, and norms; 4 samples consisted of university undergraduate students, and 1 comprised applicants for nonmanagement call centerjobs. Internal consistency estimates obtained in each sample averaged approximately .75, and test-retest stability, assessed in 1 sample, was estimated at .84. Cross-correlations with related scales, for example, the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised Openness scale (Costa & McCrae, 1992) and other CPI-based scales, provided evidence of construct validity. Statistically significant predictive validities were obtained in 2 call centerjob-incumbent samples, with range-corrected true validities of .20 to .36 for a number of job performance criteria. Construct and predictive validity were found to be higher than for other scales consisting of CPI items designed to measure Openness or a related construct. Finally, norms were prepared for university undergraduate students (n = 1,847) and nonmanagement service-sector job applicants (n = 528).     

Introducing psychology as an academic discipline in France: Théodule Ribot and the Collège de France (1888-1901)

This paper describes the context in which the teaching of psychology as an autonomous discipline was introduced in France, and reproduces the first psychology lecture given in France by Théodule Ribot on 9 April 1888 at The Collège de France. In France, this recognition was delayed because of the negative influence of spiritualist philosophy. It took both the acknowledged status of a man (Ribot) and a minister's decision for this new type of teaching to be accepted in France. After describing the events that took place at the Collège de France and at the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, we reproduce in full Ribot's inaugural lecture at the Collège, an important document for the history of French psychology. We conclude by describing the circumstances in which this teaching came to its end in 1901.     

Attitudes toward parenting strategies, potential for child abuse, and parental satisfaction of ethnically diverse low-income U.S. mothers

Among a sample of 176 low-income mothers from 3 ethnic groups in the United States, the authors investigated ethnic differences in attitudes toward preferred parenting strategies, or styles; ethnic differences in the potential for child abuse; and the relationship between parenting strategies, the potential for child abuse, and parental satisfaction. They distributed the Maternal Reactions to Child's Deviant Behavior subscale (K. M. Rickard, W. Graziano, & R. Forehand, 1984), a shortened version of the Child Abuse Potential Inventory (CAPI; J. S. Milner & R. C. Wimberley, 1979), and a Parental Satisfaction Scale (N. P Medora, S. M. Wilson, & J. Larson, 1996) to the participants. The results indicated no significant ethnic differences in preferred parenting styles. Mothers from all 3 ethnic groups ranked praise and reasoning as the 1st and 2nd preferred parenting strategies. There were no ethnic differences in the perceived potential for child abuse. Parental satisfaction was negatively related to 2 of the CAPI subscales--Loneliness and Problems. The parenting strategy reasoning was positively correlated with parental satisfaction.