DO EXPLANATORY DESIRE ATTRIBUTIONS GENERATE OPAQUE CONTEXTS?

Many philosophers assert that psychological verbs generate opaque contexts and that the object of a psychological verb cannot be replaced with a co-referring expression salva veritate as the objects of non-psychological verbs can be. I argue that the logical and linguistic concerns which govern this assertion do not transfer to observational and experimental situations because the criteria that we use in order to verify that an observed subject has one hypothesized desire rather than another provide inconclusive evidence when we don't allow for all regular substitutions in psychological contexts. This becomes more obvious when we contextualize intentional behavior within the appropriate framework by recognizing that, in order to make sense of any desire attribution, we must understand the subject experiencing the desire to be pursuing each desired situation as a means to a further overarching goal. I conclude that the object of desire should always be read de re.     

Psychological disturbance in children with physical disabilities: Continuity and change in a 5-year follow-up

This study measures continuity in behavioral disturbance over a 5-year period among 255 children with physical disabilities who were 6 to 18 years old at first assessment. The pattern of the results differed from that reported previously for a sample of the general population of children. Disabled children showed little stability in aggression, an area in which stability over time had been consistently reported for the general child population. Furthermore, important differences were observed between children with cystic fibrosis and children with cerebral palsy, myelodysplasia, or multiple physical handicaps, all conditions involving brain abnormality. Children with cystic fibrosis followed the trend toward better adjustment seen among the general population of children. In contrast, among children with conditions involving the brain, the majority of those who had been classified as psychologically severely impaired remained at this level of impairment 5 years later. In two behavioral domains, Mentation Problems and Isolation, children with conditions involving the brain maintained, on the average, the same markedly high score they had initially. Among children with physical conditions involving the brain, Mentation Problems and Isolation signify persistent problems that do not subside as the children mature.This study was supported by NIH grant No. HD-16821, by Research Scientist Development Award No. MH-00380 from NIMH, and by grants from the Cleveland Foundation and the Charles S. Mott Foundation.     

The psychological study of chronically ill and disabled children: Are healthy siblings appropriate controls?

This study examined the appropriateness of siblings as controls in the psychological assessment of children with chronic illness or disability. Findings from 304 cases and 360 randomly selected controls were compared to findings from a subset of 206 case-sibling pairs. Cases were children 6 to 18 years of age with cystic fibrosis, cerebral palsy, myelodysplasia, and multiple handicaps, selected from specialty clinics in two teaching hospitals in the Cleveland area. Results from both data sets were in agreement on major findings indicating that children with cystic fibrosis are not at increased risk for psychopathology, whereas children in the remaining three diagnostic groups show a substantial excess in Mentation Problems and Isolation. The comparisons with matched siblings underestimated pathology in the disabled children in Regressive-Anxiety and aggressive behavior.     

Siblings of disabled children: Birth order and age-spacing effects

Whereas older siblings of children with congenital disability have lived their earliest years in a normal family environment, younger siblings, especially those in a close age-spacing relationship, were born into families marked by the presence of a disabled child. In this paper, 237 siblings of disabled children are compared to 248 siblings from a random sample of families to examine whether the early family environment of siblings of disabled children, as indexed by relative birth order and age-spacing, has a unique influence on psychological functioning. The findings partially confirmed the expected relationships: Younger male siblings, specifically those in close age-spacing relationship to the disabled child, scored higher on psychological impairment than older male siblings. Among female siblings, a similar influence was not in evidence: Younger female siblings were psychologically better off than older female siblings and their age-spacing was not significantly related to psychological functioning. However, the results suggest that siblings' later response to early life experience may be sex-contingent, with males demonstrating interpersonal aggression and females experiencing depressive-anxious feelings.This study was supported by grants from the Cleveland Foundation and the C. S. Mott Foundation. The helpful comments of Joanne C. Gersten are gratefully acknowledged.     

The relationships among sex-role orientation,cognitive complexity,and tolerance for ambiguity

Two hundred and four female and eighty-seven male college students completed the Schroder and Streufert measure of cognitive complexity, Budner's Intolerance for Ambiguity Scale, and Bem's Sex Role Inventory (BSRI). It was hypothesized that subjects classified as androgynous and as cross-sexed would be more cognitively complex and more tolerant of ambiguity than sex-typed or undifferentiated subjects; and cognitive complexity and intolerance for ambiguity would be negatively correlated. The data indicated that male and female androgynous and cross-sexed subjects were more tolerant of ambiguity than sex-typed subjects and cognitively more complex than undifferentiated subjects. Cross-sexed subjects were more cognitively complex than sex-typed subjects. Cognitive complexity and intolerance for ambiguity were negatively correlated. The BSRI had differential power to predict cognitive complexity depending upon sex of subject.Part of this research was presented at the Forty-Ninth Annual Convention of the Eastern Psychological Association, Washington, D.C., April 1978.Both authors are senior authors; each contributed equally to this work.     

Father identification,achievement, and occupational behavior of rural youth: 10-year follow-up

Males from rural economically deprived school districts, who had previously been surveyed as high school seniors, again 1 year after graduation, and again 5 years after graduation, were surveyed a fourth and final time 10 years after high school graduation concerning their occupational status and aspirations, their marital status, their spouses' educational and occupational achievements, the importance of life roles, and their occupational and personal satisfactions. In the original study the participants had been divided into two groups, low-identification males (LIM) and high-identification males (HIM) based on independent evaluators' judgments of the adequacy of their fathers as identification models. Each group's responses to the survey were compared. The results indicate that there were no statistically significant differences between the two groups on the variables of optimism about the future, spouses' occupational achievements, role importance, occupational satisfaction, and personal satisfaction. There were statistically significant differences on the variables of occupational status, occupational aspirations, educational achievements, educational plans, marital status, and spouses' educational achievements. The results are discussed in the context of the three previous surveys. Over the 10-year period the occupational and educational achievements and aspirations have been significantly higher for the HIM group than for the LIM group. Equally consistent is the finding that over the 10-year period there has been no differences between the two groups in satisfaction with status.     

Perspectives on achieving via interpersonal competition between college men and college women

The beliefs of college students about (a) choices they would make when presented with opportunities to achieve by competing with persons of the other gender and (b) the consequences of such achievement choices were assessed. Drawn from a population of predominantly upper middle-class students, with a minority enrollment of 14.7%, 83 men and 84 women were presented with vignettes which depicted (a) either a challenge for a first violin in an orchestra or a Ping-Pong match at a party and (b) events related to the opportunity to become class valedictorian. Multivariate analytic techniques were employed, and overall the results indicated that men seemed less willing than women to compete against the other gender, and women seemed to view the consequences about such competition as more positive than men. In the violin and Ping-Pong vignettes, men indicated that they, more than women, would be criticized for playing to win and that, if a woman played to win, her male opponent would feel more ridiculed than respected. In the valedictorian vignette, women indicated that men who decided to compete would feel more pleasure than guilt, whereas women who decided to compete would feel more guilt than pleasure. The results are discussed in terms of conceptualizing achievement choices as more situational than static or gender linked.The authors wish to thank David A. Cole, University of Notre Dame, for statistical advice, Chau T. Wong, University of Notre Dame, for assistance in data analysis, Kathleen L. Davis, University of Tennessee, and Michael J. Patton, University of Missouri, for reading and commenting on early versions of this paper and undergraduates from the University of Notre Dame for working on this project.     

Reference groups and professional self-image: The case of architects

The two objectives of this study are: (1) to investigate empirically the relationships between reference groups and the individual's self-image, as part of understanding the process of self-image development; and (2) to increase our understanding of architects' professional identity dilemma of whether to identify themselves as artists or as engineers. The study demonstrated that reference groups which were not membership groups, and even not dominant references, were significantly associated with self-image. Focusing on architectural students, it showed that although reference to artists was not dominant for most of the subjects (i.e., they did not select artists as one of the two most important groups of evaluators of one's professional work), a significant difference was found between the self-image of students who referred to artists and those who did not. The image of the former was closer to that of the artist, while the latter was closer to that of the engineer.     

Research on psychotherapy with children and adolescents: An overview of evolving trends and current issues

We present a broad overview of research on psychotherapy with children and adolescents, with a focus on dimensions along which progress has been made over the past 35 years. Research in this area has been increasingly characterized by the utilization of a greater variety of and more focused and better specified interventions, with increasingly homogenous samples of clients or patients, using methodologically more stringent approaches. The general consensus in the field is that psychotherapy is effective with younger age groups, as compared to no treatment. However, such a conclusion has to be qualified because of the dearth of studies on clinically referred youths, traditional therapies, and modes of treatment other than individual therapy. Several other issues also require further attention in research, including the need for more comprehensive or novel conceptualizations of juvenile-onset psychopathology to inform treatment efforts. Consideration also should be given to having parents more consistently involved in their children's therapy, integrating the developmental literature and the design of new interventions, and developing and testing therapies for youths with special needs.A previous version of this article was delivered at the workshop Psychosocial Treatment Research of Child and Adolescent Disorders, NIMH, Rockville, Maryland, October 19–20, 1992.Preparation of this article was supported in part by grant MH33990 from the National Institute of Mental Health, HHS.