Perceived social support, self-efficacy, and adjustment to abortion

Prior to their having a 1st trimester abortion, women's perceptions of social support from their partner, family, and friends and self-efficacy for coping were assessed. Depression, mood, physical complaints, and anticipation of negative consequences were measured after the 30-min recovery period. As predicted, perceived social support enhanced adjustment indirectly through its effects on self-efficacy. Women who perceived high support from their family, friends, and partners had higher self-efficacy for coping. Higher self-efficacy, in turn, predicted better adjustment on the psychological measures but not on the physical complaint measure. No direct path between social support and adjustment was observed. In addition, women who told close others of their abortion but perceived them as less than completely supportive had poorer postabortion psychological adjustment than either women who did not tell or women who told and perceived complete support.     

Gendered norms for family size, employment, and occupation: Are there personal costs for violating them?

The present study investigated gendered stereotypes involving women’s family size, employment, and occupation. Eleven ratings of targets’ social and personality characteristics were ascribed by 400 undergraduates to a hypothetical married woman described as voluntarily childfree or the mother of one, two, or eight children, and as nonemployed or employed either part or full time in either a gender-appropriate or gender-inappropriate occupation. Women employed in gender-atypical occupations were considered less expressive and were socially distanced, but this factor did not interact with family size. Two-children mothers were regarded favorably as was employment. Prior findings denigrating single-child mothers and glorifying eight-children mothers were not replicated—both groups were rated similar to normative, two-children mothers. Consistent with prior research, childfree women were evaluated least favorably. Findings suggest that norms regarding both family size (two children) and employment exist among contemporary college students. The authors thank Pauline Beres for her help with data collection and entry. This paper was presented at the meeting of the American Psychological Association in New York in 1995.     

Sex,wage-earner status,occupational level,and job satisfaction

This study attempted to investigate the relationship between wage-earner status, occupational level, and job satisfaction. It was proposed that wage-earner status was a more important determinant of job satisfaction than sex. However, the findings of this study suggested that sex was a more important determinant of job satisfaction than wage-earner status, and occupational level was a better predictor of job satisfaction than either sex or wage-earner status.     

Some relationships between adaptation and electromyographic activity at laryngeal and masseter sites in stutterers

Cumulative integrated electromyographic (EMG) activity was recorded from laryngeal and masseter sites from ten stutterers during a five trial oral adaptation sequence. Results showed more activity at the laryngeal site than the masseter site. While significant reductions in EMG activity were not found, patterns were shown to be related to the subjects' dysfluency patterns over trials. Results were interpreted as suggesting that reduced muscle activity and adaptation (when they occur) are artifacts of other behavioral modifications resulting from overt motor practice.     

Testing the reinforcing properties of S-: a replication of Lieberman''s procedure

A critical issue in testing theories of observing is whether the stimulus associated with extinction (the S-) reinforces observing responses. In previous experiments, subjects have been trained to make observing responses that produce both the S- and the stimulus correlated with reinforcement (the S+). Then, either the S+ or the S- has been withheld. Conflicting results have been attributed to differences among species. In the present experiments, pecking one key by master pigeons was reinforced with grain on a variable-ratio extinction schedule. Yoked pigeons received the grain on a variable-interval, extinction schedule controlled by the variable-ratio performances of the master birds. For both groups, concurrent pecking on a second key was reinforced on a variable-interval schedule with displays of discriminative stimuli. Subsequently, either the S+ or the S- was eliminated from the procedure. Omission of S+ produced a large decrease, as predicted by traditional conditioned reinforcement accounts of observing. By itself, S- did not maintain observing. A smaller and less reliable decrease, comparable to that obtained by Lieberman (1972) with rhesus monkeys, occurred when S- was eliminated. This replication with pigeons of Lieberman's results indicates that they are not species-specific, and the fact that observing was not maintained by S- alone suggests that the decrease obtained when S- was omitted is not attributable to the reinforcing power of S-.     

ACQUISITION AND GENERALIZATION OF COMPLIANCE WITH COMPLEX FIVE-COMPONENT INSTRUCTIONS1

A 7-yr-old bilingual boy of normal intelligence, judged by his school to be deficient in carrying out complex requests, was trained to comply with five-component instructions, e.g., “Give me/the chip/behind/the block/on blue”. Three interchangeable words or phrases were used for each component. Training proceeded in stages. First, the child was trained to identify all individual objects and actions; then to carry out requests involving only the first component, then the first two, then three, etc. On every trial, the visual setting permitted every possible response in the set. A test for generalization to nonreinforced instructions was given at each stage by giving no feedback for all instructions that included one preselected phrase. The phrase selected at each stage was one of the three that was introduced at that stage. As a further test for generalization, nonreinforced instructions were also given that included one additional component: the next to be trained (Probes Ahead). As a test for generalization across settings and instructions, several five-component instructions were presented each session in an unused classroom. These instructions used phrases, most of which were different from those being trained, and which referred to familiar classroom objects. Results showed: acquisition occurred for each stage of training, including the full five-component instruction; almost complete generalization of responding occurred to the subset of nonreinforced instructions; little or no generalization occurred to the Probes Ahead, where an additional untrained component was included; and little or no generalization was seen to the five-component classroom instructions, until training began on the five-component instructions in the training sessions. Performance was also examined for each component. Results showed that when a new component was introduced, correct performance to previously trained components declined, and was little if any superior to performance on the new component. In summary, transfer was found to untrained sentences of the same form as those being trained, even in another setting, where most of the components were different; but poor transfer was found to more complex sentences, and performance declined for previously trained components during training of a more complex sentence. Some features of the training procedure that may have affected the degree and form of transfer were discussed: the necessity for prior training in an appropriate response to the component phrases, the importance of intermixing of reinforced and nonreinforced trials, and the effects of the abruptness with which more complex sentence forms were introduced.     

Laboratory control of toe-sucking in a young rhesus monkey by two kinds of punishment

Both response-contingent withdrawal of a visual reinforcement and response-contingent presentation of an aversive stimulus (loud noise) were found to be effective in suppressing toe-sucking in a young rhesus monkey.     

Effects of Contact on Children's Attitudes Toward Disability: A Longitudinal Study1

A quasi-experimental study was conducted on temporal effects of intergroup contact on nondisabled (ND) children's attitudes toward disability. Children from a mainstream primary school were involved in an integration program with children from a school for children with severe learning disabilities (SLD). ³ 3 Severe learning disabilities (SLD) is the term currently used in the U.K. to describe people who might formally have been described as having “severe mental handicap” or “severe retardation.” This term is interchangeable with “severe learning disabilities.”
Measures were administered 3 times over a period of 3 months to 26 integrating (experimental) and 24 nonintegrating (control) children. Social orientations in the experimental group became significantly more positive over time, while the control group showed little change. The experimental and control children initially categorized on the basis of gender and disability; subsequently the strategies of the experimental children were more idiosyncratic while the control children still used the same two dimensions.     

An ecological assessment of community-based interventions for prevention and health promotion: Approaches to measuring community coalitions

Presented an ecological assessment of a community coalition to prevent alcohol, tobacco, and other drug abuse, and related risks. Ecological assessment is defined as occurring at multiple social levels and along a continuum of stages of coalition readiness. The assessment is aided by the triangulation, or combining of assessment methods and strategies. Measures used to assess the coalition's formation, implementation of community initiatives, and production of community impacts are described, along with the triangulation strategies used to enhance the assessment findings. We thank our evaluation team members including Erica Adams, Simon Choi, Cindy Crusto, Katie Davino, David delaCruz, Pamela Goodman, Maury Nation, and Diana Seybolt. We also thank the members of the community coalitions for substance abuse prevention and especially the project directors: James Bown, Dian Crain, Johneta Davis, Kelli Kenninson, Paul Pittman, Greg Sparkman, Sheryl Taylor, and Kenneth Wright.     

The effects of guided imagery on the generation of career alternatives

The effects of two 20-min guided imagery sessions on the number of career alternatives generated by 30 undergraduates enrolled in a career-planning course are investigated. Three independent measures of decision-making style (Rational, Dependent, and Intuitive Scales) are used as covariates. Imagery treatment subjects generate a significantly greater number of career alternatives than the discussion control group. There are no differential effects of the treatment due to varying values of the covariates. The scores on the Rational Decision-Making Style Scale are significantly correlated with the number of career alternatives generated. No significant correlations are found between Intuitive or Dependent Style Scales scores and number of alternatives generated. This study supports the hypothesis that imagery techniques may be helpful in counseling because they promote divergent thinking which enhances problem-solving ability. Some aspects of imagery training which appear to be useful include the encouragement of autonomy, control, and active involvement. Limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are noted.