Women at Midlife: Spiritual Maturity and Life Satisfaction

This study examined the relationship between spiritual maturity and life satisfaction in a multi-ethnic, religiously diverse sample of women middle aged and older. Spiritual maturity was measured by the spiritual support and spiritual openness subscales of the Revised Spiritual Experience Index. Life-satisfaction was positively related to spiritual support and spiritual openness. European Americans and African Americans did not differ on life-satisfaction, spiritual support, or spiritual openness. Mean splits on the spiritual-support and spiritual-openness scales were used to classify subjects as underdeveloped, dogmatic, transitional, and growth-oriented. Growth-oriented subjects reported greater life-satisfaction than subjects in all other groups. No other group differences were found.     

Pattern of Neuropsychological Deficit at Age Five Years Following Neonatal Unilateral Brain Injury

The pattern of language deficit following left-hemisphere brain injury and visual/spatial deficit following right-hemisphere injury in an adult or older child is well recognized, but has been inconsistently reported following presumed neonatal brain injury. Our prospective study of 24 children at age 5 with documented neonatal unilateral brain injury lends support to the theory of hemisphere specialization at the time of birth. Twelve children who had unilateral left-hemisphere lesion were compared to 12 children with unilateral right-hemisphere lesion of similar timing and severity. Relative visual/spatial deficit following right-hemisphere lesion and receptive language deficit following left-hemisphere lesion were identified. Lateralized measures of grip strength, fine motor speed, and fine motor dexterity were not significantly different between the groups for either hand in this nonhemiparetic study sample. Only one child with a left-hemisphere lesion was left-handed, and only one child (right-lesion) had a hemiparesis.     

MORE ON THE STRUCTURE OF MALE ROLE NORMS

This study assessed the structure of a widely used measure of masculinity ideology, the Male Role Norms Scale (Thompson & Pleck, 1986), using data from four samples of male college students (total N= 656) at two large, public universities (one Midwestern, one Eastern-Central). Exploratory factor analysis suggested a four-factor model best fit the data in the exploratory sample (sample 1; N = 210). The four factors were Status/ Rationality, Antifemininity, Tough Image, and Violent Toughness. A series of confirmatory factor analyses on a validation sample (samples 2, 3, and 4; N = 446), tested four models based on theory (i.e., Brannon, 1976) and previous research (i.e., Thompson & Pleck, 1986). Results from Study 1, our exploratory analysis, indicated that the four-factor model derived from the exploratory sample in Study 1 provided the best fit for the validation sample data of all models tested and also provided a good fit in absolute terms, according to several model-data fit indices. Implications for the assessment of masculinity ideology and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Role of Secondary Stressors in the Parental Death–Child Distress Relation

This study examined the psychological consequences and secondary stressors associated with death of a parent. The sample (N = 116) consisted of 26 youths who had lost a parent to homicide, 45 youths who had lost a parent to natural death, and 45 nonbereaved youths. Youngsters completed face-to-face interviews, while their guardians completed measures assessing the children's functioning. Results based on both child and guardian reports indicated that parental death was associated with an increase in secondary stressors, regardless of the mode of death. Findings based on guardian reports also revealed that parental death was related to increased internalizing distress, and that parental death due to homicide was related to increased externalizing distress. Furthermore, secondary stressors mediated the parental death–child distress relation such that parental death led to an increase in stressors, which in turn led to increased child distress. Implications for secondary and tertiary preventive interventions are discussed.     

Situational and Dispositional Determinants of Managers' Satisfaction

This study examined the main and interactive effects on satisfaction of managers' functional position and disposition, measured by two inversely related indices of work orientation—instrumental, or desiring job security and financial rewards from work, and expressive, or desiring self-actualization and achievement from work (O'Reilly, 1977). Results indicated that both situational and dispositional factors affect satisfaction. Managers in process-oriented functions (e.g., Personnel, Sales) were significantly more satisfied than those in outcome-oriented functions (e.g., Production, Operations). Managers with strong and unambiguous orientations (high expressive/low instrumental or high instrumental/low expressive) were more satisfied than managers with strong, but potentially conflicting orientations (high instrumental/high expressive) or weak orientations (low instrumental/low expressive). There was also a personality-situation interaction, suggesting the feasibility of a congruency model in explaining managers' satisfaction. Theoretical and practical implications for career choices and managerial development are discussed.     

Urban Adolescents' Personality and Learning Styles: Required Knowledge to Develop Effective Interventions in Schools

Researchers identified personality typologies (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator; Myers, 1962) among urban African American high school Juniors and seniors (n = 173). Introverted Sensing Thinking Judging (ISTJ) and the Introverted Sensing Thinking Perceptive (ISTP) were the two most represented typologies. Implications for school counselors, teachers, and teacher and counselor educators are discussed.     

Storage of verbal associations is sufficient to activate the left medial temporal lobe

Neuroimaging studies have shown that memory encoding activates the medial temporal lobe (MTL). Many believe that these activations are related to novelty but it remains unproven which is critical - novelty detection or the rich associative encoding it triggers. We examined MTL activation during verbal associative encoding using functional magnetic resonance imaging. First, associative encoding activated left posterior MTL more than single word encoding even though novelty detection was matched, indicating not only that associative encoding activates the MTL particularly strongly, but also that activation does not require novelty detection. Moreover, it remains to be convincingly shown that novelty detection alone does produce such activation. Second, repetitive associative encoding produced less MTL activation than initial associative encoding, indicating that priming of associative information reduces MTL activation. Third, re-encoding familiar associations in a well-established way had a minimal effect on both memory and MTL activation, indicating that MTL activation reflects storage of associations, not merely their initial representation.     

Factor Structure of the School Reinforcement Survey Schedule: School Is More Than Grades

The School Reinforcement Survey Schedule (SRSS) was administered to 5913 4th through 12th graders as part of an evaluation component of the University of South Carolina's Institute for Families in Society's School-Based Mental Health Project. A factor analysis of SRSS responses yielded six interpretable factors. Gender differences in responses showed that girls, as opposed to boys, find a wider variety of reinforcers associated with school to be pleasurable. A significant, but small, correlation was found between grades and school reinforcement.