Rationality,emotionality, and testing

Controversy and confusion surround the question of the appropriateness of tests for minority groups. The amount of emotion aroused by this question tends to cloud issues and impede rational thinking. It is believed that the matter should be approached rationally and that examining it relative to empirical, construct, and content validity will be helpful. Conclusions are drawn regarding the fairness of tests for minority groups as a result of examining research evidence and authoritative opinion.     

An investigation of two measures of career indecision

The present study compared two recent scales developed to measure career indecision, the Career Decision Scale and the Vocational Decision-Making Difficulty Scale. The subjects were 857 male and female undergraduates. The scales were factor analyzed, the total scores were correlated, and the factor structures were examined for similarities and differences. Test-retest correlations were performed on the items, the total scores, and the factor scores of both measures. Subjects who were satisfied with their career choices were compared with subjects who were unsure, dissatisfied, or undecided about their career choices using the items, total scores, and factor scores. The results are discussed along with the implications for the future development of the scales.     

An analysis of passive memory in normal and mentally retarded persons

The differential short-term retention of normal and mentally retarded persons is often attributed to differences in strategic functioning. There is, however, evidence for memory differences between these groups on tasks which minimize cognitive strategies. Many of the passive memory studies have been plagued with methodological and interpretative difficulties. The present experiment was an attempt to avoid these problems and clarify the possibility of passive memory differences.It was necessary to equate initial learning and control for rehearsal to compare the passive memory of normal and retarded persons across short, rehearsal-free intevals. The retention intervals were filled with a tonal detection task intended to prevent rehearsal.CA matched normal and retarded adolescents were required to recall sequences of consonants after periods of 0,9, and 27 sec. of tonal detection. These subjects also performed the detection task without the recall requirement over the same intervals. Subjects were classified as rehearsers and nonrehearsers, depending upon variations in their tonal detection accuracy, or response times across the two conditions. The main result was that normal and retarded nonrehearsers showed equal forgetting over the retention intervals.     

Marriages of two clergy-persons

Defines a clergy couple as a married couple, each person ordained or licensed, and each employed by the church. Gives current statistics on the number of clergy couples in eleven denominations. Decribes how it works in practice in a variety of arrangements. Lists the advantages for a congregation and for the couple. Describes some problem areas for some couples. Lists some characteristics of a successful clergy couple ministry. Asserts that clergy couples are a growing phenomenon and concludes that it is a legitimate, viable option for ministry.Editor's Note: This article, as submitted, carried the title Clergy Couples. This term, as the readers soon will discover, is used to describe what I, and others, have described as two-clergy couples, or two-clergy marriages. The term clergy couple has been widely used in the past (since at least 1951) to describe any marriage involving a clergy member, and it is so used in four of the five articles in this issue.I am aware that in 1978 the Ohio Consultation for two-clergy couples firmly claimed the title clergy couple with the intent of changing the earlier usage. Only the future will determine which usage will ultimately win general acceptance.In order to avoid confusion, however, I decided to change the title of this article; but within the article itself, the original terminology of the authors remains unchanged.Ralph L. Detrick has shared employment, parenting and homemaking with his wife, Mary, for the last seven years. Both are employed by the Church of the Brethren with responsibilities for Life Cycle Ministry, Youth/Young Adult Ministry and Person Awareness in Elgin, Illinois.     

Inhibition of the automatic storage of speaker’s voice

The voice-connotation hypothesis of Geiselman and Bellezza (1976, 1977) states that a speaker’s voice is sometimes remembered without intent because the connotation of the voice automatically influences the meaning of what is said. Results from the present experiment suggest that subjects have the option to prevent the speaker’s-voice attribute from being stored with the contents of what is said when such processing would interfere with other cognitive operations.     

Economic,life, and disorder changes: Time-series analyses

Implicit in recent social science research and political discussions is a model linking the economy to mental disorder through the intervening constructs of life change and trauma. Using time-series analysis of a 16-month survey in Kansas City, Missouri (n = 1,140), economic and noneconomic life events and the Midtown scale were predicted using a variety of economic measures for the standard metropoliton statistical area. Both life event variables and the symptom measure were related positively to unemployment, and absolute economic change measures lagged 1 and 2 months. However, the life event variables were not strongly associated with the Midtown scale. Most striking of the subgroup findings was that, on the Midtown scale, the low-income group was more responsive than the middle-income group to economic fluctuations.