The uniqueness and significance of simple structure demonstrated by contrasting organic “natural structure” and “random structure” data

The study compares the extent to which naturally structured data and artificial, relatively random data (both with the same basic parameters) produce simple structure factors which are uniquely determined. Two examples of unstructured matrices were compared with the ball problem matrix. The results show that an oblique position of maximum hyperplane count in the structured data differs from that in the unstructured by reaching a significantly more unique position in terms of the exactitude with which it is re-discoverable when starting from different positions, and by reaching (at the maximum) a significantly higher hyperplane count.     

The Effect of Mother's Employment on the Achievement,Aspirations, and Expectations of the Child

This study of 3,014 high school seniors examined school achievement and educational aspirations and expectations of youth of working and nonworking mothers. The sample was stratified by socio-economic level and by the sex of the student. The fact that mothers were employed full-time appeared to have little, if any, detrimental effect on children in regard to educational aspirations, expectations, and achievement. There was even a trend for these children to have higher educational aspirations and expectations than children of nonworking mothers, with the exception of boys from the professional socio-economic level. Aspirations and expectations were less divergent at higher socio-economic levels than at lower levels. Girls with working mothers planned to combine a homemaking and working career in their own lives more often than did girls with nonworking mothers. Children of both sexes with working mothers, at lower socio-economic levels but not at professional levels, expected more financial help from their family for future schooling.     

Relapse training: Does it influence trainees' post training behavior and cognitive strategies?

Training effectiveness is often reduced because trainees are unable to deal with work environment and interpersonal constraints. Incorporating relapse prevention strategies into training programs has been suggested as a method to increase training effectiveness. This study evaluates the impact of including a relapse prevention component in a supervisory skills training program. The results suggest that relapse prevention strategies may be valuable for increasing trainees' awareness of situations where new skill usage is relevant and facilitating managers' involvement in the development of new skills.Portions of this paper were presented at the Society of Industrial/Organizational Psychology Annual Meeting, April 22–23, 1988 in Dallas, Texas.     

Affective responses to seeing oneself for the first time on unedited videotape

Despite the growing popularity of watching oneself on videotape, little systematic research has been conducted determine viewers' affective responses to video replay. This study addresses the question: what affective responses do women have when they view themselves for the first time on unedited videotape, in comparison to their responses when they view a peer or nature scenes on videotape? Affective responses were measured in three ways: self-report, physiological, and behavioral. Subjects who viewed themselves reported more negative feelings and anxiety, and smiled more frequently than subjects who watched another person or nature scenes on video. Subjects with high private self-consciousness had higher mean arterial blood pressures when viewing themselves than did subjects with low private self-consciousness. Overall, the implications for seeing oneself on video point to potential embarrassment but generally moderate effects.     

Perceived Health Barriers and Health Value in Seniors: Implications for Well-Being and Mortality1

There is growing evidence to suggest that the ways in which people think about their health problems may have significant implications for psychological and physical well-being. This possibility has the greatest consequences for those groups facing health problems on a daily basis, in particular, the elderly. This study examined the role of perceived health barriers and value for health in later life. A Perceived Health Barriers (absent, present) by Health Value (low, medium, high) 2.3 factorial design was analyzed for younger and older seniors on: number of life-threatening diseases, need for health care, and life satisfaction. In addition, a longitudinal design was used to examine the joint roles of perceived health barriers (PHBs) and health value (HV) on mortality. Findings generally indicated that individuals’ PHBs and HV are associated with health-related outcomes; however, the results differed for young and old elders. Among young elders, those with PHBs and those with high HV had the most negati e profile. That is, they had more diseases, higher health care needs, and lower life satisfaction. Among older elders, the findings were more complicated in that the relationship between PHB and the outcomes depended on HV. Overall, the patterns for old elders suggest that perceived health barriers are most relevant among those with medium value for health and least relevant among those with low value for health.     

Salience of rape affects self-esteem: The moderating role of gender and rape myth acceptance

In two experiments, conducted in Germany and the U.S.A., it was found that exposure to a rape report lowered self-esteem and positive affect in women who do not accept ‘rape myths’ (stereotypical beliefs which blame the victim and exonerate the rapist; Burt, 1980). Men high in rape myth acceptance (RMA) showed an increase in positive affect and self-esteem as a function of exposure to rape; men low in RMA and women high in RMA were largely unaffected. Both experiments demonstrated that these effects were specific to rape, as opposed to violence in general. These results support the feminist hypothesis that the threat of rape serves the function to exert social control over women and to sustain men's dominance. Potential cognitive mechanisms mediating the observed effects are discussed.     

Maintaining social identity in a mixed-gender setting: Minority/majority status and cooperative/competitive feedback

This study tested the applicability of Tajfel and Turner's (1986) Social Identity Theory (SIT) to cooperative behavior in a mixed-gender setting. SIT suggests that as a “socially subordinate” group in a male-dominated society, women, when their gender is in the numerical minority, will engage in social competition in an attempt to enhance social identity. However, gender-based socialization may encourage men toward competition and women toward cooperation, regardless of group gender composition. In this study, male and female subjects were assigned to a six-person mixed-gender group in which their gender was either in the numerical minority or majority, and performed an interactive task under either cooperative or competitive feedback. An interaction of sex and feedback showed males in the cooperative feedback condition responded more competitively than did males in the competitive feedback condition, while females were equally cooperative in both feedback conditions. Feedback also interacted with the numerical ingroup/outgroup gender balance. While competitive feedback elicited little variation in subjects' responses across the ingroup/outgroup balance variable, the cooperative condition elicited greater competition from subjects in the numerical minority and greater cooperation from those in the numerical majority. Results were interpreted as partial support for SIT, while stressing the need for further investigation into gender as a unique influence on intergroup behavior.     

Dissociation between Categorical and Coordinate Spatial Computations: Modulation by Cerebral Hemispheres, Task Properties, Mode of Response, and Age

Kosslyn suggested a dissociation of two kinds of spatial representations: categorical and coordinate, the former computed by the left hemisphere and the latter by the right hemisphere. In addition, with practice, a “categorization” of the coordinate computation would appear. These suggestions resulted largely from an experiment, replicated by others, in which the subjects had to estimate the relative position of a dot and a line by giving an oral response, and feedback was provided. The present series of five experiments was an attempt to test whether this finding could be generalized, under several methodological manipulations, some of which have already been used by researchers in separate studies. In the five experiments, accuracy was a more contributive dependent variable than correct latencies, and practice effects on the task × field interaction were not verified. Experiments 1–3 concerned the kind of response. When a manual instead of an oral response was required (Experiment 1;n= 32 Ss), the expected dissociation was observed (as well as when the latency of responses made by the right hand were studied). When the number of oral responses was increased from two (a binary choice) to eight, the dissociation was still observed for accuracy but disappeared when a more liberal criterion of accuracy was used to reduce the considerable task effect (Experiment 2;n= 32 Ss), or when response requirements were equated for both tasks (Experiment 3;n= 32 Ss). In Experiment 4 (n= 32 Ss), a manual response was called but the feedback was removed and the task dissociation disappeared. Finally, the task dissociation observed in Experiment 1 was not verified when a sample of elderly subjects was enrolled (Experiment 5;n= 32 Ss). However, age per se was the source of an interesting additional dissociation since only the coordinate computation was age sensitive. Our results suggest that the dissociation proposed by Kosslyn between the computation of categorical vs coordinate spatial relationships is highly unstable and sensitive to subtle methodological factors (vocal vs manual response, presence vs absence of feedback, binary vs “continous” response, age) which could preclude its general application.     

Putting the “B” in ret: It had to be

Editor's Note: The history of RET will show that in the early 1990s, Albert Ellis modified the name of his therapy to rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT). Ellis gives much of the credit and responsibility for the name change to Ray Corsini—the highly-regarded anthologist of modern-day systems of counseling and psychotherapy. Dr. Corsini was kind enough to contribute his own view as to why the name change was warranted. The lively debate concerning the inclusion of the word “behavior” in rational-emotive therapy will be taken up in the next issue ofJRECBT with reactions of Gerald Davison, Cyril Franks, Arnold Lazarus and Albert Ellis.