The Relationships Among Differing Loss Experiences,Adjustment, Beliefs,and Coping

Abstract

Losses are often equated for conceptual purposes, and it is often assumed that different types of losses result in similar grief reactions and exert similar effects on cognitive structures and coping patterns. This article examines the expectancies, beliefs, coping patterns, and psychological adjustment associated with loss due to death, parental. divorce, or illness and disability in a college student population. Loss groups did not differ from each other or from a no-loss group on cognitive variables, coping, or psychological adjustment. In instances in which associations between the cognitive measures and either coping or adjustment were indicated, the typical pattern was for loss groups to differ from the no-loss condition but not from each other.     

Long-term learning in dyslexic children

There is now extensive evidence that the learning processes of dyslexic children show some abnormalities, generally consistent with failure to completely automatise skills. Two studies are reported in which a group of adolescent dyslexic children and a group of normal children matched for age and IQ undertook long-term training on a keyboard spatial task and a choice reaction task respectively. It was concluded that, following extended training, the dyslexic children had normal “strength” of automatisation (as assessed by resistance to unlearning, by ease of relearning after one year, and by dual task performance) but that their initial and their final performance (as assessed by speed and accuracy) were impaired. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that dyslexic children suffer from cerebellar deficit.     

Retrospective and Prospective Cognitions in Anxiety and Depression

A study is reported that examined memory for past experiences and anticipation of future experiences within panic disorder patients (N = 17), depressed patients (N = 16), and controls (N = 17). Anticipation and recall of positive and negative experiences were examined by administering an adapted verbal fluency paradigm. Participants were asked to generate future and past, positive and negative experiences in response to various time-frame cues. Anxiety was associated with generating more negative experiences but not fewer positive experiences; depression was associated with generating fewer positive experiences but not more negative experiences. The patterns for recall of past experiences and anticipation of future experiences were very similar.     

Frequency of Exposure and Evaluation of Candidates and Campaign Speeches1

Three slides, each showing the photograph of a college-age male, were shown either 5, 10, or 25 times to a total of 95 students (S s). After the presentation, the slides, plus a fourth not previously shown, were presented as photographs of candidates in a campus election, each being paired with a campaign speech. Three speeches consisted of bland platitudes, whereas the fourth argued in favor of a large tuition increase. Ratings of the speeches and the candidates indicated that subjects were accurate in ranking the relative frequency of exposure of the four slides and that the controversial speech elicited less agreement and less favorable ratings than the three other messages. There were U-shaped curvilinear effects of exposure on S s' agreement with the messages, and with ratings of the persuasiveness of the message. Neither exposure nor speech effects were found in ratings of the candidates themselves. Implications of these findings for the frequency of exposure hypothesis (Zajonc, 1968) and for political campaigns are discussed.