Coping and sensitivity to aversive events

To test further the sensitivity to aversive events hypothesis, males and females varying in level of depressed mood listened to positive, negative, and neutral social scenes while psychophysiological measurements were obtained. In addition, the relations among response styles, coping strategies, and psychological adjustment were examined. Results indicated that only dysphoric females responded in ways consistent with the sensitivity hypothesis, exhibiting greater electrodermal responses to negative social scenes compared to nondysphoric females. No differences in psychophysiological sensitivity were found between dysphoric and nondysphoric males. Dysphoric students engaged in more ruminative type responses in reaction to their depressed mood and reported using more avoidant coping strategies in response to stress. In particular, females utilized more ruminative strategies in response to a depressed mood and more emotion-focused coping strategies in response to stressful events in general. The implications for these results are discussed within a diathesis-stress framework.     

Factors Influencing Managerial Disclosure of AIDS Health Information to Coworkers

This research investigates the importance of legal concerns over lawsuits, fear of AIDS in the workplace, and gender as factors influencing a manager's decision to disclose AIDS health information to coworkers. Data was obtained from questionnaires administered to managers employed in service, manufacturing, and government organizations. Findings indicate that both fear of AIDS in the workplace and concern over lawsuits exhibited a significant relationship with the likelihood of sharing AIDS health information and gender was found to moderate the relationship between likelihood of sharing AIDS health information, and fear of AIDS in the workplace. Male managers exhibited a higher level of fear of AIDS than female managers and did female managers, were found to be somewhat less likely than male managers to share AIDS health information with coworkers. Study findings, suggestions for future research, and implications are discussed.     

Effects of consent form information on self-disclosure

When researchers encounter preexisting psychological distress in participants, ethical codes provide little guidance on how to balance issues of beneficence and autonomy. Although researchers may inform participants what will occur given responses indicating distress, this information may lead to biased self-reports. This important issue was addressed in this study by manipulating consent form information regarding the type of psychopathology to be assessed and various levels of possible follow-up. In comparing responses on self-report measures of anxiety, depression, and general psychological distress, men who believed depression was the focus of the study reported fewer symptoms of depression and less trait anxiety as intrusiveness of experimenter follow-up increased. These results are discussed within the framework of socialization theory. Given that half of the sample did not correctly answer questions regarding information contained in the consent form, guidelines to improve consent form comprehension are offered.     

Knowing not

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, 252 Bloor Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1V6 People often know rapidly and reliably that they do not know something. A review of contemporary theory reveals that the issue has not received much attention; moreover, the accounts available assume that recognition that one does not know something is achieved only by failure to establish that one does know it. A reaction time experiment assessed two aspects of knowing not, by asking people whether they knew common nouns well enough to use them in sentences and whether they had visited certain cities. The findings were that affirmations of negation were often more rapid than positive reports; hence, the account of knowing not as the complement of knowing that something is the case is not necessarily correct. We suggest that knowing not may be attained as rapidly as positive knowledge on the basis of ability to carry out analytical procedures.     

Attitudes toward women among female college students

Female college students' attitudes toward women were investigated to determine the effects of housing, class status, and general field of study, and to provide standardization and reliability data for the AWS scale. Spence and Helmreich's Attitudes Toward Women Scale was administered to a large sample of female college students in a coed, moderately sized, private, Eastern secular college. Results indicated that seniors tend to hold more liberal attitudes toward women than underclasswomen and students in Business and Education tend to hold more conservative attitudes toward women. Interaction effects were observed and reported. Type of housing was not related to attitudes toward women. The split-half reliability technique revealed a strong internal reliability of .92 for the AWS.