Effects of performance expectancies created by peer comparison as related to social reinforcement,task difficulty,and age of child

Children in kindergarten-first grades and fourth-sixth grades (6 and 10 years of age, respectively) participated in one of two experiments and performed either a simple motor task or (for older children only) a two-choice simultaneous discrimination task at two difficulty levels. Children received either positive, negative, or no peer comparison statements (describing how other children their age had allegedly performed) and either praise, silence (in Experiment 2 only), or criticism on a fixed-interval 20-second schedule throughout the task. Young children were more responsive to adult evaluation of their performance than to peer comparison. Expectancies created by peer comparisons affected older children's motor performance most if they received reinforcement contrary to the expectancy. In situations requiring greater cognitive ability, older children, particularly boys, responded to the performance expectancies created by positive peer comparison. Older boys, compared with older girls, seemed to be more sensitive to peer comparison and social reinforcement.     

Production of narrative discourse in aphasia

The study described the abilities of a group of 15 moderately impaired aphasics and 15 normals to produce narrative discourse. The experimental tasks included telling stories, summarizing stories, and giving morals to stories. The data were analyzed in terms of sentential grammar, discourse grammar, and subjective ratings of content and clarity of language. The results showed that aphasics produced well-structured discourse. The language of the aphasics' discourse was reduced in both complexity and amount, as compared to that produced by normals. The reduction of language reflected selective reduction of hierarchically organized information. The findings of the study confirm the results of previous research on mildly impaired aphasics, which also showed preservation of discourse structure with selective reduction of information.     

Value systems in a changing culture

Conclusion We may be experiencing the last gasps of a once brilliant culture that is worn out and dying. Indeed, it seems to have a subconscious death wish, but the end is nowhere in sight. We may have to spend a little more time in this transitional period before the dominant sensate culture is balanced by a culture that will not disavow sensory truth, but that will rediscover the truth of faith with God as the center. Then and only then will the new day come to birth. Call it Idealistic (Sorokin) or the Age of Aquarius, or whatever you will; it will be a time of spiritual perception and a time when destructive aggression will be changed to creative assertion for the good of all mankind.     

What Causes Humans to Begin and End A Meal? A Role for Memory for What Has Been Eaten, as Evidenced by A Study of Multiple Meal Eating in Amnesic Patients

Although many factors have been proposed and studied as causes of onset and termination of meals by humans, little attention has been paid to memory for what has previously been eaten. We propose that a principal determinant of meal onset and cessation in humans is memory of when a last meal was eaten and how much was consumed. Knowledge that one has just eaten a culturally defined complete meal may be sufficient grounds for refusal of further food. This hypothesis was tested by studying two densely amnesic patients who had almost no explicit memory for events that occurred more than a minute ago, and who, in particular, usually failed to remember that they had just eaten a meal. Both patients (on three occasions each) readily consumed a second lunch when it was offered 10 to 30 min after completion of the first meal, and usually began to consume a third meal when it was offered 10 to 30 min after completion of the second meal. These findings suggest that memory for what has recently been eaten is a substantial contributor to the onset or cessation of eating of a meal.     

Coping strategies and psychological distress in cancer patients before autologous bone marrow transplant

The increased use of bone marrow transplantation (BMT) to treat a variety of cancers has led researchers to study psychological functioning of BMT patients. The majority of studies conducted, however, has focused on adjustment after transplantation. Cancer patients' use of coping strategies before undergoing this procedure may also relate to levels of psychological distress. Our aims were (1) to provide normative coping data, controlling for situation-specific variables with a homogeneous sample, targeted stressor, and fixed time point, using the Ways of Coping Questionnaire; and (2) to identify coping strategies associated with distress before high-dose chemotherapy. Subjects were 49 patients scheduled to receive high-dose chemotherapy and an autologous bone marrow transplant. Consistent with previous coping research, we found that escape-avoidance was related to psychological distress on several measures. Item endorsement analyses of the escape-avoidance subscale suggest that patients may have used more passive than active avoidance strategies. Subsequent participation in a longitudinal study was not affected by initial levels of avoidant coping.     

The psychological significance of changes in skin temperature

Thirty-two female undergraduates were presented with varied, mildly stressful incentives while the temperatures of their face and hands were recorded with infrared telethermography. There was an increase of hand skin temperature to film clips intended to generate a happy affect but cooling to threatening personal questions. There was no significant skin temperature change in response to cognitive tasks or fear eliciting film clips. Larger temperature changes occurred on the hands than on the face, and most subjects were cooler on the left side of the face and the left hand than on the right side of face and right hand.     

Reinforcement and the organization of behavior in golden hamsters: Punishment of three action patterns

Golden hamsters received free shock (Experiment 1) or they were partially (Experiments 2 and 3) or continuously (Experiments 4 and 5) punished with mild electric shock for face washing, open rearing, or scrabbling. Punishment immediately and enduringly reduced the time engaged in scrabbling and the number and length of its bouts. Face washing was also clearly associated with shock, since effects specific to the contingency between face washing and shock were retained when shock was discontinued, but under some conditions punishment increased the number of bouts of face washing. Open rearing was the most refractory of the three activities to suppression and showed least evidence of retaining the effects of punishment. This pattern of results differs from that found previously when food reinforcement was given for the same activities. It is discussed in terms of constraints on performance of learned associations by a variety of response-specific and reinforcer-specific motivational factors.     

Children's causal attributions for performance on sex-stereotypic tasks

In two experiments, third, fifth, and eleventh graders attributed males' and females' successes and failures on sex-stereotypic tasks to (a) task difficulty, (b) effort, (c) luck, or (d) skill. Male and female children responded similarly within and across age. Attributions for successes varied with congruity of actor and task stereotypes; effort was emphasized for sex-inconsistent relative to sex-consistent performance. However, over-riding sex-of-actor biases emerged in explanations for failures, suggesting failures were treated as anticipated outcomes for females. Results are considered in terms of maintenance of sex-role stereotypes beginning early in childhood.A portion of the first experiment reported in this article was presented at the annual meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, Washington, D. C., March 1978.     

Happiness in dual-career couples: Changing research,changing values

This article offers a framework for understanding contradictory findings in the field of the dual-career couple by presenting two patterns: (1) the early, conventional one of the 1960s, which viewed married women's participation in the labor force as threatening marriage and the family, and (2) the contemporary view, which emerged during the 1970s and which admits that women can happily combine career with family. The article suggests that there is little evidence to support the view that dual-career couples experience increased rate of marital conflict, marital dissatisfaction, and role blur; rather, the intellectual and psychological benefits in dual-career couples seem to outweigh the disadvantages, particularly for wives.