A further analysis of the affective meanings associated with male and female sex-trait stereotypes

This study was concerned with the qualitative differences in the male and female sex-trait stereotypes. Previous research employing the item pool of the Adjective Check List (ACL) had indicated no relationship between the stereotype loading of the adjectives and their favorability ratings. In the present study, university students rated the ACL items for strength and activity, and these ratings were used to demonstrate that the male stereotype was appreciably stronger and more active than the female stereotype. It was found that the strength ratings were highly correlated with both activity and favorability ratings which were, themselves, unrelated. It was concluded that the principal qualitative difference between the stereotypes lay in the connotations of activity and passivity associated, respectively, with the male and female stereotype traits, and that any assertion of greater social desirability for the male stereotype was based on its greater activity and not, as is often supposed, on its greater favorability.     

Group Counseling Children of Divorce in the Elementary Schools: Understanding Process and Technique

One approach to counseling the children of divorced or separated parents includes the children in peer-group counseling sessions. The authors offer guidelines and techniques for elementary school counselors in establishing such a group-counseling program.     

The effect of sex differences on sociometric data generated by a roster-rating scale instrument

Sociometric data generated by roster-rating scale instruments are being used for assessment and evaluation purposes. Little information exists, however, on the influence of peer gender on this particular type of sociometric data. In a sample of 441 male and 455 female fourth, fifth, and sixth grade children, this study found same-sex ratings to be significantly higher than opposite-sex ratings. Opposite-sex ratings, while significantly lower, were slightly correlated with the higher same-sex ratings. Differing methods for interpreting roster-rating scale data are discussed in light of the above results.The author is Assistant Professor at the School of Social Welfare, State University of New York at Albany currently on leave at the Baerwald School of Social Work, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel. This project was completed under the auspices of the Interpersonal Skill Training and Research Project of the School of Social Work, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin.     

A simple LSI-11 system for real-time control,interevent time storage,and data analysis

A simple laboratory computer system based on a Digital Equipment Corporation LSI-11, floppy disk, DRV11 parallel input-output board, and the RT-11 operating system is described. Interface to experimental devices is provided through a lab-built relay driver and relay closure sensing interface. An extensive high-level software package provides an easy-to-use control language (e.g., stimuli can be controlled with a simple “TURN ON” or “TURN OFF” instruction) and easy-to-use FORTRAN subroutines for data exploration (e.g., “IFIND” searches a data file for a particular event). The control software automatically generates, codes, and stores a complete log of every input and output event and its time of occurrence in each of five simultaneously running experiments. This provides the capability to reanalyze data in light of hypotheses not available when the experiment was designed. The FORTRAN subroutine library for data exploration provides a conditional and iterative search facility to sift out events or sets of events from the data file for analysis. Standard FORTRAN statements perform arithmetic operations on the resulting data.     

New perspectives in temperament/personality research: The “Behavioral” model of the Warsaw group

This paper reviews the theory and research of the Warsaw school of differential psychophysiology, which has modified and extended the typologic model constructed by Teplov and Nebylitsyn. While Soviet theory still favors a relatively inflexible structure of nervous system properties as the biologic basis of individual differences in personality, Strelau and colleagues, in line with the action/activity model of Vygotsky and Tomaszewski, begin with the premise that for every individual there is a specific, genetically determined optimal level of arousal, a necessary background for fullest emotional and intellectual development. The person strives to create this optimal climate through an active process of stimulation control, achieved primarily through enhancement or dampening of reactivity—which describes innate responsivity in the reacting systems to both sensory and emotional stimuli—through various hormonal ‘tuning’ mechanisms and through “appropriate” activity, reflected in different cognitive styles and preference for certain work conditions. Such activities aim to ensure comfortable physical and psychologic environments, in which the individual can avoid conflict and stress. The system regulating and integrating such control mechanisms is the core of personality. Investigations of the Warsaw group on relationships between reactivity and different forms of stimulation seeking/control—risk-taking, work style preferences, cognitive style, defense mechanisms, for example—and between reactivity and tolerance of stress and conflict and their speculations about the neurophysiologic and endocrinologic mechanisms of stimulation control are described, as are a number of questionnaires developed by this group to measure reactivity, the temporal parameters of response, and stimulation-seeking in a variety of occupational and social contexts.     

Suprathreshold binocular interactions for grating patterns

Binocular interactions of suprathreshold grating patterns have been investigated using a reaction time measure of contrast detection. Simple reaction times were determined for monocular and binocular viewing conditions over a contrast range from .63 to near threshold. The results from all subjects showed binocular summation for contrast levels near threshold, but there was considerable variation across subjects for contrast levels above threshold. Some subjects showed summation over the entire contrast range, but other subjects showed either binocular inhibition or binocular facilitation for some range of contrast levels. The pattern of binocular interaction for a given subject was consistent for several spatial frequencies. The differences in types of interaction between subjects, the variation in magnitude of binocular interaction with contrast level for each subject, and the data from experiments involving stimulation of noncorresponding retinal areas show that the binocular interactions found for suprathreshold stimuli cannot be accounted for on the basis of probability, and must, therefore, result from physiological interactions between the two eyes. These interactions have been investigated further under conditions of (1) induced fixation disparity, (2) horizontal gratings, and (3) orthogonally oriented gratings.     

Varieties of Residual Experience

The apparent discrepancy between the results of animal studies and clinical findings on the effects of occipital lobe damage became even greater with the results of animal experiments over the past 20 years in which subjects showed significant residual vision. But there is now evidence that the human subject can also show considerable residual capacity. It appears to be extremely helpful to use forced choice discrimination methods and specific training, as with animals, rather than to depend on verbal commentary by the human subject, who may be unaware of his discriminative capacity. Where man and monkey can be compared, it would appear that they are not qualitatively different, and that residual capacity is biased for detection and localisation rather than identification. Preliminary evidence is presented on the incidence of “blind-sight” and related aspects of residual function, including examination of different dimensions such as form, detection, movement, orientation, and spatial localisation within field defects. Some of these dimensions appear to be dissociable, but each also seems capable of disconnexion from the subject's own commentary and acknowledgement.     

Strategies of rule discovery in an inference task

It has long been known that subjects in certain inference tasks will seek evidence which can confirm their present hypotheses, even in situations where disconfirmatory evidence could be more informative. We sought to alter this tendency in a series of experiments which employed a rule discovery task, the 2-4-6 problem first described by Wason. The first experiment instructionally modified subjects confirmatory tendencies. While a disconfirmatory strategy was easily induced, it did not lead to greater efficiency in discovering the rule. The second experiment introduced subjects to the possibility of disconfirmation only after they had developed a strongly held hypothesis through the use of confirmatory evidence. This manipulation also failed to alter the efficiency of rule discovery. In the third experiment, subjects were taught to use multiple hypotheses at each step, in the manner of Platt's “Strong Inference”. This operation actually worsened performance. Finally, in the fourth experiment, the structure of the problem was altered slightly by asking subjects to seek two interrelated rules. A dramatic increase in performance resulted, perhaps because information which in previous tasks was seen as merely erroneous could now be related to an alternative rule. The four studies have broad implications for the psychological study of inference processes in general, and for the study of scientific inference in particular.