The self-fulfilling prophecy in intensive care

Predictions of poor prognosis for critically ill patients may become self-fulfilling if life-sustaining treatment or resuscitation is subsequently withheld on the basis of that prediction. This paper outlines the epistemic and normative problems raised by self-fulfilling prophecies (SFPs) in intensive care. Where predictions affect outcome, it can be extremely difficult to ascertain the mortality rate for patients if all treatment were provided. SFPs may lead to an increase in mortality for cohorts of patients predicted to have poor prognosis, they may lead doctors to feel causally responsible for the deaths of their patients, and they may compromise honest communication with patients and families about prognosis. However, I argue that the self-fulfilling prophecy is inevitable when life-sustaining treatment is withheld or withdrawn in the face of uncertainty. SFPs do not necessarily make treatment limitation decisions problematic. To minimize the effects of SFPs, it is essential to carefully collect and appraise evidence about prognosis. Doctors need to be honest with themselves and with patients and their families about uncertainty and the limits of knowledge.     

Increasing Community Recycling with Persuasive Communication and Public Commitment

Persuasive communication and public commitment were used to encourage recycling in a citywide program. The persuasive communication was a combination of factors which have been found by laboratory researchers to produce attitude and/or behavior change. The public commitment manipulation involved signing a statement supportive of recycling. Households which did not recycle during a 6-week baseline period were selected for experimental study. Trained Boy Scouts made an oral informational statement and then gave each of 201 experimental households one of three treatments (a written persuasive communication, public commitment, or both). A control group of 132 homes received no treatment. Recycling was observed for 6 weeks following delivery of all treatments. Results indicated that the three treatment groups recycled significantly more than the control group but did not differ significantly from each other. Future directions for applied work in this domain are discussed.     

The effects of choice-making on the problem behaviors of high school students with intellectual disabilities

This investigation was conducted in an effort to systematically extend the emerging data base having to do with choice-making opportunities and the behavior of students with disabilities. In particular, the current analyses examined the effects of choice-making on the problem behavior and task engagement of three high school students with intellectual disabilities as the students performed domestic and vocational activities. Multiple baseline and reversal designs demonstrated that the choice conditions reduced problem behaviors and increased task engagement for all participants. Data having to do with student affect and task productivity were less consistent. The findings on the relationship between choice making and problem behavior replicate and extend a growing literature on the desirable effects of choice-making for individuals with disabilities. The results are discussed in terms of recent developments in behavioral support, as well as the need for ongoing conceptual and applied research.     

Childhood tomboyism and adult androgyny

Female university and community college students (N =194) completed the Bem Sex-Role Inventory and a 12-item tomboyism index. Subjects were predominantly Euro-American (71%). A multiple regression analysis was used to test the prediction that androgyny and masculinity would significantly predict tomboyism scores. The proportion of variance in tomboyism accounted for by masculinity was significant, but once masculinity was entered, no additional predictive value was added by the entry of androgyny or femininity. Tomboyism was not related to the development of expressive qualities such as compassion and sensitivity to the needs of others. However, tomboyism was positively related to some desirable instrumental qualities such as assertiveness and self-reliance. Tomboyism was common and generally declined at puberty due to social pressure. To whom correspondence and reprint requests should be addressed at Department of Psychology & Human Development, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA 93407.The second and third authors were senior undergraduates at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo when this research was conducted.     

The impact of parental divorce on the attainment of the developmental tasks of young adulthood

The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of parental divorce on young adult development. One hundred twenty-five participants provided demographic information and completed the PAFS-Q (college version) and the conflict subscale of the Family Environment Scale. Results indicate that parental divorce and family conflict significantly affect developmental task attainment. The interactions between sex and age and family structure (i.e., single-parent or stepfamily) were also significant predictors of post-divorce task attainment. Implications of these results for therapists as well as recommendations for future research are provided.This is a revised version of a paper presented at the annual conference of the American Psychological Association, Los Angles, California, August 1994.     

Generality of a strength model for three conditions of repeated recall

A Markovian model of repeated recall is presented that is based on four memory processes: (a) a presentation increment that strengthens the memory trace of a word when the word is shown to a subject, (b) a recall increment that strengthens the trace when the subject successfully recalls the word, (c) a cueing decrement that weakens the trace as contextual cues for retrieving a word change over successive trials of attempted recall, and (d) a sampling rule that translates the strength of a memory trace into a probability of recall. Mathematically, the model predicts the relative frequencies of the recall patterns that are defined by sequences of recalls and forgets for individual words over trials. According to the model, the recallability of a word depends on its state, which is a function of (a) whether the word has been recalled for the first time, and if so, then (b) how many consecutive forgets of the word immediately precede the current trial, (c) how many successful recalls of the word have accumulated, and (d) how many previous trials of attempted recall have elapsed. Paradigms that were well described by the model were (a) no reminding, in which words were presented once and then recalled repeatedly without additional presentations; (b) restricted reminding, in which words were presented before each trial of attempted recall up to their first successful recall but not thereafter; and (c) complete reminding, in which all words were presented befor each attempted recall, whether previously recalled or not. Differences in recall among these conditions were explained in terms of differences in values of the model's parameters.