Fear of success: The influence of sex,sex-role identity,and components of masculinity

Phase I of this experiment was conducted to determine the nature of the relationship between fear of success and sex-role identity. Eighty female and 124 male subjects completed a measure of fear of success (the Sadd Fear of Success Scale, SFOS) and two sex-role scales (the Bem Sex Role Inventory, BSRI; and the Personal Attributes Questionnaire, PAQ). Subjects were subsequently classified by their responses to the BSRI and PAQ as either androgynous, masculine, feminine, or undifferentiated. The results indicated that androgynous and masculine individuals reported less fear of success than feminine or undifferentiated individuals, regardless of their sex. Subsequent analyses revealed that fear of success was more related to the absence of masculine traits than to the presence of feminine traits. Phase II of this investigation was conducted to determine whether a specific component of masculinity was related to the fear of success. The masculinity scales were factor analyzed and factor scores were regressed on the fear-of-success scores. Factor scores reflecting high self-confidence, decisiveness, analyticalness, and independence were related to low levels of fear of success; factor scores reflecting assertiveness, competitiveness, and opinionatedness were not related to the fear of success.     

Approval versus achievement motives in seventh-grade girls

Eighty seventh graders played a computer-programmed two-choice probability game in one of four conditions: with reinforcement for choosing the more probable response, with reinforcement for choosing the less probable response, with a silent experimenter, or alone. Children receiving reinforcement for the less probable response experienced a conflict between approval and achievement since choices which increased approval in this condition decreased success in the task. Across all conditions, girls chose the more probable response significantly more often than boys, indicating that girls did not sacrifice achievement for the sake of approval. Finally, girls did not reduce their efforts to achieve when working alone even though there was no opportunity for social approval, and did not express lower success expectancies than the boys even though these were measured anonymously.The authors wish to extend their appreciation to the teachers at Emerson School, Oak Park, Illinois, and to Ms. Glada O. Vaughn, principal, and Ms. Sandra Northrup Nowak, assistant principal, for their cooperation in carrying out this research.     

SOCIAL VALIDATION OF COMPONENT BEHAVIORS OF FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS,ACCEPTING CRITICISM,AND NEGOTIATING

This study evaluated whether behaviors often taught as part of social skills training are judged favorably by others. Community judges evaluated the performances of people in various situations requiring one of three social skills: following instructions, accepting criticism, and negotiating to resolve conflicts. These skills were displayed in videotaped scenes by actors with and without mental retardation who acted out roles that had different types of authority relationships, and when different components or clusters of behavior (nonverbal, specific verbal, or general verbal behaviors) were performed well or poorly. The highest ratings by judges were of videotaped scenes that depicted correct use of all behaviors, regardless of which skill was being examined, whether or not the actor had mental retardation, or what the relationship was between the two actors. The lowest ratings were of videotaped scenes that depicted poor performance of all behaviors, and intermediate ratings were obtained when only some of the behaviors were performed poorly. These results, as well as the verbal responses of judges to questions, indicated that the different behaviors commonly used in teaching the skills of following instructions, accepting criticism, and negotiating are relevant to judgment of social performance, and are likely to be reinforced and maintained by social contingencies.     

CHRONIC SOCIAL STRESS, AFFILIATION, AND CELLULAR IMMUNE RESPONSE IN NONHUMAN PRIMATES

Abstract ——We report the first experimental study of the effect of long–term (over 2 years) exposure to a stressor on cellular immune response Forty–three male cynomolgus monkeys were randomly assigned to stable or unstable social conditions for 26 months The proportion of time spent in affiliative behaviors was assessed by observations made twice weekly T–cell immune response (mitogen–stimulated cell proliferation) was assessed weekly for 3 weeks immediately following the 26–month manipulation The possibility that affiliative behavior represents an attempt to cope with social stress was supported by greater affiliation among animals m the unstable condition than in the stable condition Animals in the unstable condition also demonstrated relatively suppressed immune response More affiliative animals showed enhanced immune response, with the beneficial effects of affiliation occurring primarily among unstable animals The data are interpreted as consistent with the stress–buffering hypothesis, that IS, affiliation protects animals from the potentially pathogenic influences of chronic social stress     

Distance adaptation depends upon plasticity in the oculomotor control system

Maintaining binocular fixation on a target at 20 cm in the absence of secondary cues to distance produced changes in apparent distance and lateral phoria. Positive lenses of 0, .5, 2.0, 3.5, and 5.0 spherical diopters (SD) were used to manipulate the level of accommodative convergence in force during the period of maintained fixation. An inverse relationship was found between the stimulus to accommodation and the magnitude of the induced esophoria, the phoria being linearly related to an increase in apparent distance. The distance aftereffect obtained in the condition with the lowest net accommodative stimulus li.e., 0 D) equaled that typically produced by base-out prism adaptation with full secondary cues to distance available. In a second experiment, subjects walked through a well-lit hallway while viewing through a pair of 5h base-out prisms. It was shown that increasing the stimulus to accommodation by adding negative lenses of 0, 1.5, 3.5, and 5.5 SD reduced the adaptive change in apparent distance, as well as the change in phoria produced by the conventional base-out prism adaptation paradigm. It was concluded that a change in the resting tonus of the disparity vergence system underlies such adaptation, rather than recalibration of the oculomotor cues to distance. Monocular exposure data indicated that a small change in the tonus control for the accommodative system may be present as well.     

Construct validity of perceptual style: Role of stimulus size in the embedded-figures test and the rod-and-frame test

Three experiments were performed in order to test the construct validity of perceptual field dependence (FD) and field independence (FI). In Experiment 1, performance of subjects on two sizes of Form A of Witkin’s Embedded Figures Test (EFT) with a size-ratio of 1 to 4 was compared. The size of the standard EFT was taken as unity. A nonsignificant size effect was found for all subjects as a group, and a significant rank correlation was found between performances on the two sizes of the EFT. Furthermore, the performance of field-dependent subjects (as defined by performance on the standard EFT) and field-independent subjects did not interact significantly with the size factor. In Experiment 2, the physical size of the EFT changed from 1 to 8. A nonsignificant, overall size effect was again found, but the EFT performance of fielddependent and field-independent subjects interacted significantly with the size factor. In Experiment 3, the performance of subjects on two sizes of the EFT (i.e., 1 to 8) and two sizes of the standard rod-and-frame test (RFT) (i.e., 1 to 4.5) were compared. A significant stimulus-size effect was found in the EFT, with all subjects becoming morefield-independent, and a significant stimulus-size effect was found in the RFT with the same subjects becoming morefield-dependent. Finally, the EFT performance of the field-dependent and field-independent subjects again displayed a significant interaction with the size of the embedded figures. A parallel-serial processingstyles hypothesis is proposed to account for the EFT data.     

The Vietnam veteran on wal: The relation of post-traumatic stress disorder to criminal behavior

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize the relationship of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in Vietnam veterans to criminal behavior. A conceptual framework is discussed which proposes that the disposition to criminal behavior is determined by whether or not the veteran enters into the survivor mode of functioning as a behavioral defense mechanism against the disorder. It is hypothesized that there exists a relationship between the severity of PTSD and the tendency to commit illegal acts. The Vietnam Era Stress Inventory (Wilson and Krauss, 1980) was used to assess PTSD among a volunteer national sample of Vietnam combat veterans (N = 114) participating in the Veterans Administration's counseling program known as Operation Outreach. The results strongly supported the hypothesis and indicated that combat role variables, exposure to stressors in Vietnam and the severity of PTSD were significantly correlated with criminal acts.     

Cognitive and attentional deficits in children vulnerable to psychopathology

Cognitive and attentional deficits were assessed in children with either a schizophrenic, an affectively disordered or a normal parent. The children were grouped both by their parents' DSM-II diagnoses (broadly defined group of schizophrenics and heterogeneous group of depressives)and by a new set of diagnoses (narrowly defined group of schizophrenics, unipolar depressive group and bipolar group). Children whose parents met the more stringent criteria for schizoprhenia performed somewhat more deviantly than children whose parents met only DSM-II criteria. In addition, the importance of splitting the heterogeneous depressive group into more homogeneous subgroups is indicated by the findings that children of unipolar parents generally could not be distinguished from children whose parents are schizophrenic. On the other hand, children of bipolar parents performed reliably better than children of schizophrenics. These findings are viewed within the context of current high-risk studies and psychological deficit literature and suggest that diagnostic issues require more attention by researchers in these areas.This research was supported by Grant MH 21145 from the National Institute of Mental Health. The authors are indebted to Lina Jandorf for assistance in testing the children and with the data analyses.     

Contingency theory and the distinction between associative and non-associative effects in classical conditioning

There is evidence to suggest that CS-US contingency is the variable that determines the associative effects of a CS. It has been claimed that experiments where contingency is manipulated allow us to distinguish between excitatory and inhibitory associative effects, and suggest a solution to the problem of finding a control procedure for non-associative effects. It is argued, however, that unless we can find a priori grounds for defining a level of contingency at which there are no associative effects, these claims are not justified. The reasons for this are that we have no way of distinguishing experimentally between associative and non-associative contributions to the effect of a CS, and that without such a technique there is no possibility of locating the point of associative neutrality empirically.     

Equal-onset contours of vibrotactile stimuli

Characteristic sensations of “surge” occur at onset of vibratory stimulation, analogous to the experience of musical “attack” in the auditory modality. Such a cutaneous sensation may have a phenomenal reality that is discriminable from the sensitivity to either of its physical determinants of time and intensity. Contours of equal-onset sensation obtained by the method of adjustment permitted the assessment of the relative contributions of these two parameters. Both rise time and intensity were found to be significant factors in the determination of contours of equal-onset sensation obtained by either time adjustment or adjustment of vibratory intensity. Equating onset by intensity adjustment was found to be more difficult than equating onset by time adjustment.