Sibling Relationships in Emerging Adulthood: Associations with Parent–Child Relationship

Conflicting theories (e.g., compensatory and congruence) describe the effect of the parent–child relationship on sibling relationship quality. By identifying specific parenting factors (i.e., Care and Control) and specific aspects of the sibling relationship (i.e., Affect, Behaviors, and Cognitions), the current study sought to examine the factors related to either theory in order to better understand the sibling relationship in emerging adulthood. Data were collected from 575 undergraduate students. A factorial MANOVA tested the relationship between parenting style and sibling relationship quality, measured by the Lifespan Sibling Relationship Scale. Results primarily supported the congruence hypothesis and revealed that parental Care and Control are important variables in understanding the sibling relationship. Additionally, the findings were consistent across racial/ethnic groups.     

Inhibition and aging: similarities between younger and older adults as revealed by the processing of unattended auditory information

The ability to selectively attend to an auditory stimulus appears to decline with age and may result from losses in the ability to inhibit the processing of irrelevant stimuli (i.e., the inhibitory deficit hypothesis; L. Hasher & R. T. Zacks, 1988). It is also possible that declines in the ability to selectively attend are a result of age-related hearing losses. Three experiments examined whether older and younger adults differed in their ability to inhibit the processing of distracting stimuli when the listening situation was adjusted to correct for individual differences in hearing. In all 3 experiments, younger and older adults were equally affected by irrelevant stimuli, unattended stimuli, or both. The implications for auditory attention research and for possible differences between auditory and visual processing are discussed.     

Conformity on a visual task as a function of personal novelty on attitudinal dimensions and being reminded of the object status of self

An experiment was conducted to test the proposition that a person's level of conformity on a visual task was related to his level of personal novelty on attitudinal dimensions and being reminded that he was an object in the world. Subjects were led to believe that either 95, 50, or 5% of a population of 10,000 held the same position as they did on 10 important attitudinal dimensions. Subjects were then asked to participate in an experiment on visual perception. In this portion of the study, subjects were led to believe that two other subjects consistently disagreed with their estimates and were either shown or not shown their live image on a television monitor. The results of the experiment indicated a positive relationship between novelty on the attitudinal dimensions and both frequency and intensity of conformity on the visual task. As novelty increased, conformity increased. In addition, subjects shown their image on a television monitor during the conformity trials conformed to the bogus others to a greater extent than subjects not shown their image on a television monitor.     

Sex typing in play and popularity in middle childhood

Sex differences in play behavior across the early elementary school years as well as the relation between sex-typed play and peer acceptance were examined. It was hypothesized that children who were more sex-typed in their play behaviors would be more accepted by their peers. The participants included 86 grade two children and 81 grade four children. Popularity was assessed using a rating scale sociometric measure. Sex-typed behaviors were measured by observing the children at free play. Results indicated significant age and gender differences in children's play behavior. Specifically, boys engaged in more aggressive and rough and tumble play as well as more functional, solitary-dramatic and exploratory play and tended to be involved more in group play, whereas girls produced more parallel and constructive play as well as more peer conversations. In grade 4, these differences were maximized such that boys produced more games-with-rules and girls exhibited more parallel-constructive activity. Second, results indicated that sociometric ratings and observed degree of sex-typing were not significantly related except in the case of fourth grade males. At the fourth grade level, a positive relation was observed between boys' acceptance by male peers and “masculine” or male-preferred play behavior as well as between boys' acceptance by female peers and “feminine” or female-preferred play.     

EFFECTS OF A VIDEOTAPE FEEDBACK PACKAGE ON THE PEER INTERACTIONS OF CHILDREN WITH SERIOUS BEHAVIORAL AND EMOTIONAL CHALLENGES

Peer interactions are among the greatest challenges experienced by children who have severe emotional and behavioral problems. This study evaluated an intervention package designed to increase the ratio of these children's desirable to undesirable interactions. The package included three principal components: (a) observation of videotapes following regularly scheduled peer activity sessions; (b) self-evaluation of the children's peer interactions observed on the videotapes; and (c) delayed feedback and reinforcement for desirable peer interactions. Five students from two elementary schools participated. Multiple baseline designs and one reversal were used to evaluate the effects of the intervention package. The results showed that the intervention produced lower levels of undesirable peer interactions and higher ratios of desirable to undesirable interactions for all participants. The results are discussed in regard to their conceptual and applied implications and in terms of specific directions for future research.     

Managing data entry of a large-scale interview project with optical scanning hardware and software

A hardware and software system for the cost-effective preparation of interview data is described. Scantron optical scanning hardware and DataBlocks software were used to prepare ASCII data files from structured interviews and questionnaires. These data were then edited for analysis with SPSS-X Data Entry software. Three different processes for preparing interview data were compared. Time, personnel, hardware, and software costs were projected for each process, as well as comparative risks to the integrity of data. A scanning procedure saves time and money, and it reduces the risk of errors.     

The structure and function of social support networks in families with handicapped children

Three structural characteristics of social support networks (size, density, and boundary density) and two relationship characteristics (reciprocity and dimensionality) were assessed in a sample of 56 families with a child with spina bifida and 53 matched comparison families. The results indicate that social networks of families with handicapped children tended to be smaller than the networks of comparison families, particularly with regard to mothers' total and friendship networks. The networks of families with handicapped children were more dense as well. As predicted, there was greater boundary density in spousal networks in families with handicapped children. Differences in network reciprocity were inconclusive while the results indicate that families with handicapped children tended to rely more heavily upon multidimensional network contacts than did comparison families. The results are discussed in light of our understanding of stress, social support, and the social ecological context of families.     

A COMPARISON OF THREE STRATEGIES FOR TEACHING OBJECT NAMES

Researchers in applied behavior analysis have been charged to provide large-scale demonstrations of the outcomes of evaluations. In this research, three experiments were conducted to examine the relative efficacy of three methods of presenting stimuli in object naming tasks. Stimuli were introduced successively, simultaneously, or using a combination of the two procedures. College adults, mentally retarded children and adolescents, and preschool children were taught to produce the names of five Hebrew letters, English words, or American coins, respectively. Presentation method was a between-subjects treatment in a factorial design. Results from the series of systematic replications were consistent in showing better posttest performance for subjects in the Simultaneous and Combined conditions. Further, follow-up data in Experiment III showed that retention was also superior for subjects trained by the Simultaneous or Combined methods. Although the acquisition criterion was met in fewer trials by subjects in the Successive condition, only several minutes more training time was required by the Simultaneous and Combined conditions. From a cost-effectiveness point of view, either of the latter two techniques should be favored over the Successive procedure for teaching verbal naming skills.     

Self-Evaluation Processes: Motives, Information Use, and Self-Esteem

ABSTRACT At least three motives guide self-evaluation: accuracy, self-enhancement, and self-improvement. To satisfy these motives, self-evaluation may utilize different information sources. Self-esteem may also moderate self-evaluation strategies. Participants evaluated the frequency and usefulness of eight types of information for meeting the three motives in two life domains: academics and social life. Personal standards information was reported to be used more frequently than objective or social comparison information and also perceived as most useful for meeting all three motives. Individuals low in self-esteem reported using more social comparison information than those high in self-esteem, especially upward social comparison information. Individuals with high self-esteem reported using personal standards information more often than they used social comparison information, while individuals with low self-esteem relied equally often on these two types of information. Discussion focuses on the role social comparison information may have for those with unstable self-concepts.     

Presenting two incongruent color words on a single trial does not alter Stroop interference

Two experiments showed that having two incongruent words present on a single Stroop trial (e.g., bothred andgreen in blue, say “blue”) did not alter interference relative to having only one incongruent word. This was true whether the two incongruent words were presented successively at several stimulus onset asynchronies (Experiment 1) or simultaneously in adjacent positions (Experiment 2). We argue that the first word captures attention and “locks out” others, preventing additional interference.