INCREASING HABILITATIVE SERVICES FOR PERSONS WITH PROFOUND HANDICAPS: AN APPLICATION OF STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS TO STAFF MANAGEMENT

We evaluated a structural analysis methodology for enhancing the utility of a staff management program. In Experiment 1, a structural analysis of direct-care staff behavior in a mental retardation facility revealed differences in work patterns over time. Specific times were identified when few basic care duties were necessary and staff engaged in nonwork activity. In Experiment 2, a management program was implemented to increase staff members' training activities during periods identified through the structural analysis. The program was accompanied by increases in training activities and decreases in nonwork behavior. The improvements were maintained during a 43-week period while the most labor-intensive component of the program was withdrawn. Staff acceptability measures indicated a positive response to the management intervention, although responses varied across components within the multifaceted program. The increased training was accompanied by beneficial changes among clients with profound handicaps. Results are discussed regarding practical considerations for improving staff performance and for adopting innovations resulting from applied research.     

Sex differences in nonverbal communication

An experiment was conducted to determine the relationship between sex-role attitudes, affiliation, and dominance and nonverbal communication styles in men and women in same- and opposite-sex dyads. Women were found to elicit more warmth and men more anxiety from their partners. Evidence was found for a possible monitoring mechanism through which women adjust their nonverbal communications to fit the male in the interaction. Liberalism in sex-role attitudes was found to correlate with nonverbal warmth in men. The nonverbal presentations of men and women in the microprocesses of dyadic interaction were found to relate significantly to the macrostructure of societal sex roles.This research was supported by NSF Grant GS36814. The author wishes to express her special thanks to Harmon Hosch, Vivian Shayne, David Fineman, and Lee Braff for their help in the experiment and data analysis. An abbreviated version of this paper was presented at the meeting of the American Sociological Association, San Francisco, August 1975.     

Focal and nonfocal processing of color and form

Langley Porter Neuropychtatrte Institute, University of California, San Francisco. Californta 94122 Response latencies to color are usually shorter than those to form. but sometimes this difference is absent or reversed. Three experiments investigated whether these differences result from differential susceptibility of color and form to extra focal processing. Experiment I showed shorter same-difference latencies to color than to form when two stimuli were presented simultaneously. This difference disappeared or reversed when the two stimuh appeared sequentially. Experiment II. using a multistimulus matching task, found that differences between response latencies to form and color were minimal at the center of the display and increased peripherally. Experiment III showed that eye movements were more frequent in matching forms than colors. Tasks that produced many eye movements had long average latencies, but the relationship between eye movements and latency was not a simple one. There was evidence both for parallel and serial strategies tn the use of the eyes to gather information. The results of these experiments are considered in relation to a theory of distributed attention.     

Sex differences in student—teacher interactions in the college classroom

An observational analysis of student—teacher interactions in 60 college classes revealed sex differences in student behaviors. Male students were the majority sex more often than females in classes taught by male lecturers; there was no sex difference for classes taught by female lecturers. Male students engaged in proportionately more student—teacher interactions than female students in male-taught classes; there was no sex difference in female-taught classes. Neither male nor female professors appeared to respond differentially to male and female students. Possible causes and implications of these findings are discussed.Portions of this paper were presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Denver, April 1975.     

Heinz Kohut and Virginia Satir: Strange bedfellows?

Both Heinz Kohut, the psychoanalyst, and Virginia Satir, the family therapist, are products of the humanistic influence in psychology that developed after World War II. Both have had an important influence on the practice of psychotherapy. Kohut expanded the scope of psychoanalysis so that more different kinds of people could be treated by psychoanalysis than had been possible heretofore, while Satir taught a whole generation of therapists what it means to be experience-near to their clients. This paper deals with some of the similarities and differences in their work.This paper was prepared at the invitation of John Banmen and Virginia Satir for inclusion in their forthcoming book entitledApplications of Virginia Satir's Theories and Practice of Family Therapy and was submitted to this journal with their courteous agreement.     

Clarifying the convergence between obsessive compulsive personality disorder criteria and obsessive compulsive disorder

In this study we examined the convergence between obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) criteria and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Baseline assessments of 629 participants of the Collaborative Longitudinal Personality Disorders Study were used to examine the associations between OCPD criteria and diagnoses of OCD. Three of the eight OCPD criteria--hoarding, perfectionism, and preoccupation with details--were significantly more frequent in subjects with OCD (n = 89) than in subjects without OCD (n = 540). Logistic regressions were used to predict the probability of each OCPD criterion as a function of Axis I diagnoses (OCD, additional anxiety disorders, and major depressive disorder). Associations between OCD and these three OCPD criteria remained significant in the logistic regressions, showing unique associations with OCD and odds ratios ranging from 2.71 to 2.99. In addition, other anxiety disorders and major depressive disorder showed few associations with specific OCPD criteria. This study suggests variability in the strength of the relationships between specific OCPD criteria and OCD. The findings also support a unique relationship between OCPD symptoms and OCD, compared to other anxiety disorders or major depression. Future efforts to explore the link between Axis I and Axis II disorders may be enriched by conducting analyses at the symptom level.     

The I Ching and the psyche-body connection

Carl G. Jung's fateful meeting with Richard Wilhelm in 1929 has helped to build a bridge of depth psychological understanding between the East and the West. When Jung emerged from his 'confrontation with the unconscious', he felt validated by Wilhelm in his discovery of the healing power of medieval alchemical symbolism for the European psyche. Analytical psychology however offers a scientific, psychological understanding of Chinese wisdom as contained in the I Ching and Taoist alchemy. The Taoist alchemical tradition (also known as the Inner Elixir tradition of which 'The Secret of the Golden Flower' is a sample text) is based on the premise that psychological experience of the Tao can be achieved through mental and physiological means such as breathing and meditative techniques, gymnastics, dietary regimens such as fasting, consumption of medicinal herbs and minerals, and special sexual practices. This tradition incorporates the I Ching and traditional Chinese medicine in the alchemical opus. Taoist alchemy assumes the primacy of the physical body in the process of self-realization. The psychological and cosmic forces of the trigrams of the I Ching are stored in the internal organs of the body and are the basic material for the experience of Tao. The internal organs are the foundation of the material and subtle bodies and through cultivation, the body becomes spiritualized as the spirits are embodied. The body as a reflection of the entire cosmos becomes the residence of the gods. The realization of a new consciousness is symbolized by the hexagram Fu, meaning rebirth. The Chinese notion of Tao coincides with Jung's postulation of the unus mundus, the unity of existence which underlies the duality of psyche and matter, the psycho-physical background of existence. In this light, in the world of inner experience, East and West follow similar paths symbolically.     

Oriental approaches to masculine and feminine subtle energy principles

According to ancient Indian and Chinese texts the subtle energy (prana or chi) flows through several thousand anatomically indistinguishable channels or meridians (nadis). Three channels are especially important (ida, pingala, and sushumna). The ida and pingala channels correlate with left and right uninostril breathing, respectively. Like yin and yang, they are considered to represent the masculine and feminine principles present in all creation irrespective of sex. From this perspective these principles are assumed to be present simultaneously in persons of both sexes. This suggests that any sex-specific effects of uninostril breathing may be associated with sex-based physiological differences, not with 'masculine' and 'feminine' attributes of the channels (and the corresponding nostrils).     

False Consensus and Adolescent Peer Contagion: Examining Discrepancies between Perceptions and Actual Reported Levels of Friends’ Deviant and Health Risk Behaviors

Adolescents perceptions of their friends behavior strongly predict adolescents own behavior, however, these perceptions often are erroneous. This study examined correlates of discrepancies between adolescents perceptions and friends reports of behavior. A total of 120 11th-grade adolescents provided data regarding their engagement in deviant and health risk behaviors, as well as their perceptions of the behavior of their best friend, as identified through sociometric assessment. Data from friends own report were used to calculate discrepancy measures of adolescents overestimations and estimation errors (absolute value of discrepancies) of friends behavior. Adolescents also completed a measure of friendship quality, and a sociometric assessment yielding measures of peer acceptance/rejection and aggression. Findings revealed that adolescents peer rejection and aggression were associated with greater overestimations of friends behavior. This effect was partially mediated by adolescents own behavior, consistent with a false consensus effect. Low levels of positive friendship quality were significantly associated with estimation errors, but not overestimations specifically.