The transition from expectancy to parenthood: Impact of the firstborn child on men and women

In this short-term longitudinal study, 31 middle-class primigravidae and their husbands were seen once during the last trimester of pregnancy and again when their infants were 6 months old. At both times, a common core of self-assessment instruments was administered: mood scales, social change ratings, anticipation/experience of parenthood, and a modified Bem satisfaction scale. Some additional items were given at parenthood. For both men and women, expectancy was marked by optimism and contentment, despite some emotional and physical strain. Similarly, as parents of an infant, subjects rated the experience as highly positive. However, the transition to parenthood involved major role upheaval with both more positive and more negative changes reported by women than men. Despite these changes, women displayed considerable stability in mood and self-satisfaction over time and situation. In contrast, measures of the anticipation and self-reported experience of parenthood revealed no consistency for women; the types of mothers they turned out to be were unrelated to their expectations. Men successfully predicted their parenting behavior on more than half of the dimensions measured. The results were discussed in terms of the stresses inherent in role changes encountered during transitions from one stage of life to the next.This research was supported by funds from the Boystown Center for the Study of Youth Development at Stanford University. Special thanks to Barbara Aschenbrenner for her assistance in all phases of the research.     

Table of criterion values (β) used in signal detection theory

A table of criterion values for use with the theory of signal detection (TSD) is presented. Criterion values (β) are presented for varying proportions of hits and false alarms. A brief explanation of signal detection theory is given, and the measures for sensory sensitivity (d′) and response criterion (β) are described.     

The effects of spatial,temporal, and control variables on the free-recall serial position curve of retardates and equal-MA normals

Memory & Cognition - In Experiment I seven pictures were sequentially illuminated at a 3-see rate through seven translucent windows. A different window provided the starting point for each of...     

Self-differentiated assistance in older widows' support systems

It was proposed that today's older women, who are a low-fertility cohort, have deficiences in their informal support systems due to small families, and consequently, the absence of either sons or daughters in those families. Respondents (N=225) were recent widows, ages 60–89, who resided in a large metropolitan area in the Midwest. Each widow was personally interviewed regarding 10 areas of support that are provided by adult children, other kin, or friends/neighbors. Findings indicated significant differences in the receipt of traditionally male types of support for widows with sons, as compared to those without sons (p<.01), but no differences in the receipt of traditionally female types of support for widows without daughters. In addition, the extent to which persons other than children perform sex-differentiated types of support was explored. Directions for future research are suggested.This is a revised version of a paper entitled, Comparisons of Widows' Informal Support Networks Using Different Family Configurations, presented at the annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, New Orleans, LA, November 22–26, 1985. This study was supported by a grant from AARP Andrus Foundation.     

Formal relationships among words and the organization of the mental lexicon

A series of experiments investigated the role of orthography in the organization of the mental lexicon. A pilot experiment had found no effect of formal overlap between words on a repetition priming task at a lag of 56 intervening items. The first two experiments reported here used a lag of zero and varied SOA. Formal priming was found at SOAs of 1,650 milliseconds and less. However, reducing the proportion of related primes and targets in the experiment reduced formal priming. Moreover, it did so not by affecting response times to formally related primes and targets but by reducing response times to comparison trials in which primes and targets were unrelated. This led to a hypothesis that the formal priming we had observed was only apparent and due to strategic inhibition of responses to unrelated prime-target pairs. The final experiment reduced the proportion of responses to related targets further and examined formal priming at lags of 0, 1, 3, and 10. No formal priming was found under these conditions. Across all experiments, where formal priming occurred, it was due to changes in levels of inhibitory priming in comparison conditions. The conclusion is drawn that convincing evidence for an orthographic or phonological organization of the lexicon is not obtainable using priming procedures.This research was supported by NIH Grant HD 01994 to Haskins Laboratories     

Effect of alcohol and stress on emotion and physiological arousal

Forty-eight male normal drinkers were given a beverage to drink containing either tonic plus alcohol or tonic alone, and then were asked to perform arithmetic problems under either stressful or nonstressful conditions. Self-report measures of positive and negative affect and actual measures of physiological arousal (pulse rate and finger pulse volume) were collected at four times: baseline, ascending limb of the blood concentration BAC curve. Results indicated that (a) the stress manipulation was effective in increasing negative and actual physiological arousal, (b) subjects were more accurate in estimating the amount of alcohol they consumed under stressful than under nonstressful conditions, (c) alcohol was not effective in reducing the negative affect or physiological arousal produced by the stress, and (d) alcohol was effective in reducing negative affect and increasing positive affect under nonstressful conditions. These results support the growing body of research that suggests that alcohol produces a complex pattern of responses, one of which may be the enhancement of mood under nonstressful conditions.This research was suported in part by Grant No. AA00100 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and a grant from the Vanderbilt University Research Council.     

Hippocampal lesions and pavlovian cardiovascular conditioning

New Zealand albino rabbits received either sham, cortical control, or hippocampal lesions and were subjected to differential Pavlovian conditioning in which tones of different frequencies served as conditional stimuli (CSs), and a brief paraorbital electric shock train served as the unconditional stimulus. Heart rate (HR), blood pressure (BP), and electromyographic (EMG) conditional responses (CRs) were recorded. Animals with cortical and hippocampal damage or animals with cortical damage alone revealed attenuated bradycardiac CRs, but HR CRs of the former two groups did not significantly differ. BP changes were minimal; reliable differences were not obtained between CS+ and CS?. However, these changes consisted of small but reliable depressor responses, which were not affected by either cortical or hippocampal lesions. Few EMG CRs were obtained. These data, combined with those of previous experiments, suggest that forebrain structures may modulate higher level processing of stimulus information, perhaps in terms of assessing the biological significance of such stimulation.     

Responsiveness to babies: Life-situation specific sex differences in adulthood

Responsivity to babies was observed in 96 mature adults representative of three junctures of parenthood: parents of infants, parents of 8-to-9-year-olds, and parents of adolescents. Among the measures used were reactions to an unfamiliar infant in a waiting room, interest in pictures of babies versus other objects, and sex-role concept and attitudinal questionnaires. Stage of family life cycle affected women's responsivity, but not men's. New mothers displayed a heightened generalized interest in babies which is optimally timed and functional in terms of sex-differentiated role requirements. A possible confounding between cohort effects and stage in the family life cycle was examined and rejected. Traditionally sex-typed behaviors were reinterpreted as life-situation specific rather than general traits.This study was supported by grants from NIMH (1 R03 MH28264-01) and from Boys Town Center for the Study of Youth Development, Stanford University. The authors thank Barbara Aschenbrenner for her invaluable assistance in all phases of the research.