Use of Social Support: Gender and Personality Differences

Sex differences in social support have been explained in terms of gender differences in socialization and personality. The current research focused directly on the link between social support and gender variables. An adult, largely Caucasian sample of both sexes reported an experience in which they had received support, and were assessed on masculinity, femininity, nurturance, affiliation, autonomy, and self-confidence. The results revealed that gender, but not sex, was significantly correlated with patterns of social support. Femininity (in both sexes) was associated with seeking and receiving emotional support, and with seeking and receiving support from women. Masculinity (in both sexes) was linked only with receiving tangible support. These findings argue for the significance of femininity in promoting a more social form of well-being, and underscore the importance of studying gender directly rather than relying on sex as a proxy variable.     

Stream segregation of narrow-band noise bursts

Normally hearing adults heard rapid alternations of a pair of band-limited noise bursts that had flat spectra (in terms of equal-loudness weighting of components) and sharp band edges. The bursts differed in center frequency (CF), but were matched on overall intensity, on bandwidth (BW) on a logfrequency scale, and (roughly) on pitch strength. Listeners judged the ease with which the sequence could be held together perceptually in a single auditory stream (vs. forming separate high and low streams). Involuntary segregation was examined as a function of the following measures of frequency separation of the alternating noise bands: (1) the closest band edges, (2) the most remote band edges, (3) the CFs of the bands on a logarithmic scale, and (4) the BWs. Segregation was best predicted from the separation of the two CFs on a log-frequency scale (very strong effect). Increasing the BWs of the two alternating bursts (the same size, in log frequency, for both bands) also led to greater segregation (very weak effect).     

The Latent Structure of Substance Use Among American Indian Adolescents: An Example Using Categorical Variables

Researchers frequently have only categorical data to analyze and cannot, for theoretical or methodological reasons, assume that the observed variables are discrete representations of an underlying continuous variable. We present latent class analysis as an alternative method of measuring latent variables in these circumstances. Latent class analysis does not require the assumptions of factor analyses about the nature of manifest and latent variables, but does allow the use of more precise model selection than techniques such as cluster analysis. We modeled the lifetime substance use of American Indian youth. The latent class model of American Indian teenagers' substance use had four classes: Abstaining, Predominantly Alcohol, Predominantly Alcohol and Marijuana, and Plural Substance. We then demonstrated the usefulness of this latent variable by using it to differentiate levels of several variables in a manner consistent with Social Cognitive Theory.     

Measuring Child Mental Health Status for Services Research

Epidemiological studies of the prevalence of mental health disorders typically contain multiple measures of mental health, using different instruments and different informants (child, parent, and interviewer). We used the Methods for the Epidemiology of Child and Adolescents Mental Disorder (MECA) study of U.S. youth to assess the effects of employing a range of these measures in mental health services research. We examined the effect of including various measures of mental health status in regressions of income on mental health service use. The estimated effect of income on service use varied widely, depending on the measure of mental health status used. Some measures of mental health status have little explanatory power in service use regressions. Measures of mental health status based on parental assessment of impairment or need, such as the Columbia Impairment Scale, are less costly to collect and also have good explanatory power, but are more strongly correlated with income. The Non-Clinician Child Global Assessment Scale (NC-CGAS) performs best in terms of explanatory power and correlation with income. Higher income parents appeared to judge behaviors differently from lower income parents, so analyses based on measures derived from parental report may lead to an understatement of the effect of income on service use.     

Target location and visual feedback as variables determining accuracy of aiming movements

The accuracy of a long aiming movement was studied as a function of whether it was performed toward or away from the midline of the subject's body in the presence or absence of visual feedback. 30 right-handed, male university students (19-26 yr.) served as subjects. With movement distance and duration controlled, the mean percentage of error was 6.34% less for movements made toward the body's midline than for those performed away from the midline. The mean percentage of error was also 48% less in the presence of visual feedback than in its absence. However, contrary to our expectation, movements executed toward the body's midline were not appreciably less disrupted in the absence of visual feedback than movements performed away from the midline.     

Proprioceptive feedback as a mediator in interlimb timing

Prior findings regarded as evidence for proprioceptive feedback as a mediator in interlimb timing can also be interpreted as evidence for motor outflow because they came from research that had subjects make voluntary movements, and such movements allow for both feedback and outflow to operate. The present study was designed to resolve this controversy by determining if these findings could be replicated with passive movements which allow for feedback, but not outflow, to operate. The interlimb timing task studied was one where subjects made the timing response with their right hand while moving their left arm during the 1.5-sec interval to be timed. Three groups of 16 male college students performed 50 trials of the right-hand response with knowledge of results, under one of three left-arm conditions: (a) passive movement, (b) voluntary movement, and (c) no movement. The results indicated that the findings were replicated with passive movements and this was interpreted as support for the involvement of proprioceptive feedback in interlimb timing.     

Linguistic recovery after closed head injury

Recovery from acute aphasia after closed head injury was studied in 21 young adults at least 6 months after injury. Three profiles of scores were found using standardized language tests. Persistent expressive and receptive impairment was present in 6 patients who sustained severe diffuse brain injury resulting in global cognitive deficit. Residual expressive impairment, primarily of naming, was associated with mild diffuse brain injury though focal left-hemisphere injury was present in 3 of 6 cases. Patients who recovered to normal levels on all language tests generally had acute neurologic findings consistent with mild diffuse brain injury. Cranial computed tomography at the time of followup frequently disclosed ventricular enlargement.     

Relative alpha desynchronization and synchronization during perception of music

Relative desynchronization (ERD) and synchronization (ERS) of the 8–10 Hz and 10–12 Hz alpha freqency bands elicited by music were studied in ten musically untrained right-handed subjects. The subjects listened to two five-minute musical excerpts representing two different musical genres, popular and classical, presented both foward and backward. ERD/ERS of the two alpha frequency bands was examined during the first four minutes of stimulus presentation using one-minute time windows. The results demonstrated that both the 8–10 Hz and the 10–12Hz frequency band exhibited reactivity to musical stimuli. The responses of the 8–10Hz and 10–12 Hz alpha frequency bands were dissimilar, dymanic and dependent on both time and stimulation type. The dynamics of these changes over time may explain some discrepancies in earlier EEG studies during listening to music.     

The Role of Personal Spirituality and Religious Social Activity on the Life Satisfaction of Older Widowed Women

We examined the impact of personal spiritualityand religious social activity on the life satisfactionof older widowed women. Fifty-one White, femaleretirement community residents completed measures of personal spirituality, religious socialactivities, and life satisfaction. Ten residents werealso interviewed about their religious beliefs andactivities. Although the interviews revealed bothpersonal spirituality and religious social activity tobe central to the life satisfaction of these women,quantitative results suggested only involvement withreligious social activities was related to lifesatisfaction. Interviews revealed thatchurch activitiesprovided the women a loving family and a supportivecommunity. Religious activities helped these older womenovercome hardships, gave them a chance to sustainfriendships, and provided a vehicle through which they couldcontribute to their community.     

Emotion in Speech: The Acoustic Attributes of Fear, Anger, Sadness, and Joy

Decoders can detect emotion in voice with much greater accuracy than can be achieved by objective acoustic analysis. Studies that have established this advantage, however, used methods that may have favored decoders and disadvantaged acoustic analysis. In this study, we applied several methodologic modifications for the analysis of the acoustic differentiation of fear, anger, sadness, and joy. Thirty-one female subjects between the ages of 18 and 35 (encoders) were audio-recorded during an emotion-induction procedure and produced a total of 620 emotion-laden sentences. Twelve female judges (decoders), three for each of the four emotions, were assigned to rate the intensity of one emotion each. Their combined ratings were used to select 38 prototype samples per emotion. Past acoustic findings were replicated, and increased acoustic differentiation among the emotions was achieved. Multiple regression analysis suggested that some, although not all, of the acoustic variables were associated with decoders' ratings. Signal detection analysis gave some insight into this disparity. However, the analysis of the classic constellation of acoustic variables may not completely capture the acoustic features that influence decoders' ratings. Future analyses would likely benefit from the parallel assessment of respiration, phonation, and articulation.