Sex differences in the patterning of adult roles as a determinant of sex differences in occupational achievement

A sample of 4,035 men and women from the Project TALENT high school class of 1963 cohort was examined to determine the extent to which sex differences in the patterning of adult roles contribute to observed sex differences in occupational achievement. Men and women were found to differ in the comparative timing, ordering, and continuity of educational, occupational, marital, and procreational roles in early adulthood. These differences in role patterns explained only a small portion of the observed sex differences in occupational attainment, as sex appeared to be a strong direct determinant of both role patterns and attainment. However, some aspects of the patterning of these roles appeared to have an independent influence on occupational attainment; in these instances, the patterns associated with lower earnings were more likely to have been followed by women. Further investigation of the impact of variations in the patterning of adult roles on women's (and men's) occupational achievement is recommended.This work was supported by Grant MH29509 from the National Institute of Mental Health.     

Junior football players' classification of runners as their teammates from 400-msec. video clips

It was hypothesized that a specialized gait recognition skill enables humans to distinguish the gait of familiar from unfamiliar individuals, and that this may have relevance in team sports. Runners seen for less than half a second can be classified as teammates or not by adult players, so it may be asked whether this skill would also be demonstrated by young team players. In the current study, junior football players (M age = 10.0 yr., SD = 0.8, N = 13) viewed 400-msec. video clips of runners sprinting past a fixed forward facing digital video camera and similarly showed teammate recognition scores significantly above chance. Given the variation among the junior players in this skill, it seems possible for researchers to assess whether improvement can be obtained with structured training for young team players, where running teammates are seen in peripheral vision during training drills.     

Refining the relationship between personality and subjective well-being

Understanding subjective well-being (SWB) has historically been a core human endeavor and presently spans fields from management to mental health. Previous meta-analyses have indicated that personality traits are one of the best predictors. Still, these past results indicate only a moderate relationship, weaker than suggested by several lines of reasoning. This may be because of commensurability, where researchers have grouped together substantively disparate measures in their analyses. In this article, the authors review and address this problem directly, focusing on individual measures of personality (e.g., the Neuroticism-Extroversion-Openness Personality Inventory; P. T. Costa & R. R. McCrae, 1992) and categories of SWB (e.g., life satisfaction). In addition, the authors take a multivariate approach, assessing how much variance personality traits account for individually as well as together. Results indicate that different personality and SWB scales can be substantively different and that the relationship between the two is typically much larger (e.g., 4 times) than previous meta-analyses have indicated. Total SWB variance accounted for by personality can reach as high as 39% or 63% disattenuated. These results also speak to meta-analyses in general and the need to account for scale differences once a sufficient research base has been generated.     

Autobiographical memory distributions for negative self-images: Memories are organised around negative as well as positive aspects of identity

The relationship between developmental experiences, and an individual's emerging beliefs about themselves and the world, is central to many forms of psychotherapy. People suffering from a variety of mental health problems have been shown to use negative memories when defining the self; however, little is known about how these negative memories might be organised and relate to negative self-images. In two online studies with middle-aged (N = 18; study 1) and young (N = 56; study 2) adults, we found that participants' negative self-images (e.g., I am a failure) were associated with sets of autobiographical memories that formed clustered distributions around times of self-formation, in much the same pattern as for positive self-images (e.g., I am talented). This novel result shows that highly organised sets of salient memories may be responsible for perpetuating negative beliefs about the self. Implications for therapy are discussed.     

Liking and response latency in teammate identification: processing delays below conscious awareness?

Success in fast-ball sports relies on many factors which interact at both movement and cognitive levels. Players must recognize their teammates and decide whether to pass the ball to create or take advantage of scoring affordances. Previous research has shown athletes can identify teammates from brief visual displays during fast-ball sports and this is related to the amount of time individuals train together. However, it is likely other factors also affect recognition and, consequently, decision making related to ball passing. The present study extended the Teammate Identification (TM-ID) paradigm to examine magnitude of liking of one's teammates in relation to response time components of TM-ID. An increase in movement time was found for identifying a swimmer who was the observer's "least liked" teammate, which suggests that processes below conscious awareness may influence the time taken for sport actions directed toward specific teammates, such as ball passing.     

National Differences in Subjective Well-Being: The Interactive Effects of Extraversion and Neuroticism

Extraversion and neuroticism interact to affect subjective well-being (SWB) at the individual level of analysis, so that introverted neurotics tend to be particularly miserable. The goal of this study is to determine if this interaction can also be detected at a national level. Findings based on data from 30 countries confirmed that the interaction between extraversion and neuroticism was an extremely strong predictor of satisfaction with life and affect, and a similar though not significant effect was observed with happiness. Neuroticism lowered satisfaction with life and affect among all nations, but more so among introverted nations than among extraverted ones. These findings further confirm that personality traits can be used to extend our understanding of national differences regarding SWB. They also further validate national SWB scores, as they relate to personality in a complex but theoretically meaningful manner.     

Semantic cueing in recognition and recall

This study is concerned with the recognition and recall of semantically ambiguous words (homographs) presented in a semantic context. Changing the semantic context lowered test scores relative to test conditions both without context and with the same semantic context. This effect was found to obtain in both recognition and recall. The results are discussed in terms of the role of retrieval in recognition and recall.     

Personality traits of a group of young adults from different family structures.

The impact of parental divorce and remarriage and young adults' gender on second-order personality traits, such as extraversion, anxiety, tough poise and independence, was examined. The responses of 227 young adults on the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF; Cattell, Eber, & Tatsuoka, 1970) were subjected to a parametric multivariate analysis of variance. Results revealed significant differences between the anxiety scores of the young men and women as well as between those of the three different family-structure groups, but divorce and remarriage was not associated with either positive or negative personality development in this sample.     

Family interventions in psychosis: a scale to measure therapist adherence

The efficacy of family interventions in psychosis is well documented. UK and USA schizophrenia treatment guidelines advocate the practice of family interventions within routine clinical services. However, less attention has been paid to the study of treatment fidelity and the tools used in its assessment. This study reports the inter-rater reliability of a new scale: Family Intervention in Psychosis-Adherence Scale (FIPAS). This measure is designed to assess therapist adherence to the Kuipers et al . (2002) family intervention in psychosis treatment manual. Reliability ratings were based on a sample of thirteen audiotapes drawn from a randomized controlled trial of family intervention. The results indicated that the majority of items of the FIPAS had acceptable levels of inter-rater reliability. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the training and monitoring of the effectiveness of practitioners for family interventions in psychosis.     

Testability and Ockham’s Razor: How Formal and Statistical Learning Theory Converge in the New Riddle of Induction

Nelson Goodman’s new riddle of induction forcefully illustrates a challenge that must be confronted by any adequate theory of inductive inference: provide some basis for choosing among alternative hypotheses that fit past data but make divergent predictions. One response to this challenge is to distinguish among alternatives by means of some epistemically significant characteristic beyond fit with the data. Statistical learning theory takes this approach by showing how a concept similar to Popper’s notion of degrees of testability is linked to minimizing expected predictive error. In contrast, formal learning theory appeals to Ockham’s razor, which it justifies by reference to the goal of enhancing efficient convergence to the truth. In this essay, I show that, despite their differences, statistical and formal learning theory yield precisely the same result for a class of inductive problems that I call strongly VC ordered, of which Goodman’s riddle is just one example.