Friendships and Adaptation Across the Life Span

Friends foster self-esteem and a sense of well-being, socialize one another, and support one another in coping with developmental transitions and life stress. Friends engage in different activities with one another across the life span, but friendship is conceived similarly by children and adults. Friends and friendships, however, are not all alike. The developmental significance of having friends depends on the characteristics of the friends, especially whether the friends are antisocial or socially withdrawn. Outcomes also depend on whether friendships are supportive and intimate or fractious and unstable. Among both children and adults, friendships have clear-cut developmental benefits at times but are mixed blessings at other times.     

The Overvalued Ideas Scale: development, reliability and validity in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

The presence of overvalued ideas in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) has been theoretically linked to poorer treatment outcome [Kozak, M. J. & Foa, E. B. (1994). Obsessions, overvalued ideas and delusions in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 32, 343-353]. To date, no measures have been developed which quantitatively assess levels of overvalued ideas in obsessive-compulsives. The present studies examined the psychometric properties of a scale developed to measure this form of psychopathology, the Overvalued Ideas Scale (OVIS). In study 1, 102 patients diagnosed with OCD were administered a battery of instruments including the OVIS at baseline and two weeks later, prior to initiating treatment. Results indicate that the OVIS has adequate internal consistency reliability (coefficient alpha = 0.88 at baseline), test-retest reliability (r = 0.86) and interrater reliability (r = 0.88). Moderate to high levels of convergent validity was found with measures of obsessive-compulsive symptoms, a single item assessment of overvalued ideas and psychotic symptoms. Medium levels of discriminant validity with measures of anxiety and depression was obtained in this study. Individuals determined to have high OVI showed greater stability of this pathology than those with lower OVI, suggesting that overvalued ideas are stable for extreme scorers. In study 2 a total of 40 patients participated who were diagnosed with OCD. The same battery of instruments was administered as in study 1, as well as the Beck Depression Inventory and Beck Anxiety Inventories. Results were similar to that obtained in study 1, including a relative lack of discriminant validity with self-report measures of depression and anxiety. It is suggested that further research with the OVIS may show predictive value in treatment outcome studies of OCD.     

MODIFICATION OF ACTIVITY LEVEL THROUGH BIOFEEDBACK AND OPERANT CONDITIONING1

The biomotometer, an electronic device that simultaneously measures activity and provides auditory feedback to the subject, was used in combination with material reinforcers in two experiments attempting to modify activity level in children. In the first study the activity level of an 11-year-old highly active boy was decreased below mean baseline during conditioning in a classroom setting. His level of activity returned to baseline when feedback was withdrawn. In the second study, activity level of a 10-year-old hypoactive boy was increased over mean baseline level during conditioning in a free-play setting, and returned to slightly below baseline during five extinction trials. Results of these studies indicate that the biomotometer is a useful instrument for modification of activity level.     

Activity level: A comparison between actometer scores and observer ratings

Activity level of 13 boys (aged 9–13) from a day hospital program was measured using actometers in classroom, gym, woodshop, and group therapy settings. Ratings of Ss' activity were obtained from mothers using the Werry scale, and from six clinical staff familiar with the Ss using the Davids scale. It was predicted that activity ratings would have situationally specific relationships with actometermeasured activity level according to the rater's opportunities for observation. Comparisons between measures indicated that all clinical staff ratings correlated significantly with actometer activity in the classroom (r=.49 to r=.73), while mothers' ratings correlated significantly with actometer activity in gym (r=.67), and woodshop (r=.77), and with overall activity (r=.65), a combined measure derived from actometer scores in the four conditions tested. Five of six clinical staff raters showed significant interrater reliability (r=.58 to r=.83). Results are discussed in terms of their implications for solution of current problems in assessment of activity level and hyperactivity.     

Barrier score and the values ascribed to selected individuals by high school students

The Barrier score measure, derived from responses to Rorschach stimuli, was related to the values held by grade 9 high school students. The Barrier score is reflected in a psychological barrier which surrounds the individual and separates him from his environment. High Barrier individuals have a firmer base of psychological operations than their low Barrier counterparts. Groups of high and low Barrier students rated a series of four person stimuli judged to be representative of the outlook of high and low Barrier persons. Ratings were made using a common set of values scales. Multivariate group differences were observed for the stimuli: Sportsman (p = .01), Leader of a Country (p = .03), and Astronomer or Scientist (p = .03), These differences were in terms of derived discriminant functions. Comment is offered on the need for refined techniques for identifying person stimuli compatible with the high Barrier and low Barrier image.     

Neglected questions in job design: How people design jobs,task-job predictability,and influence of training

Three questions important to job design interventions but neglected in research were explored. First, how do people design jobs? Internal processes (e.g., growth needs) from psychological (or job enrichment) models of job design were not apparent. Instead, groupings of tasks into jobs suggested simple cognitive categorization based on task similarity, reflecting an engineering (or work simplification) orientation. Second, can job design be predicted from task design? Separate measures for job and task designs were unrelated, indicating that the whole is not predictable from the parts in job design, Third, can job design principles be trained? Subjects easily learned and applied different job design approaches.     

Making sense of diversity in the workplace: organizational justice and language abstraction in employees' accounts of diversity-related incidents

To discern patterns of employee sense-making about workplace diversity, the authors analyzed 751 natural language accounts of diversity incidents from 712 workers in one department of a large organization. Six generic incident types emerged: discrimination, representation, treatment by management, work relationships, respect between groups, and diversity climates. Consistent with hypotheses, incidents that respondents viewed as negative, accounts from women, and those involving members of respondents' in-groups were more likely to cite justice issues. Partially consistent with research on the linguistic intergroup bias, both negative and positive accounts involving out-group members and accounts from men were more likely to be expressed using abstract verb forms. The authors discuss future opportunities to integrate research on diversity, justice, and the linguistic category model.     

Psychoanalytic patients in the U.S., Canada,and Australia: II. A DSM-III-R validation study

A study was conducted to validate our previous work on the DSM-III-R disorders diagnosed in patients in psychoanalysis in the U.S., Canada, and Australia and to determine which specific mood, anxiety, and personality disorders were the most common in these patients. The earlier study consisted of three surveys of psychoanalytic practice that together obtained data on 1,718 patients, through extensive mail surveys to analysts in the three countries. In the validation study, 206 patients were diagnosed using a different technique. Analysts similar in important respects to those who participated in the original surveys rated patients diagnostically before and after DSM-III-R training. After training, no significant changes appeared in the rates for any of the specific mood disorders. For the thirty disorders examined, training effects decreased the identification of the generalized anxiety disorder, and increased the identification of three personality disorders: avoidant, dependent, and personality disorder not otherwise specified. Thus, analysts slightly underdiagnosed the number of personality disorders, and some "anxious" patients appear to have qualified for personality disorders. Some limitations of the DSM-III-R notion of narcissistic personality are discussed, as are the importance and stability of the self-defeating (masochistic) personality disorder. The most common Axis I disorder in psychoanalytic patients was dysthymia, followed by major depression, recurrent. This study reinforces the findings of the original three surveys. Minor corrections were developed to adjust the original three surveys.     

Children's implicit knowledge of harmony in Western music

Three experiments examined children's knowledge of harmony in Western music. The children heard a series of chords followed by a final, target chord. In Experiment 1, French 6- and 11-year-olds judged whether the target was sung with the vowel /i/ or /u/. In Experiment 2, Australian 8- and 11-year-olds judged whether the target was played on a piano or a trumpet. In Experiment 3, Canadian 8- and 11-year-olds judged whether the target sounded good (i.e. consonant) or bad (dissonant). The target was either the most stable chord in the established musical key (i.e. the tonic, based on do, the first note of the scale) or a less stable chord. Performance was faster (Experiments 1, 2 and 3) and more accurate (Experiment 3) when the target was the tonic chord. The findings confirm that children have implicit knowledge of syntactic functions that typify Western harmony.