Maternal employment,anxiety, and sex differences in college students' self-descriptions

This study sought to determine if a relationship exists between maternal employment during childhood, anxiety, and gender in college students. A questionnaire incorporating the Adjective Generation Technique (AGT) was administered to undergraduate psychology students from intact, two-parent families. Subjects were grouped into four categories: males whose mothers worked during their childhood (n=33), males whose mothers remained home (n=49), females whose mothers worked (n=54), and females whose mothers remained home (n=49). Data were analyzed using a 2×2 analysis of variance. Results indicated no differences in anxiety for subjects of either sex in relationship to the employment status of the mothers. A pronounced sex difference was found, with females scoring significantly higher in anxiety than males.     

Working mothers,sex differences,and self-esteem in college students' self-descriptions

This study examined whether a relationship exists between maternal employment and self-esteem of offspring. A questionnaire incorporating the Adjective Generation Technique (AGT) was administered to undergraduate psychology students from intact two-parent families. Subjects were divided into four categories: males whose mothers worked during their childhood (n=33), males whose mothers remained home (n=49), females whose mothers worked (n=54), and females whose mothers remained home (n=49). Data were analyzed using a 2 × 2 analysis of variance. Results indicated no differences in self-esteem for subjects of either sex in conjunction with the employment of their mothers. Instead, the subject's sex was the critical component affecting self-esteem. Males reported themselves significantly more favorably than did females.     

Helping as a function of empathic responses and sociopathy

The present study reports two experiments which investigated helping as a function of empathic anxiety (anxiety in response to modeled distress) and individual differences in sociopathic tendencies. The first experiment concerned the effects of empathic anxiety, sociopathy, and perceived similarity/dissimilarity to a distressed person on helping. As predicted, subjects who experienced high levels of empathic anxiety helped more than subjects who experienced low levels of empathic anxiety. High sociopathic subjects experienced lower levels of empathic anxiety and helped less than did low sociopathic subjects. However, a path analysis disclosed that sociopathy's relationship to helping was not due to (or mediated by) empathic anxiety. The similarity manipulation did not influence empathic anxiety or helping. In the second experiment, subjects were classified as primary or secondary sociopaths (based on their levels of trait anxiety). As in the first experiment, empathic anxiety and sociopathy were significantly related to helping. Primary sociopaths displayed less empathic anxiety than secondary sociopaths, but the two groups did not differ in their willingness to help. Thus, in neither study could the sociopath's behavior be explained by empathic anxiety. The discussion concerned empathy as a mediational variable in helping and the role of personality variables in helping. A post hoc explanation of the sociopath's behavior, based on Schwartz' theory of the characteristics of helpers, was proposed.     

Children's use of perceptual set

The effects of perceptual set and of “sequential visual noise” on the identification of briefly exposed pictures were examined in 5-year-olds, 8-year-olds, and adults. Subjects were asked to indicate whether a brief target matched a standard. The standard picture was presented either before the target picture (to establish a set) or after the target. The target was presented either alone or last in a series of six brief pictures (i.e., in noise). Adults and 8-year-olds were at ceiling when the target was presented alone, but set facilitated their identification of the target in noise. The 5-year-olds benefited from set both when the target was presented alone and when it was presented in noise. These findings suggest that set for a specific target picture functions similarly at all ages.     

Free Will as a Gift from God: A New Compatibilism

Philosophical Studies -     

Does trait coping exist? A momentary assessment approach to the evaluation of traits.

This study investigated the extent to which momentary reports of coping are a traitlike phenomenon and the validity of a questionnaire assessment of coping style. Participants (N = 96) completed the questionnaire, then monitored stressful events and coping activities for 2 days using a hand-held computer that administered a brief assessment every 40 min. Momentary reports exhibited a sizable traitlike component: Individual differences accounted for 42% of the variance for 2 coping items and 15-30% of the variance for 15 items. The questionnaire assessment of coping style was a poor predictor of average momentary coping; the coping style measure and the aggregated momentary measure of trait coping shared 23% of their variance for religion and 0-12% for the 16 other coping measures. Self-report assessments of trait coping are poor measures of the trait component of momentary coping and very poor predictors of coping in specific situations.     

The waiting-list group.

This report describes a pilot study of a waiting-list group (preliminary process group [PPG]) that provided treatment for applicants to a university affiliated, urban mental health center. All individuals on the treatment waiting list were informed of the PPG. This semistructured group, meeting weekly, began with members presenting their problems, followed by free discussion, and ending with goal setting for the next week. Approximately one seventh (35 out of 262) of the clinic's applicants during a 4 1/2-month period chose to enter the PPG. They differed from those who chose not to participate (wait list) by being older and less educated. Approximately 80% of both wait-list and PPG participants subsequently entered therapy. Significantly more PPG patients than those on the wait list entered group treatment. The PPG served clinic needs by providing prompt service for self selected individuals and by supporting the group therapy program.