Factors related to sleep quality in healthy elderly women.

Elderly women in subjectively good health--free of acute illness and major sleep pathologies--who were self-identified as good (n = 22) and poor (n = 16) sleepers were compared on measures of physical health, psychological symptoms, psychosocial status, and life-style. Poor sleepers reported longer sleep latencies, less total sleep time, more nonrestorative sleep, and more daytime fatigue than did good sleepers. Sleep recordings confirmed subjective reports, with shorter total sleep times and trends for lower sleep efficiency, longer sleep latencies, and more wake-after-sleep onset among women with subjective poor sleep. Poor sleepers also were more frequent users of sedative-hypnotic medications in the past. Current medication use, alcohol and caffeine use, daytime napping, and exercise were equivalent in both groups. Psychosocial status failed to discriminate groups. Poor sleepers reported significantly more psychological symptoms than did good sleepers. The levels of both psychological symptoms and sleep disturbance were mild.     

Everyday memory performance across the life span: effects of age and noncognitive individual differences.

Gerontologists have long been concerned with the impact of individual-difference factors on memory. This study used a large sample (N = 2,495) of adult volunteers aged 18 to 90 years to determine if a set of individual-difference variables--vocabulary, education, depression, gender, marital status, and employment status--mediates the effects of aging on a wide range of laboratory-analogue tests of everyday memory. The data indicated that age was consistently the most significant predictor of memory performance, followed by vocabulary and gender. Vocabulary totally mediated age effects on a prose memory measure, and partial mediation of aging effects--primarily by vocabulary and gender--was observed on 5 other memory tests. These data suggest that when health samples of volunteers serve as research subjects, these individual differences can affect some memory test scores, but age remains the best overall predictor of memory performance.     

Adult age differences in short-term memory and subsequent long-term memory for actions.

Short-term memory for actions was investigated for young adult and elderly adult subjects with the Brown-Peterson procedure at retention intervals of 0 and 15 s. The short-term memory trials were followed by the long-term recall of the prior to-be-remembered actions. The 15-s retention interval was filled either with no activity or with 1 of 3 different interfering activities. Verbal interference had little effect on short-term memory at either age level. Actions performed in the interval either by the subjects or by the experimenter produced significantly lower recall scores at each age level, with the decrement being more pronounced for the elderly than for the young subjects. The long-term memory results indicated that successful short-term recall enhanced later long-term recall, regardless of age level.     

The Counseling Process as Defined by Relationship Types: A Test of Helms's Interactional Model

Helms (1984) presented a model to explain the influence of Black and White racial identity development on counseling interactions. The purpose of this study was to examine her hypothesis that specific combinations of racial identity attitudes contribute to qualitatively different counseling process and outcome or relationship types.     

The development of general competence and domain-specific competencies

The development of competence was studied in a longitudinal sample of 98 children, with measurement points when the children were 7, 10, and 12 years old. Competence was defined in terms of adequate adaptation to developmental tasks, both on a general and on a domain-specijic level. The general form of competence was measured by ego-resiliency, reflecting fexibility and ability to solve developmental problems Domain-specific competencies were measured by school achievement and social preference. The results showed that ego-resiliency was related to the two domain-specific competencies, although the hypothesized causal direction from general competence to specific competencies was not supported. Both domain-specific competencies were found to have a feedback effect on ego-resiliency. This feedback effect was stronger for social preference. These results suggest a transactional relationship between general and domain-specific competencies, and point to the importance of domain-specific competencies (especially social preference by the peer group) in the development of general competence in the child.     

La classification des exemples d'après Aristote (Rhétorique 2,20)

Aristotle considers all examples, as far as they are used as rhetorical arguments, to be inductions (Rhetoric 1, 2, 8). On the other hand, he finds it worthwhile to distinguish different kinds of examples (viz., historical example, comparison, and fable). Moreover, comparisons and fables are said to be made by the orator, whereas historical examples are not (Rhetoric 2, 20, 2s). The present article attempts to explain this opposition.A close examination of what can be meant by induction reveals that this term applies differently to historical examples and to comparisons and fables. In a broader sense, all examples can be called inductions, insofar as a certain logical relation, different from the syllogistic one, obtains between conclusion and premises. This relation, however, is unable to explain why examples can serve as arguments. Applied to historical examples only, the term induction preserves its original meaning of checking samples in a number sufficient to yield generalization. In its narrow sense, induction gives a satisfactory account of how historical examples work. As for comparisons and fables — to which induction applies in a broader sense only — Aristotle fails to explain what makes them arguments. The explanation, missing in Rhetoric 2, 20, can, however, be given according to the general lines of Aristotelian dialectics and rhetorics. The main task of comparison and fable is to elaborate a so far unconsidered middle term (M) meeting the following conditions: the hearer is prepared to agree that M applies to the subject of the conclusion and that the predicate of the conclusion applies to M. All examples make use of a general proposition from which their conclusion can be inferred. Historical examples (like real inductions) produce instances, in order to confirm a proposition previously admitted as suitable premise, provided that its truth can be proved. Comparison and fables, by introducing a new middle term, try to form a premise susceptible of being admitted without proof.

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La classification des exemples d'après Aristote (Rhétorique 2,20)

     

The relationship between personal authority in the family system and discovery of meaning in life

This study investigated the relationship between intergenerational family relationships and Frankl's concept of meaning in life. Intergenerational family relationships were measured by the Personal Authority in the Family System Questionnaire (PAFS-QE) by Bray, Williamson, and Malone. The meaning in life variables were measured by the Life Attitude Profile-Revised (LAP-R) by Reker. This quantitative study, using the BMDP Statistical Package (Dixon, 1990), correlated the scores on various subscales from both instruments, resulting in seven statistically significant relationships. The findings, although modest, suggest the existence of a relationship between these two theoretical areas.This article is based in part on the first author's doctoral dissertation at Texas Woman's University.A copy of the PAFS-Q may be obtained from: James H. Bray, PhD, 5510 Greenbriar, Houston, TX 77005. A copy of the LAP-R may be obtained from: Gary Reker, PhD, Trent University, Psychology Department, Peterborough, Ontario Canada K9J 7B8.     

Respect for cultures,beliefs and attitudes: A way to better relationships and understanding

Beliefs and attitudes play a very important role in human behaviour. Particularly when strategies in psychological, social counselling and therpay are being forumulated, attitudes and beliefs, and beliefs about beliefs, play a crucial role. Personal, political and social considerations become more relevant and unavoidable (Lokare, 1975). When the counsellor or the therapist translates their theoretical and so-called scientific training and knowledge into gudance and advice things get tinted with the therapist's personal attudes and beliefs and mingle with those of the client (Loakare, 1974).