The consistency and structure of aspect-based career preferences

Career aspects (e.g., work environment, using verbal ability, length of training, teamwork) are an elaboration and extension of vocational interests. Aspect-based preferences can serve individuals and their career counselors only if they are reliable and stable. Study 1 estimated the two-week test–retest reliability of 213 college freshmen's preferences in 31 career aspects and the two-year stability of these preferences for 132 of these freshmen. The two-week reliability and the two-year stability of both the within-aspect preferred levels (e.g., “only indoors” most preferred, but “mostly indoors” is also acceptable) and the aspect importance were tested for each of the aspects. The interquartile ranges of the two-week reliability of the aspect importance and of the preferred within-aspect levels were .54–.62 and .63–.74 for the 31 aspects; the interquartile ranges of the two-year stabilities were .38–.48 and .48–.59, respectively. These interquartile ranges reflect the variance in consistency among the aspects. Study 2 explored the structure of the aspects based on the pattern of associations among them. In addition, it examined the consistency of the aspect structures by comparing them in four samples (total N = 40,313). The structure was found consistent across time (Spearman r_s = .88, .76 and .68, two weeks, two years, and 20 years later, respectively), within culture (r_s = .75 and .76, for women and men, respectively), and across cultures (USA and Israel; r_s = .64). Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Investigating the relationship between working memory and emotion regulation in mothers

Recent work suggests that executive functions, specifically working memory, may facilitate emotion regulation (ER). Here we examined whether measures of visuospatial working memory and verbal working memory relate to ER in a group of recent mothers. We found that while visuospatial working memory was associated with, and predictive of, self-reported measures of ER and emotion dysregulation—verbal working memory was correlated to only one dimension of emotion dysregulation. These findings suggest that working memory may play a unique role in everyday regulatory functioning. We frame our results in terms of the broader implications they may have for the potential role of executive functioning in parenting.     

Strategy Discovery as a Competitive Negotiation between Metacognitive and Associative Mechanisms

Both metacognitive and associative models have been proposed to account for children's strategy discovery and use. Models based on only metacognitive or only associative mechanisms cannot entirely account for the observed mix of variability and constraint revealed by recent microgenetic studies of children's strategy change. We propose a new approach where metacognitive and associative mechanisms interact in a competitive negotiation. This approach provides the flexibility to model the observed variability and constraint.     

Gender Differences in the Organization of Guilt and Shame

Lewis [(1971) Shame in Guilt in Neurosis, New York: International Universities Press] argues that guilt and shame represent distinct modes of perceiving and experiencing information about the self that are congruent with gender-linked differences in socialization. We tested predictions from Lewis' model that shame-proneness in adult White females (n = 102), but guilt-proneness in adult White males (n = 99), would account for a substantial proportion of the variance in measures assessing their characteristic use of defense mechanisms and endorsement of gender roles. Certain results confirmed Lewis' broader claim that guilt for men, but shame for women, were predominant modes of organizing information about the self. Other results did not support certain specific predictions made by Lewis or they provided only equivocal support (e.g., in men, the joint positive relationship of guilt-proneness to communal orientations but its negative relationship to externalization). Similar discrepant findings emerged for females' construal of guilt, which also related positively to internalization. Although shame-proneness did emerge as the principal emotion variable for females, it was linked to both internalization and externalization. Lewis' model is reconsidered in light of recent empirical findings and the need to conduct more on-line investigations of transgression-emotion induction-emotion reduction cycles.     

Contribution of ADHD symptoms to substance problems and delinquency in conduct-disordered adolescents

We examined adolescents with conduct disorder (CD) and substance problems to determine if those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptomatology had more severe delinquency and substance involvement. ADHD symptomatology was assessed in two ways: (1) by self-reports using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (DISC) and (2) by use of DISC plus reports of others (parents, program staff, and program teacher). We divided boys into three ADHD groups based on DISC: those who met criteria, those who reported at least eight current symptoms, and those who reported fewer than eight symptoms. We also divided the same boys into two groups: those with reports of ADHD by two or more sources and those without this multisource ADHD. Examining these definitions of ADHD revealed that boys with either self- or multisource ADHD had more CD symptoms, earlier age of CD onset, more substance dependence diagnoses, and more comorbid depression and anxiety.This investigation was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse Grant No. DAO6941.     

Inhibition, Contextual Segregation, and Subject Strategies in List Method Directed Forgetting

This experiment tested alternative explanations of list method directed forgetting effects. Two word lists were studied by 135 subjects. Between lists, subjects were instructed to remember both lists (remember group), remember both lists as well as in which list words were studied (segregate group), or to forget the first list and remember the second (forget group). All subjects took both recall and recognition tests with test order varied between subjects. Among subjects who took the recall test first, the forget group showed a directed forgetting effect (poorer performance on List 1 than List 2) with both recall accuracy, recall typing time, and recognition reaction time measures. Contextual segregation of List 1 words by forget subjects was ruled out as a sufficient cause of the effect. Limited support was obtained for a differential rehearsal explanation of the effect. Within-group comparisons and findings of release from directed forgetting support inhibitory processes as the major cause of the directed forgetting effect.     

Scalable choice models

Two representational criteria for probabilistic choice models are studied. These criteria, called scalability and weak scalability, are shown to be characterized by behavioral axioms designated, respectively, as pairwise dependence and weak pairwise dependence. The former is shown to be equivalent to the order independence axiom of Tversky. In addition, structural conditions on the choice alternatives are established under which all axioms are equivalent.     

Vaginal stimulation in rats induces prolonged lordosis responsiveness and sexual receptivity.

Sexual receptivity to males resulted from stimulation of the vagina with a glass rod in previously unreceptive ovariectomized, estrogen-treated rats. Several minutes of rejection behavior preceded the receptivity. In a second study, manual palpation was used to determine the duration of the lordosis response facilitation. Initially, all females were unresponsive to manual flank-perineum stimulation (palpation). Vaginal stimulation plus palpation, which together elicit lordosis, facilitated subsequent lordosis responses to palpation. This effect persisted for several hours after the vaginal stimulation was applied. Vaginal stimulation alone, which was ineffective in eliciting lordosis, also facilitated lordosis in response to subsequent palpation. Repeated palpation did not facilitate lordosis. These prolonged effects were independent of hormone treatment.     

THE SILENCING THE SELF SCALE: Schemas of Intimacy Associated With Depression in Women

The Silencing the Self Scale (STSS), derived from a longitudinal study of clinically depressed women, measures specific schemas about how to make and maintain intimacy hypothesized to be associated with depression in women. To assess its psychometric properties, the STSS was administered with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) to three samples of women: college students ( n = 63), residents in battered women's shelters ( n = 1401, and mothers ( n = 270) (of 4-month-old infants) who abused cocaine during pregnancy. The STSS had a high degree of internal consistency and test-retest reliability and was significantly correlated with the BDI in all three samples.