The Development of “Vocational Interests”: I. The Organization of Likes and Dislikes in Ten-Year-Old Children

Seventy-two black, white, and Mexican-American boys and girls enrolled in the Lansing, Michigan, Head Start program were administered the Purdue Self-Concept Scale for Preschool Children (PSCS), and their teachers rated their self-esteem on Coopersmith's Behavior Rating Form (BRF). A low positive correlation was obtained between the scores on these two techniques. Analysis of variance showed no significant differences by ethnicity or sex on self-esteem measured by either the PSCS or the BRF. Although the literature on ethnic and sex differences in self-esteem is contradictory, these findings suggest that group differences may be minimal.     

The Broaching Attitudes and Behavior Survey (BABS): An Exploratory Assessment of Its Dimensionality

The continuum of broaching behavior is a conceptual framework explicating how counselors broach or have explicit discussions about racial, ethnic, and cultural factors with their clients during treatment ( Day‐Vines et al., 2007 ). Counselors can assume 5 particular broaching orientations: avoidant, isolating, continuing/incongruent, integrated/congruent, and infusing. The authors operationalized the continuum of broaching behavior using the Broaching Attitudes and Behavior Scale and found support for a 4‐factor model of broaching behavior. El espectro de comportamiento de abordamiento es un marco conceptual que explica cómo los consejeros abordan o tienen discusiones específicas sobre factores raciales, étnicos y culturales con sus clientes durante el tratamiento ( Day‐Vines et al., 2007 ). Los consejeros pueden asumir 5 orientaciones de abordamiento particulares: evasiva, aislante, continua/incongruente, integrada/congruente e infundida. Los autores operativizaron el espectro de comportamiento de abordamiento usando la Escala de Actitudes de Abordamiento y Comportamiento y hallaron respaldo para un modelo del comportamiento de abordamiento de 4 factores.     

Cognitive control and consistency in compliance

Abstract

The purpose of this prospective study was two-fold. First, three modes of compliance assessment were used to examine whether renal dialysis patients comply consistently across medical regimens (fluid, potassium, phosphorous, protein) and whether compliance is consistent across mode of assessment (patient self assessment, medical staff ratings, physiological data). Second. a cognitive model predicting fluid compliance was tested to see if it would generalize to predict dietary compliance and medication taking. Patients' self-control perceptions of compliance, staff assessments of compliance, and physiological data were collected prospectively for 85 end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. Results indicated substantial consistency across medical regimen depending on the mode of assessment; staff assessment showed the most consistency, followed by patients' self-assessments and lastly by physiological data. Despite this consistency across medical regimens, the cognitive-control model only predicted fluid compliance; the model failed to explain dietary and medication compliance. Reasons and implications for these results are discussed.     

Regularity of unit length boosts statistical learning in verbal and nonverbal artificial languages

Humans have remarkable statistical learning abilities for verbal speech-like materials and for nonverbal music-like materials. Statistical learning has been shown with artificial languages (AL) that consist of the concatenation of nonsense word-like units into a continuous stream. These ALs contain no cues to unit boundaries other than the transitional probabilities between events, which are high within a unit and low between units. Most AL studies have used units of regular lengths. In the present study, the ALs were based on the same statistical structures but differed in unit length regularity (i.e., whether they were made out of units of regular vs. irregular lengths) and in materials (i.e., syllables vs. musical timbres), to allow us to investigate the influence of unit length regularity on domain-general statistical learning. In addition to better performance for verbal than for nonverbal materials, the findings revealed an effect of unit length regularity, with better performance for languages with regular- (vs. irregular-) length units. This unit length regularity effect suggests the influence of dynamic attentional processes (as proposed by the dynamic attending theory; Large & Jones (Psychological Review 106: 119–159, 1999)) on domain-general statistical learning.     

Eliciting salient beliefs in research on the theory of planned behaviour: The effect of question wording

The authors of the theory of reasoned action (TRA) and its extension, the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) recommend that researchers who use these theories to investigate the determinants of a given behaviour should first conduct an elicitation study to identify the modal salient beliefs in the target population. In spite of the importance accorded to salient beliefs by the TRA/TPB, the elicitation stage has received little research attention. This paper reports a detailed analysis of beliefs about “being more physically active in the next 12 months.” A general population sample of 213 adults completed a questionnaire while attending a research centre for a series of tests. The findings showed that the beliefs that were elicited by questions designed to prompt affective outcomes (like or enjoy, dislike or hate) differed systematically from those that were elicited by the traditional questions designed to prompt instrumental out-comes (advantages and disadvantages). Whether this resulted in different final sets of modal salient beliefs was found to depend on the particular decision rule that was employed. An alternative decision rule is proposed, based on maximizing the degree of overlap between the modal set and the full set of salient beliefs generated by the sample. The index of overlap can be used to gauge the adequacy of using a modal set of a given size to represent the salient beliefs of the whole sample. In the current dataset, the optimal modal set for “advantages and disadvantages” was associated with only 26 percent overlap with the salient beliefs of the whole sample, which was judged to be insufficient. In such cases, a better strategy may be to ask participants to generate and rate their own beliefs.     

Utility of the Mini-Mult with parents of emotionally disturbed children.

In order to determine the potential usefulness of the Mini-Mult as a screening instrument with parents of emotionally disturbed children, two studies were conducted. In the first study 128 MMPI profiles were rescored for the Mini-Mult and comparisons with MMPI were made. In the second study 50 parents were administered both the MMPI and the Mini-Mult. Results of both studies indicate that the Mini-Mult is not a good screening instrument with parents of emotionally disturbed children.     

Modification of behavior problems in the home with a parent as observer and experimenter

Four parents enrolled in a Responsive Teaching class carried out experiments using procedures they had devised for alleviating their children's problem behaviors. The techniques used involved different types of reinforcement, extinction, and punishment. One parent increased the frequency of the wearing of an orthodontic device during five daily time checks by making an immediate monetary payoff contingent on wearing the device. A second parent increased the number of points earned for doing daily household tasks by providing back-ups for which the points could be exchanged. The parents of a 4-yr-old boy decreased the frequency of whines, cries, and complaints by removing social attention when such behavior occurred. A mother decreased the duration of time it took for her 5-yr-old daughter to get dressed by making permission to watch television contingent on dressing within 30 min of the time she got up in the morning. Brief reversals of contingencies were used to show causal relationships between the procedures used and the changes in behavior. Checks on the reliability of measurement were made by persons present in the home.     

Projects in progress

This department publishes articles on large-scale projects in which logic plays a significant role, especially editions of collected or selected works. In addition to factual and historical details, articles describe points of historiography and scholarship which are of more general interest. Articles should be submitted to the Editor.     

The influence of prior knowledge and repeated questioning on children's long-term retention of the details of a pediatric examination

Children's recall of the details of pediatric examinations was examined over the course of a 6-month interval. Although the 83 4- to 7-year-old participants reported a substantial amount of information at each assessment, performance declined over time, dropping sharply over the course of 3 months but then remaining constant out to the final interview at 6 months. As expected, older children provided more total information than younger children did and reported a greater proportion of the event components in response to general rather than specific questions. However, comparable patterns of remembering and forgetting over time were observed at each age level. In addition, no effects of repeated questioning--in the form of an interview at 3 months for half of the children--were observed on performance at the 6-month assessment. Moreover, children's prior knowledge about routine doctor visits was assessed before the checkup for half of the participants at each age and was associated with initial but not delayed recall. Although knowledge increased with age as expected, it nonetheless affected recall over and above the influence of age.