Evaluation of sex-typed tasks by black men and women

Two studies examined the relationship of sex of subject, sex-typing of tasks, and prior task experience on self-confidence ratings of Black men and women. In both investigations, women's self-confidence tended to vary as a function of task type, while men's self-confidence remained relatively stable across all tasks. Prior experience with the task was highly correlated with self-confidence ratings for men and women and moderated the effects. The variations in the findings of Studies I and II and implications for future research are discussed.Portions of this study were reported at the Eastern Psychological Association Convention, 1983.     

The psycho-social stressors associated with survival by dialysis

The psychological condition of people surviving by dialysis has been investigated using the Dialysis Problem Check-list together with appropriate ratings. Although there may have been some underestimation owing to a denial effect, many stressing difficulties were revealed amongst a sample of dialysis patients and their partners. Some difficulties were associated with hardships directly caused by renal failure and the dialysis techniques, but others had their origin in the practices of the staff, particularly in relation to training and communications. The implications in terms of psychological intervention within a kidney unit are discussed.     

Book reviews

S tein , M urray , Practicing Wholeness
S piegelman , J. M arvin . Psychotherapy as a Mutual Process.
S hearer , A nn . Athene: Image and Energy.
C olman , A rthur D. Up from Scapegoating: Awakening Consciousness in Groups.
K ahr , B rett . D. W. Winnciott: A Biographical Portrait.
S iegel , A llen M. Heinz Kohut and the Psychology of the Self.
S tewart , H arold , with chapters by E lder , A ndrew , & G osling , R obert . Michael Balint: Object Relations Pure and Applied.
A dams , M ichael V annoy . The Multicultural Imagination: 'Race', Color and the Unconscious.     

Book reviews

F ordham , M ichael . Analyst-Patient Interaction: Collected Papers on Technique
E dinger , E dward G. The Aion Lectures: Exploring the Self in C. G. Jung's 'Aion'
S edgwick , D avid The Wounded Healer: Countertransference from a Jungian Perspective
S horter , B ani . Susceptible to the Sacred: The Psychological Experience of Ritual
Mc lynn , F rank . Carl Gustav Jung
S ymington , J oan & S ymington , N eville . The Clinical Thinking of Wilfred Bion
H azell , J eremy . H. J. S. Guntrip: a Psychoanalytical Biography
M ace , C hris (ed). The Art and Science of Assessment in Psychotherapy
G ray , R ichard M. Archetypal Explorations: An Integrative Approach to Human Behavior     

Increased regional cerebral glucose metabolism and semantic memory performance in Alzheimer's disease: A pilot double blind transdermal nicotine positron emission tomography study

Nicotinic receptor dysfunction and impaired semantic memory occur early in Alzheimer's disease patients (AD). Previous research implied that nicotine's ability to enhance alertness, arousal, and cognition in a number of nonclinical populations was a function of its ability to stimulate CNS nicotinic cholinergic receptors. In this study it was hypothesized that transdermal administration of nicotine would increase both regional cerebral glucose metabolism (rCMRglc) and semantic memory (as assessed by verbal fluency). Two mild AD and two elderly controls underwent positron emission tomography scanning during a double blind nicotinic agonist verbal fluency challenge procedure. rCMRglc increases occurred in both AD patients, but not controls. In the two AD patients, verbal fluency scores increased by an average of 17%. One elderly control's verbal fluency increased, and the other decreased. These findings suggest that nicotine's effect on metabolism and verbal fluency is due to its ability to stimulate the cholinergic system.     

Holland's theory and non-college-degreed working black and white women

The main concern of this study was to investigate differences between black and white American women employed in traditional female occupations who took the Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI) and the Self-Directed Search (SDS). The VPI and the SDS were administered to 110 black and white non-college-degreed workers in three occupations (laboratory technicians, sales clerks, and clerk-typists) corresponding to three of Holland's environmental categories (Investigative, Enterprising, and Conventional). In general, the findings for the three VPI and SDS scales and for these six occupational groups are mixed. On the SDS scales, findings indicate that black and white women in the same occupation seem to be far more similar than different. On the scales of the VPI, however, white and black women in the same occupation seem to be more different than similar.     

Unequal reinforcer magnitudes and relative preference for cooperation in the dyad

College-student subjects, who were paired with a confederate, chose to respond either independently or cooperatively for money reinforcers. The subject's relative preference for cooperation was assessed by a procedure (analogous to the psychophysical method of limits) in which response choice was monitored as reinforcer magnitude for one response mode was systematically varied while the other remained constant. Relative preference for cooperation was assessed when the confederate's payoff for cooperation was greater than the subject's (Experiment I) and when the confederate's payoff for independent responding was less than the subject's (Experiment II). For some subjects, changes in the confederate's reinforcer magnitudes resulted in shifts in relative preference for cooperation, which reduced the earnings differences, even though these preference shifts reduced the subject's absolute earnings. For those subjects for whom within-dyad differences in reinforcer magnitude produced no effect, a changeover button was introduced that allowed the subject to eliminate the payoff difference without reducing her own earnings; some subjects used this changeover button to eliminate earnings differences. Thus, the behavior of subjects varied, in part, as a function of reinforcer magnitudes provided for the confederate.