The effects of reward and punishment on reaction times and autonomic activity in hyperactive and normal children

The performance of hyperactive and control children was compared on a delayed reaction time task under three reinforcement conditions: reward, punishment, and reward plus punishment. Hyperactives had slower and more variable reaction times, suggesting an attentional deficit. Although each of the three reinforcement conditons was successful in improving reaction times for both subject groups, reward led to a significant increase in impulsive responses in the hyperactive children. Autonomic data revealed that reward also increased arousal to a greater extent than punishment or reward plus punishment. Although resting skin conductance was not different in the two groups of subjects, hyperactives produced fewer specific autonomic responses to signal stimuli.     

Sex-role orientation and achievement context as determinants of the motive to avoid success

Seventy-two female high school students with cumulative GPAs of 3.0 or above were administered the Wellesley Role Orientation Scale and four verbal cues used to measure success-avoidant imagery in response to feminine competitive achievement in a variety of contexts. Results indicated that the arousal of success-avoidant imagery was partially a function of the role orientation (traditional vs. nontraditional) of the students and the context within which the success was presented. As hypothesized, nontraditionally oriented students generated fewer success-avoidant responses across cues than either moderate or traditionally oriented students. However, differences in the proportion of imagery across cues was carried by the differential responses of the nontraditional students, suggesting that the inhibition of achievement behavior among women may be differentially moderated as a function of the salience of the achievement context and their definitions of sex-role-appropriate success.     

American menstrual expressions

Girls tend to learn menstrual euphemisms at menarche, usually from mothers and female friends. Boys usually report learning them in high school or college from male peers. Women often view the terms as a secret language for use in the company of males or others in whose presence a straightforward statement about menstruation is deemed embarrassing. Among men, menstrual euphemisms tend to have sexual and derogatory connotations. Interpretations which accompany these folk expressions are presented to illustrate general aspects of menstrual and sexual socialization.     

Understanding female careerism

Horner's fear of success construct rests on the assumption that women react negatively to achievements which violate their definition of appropriate gender-role behavior. Consistent with this assumption, the present investigation attempted to determine whether fear of success imagery expressed in response to different achievement-related cues would covary with (a) a woman's own gender-role orientation and/or (b) the perceived gender-role norms of her significant male. One hundred female honors students completed the Maferr Inventory of Feminine Values and responded to projective cues depicting competitive success characterized as (a) traditionally male, (b) traditionally female, (3) social—domestic, and (d) vicarious. Only one relationship reached significance. Women who perceived the significant male in their life as endorsing nontraditional gender-role behavior were more likely to respond negatively to vicarious success. Fear of success bore no relationship to the gender role of the subject herself. In view of these findings it is considered unwise to regard fear of success as the single, most powerful determinant of a woman's role choices. A more generalized cognitive model which incorporates additional intrapsychic as well as situational factors is proposed.     

Problem solving in hyperactive,normal, and reading-disabled boys

Diagnostic problem solving was examined in groups of hyperactive, normal, and nonhyperactive reading disabled boys matched on age and verbal IQ. On the matrix solution task employed (a version of the game of 20 Questions) hyperactives used less efficient questions and strategies than the other two groups, in spite of the task being designed to maximize the performance of the hyperactives. Readingdisabled children were not significantly worse than normal children on the task. The results were interpreted as suggesting that the attentional difficulties of hyperactives retard the development of strategies for solving complex problems. Nonhyperactive reading disabled children may be less affected in this area because of the absence of significant attentional difficulties.This article is based on a doctoral dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research of McGill University by the first author. We are grateful to the students, teachers, and principals of the following schools in the Montreal area: Allancroft, Beacon Hill, Briarwood, Cedar Park, Greendale, Hillcrest, Lakeside Heights, Martinvale, Sunny Dale, Thomas H. Bowes, and Vivian Graham. Special thanks are due Rhonda Amsel, John MacNamara, and Chet Olsen for their help and advice.     

Sex differences in student dominance behavior in female and male professors' classrooms

Measures of verbal participation and interaction among graduate students provided a comparison of male and female dominance behavior in the classroom, and measures of the contextual effect of sex of professor provided further data on the interrelatedness of sex, status, and dominance behavior. Male students were found to exhibit significantly more aggressiveness (interruptive behavior) than female students in both male and female professors' classes, although significantly more male aggressiveness occurred in female professors' classes than in male professors classes. Male students were significantly more assertive (frequency and duration of speech) in female professors' classes only. In student-to-student interaction, aggressiveness was predominantly exchanged between sexes rather than among same-sex members.The author would like to thank Julie Parks and Joanie Rubin for their help with this research.     

Human taste response as a function of locus of stimulation on the tongue and soft palate

Taste recognition thresholds and psychophysical intensity functions were determined for NaCl, sucrose, QHC1, urea, and citric acid for four loci on the tongue and on the soft palate. The results showed greater differences between loci than previously reported. Contrary to older data, the threshold for bitter was found to be lower for the fungiform papillae at the front of the tongue and for the soft palate than for the vallate papillae. For all compounds, the slopes of the intensity functions varied with the locus of stimulation. The functions for most compounds were steepest at the vallate and foliate loci.     

The Effects of Participation in Decision-Making on Worker Satisfaction and Productivity: An Organizational Simulation1

Although correlational evidence of a positive relationship between participation in decision-making and satisfaction is relatively consistent, whether participation in decision-making has a causal effect on satisfaction remains unclear. The present research examined, through an organizational simulation in which high and low levels of participation in decision-making were manipulated, the causal effect of participation on satisfaction and productivity. The subjects were 128 male undergraduates randomly assigned to 32 four-person groups. Results of the experiment showed that participation in decision-making had a significant positive effect on satisfaction. In addition, the correlation between perceived influence and satisfaction was positive (r= .31). Contrary to theoretically derived predictions, participation had no impact on productivity.     

Chronic self-destructiveness: Conceptualization,measurement, and initial validation of the construct

Individual differences in various behaviors suggest that those who are primarily motivated by current emotional factors are more likely than those motivated by more distant cognitive considerations to engage in acts that are ultimately self-destructive. To assess and explore these behavioral differences, 12 samples of undergraduate subjects, totaling 864 (527 females, 337 males), a group of 15 businesswomen, and 111 male VA patients were used to develop a measure of this construct in a series of reliability and construct validity studies. By means of internal-consistency item analyses, two cross-validated 52-item measures of chronic self-destructiveness were constructed for males and females. Reliability was established with respect to internal consistency (alpha coefficients range from .73 to .97) and temporal consistency over a 1-month period (test-retest correlations range from .90 to .98). There is a slight drop in chronic self-destructiveness scores across age groups. Test scores were found to be positively related to external locus of control, negatively related to Type A coronary-prone behavior, and unrelated to either social desirability response set or need for achievement. Individuals high in chronic self-destructiveness, compared to those with low scores, are more likely to be in treatment for drug or alcohol abuse, to report having cheated in courses, to have had traffic violations, to report having gone through a rebellious stage in adolescence, and to postpone obtaining a medical test for cancer. Chronic self-destructiveness appears to be a personality dimension that affects behavior across a wide range of ages and situations.We wish to thank John Wapner for his assistance in obtaining data in the clinical sample.