Rorschach blends, IQ, and the effect of R.

A correlation of .351 was found between the Rorschach blend score and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Full Scale IQ (WAIS FSIQ) score for 70 outpatients. When the total number of responses (R) was partialed out, however, the correlation dropped to .255. We concluded that it is advisable to take into account the effects of R in validity studies showing significant but low correlations. The importance of further exploring the psychological implications of R was stressed.     

Prediction of facial displays from knowledge of norms of emotional expressiveness

A study was conducted to examine the accuracy of prediction of facial expressiveness from knowledge of the norms of expressiveness in same-sex and mixed-sex social interactions. Men and women subjects were videotaped while they viewed emotionally loaded stimulus slides and rated their responses to them. The edited videotapes were shown to judges who attempted to identify the emotion reported by each viewer for each slide. A separate group of subjects was asked to rate how acceptable or appropriate it is for a man or a woman to express each target emotion under the conditions of the slide-viewing study. The accuracy of emotion identification data correlated highly with acceptability ratings across emotions and sex pairings, although examined more closely, the data show this predictability only for same-sex pairings. Alternative explanations for these results in terms of display rules and the social demands of interactions are discussed.The authors wish to thank Alan Fridlund for helpful comments on a previous version of this paper.     

Differences in irrational beliefs of pregnant and never pregnant adolescents

Twenty-five pregnant and/or parenting adolescents were compared with sixteen nonpregnant adolescents on two irrationality measures: The Child and Adolescent Scale of Irrationality and the Adolescent Pregnancy Beliefs Questionnaire. Findings suggest that pregnant adolescents subscribe to a greater number of general irrational beliefs; to a greater number of irrational beliefs specific to sex, dating and birth control; to a greater number of beliefs consistent with promoting pregnancy; and to fewer beliefs that might deter pregnancy when compared to never pregnant adolescents.Karen Westphal holds a Ph.D. in School Psychology from the University of South Carolina. She is an Assistant Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychology, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio.Susan Wagner worked with Dr. Westphal on this research while she was a graduate student at Cleveland State University. She is presently employed in the Mood Disorders Research Project at University Hospitals, Cleveland, Ohio.     

Counselor preference and anticipated comfort ratings for a clinic sample of sexually abused versus non-abused girls

We compared counselor preference and anticipated comfort ratings for sexually abused and non-abused girls. Twenty-five sexually abused and 22 non-sexually abused girls between ages 7 and 17 participated in an initial psychological evaluation at a university outpatient clinic. Results obtained using the Counselor Preference and Comfort Survey revealed no significant difference between sexually abused and non-abused girls' ratings of their preference for male or female counselors and their anticipated comfort with male counselors; non-abused girls expressed significantly higher anticipated comfort with female counselors than did their abused counterparts. It was illustrated that younger girls', abused and non-abused, were more likely to prefer a female counselor and to anticipate being more comfortable with a female counselor. In addition, older non-abused girls were more likely to prefer a male counselor and more likely to anticipate being comfortable with a male counselor. Participants in both groups expressed a higher preference for and anticipated comfort with female counselors as compared with male counselors.     

Estimating flexible distributions of ideal-points with external analysis of preferences

Ideal-points are widely used to model choices when preferences are single-peaked. Ideal-point choice models have been typically estimated at the individual-level, or have been based on the assumption that ideal-points are normally distributed over the population of choice makers. We propose two probabilistic ideal-point choice models for the external analysis of preferences that allow for more flexible multimodal distributions of ideal-points, thus acknowledging the existence of subpopulations with distinct preferences. The first model extends the ideal-point probit model for heterogeneous preferences to accommodate a mixture of multivariate normal distributions of ideal-points. The second model assumes that ideal-points are uniformly distributed within finite ranges of the attribute space, leading to a more simplistic formulation and a more flexible distribution. The two models are applied to simulated and actual choice data, and compared to the ideal-point probit model.This research was funded by the Dean's Fund for Faculty Research of the Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University.     

Cancer Recovery and the Spirit

The present study addresses the definition and exploration of the existential and spiritual experience of persons who had spontaneously remitted or made a remarkable recovery from cancer. Spontaneous remitters had experienced a remission without having allopathic treatment which could account for the cancer regression. Those with remarkable recoveries may have had treatment, but had been given a prognosis of less than a 20% chance of survival in a specific number of months or years, and had survived at least five years past this time. The narratives of the ten participants indicated that cancer proved to be a wake-up call propelling them into unprecedented existential and spiritual growth. Nine of the participants reported that they had healed not only at physical, but also at emotional and spiritual levels. Most described a new and intensely numinous relationship with the divine and with the unity of all beings which was not religiously oriented. Nine out of ten participants felt that cancer had been a gift.     

Theory and Method of Social Representations

This paper gives an overview of social representation theory, definitions of the key terms and of the social processes leading to a representation and to social identity. Six empirical studies are presented and details of their methods and findings are given to illustrate this social psychological approach. These studies are about the ontogenesis of gender, the public sphere in Brazil, madness on British television, images of androgyny in Switzerland, individualism and democracy in post-communist Europe and metaphorical thinking about conception. The methods are ethnography, interviews, focus-groups, content analysis of media, statistical analysis of word associations, questionnaires and experiments. Finally, social representation theory is compared to theories of attitudes, schemata and social cognition.     

Cerebral Asymmetries in Processing Strategies for Letter and Symbol Trigrams

Several studies have shown that laterally presented consonant–vowel–consonant (CVC) strings produce both superior performance, and a more wholistic processing strategy in the right visual field/left hemisphere (RVF/LHEM), and a more sequential strategy in the inferior left visual field (LVF). To determine whether these strategies are applied to other types of trigrams subjects (n= 30) were asked to identify consonant and symbol trigrams briefly projected unilaterally to the LVF or RVF, or bilaterally (the same trigram in both fields—BVF). A second group of subjects (n= 30) first practiced pronouncing consonant trigrams and then viewed them tachistoscopically. Both tasks yield RVF advantages. Symbols are processed more wholistically in the LVF, more sequentially in the RVF and in an intermediate pattern when presented bilaterally. In contrast, subjects seem to chunk letters as bigrams, and do so equally well in all fields, and visual field differences in strategies emerge for consonants only when they are pronounced. Pronounceability of consonant trigrams, assessed with ratings and vocal reaction times, was predicted by orthographic regularity. Since the RHEM has limited phonetic skills, but it, like the LHEM, is privy to information on orthographic regularity, the error pattern on consonant strings indicates non-phonetic processing, whereas the RVF wholistic strategy for consonant–vowel–consonant strings appears to reflect phonetic processing.