Requiem for “schizophrenia”

In this article a brief overview of the treatment of chronic psychosis for the last two centuries is covered, with particular emphasis on many scientifically demonstrated causes of chronic organic psychosis and their medically successful treatment, including recent neurotransmitter manipulations. With respect for the important contributions of Bleuler, the term “schizophrenic” is considered as an unscientific and unprovable nosological construct, which has hampered the successful resolution of chronic psychosis and has outlived its usefulness in the lexicon of modern psychiatry.     

Sexual arousal and interpersonal evaluations

In an attempt to reconcile conflicting results concerning the effects of sexual arousal on interpersonal evaluations, hypotheses based on adaptation level, arousal-need gratification, and labeling of arousal explanations were tested. The variables of sexual arousal, technique of stimulus material presentation, physical attractiveness of the original stimulus female, and physical attractiveness of the final target person being judged were manipulated in a 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 design. A significant three-way interaction (Arousal × Stimulus Attractiveness × Target Attractiveness) obtained on all measures of interpersonal evaluation was interpreted as supporting a labeling of arousal explanation. It is suggested that subjects first interpret their arousal as being caused by their attraction toward the stimulus person. The characteristics of the stimulus person then become a factor used by subjects when they subsequently make judgments of target females. The adaptation-level and arousal-need gratification hypotheses were not supported.     

Optic array determinants of apparent distance and size in pictures

This study explored whether special mechanisms are operative in picture perception to correct for the distortion that occurs when pictures are viewed from the wrong station point. Five photographs were taken of a layout composed of two same-sized dolls positioned at different distances on a flat untextured ground. Perspective differences existed between the photographs as a function of varying the distance of the camera to the layout. Each picture was viewed from five station points along the normal by 12 adults who estimated the relative magnitude of the depth interval between the dolls and judged whether the rear doll was objectively smaller, larger, or the same size as the front doll. No evidence was found of a compensation mechanism operating to stabilize the pictured layout. Distance and size judgments were affected in a manner that was consistent with what would occur if an actual layout and the conditions under which it were viewed were similarly transformed.     

Concurrent validity of Holland's theory for non-college-degreed black women

This study, using the Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI) and the Self-Directed Search (SDS), explored the concurrent validity of Holland's theory for employed non-college-degreed black women. The VPI and the SDS were administered to 102 black women workers in occupational environments consistent with Holland's six vocational environments. The results revealed that four scales of the VPI and four scales of the SDS successfully differentiated the occupational groups consistent with Holland's theoretical notions. In general, the findings lend some support to the concurrent validity of Holland's theory for employed non-college-degreed black women.     

Mobility among young workers in a multi-ethnic community

The job experiences of a group of young people of English and Pakistani origin who had left school four years earlier at the age of 16 were investigated using interviews and retrospective data from careers-office files. Job-changing had been frequent during the first 18 months of employment, with changes being largely of a non-promotional kind. Those who had experienced regular non-promotional job-change tended to have had low attainment in basic educational skills and inadequately developed vocational attitudes and personalities when leaving school. Yet in the majority of cases early mobility had led to stability by the end of the fourth post-school year. It is suggested that early job-changing may serve a positive function for the individuals concerned Implications for careers guidance in school are discussed.     

The differential assessment of males and females as prospective employees by a sample of nonworking women

Thirty-eight women, members of a local parents' group, role-played personnel managers, assessing prospective employees in 12 occupations, defined a priori as masculine or feminine, and ranking the occupations in terms of a prestige hierarchy. Candidates described as female were somewhat devalued in high status masculine careers, but this trend was not consistent. Highly qualified applicants were preferred overall, but level of competence did not induce differential appraisals by sex of applicant. Failure to discover a more pervasive prejudice against women was postulated as reliant on subject sample, and exploitative advantage to the assessor was suggested as the strongest predictor of a promale bias.