Personality and Attitudinal Predictors of Support of Proposition 187—California's Anti-Illegal Immigrant Initiative1

Right-wing authoritarianism, stereotypes about illegal immigrants relative to legal immigrants (and nonimmigrants), and collective self-esteem were investigated as predictors of attitude toward California's Proposition 187—the 1994 initiative making illegal immigrants ineligible for public services. Among both Latinos (n= 92) and Caucasians (n= 79), right-wing authoritarianism and negative stereotypes about illegal immigrants predicted Proposition 187 support and reported vote. For Latinos, low collective self-esteem and high levels of acculturation predicted support and vote in favor of Proposition 187. In contrast, high collective self-esteem among Caucasians was related to Proposition 187 support and vote. The results suggest that 3 perspectives on prejudice—personality, cognitive, and cultural—contribute to the understanding of attitudinal and behavioral support of Proposition 187.     

Sexual coercion in high school dating

Retrospective data from a survey of Australian undergraduate university students indicated that sexual coercion leading to sex play and sexual intercourse is a feature of dating behavior in high school. Fifty-three percent of 217 females reported that a boy had overestimated the level of sexual intimacydesired, while 45 percent of 72 males reported that a girl had underestimated the level of sexual intimacydesired. While data was not gathered on ethnic origin, the majority of students were Australian born, although family of origin would have been culturally varied. The data illustrate sexual coercion leading to both sex play and intercourse, with a number of factors being implicated in its occurrence, including alcohol and drugs and males saying things they didn't really mean, through to threat and use of force. They support that the existence of sexual coercion among high school students, a population that has received little research attention in this area, is comparable to its existence in the college/university years.     

Control Appraisals as Moderators of the Relationship Between Intrusive Thoughts and Coping1

This study examined the relationship between intrusive thinking, control appraisals, and coping strategies within the context of stressful negative events using a short-term longitudinal design. Although intrusive thoughts were not related to problem-focused coping at Time 1, these cognitions were positively associated with problem-focused coping at subsequent reporting periods. Intrusive thoughts were positively associated with behavioral engagement. Perceived control was positively associated with problem-focused coping across all reporting periods, whereas perceptions of other's culpability were positively related to behavioral disengagement for all time periods except Time 1. There was limited support for the hypothesis that appraisals of control would moderate the relationship between intrusive thinking and coping behaviors.     

A mere exposure effect for transformed three-dimensional objects: Effects of reflection, size, or color changes on affect and recognition

If the mere exposure effect is based on implicit memory, recognition and affect judgments should be dissociated by experimental variables in the same manner as other explicit and implicit measures. Consistent with results from recognition and picture naming or object decision priming tasks (e.g., Biederman & E. E. Cooper, 1991, 1992; L. A. Cooper, Schacter, Ballesteros, & Moore, 1992), the present research showed that recognition memory but not affective preference was impaired by reflection or size transformations of three-dimensional objects between study and test. Stimulus color transformations had no effect on either measure. These results indicate that representations that support recognition memory code spatial information about an object’s left-right orientation and size, whereas representations that underlie affective preference do not. Insensitivity to surface feature changes that do not alter object form appears to be a general characteristic of implicit memory measures, including the affective preference task.     

Development of a Structured Psychiatric Interview for Children: Agreement Between Child and Parent on Individual Symptoms

To test the reliability of children's reporting as compared with that of their mothers, a highly structured psychiatric diagnostic interview was used with 307 subjects, ages 6 through 16. Another interviewer gave each mother a similar interview about the child. Responses of each mother-child pair to 168 questions were compared using the kappa statistic. Highest agreement was found on questions concerning symptoms that are concrete, observable, severe, and unambiguous. Mothers tended to report significantly more behavioral symptoms, and children more subjective symptoms. Reasons for low kappas and asymmetrical reporting of symptoms are discussed.     

The Costs of Type B Behavior: Females at Risk in Achievement Situations'

This study investigated the costs associated with the Type B behavior pattern in an achievement task completed by 84 male and female fifth- and sixth-grade students preselected for their Type A-B scores. We hypothesized that the achievement behaviors of Type B girls, in comparison to boys and Type A girls, would be most negatively affected by failure experiences. Hypothesis-testing strategies were assessed during a discrimination task that included eight training, four forced failure, and four success problems. Self-ratings of performance were obtained following failure and success experiences, and preference for challenge was measured. As expected. Type B girls in comparison to all other children showed the greatest decrement in their hypothesis-testing strategies during failure, appeared to have the most difficulty recovering from failure, were the only group to view their performance following success as poorer than other children's performance, and exhibited the least preference for challenge. These findings suggest that Type B girls are at risk in achievement situations.     

A delivery system for the treatment of primary enuresis

To illustrate how to deliver underutilized psychological treatments, a comprehensive, low-cost treatment for primary enuresis was developed consisting of bell-and-pad training, cleanliness training, retention control, and overlearning. Sixty primary enuretic children and their parents attended 1-hour group training sessions and implemented treatment in the home. Each case required 15 minutes of professional time, and net cost to each family was $50. Forty-eight (81%) achieved initial arrest of bedwetting and only 11 (24%) relapsed at 1-year follow-up. Significant association between relapse and prior treatment failure with imipramine was noted. The outcome was found to compare favorably with previous treatments that required more professional time.