Age-appropriate behaviors: a comparison of three generations of females

The purpose of this study was to examine differences in older adolescent and adult females' perceptions of age-appropriate behavior in adults. Subjects were three generations of maternally related females (95 older adolescents, 78 mothers, 83 grandmothers) who were administered a questionnaire designed to assess age-appropriate behaviors in three broad categories: recreation, occupation/career, and family. Major findings were that older adolescents were most tolerant of behaviors performed by individuals at varying ages while older women most closely ascribed to age constraints, and that the greatest agreement on appropriateness of age constraints concerned family relationships while least agreement concerned recreational activities. Results support the view that adolescents' values on family issues are consistent with those of their parents, and suggest that adherence to age norms increases throughout the life span or are the result of generational differences in socialization.     

Research-structured vs clinically flexible versions of social learning-based marital therapy

The purpose of this study was to compare our structured research-based version of marital therapy from a social learning perspective with a clinically flexible version of the same treatment where treatment plans were individually-based and there was no specific number of treatment sessions. Thirty distressed married couples were randomly assigned to one of these two treatments. Assessment of outcome was based on global marital satisfaction, spouse reports of functioning in specific areas, and direct observational measures of communication. At posttest there were no differences in efficacy between structured and flexible treatments, although both treatments led to significant improvements. At a 6-month follow-up couples treated with the structured format were more likely to have deteriorated and flexibly treated couples were more likely to have maintained their treatment gains.     

Patterns of movement in the first 6 months of life: new directions

The field of infant perceptual development has relied heavily on the preferential-looking and habituation paradigms. Despite the obvious advantages of employing standardized methodologies, there is a need to study how perceptual variables give rise to and guide action beginning in the neonatal period. It is argued here that, in the first 5 months of life, it is important to distinguish reflexive patterns of movement from voluntary and cortically controlled patterns. Some criteria are defined. This paper describes three experiments which utilized movement counters to record developmental changes in the frequency and synchrony of limb movements in infants under 5 months. The results show that there is a general increase in frequency of limb movements from 1 to 5 months, but with a plateau or even a decrease in activity from the middle of the third month to the end of the fourth month. It was also demonstrated that synchrony scores (co-activation) for pairs of limbs showed significant increases from 1 month to 5 months. Finally, in all three experiments the presentation of an attractive toy resulted in suppression of activity. The results of the three experiments are interpreted to measure a gradual increase in cortically controlled movement patterns.     

Definitional deficit: a model of senile dementia in context

This article presents some general theoretical concepts that can be used to consider processes of reality construction in interpersonal contexts. I developed a model of family context that taps affective dimensions of reality construction and used this model to explore these processes as highlighted by the labeling of symptoms of senile dementia. Ethnographic observations of 45 families with aged members were used to sketch a dichotomous typology of family-context patterns that promote symptom identification versus patterns that do not. The model suggests that the categorization of behavior as symptomatic or normal in context may be related to the extent to which reality construction processes are shared among members.     

Occupational choices of daughters of practicing rabbis

This paper examines the psychological impact that rabbis, as character types, have on their daughters. It describes how the father's impact psychologically predisposes these women to enter the helping professions in disporportionate numbers, and it shows how these job choices are often a means of coping with psychological issues connected to their upbringing.She is a candidate to become a psychoanalyst at the Chicago Center for Psychoanalytic Psychology.     

A CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY OF PERSONALITY: EGYPTIAN AND ENGLISH CHILDREN*

679 Egyptian boys and 696 girls completed the Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, translated into Arabic. Factor comparisons were moderately high for extraversion and social desirability but weak for neuroticism and psychoticism. Suitable item substitution produced a scoring key resulting in adequate reliabilities with the exception of a somewhat low reliability for the boys on extraversion and low reliabilities on psychoticism for both sexes. Sex differences on means of the dimensions were as usual, boys scoring higher than girls on extraversion and psychoticism, but lower on neuroticism and social desirability. Moreover, on comparing Egyptian with English means, using scales of items in common only, the English boys and girls scored higher than their Egyptian counterparts on extraversion but significantly lower on social desirability. British boys scored higher on psychoticism than did Egyptian boys but British girls scored lower than Egyptian girls.     

Effect of depression on processing interactions in group psychotherapy

Two studies were conducted to investigate the possibility of individual differences in the ability of inpatients to process interactions in group psychotherapy. The first was a pilot study conducted on groups of major depressive patients and matched normal subjects. Subjects were asked to give process comments after viewing simulations of typical group therapy interactions. These comments were later rated on the extent to which they reflected process qualities and accuracy. These data led to a more rigorous and extensive study that included more appropriate control groups as well as measures of potential confounding factors, such as simulation realism, verbal ability, and interaction comprehension. Results indicated that major depressives suffer from deficits in the ability to process group interactions, relative to three types of control groups, including normals. These differences in processing were not significantly positively correlated with any of the potential confounding factors. The implications for understanding interactional processing and group psychotherapy are discussed.     

COGNITIVE EFFECTS OF LOGO AMONG BLACK AND WHITE ZIMBABWEAN GIRLS AND BOYS

The cognitive effects of LOGO were examined among 11–12-year-old black and white Zimbabwean girls and boys. Fifty-two experimental group children were exposed to a BBC LOGO programme with a screen turtle. Forty-one control group children received no exposure to computers at school. Pre-tests on four WISC-R subscales were held in January, 1987 and post-tests on the same four WISC-R subscales were held in November/December, 1987. The data were analyzed with multivariate analysis of covariance, using pre-test scores as the covariate. The results suggested that children in the experimental group did better on the WISC-R Arithmetic scale and that black girls exposed to LOGO showed particular gains in spatial reasoning, as measured by the WISC-R Block Design scale. It is concluded that LOGO appears to facilitate cognitive growth. Methodological limitations of the present study are discussed and suggestions for future research are presented.