Effects of Administrator and Participant Sex and Ethnicity on Self-Disclosure

Self-disclosure patterns of Anglo-Americans and Mexican Americans were analyzed according to overall frequency of reported self-disclosure and preferred targets (i.e., mother, father, male friend, female friend). Administrator sex and ethnicity were systematically varied so that the interaction of these variables with participant sex and ethnicity could be investigated. Results revealed that Anglo-Americans reported the most disclosure and Mexican-American men the least. Some suggestions are provided for counselors working with Mexican-American men.     

Psychopathology subtypes and symptom correlates among former prisoners of war

Psychopathology and symptom patterns were studied in 60 former prisoners-of-war (POWs) by administering standardized tests including the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), an adjustment problem checklist, and a structured clinical interview. Most POWs showed marked psychological impairment, but modal profile analysis identified two prototypic MMPI patterns, which differed in pervasiveness and type of psychopathology. Profile subtypes were defined by unique clusters of clinical symptoms and differed in confinement stress severity. The typology of symptoms argues against a homogeneous conceptualization of stress-induced disorders and suggests the need for definition of the severity and subtype of stress phenomena and individual difference factors in responding to trauma.     

The process of scapegoating in a neonatal nurses' group

This paper reviews the literature on scapegoating, elaborating on the underlying mechanisms before describing the process of scapegoating as it occurred in a neonatal nurse support group. Illustrative vignettes are used to discuss how scapegoating was used by group members to avoid painful feelings arising from their care of extremely ill infants. Group process is related to the stages of the group's development as feelings were addressed more directly and the need to use scapegoating as a defense decreased.     

Effects of sex role identity and sex on definitions of sexual harassment

Individuals' own definitions of sexual harassment ultimately influence the success of their companies in responding to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's (EEOC) guidelines against sexual harassment. Previous research has consistently shown that women see more sexual harassment than do men. However, sex differences in definitions of sexual harassment could be explained by sex role identity. Results from a study of undergraduate business students and MBA students holding full-time jobs instead reaffirmed the existence of a sex effect and revealed the presence of a Sex X Masculinity interaction effect. Subjects' femininity had a minor effect on their definitions of sexual harassment.A previous version of this article was presented at the Academy of Management Meeting, Dallas, August, 1983. Appreciation is extended to Lisa A. Film for her assistance with data analysis.     

Duration of negative practice and the reduction of leg pounding of a traumatically brain-injured adult

This study evaluated the relative efficacy of long (1 minute) and short (15 seconds) durations of negative practice for reducing self-stimulatory leg pounding of a traumatically brain-injured adult. In individual social skill training classes, long negative practice and short negative practice were administered concurrently in an alternating treatments design. Generalization of treatment effects outside of training sessions was assessed during the client's lunch period. The results revealed that both durations of negative practice were equally effective in reducing leg pounding during training sessions. However, the effects of training did not generalize to settings in which the practice contingency was not enforced. Pounding was more frequent and negative practice somewhat less effective during periods of high social stimulation.     

A model for courseware development in psychology

Many behavioral scientists are aware of the advantages of a systematic approach to research and the development of software used in research. However, coordinated and systematic efforts to develop instructional materials in the behavioral sciences are relatively rare. This paper and the symposium of which it is a part describe a systematic effort funded by FIPSE to assess the needs for microcomputer tools and courseware in the undergraduate curriculum in psychology and to stimulate the development of high-quality materials. The conceptual bases for development of materials are vertical and horizontal integration-the development of courseware that spans the curriculum from introductory to advanced, specialized, courses, and the systematic use of materials within a course and across courses and subject areas. The activities of the project, as well as implications for other computer-based development projects, are discussed.     

Death and dying in medicine: What questions are still worth asking?

Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics -     

An analysis of some sensitizing agents in the pathogenesis of stress-induced gastric erosive disease

Prior surgical implantation of a venous catheter sensitized rats to coldimmobilization stress. Three of six catheterized females succumbed during the stress. The remaining rats fell into two groups in terms of their core temperature at the end of the stress period: Male uncatheterized rats had higher temperatures than rats in the other three groups. No relation was found between catheter patency and magnitude of hypothermia. Degree of gastric disease paralleled the core temperature findings in that the male uncatheterized rats had significantly fewer gastric erosions than the rats in the other three groups. Additionally, a robust effect of gender was found with uncatheterized females showing more hypothermia and more gastric disease than uncatheterized males. A subsequent experiment was conducted to evaluate whether anesthesia or wearing the protective spring was responsible in part for the sensitization seen. Here, the gender difference was less although females consistently averaged lower core temperatures after stress than did males. Despite similar core temperatures after stress, females that were prepared with the protective spring apparatus developed more gastric disease than female controls or similarly treated males. Thus, the additional sensitization exhibited by females in the first experiment may relate to the fact that both catheterization and the taping procedure were sensitizers while only catheterization was a sensitizer for males.     

Postnatal development of respiratory and vocal responses during aversive classical conditioning in cats

Respiratory rate, respiration amplitude, and vocal responses were recorded in cats of different ages during classic conditioning. Vocal responses to the conditional stimulus (CS) appeared first in 8-week-old kittens, and became prominent at older ages. An increase in respiration rate occurred after the onset of the CS in cats of all ages. Similarly, the decrease of respiration amplitude was observed at all ages, but only in 8-week-old and older subjects did this response resemble an adult pattern. In 4-week-old kittens the response was characterized by an early and brief peak, suggesting an alpha conditional response (CR). Clear and significant discrimination between a warning and a safety signal was present in both respiratory and vocal responses after the age of 8 weeks.     

How normal and retarded individuals monitor and regulate speed and accuracy of responding in serial choice tasks

These experiments investigate whether or not differences in the way that retarded and nonretarded individuals monitor and regulate speed and accuracy of responding contribute to the slower and more variable performance of retarded subjects on choice reaction time (RT) tasks. Rabbitt (1979, 1981) suggested that efficient choice RT performance is mediated by subjects tracking increasingly faster RT bands on successive trials until, by making and recognizing errors, they discover those very fast RT levels that should be avoided and those safe bands, just above typical error levels, that should be tracked. Experiments 1A and 1B established that most retarded subjects detect their errors as efficiently as nonretarded controls, a finding that excludes the possibility that retarded subjects do not monitor accuracy efficiently but achieve comparable levels of accuracy by consistently responding within very slow RT bands that minimize likelihood of errors. Experiment 2 showed that while a qualitatively similar trial-by-trial tracking mechanism mediates the performance of both groups, retarded subjects are less efficient at constraining RTs within very fast, but safe, bands. Increasing error probabilities at longer RTs suggest that momentary fluctuations in stimulus discriminability and/or attention are factors affecting RT variability in retarded subjects. The RT patterns for various sequences of correct responses initiated and terminated by errors suggest that the effective past experience (EPEX) guiding trial-by-trial RT adjustments of retarded subjects is short and inadequate, and it was argued that this can account for much of the remaining RT variability contributing to retarded-nonretarded differences. Not only does a short EPEX increase variability by giving rise to long error-free sequences of slower than average RT but also, when combined with occasional specified random fluctuations, it suggests why retarded subjects can achieve, but not sustain, RT levels maintained by nonretarded subjects.