Working mothers,sex differences,and self-esteem in college students' self-descriptions

This study examined whether a relationship exists between maternal employment and self-esteem of offspring. A questionnaire incorporating the Adjective Generation Technique (AGT) was administered to undergraduate psychology students from intact two-parent families. Subjects were divided into four categories: males whose mothers worked during their childhood (n=33), males whose mothers remained home (n=49), females whose mothers worked (n=54), and females whose mothers remained home (n=49). Data were analyzed using a 2 × 2 analysis of variance. Results indicated no differences in self-esteem for subjects of either sex in conjunction with the employment of their mothers. Instead, the subject's sex was the critical component affecting self-esteem. Males reported themselves significantly more favorably than did females.     

Social skills training for young adolescents

A systematic assertiveness training program was developed for adolescents, based on Albert Bandura's social cognitive theory. The program, which focused on peer interactions and social responsibility, consisted of six 40-minute semi-weekly sessions and was presented to a class of 22 sixth-grade social studies students in a middle school. Cognitive acquisition of the information was measured with multiple-choice tests administered immediately after training and at a 6-month follow-up. Trained students performed significantly better than a control group on the posttest (p less than .01) and on the 6-month follow-up (p less than .02), demonstrating that young adolescents can acquire and retain the symbolic information that forms a basis for assertive behavior.     

A Report on a Four-Year Longitudinal Study of Intellectual Development of Engineering Undergraduates

As part of an investigation into the effects of curricular reforms in the undergraduate program in the College of Engineering, a series of Perry-style interviews were conducted over a 4-year period. The study was undertaken in an attempt to assess the impact of collaborative design-based engineering courses that were being implemented. Students who completed the collaborative design course in their first year were higher on the Perry scale than their peers who did not. However, this effect was not sustained through the rest of the curriculum, as more traditional courses dominated. No statistically significant change in Perry position was observed for students in their 1st and 3rd years; however, a growth of approximately one Perry position was observed between the 3rd and 4th years. The relationship of current curricula to this pattern of intellectual development is discussed, and arguments for altering the curriculum to support intellectual development are made.     

The functional neuroanatomy of prelexical processing in speech perception

In this paper we attempt to relate the prelexical processing of speech, with particular emphasis on functional neuroimaging studies, to the study of auditory perceptual systems by disciplines in the speech and hearing sciences. The elaboration of the sound-to-meaning pathways in the human brain enables their integration into models of the human language system and the definition of potential auditory processing differences between the two cerebral hemispheres. Further, it facilitates comparison with recent developments in the study of the anatomy of non-human primate auditory cortex, which has very precisely revealed architectonically distinct regions, connectivity, and functional specialization.     

Effectiveness of intensive outpatient programming in private practice: integrating practice, outcomes, and business

The development of a model for treating acutely depressed patients on a frequent basis in an independent practice setting is described. Strategies to collaborate with managed care organizations, employee assistance programs, and local provider networks to recruit these patients are outlined. The patients treated in the intensive outpatient program described in this article were primarily depressed, were more acutely distressed than national and local inpatient samples, were often in suicidal crises, and had multiple comorbidities. Nonetheless, they demonstrated significant pre- and posttest improvements on a variety of client- and clinician-rated measures. A dose-response curve further illustrated that significant improvement in depressive symptoms was predictable. Private practitioners can expand their services through the development, implementation, delivery, management, and evaluation of mental health services that respond to market dynamics.     

The Effect of User Control on the Cognitive and Emotional Processing of Pictures

This paper explores psychology related to the moment that control is exercised during interactions with media. What is the difference in the thoughtful and emotional engagement of viewers with the content presented between reacting to media versus controlling its onset? Subjects viewed pictures on a computer as part of a 2 (control) × 2 (picture type) × 16 (repetitions) × 2 (order) within-subjects experiment (N = 22). In one condition, subjects controlled the picture onset with a computer mouse. In the other condition, the computer controlled the picture onset. Heart rate and skin conductance were collected as indicators of the automatic attention and arousal elicited by each manipulation of control. Results showed that subjects exhibited a cardiac orienting response when the computer controlled the onset of emotional pictures. Subjects failed to orient when they had control over picture onset. Physiological arousal, as measured by skin conductance, was higher when subjects had control over picture onset. Subjects gave higher subjective ratings on valence and arousal for pictures that were presented by the computer. These results are discussed in relation to current assumptions about interactive media and audience activity.     

The contribution of the inferior parietal cortex to spoken language production

This functional MRI study investigated the involvement of the left inferior parietal cortex (IPC) in spoken language production (Speech). Its role has been apparent in some studies but not others, and is not convincingly supported by clinical studies as they rarely include cases with lesions confined to the parietal lobe. We compared Speech with non-communicative repetitive tongue movements (Tongue). The data were analyzed with both univariate contrasts between conditions and probabilistic independent component analysis (ICA). The former indicated decreased activity of left IPC during Speech relative to Tongue. However, the ICA revealed a Speech component in which there was correlated activity between left IPC, frontal and temporal cortices known to be involved in language. Therefore, although net synaptic activity throughout the left IPC may not increase above baseline conditions during Speech, one or more local systems within this region are involved, evidenced by the correlated activity with other language regions.     

The (Non)Impact of Differential Test Taker Engagement on Aggregated Scores

Disengaged test taking tends to be most prevalent with low-stakes tests. This has led to questions about the validity of aggregated scores from large-scale international assessments such as PISA and TIMSS, as previous research has found a meaningful correlation between the mean engagement and mean performance of countries. The current study, using data from the computer-based version of the PISA-Based Test for Schools, examined the distortive effects of differential engagement on aggregated school-level scores. The results showed that, although there was considerable differential engagement among schools, the school means were highly stable due to two factors. First, any distortive effects of disengagement in a school were diluted by a high proportion of the students exhibiting no non-effortful behavior. Second, and most interestingly, disengagement produced both positive and negative distortion of individual student scores, which tended to cancel out much of the net distortive effect on the school’s mean.