The composite measure of the defense mechanism inventory

A reanalysis of previously published data suggests that the Defense Mechanism Inventory can be utilized to yield a composite measure of reaction to frustration by contrasting linearly the defenses of Turning-against-object and Projection against those of Principalization and Reversal-of-affect. Factor-analytic and correlational data support the exclusion of Turning-against-self from the composite measure. Studies of content validity are presented for the combination of the four defenses into one dimension. Patterns of interitem reliability are charted for the five defenses and the composite measure for both men and women. Internal consistency data are also presented for the standard scoring as well as for a modified method to explore the feasibility of simplifying and shortening the test-taking procedure.     

Causal explanations for school performance: Contrasts between mothers and children

This study investigated the causal attributions given by mothers and their fifth and sixth grade children to explain the children's success in a school subject of relatively high achievement as well as their failure in an area of low performance. Participants were asked to weight the importance of four attributions: ability, effort, personality, and training. Analyses of variance revealed significant differences between mothers' and children's weightings. Mothers cited children's ability as the main cause of success, while lack of effort was viewed as the reason for failure. Children, in contrast, gave effort as the explanation for success and lack of ability as the reason for failure. The apparent lack of concordance between mothers' and children's causal beliefs is discussed in terms of three explanatory possibilities: (a) actor/observer differences, (b) the effects of the affective bond between mother and child, and (c) the tendency toward self-presentational bias.     

Preschoolers' counting: principles before skill

Three- to 5-year-old children participated in one of 4 counting experiments. On the assumption that performance demands can mask the young child's implicit knowledge of the counting principles, 3 separate experiments assessed a child's ability to detect errors in a puppet's application of the one-one, stable-order and cardinal count principles. In a fourth experiment children counted in different conditions designed to vary performance demands. Since children in the errror-detection experiments did not have to do the counting, we predicted excellent performance even on set sizes beyond the range a young child counts accurately. That they did well on these experiments supports the view that errors in counting—at least for set sizes up to 20—reflect performance demands and not the absence of implicit knowledge of the counting principles. In the final experiment, where children did the counting themselves, set size did affect their success. So did some variations in conditions, the most difficult of which was the one where children had to count 3-dimensional objects which were under a plexiglass cover. We expected that this condition would interfere with the child's tendency to point and touch objects in order to keep separate items which have been counted from those which have not been counted.     

The importance of home practice for progressive relaxation training

The efficacy of home practice assignments was evaluated as a component of standardized progressive relaxation training. Subjects reporting general anxiety and tension problems were assigned to either a home practice relaxation, no home practice relaxation or wait-list control condition. Treatment was conducted for 10 sessions over a 5-week period. In addition, subjects in both conditions engaged in in-vivo application of their relaxation skills during a final 2-week application period. Group comparisons showed that both progressive relaxation conditions significantly improved on daily self-monitored general anxiety and tension levels relative to the wait-list control condition. Group analyses of percent subject improvements supported the effectiveness of home practice assignments, especially during the application period. No systematic differences between groups, on physiological and self-report variables, were found during several laboratory relaxation evaluation sessions. This study supports the contribution of home practice assignments to progressive relaxation training.     

Social problem solving and mother-child interactions of educable mentally retarded children

Mothers of retarded children and nonretarded children were observed and videotaped as they interacted with their own child in a seminaturalistic situation, requiring teaching, cooperation, and free play. The child's social problem-solving abilities were assessed independently. The Vineland scale was employed to provide some convergent evidence of social problem-solving as a component of social competence. Twelve educable mentally retarded and 19 nonretarded 10-year-old children and their mothers comprised the sample. For the mentally retarded group, it was found that the higher maternal directiveness, the lower the child's social problem-solving skills. Mothers who often gave the child opportunity for decision-making and social influence had children with higher problem-solving skills. The retarded children produced significantly fewer different strategies for solving social problems, but gave a wider range of strategies than has been found in previous research. There was some support that social problem-solving skills are related to social maturity.