Sampling autobiographical memory

An empirical procedure for probing autobiographical memory was assessed. Words designating common objects, activities, and feelings were used as guides for recall of discrete experiences. Four properties of the recollections were assessed: latency, age of occurrence, temporal specificity of memory report, and type of experience. The three results of most general interest were: (1) consistent differences in properties of reports elicited by affect terms and those elicited by object and activity words; (2) a curvilinear relationship between latency and event age; and (3) reliable sex differences. Several proposals regarding the organization of autobiographical memory, and voluntary recall of personal experiences are discussed.     

Attibution of attitudes to speakers and listeners under assigned-behavior conditions: Does behavior engulf the field?

A conceptual replication of the assigned-behavior conditions of previous research in attitude attribution was conducted. Participants made attitude attributions about themselves and also about others who had either given, listened to, or not been exposed to either a proattitudinal or counterattitudinal essay. The position adopted in the essay significantly affected the attitudes attributed to those assigned to deliver the essay. Essay position had an equally strong effect upon attitudes attributed to those who merely listened to the essay, however. Thus, the fact that the actor had delivered a particular assigned essay apparently did not in itself convey information to the observers about the actor's attitudes. Experimental results suggested that essay direction affects attitudes attitudes attributed to others in an assigned-behavior setting because observers use their own attitudes to infer the attitudes of others. Since observers' own attitudes change after exposure to different essays, they attribute different attitudes to others.     

Support and opposition to the Women's Liberation Movement: Some personality and parental correlates

This study examines eight hypotheses concerning personality and parental determinants of support and opposition to the Women's Liberation Movement. One hundred seventy-two male and female University sutdents who scored at the upper and lower quartiles of the Social Order Scale were administered the following tests: Personality Research Form, Pensacola Z, Rotter Locus of Control, and the Schaefer Parent Behavior Inventory. As predicted, opposers of both sexes score significantly higher on Authoritarianism, Harmavoidance, Social Recognition, and significantly lower on Understanding. Supporters of both sexes score higher on Autonomy. Fathers of opposers are perceived as significantly more Child Centered and Possessive, while fathers of supporters are higher on Inconsistency, Autonomy, and Hostile Detachment. These cognitive, motivational, and parental variables are interpreted in relation to the differing dispositions of each group toward the issues raised by the women's movement.     

Masculinity-femininity perceptions of job requirements and their relationship to job-sex stereotypes

Perceived sex appropriateness of the work situation is believed to constrain work opportunities, particularly for women. However, sex appropriateness may be defined either with respect to the entire job or with respect to the tasks which comprise the job. In this study sex appropriateness of job tasks was examined by obtaining subjective estimates of the masculinity-femininity of the job requirement dimensions defined by the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT). Results indicate that interacting with things is perceived as masculine, interacting with people is perceived as feminine, and interacting with data is perceived as falling between the other two. There is less agreement on the masculinity-femininity of specific types of interactions with data, people, and things. Sex appropriateness of specific requirements was found to be only moderately associated with the DOT's assessment of the complexity of those requirements. Further, sex appropriateness of job requirements was not highly related to the job sextypes established by Shinar (Shinar, E. H. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1975, 7, 99–110) and Krefting et al. (Krefting, L. A., Berger, P. K., and Wallace, M. J. Jr. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1978, 13, 181–191). This suggests that sex appropriateness of a job and sex appropriateness of the tasks which comprise the job are distinct, separate concepts.     

Managing Frustration for Children (MFC) Group Intervention for ADHD: An Open Trial of a Novel Group Intervention for Deficient Emotion Regulation

Deficient emotion regulation is a common and impairing area of difficulty among children with ADHD. Few interventions specifically address deficient emotion regulation. The Managing Frustration for Children With ADHD (MFC) group treatment was developed to specifically target deficient emotion regulation deficits common to children with ADHD. The MFC was developed as a 12-week multisystemic intervention for emotion regulation deficits among children with ADHD. An open trial assessed the effectiveness of the MFC as an adjunctive treatment for deficient emotion regulation among children with ADHD. Fifty-two children with ADHD ages 9–11 (42 boys, 10 girls) were enrolled in the MFC, with 44 completing treatment. The majority (71.2%) of participants had at least one comorbid internalizing, externalizing, or learning disorder. Intent-to-treat repeated-measures ANCOVA suggested significant decreases in emotion regulation deficits, mood difficulties, and externalizing difficulties following completion of treatment. More than half (53%) of children who completed treatment experienced reliable and clinically significant improvement in at least one area of functioning. The MFC demonstrated promising initial effectiveness in addressing the emotion regulation deficits of children with ADHD.     

Responding to a positive stimulus by “satiated” pigeons

Skinner (1938) found that rats given discrimination training (Phase I) and then reinforced to “satiation” for responses in the presence of the negative stimulus (S?) (Phase II), began to respond again when the positive stimulus (S+) was reintroduced (Phase III). Experiment I replicated Skinner's finding with pigeons, alternating S+ and S? presentations during Phase III. In Experiment II, Phase II was extended, and Phase III results were similar to those of Experiment I, demonstrating that the recovery of S+ responding could not be attributed to a lax Phase II satiation criterion. In Experiment III, a uniform schedule of reinforcement was maintained throughout the three phases, and results similar to those of Experiment I were found, indicating that renewed S+ responding was not due to the shift in schedule between phases. In Experiment IV, Phase I consisted of discrimination training with two positive stimuli (S+_s and S+_n), and Phase II consisted of reinforcement for responses in the presence of S? and S+_s. During Phase III, significantly more responding was found to S+_s and S+_n than to S?, but no difference in responding was found between the two positive stimuli. In Experiment V, Phase I consisted of simple discrimination training, and during Phase II, responses in the presence of both S? and a novel stimulus (So) were reinforced. During Phase III, significantly more responding was found to S+ than to either S? or So, with no difference found between S? and So responding. Renewed responding to S+ during Phase III in the present experiments is best explained by behavioral contrast developed during Phase I.     

Some effects of attitudinal similarity and exposure on attraction and aggression

Previous research investigating the relationship of attraction and aggression has yielded somewhat equivocal results. The present study investigated the influence of two variables, attitudinal similarity and exposure, on interpersonal attraction and physical aggression. Fifty-four subjects received differential exposure to another individual and were later given information concerning this individual's attitudes. The subject's attraction toward the stimulus person was assessed followed by measures of aggression toward the stimulus person. Analysis of variance indicated that an attitudinally similar other was liked significantly more (p < .01) and aggressed against significantly less (p < .05) than an attitudinally dissimilar other. The exposure variable had no main effect on either attraction or aggression but interacted significantly (p < .05) with the attitudinal variable in producing differential attraction.     

A Vocational interest test minus sex bias

The Vocational Preference Inventory responses from 290 subjects (110 males and 180 females) were subjected to a Rasch item analysis, one of a class of latent trait models. After elimination of 22 items which did not fit the model, a sex-free form of the VPI was obtained. Group interest scale scores are presented for each of the Holland scales and data are produced which indicate that no violence was done to the Holland coding system.