An Ecological View of School Satisfaction in Adolescence: Linkages Between Social Support and Behavior Problems

This study investigated the relationships among school satisfaction, social support, and problem behaviors in adolescents. Modest associations were found between school satisfaction and the demographic variables of gender, race, age, and grade level. Support from teachers, parents, and classmates contributed unique variance to ratings of school satisfaction; with teacher support contributing the most unique variance. School satisfaction mediated the relationship between social support and internalizing and externalizing behaviors. School satisfaction did not moderate the relationship between social support and problem behavior; however, it did serve as a protective factor across all levels of social support. Implications are discussed, including suggestions for developing interventions that focus on increasing support for adolescents in efforts to improve school satisfaction and reduce problem behaviors.     

解析城市中学生的消费心理与消费行为

城市中学生所接受的教育、所处的校园环境以及该年龄特殊的心理特征等因素使得这一阶段的个体有着特殊的消费心理和消费行为。对他们的消费心理和消费行为进行研究,提出相应的建议及对策,是有现实意义的。本文对当代城市中学生的消费水平、消费方式、消费心理的特点及其影响因素作了分析讨论并提出干预的对策。     

Relationships between job evaluation ratings and self-ratings of job characteristics

Self-ratings by 308 shop workers of their job variety, autonomy, task identity, and skill challenge correlate significantly with ratings by observers of the jobs' skill requirements. Self-ratings, however, are unrelated to observers' estimates of the physical demands of the jobs or to environmental conditions of the work. The self-ratings and observer measures provide complementary, not substitute, information. Self-ratings can signal person-job dysfunctions, and more objective job measures can identify possible sources of the dysfunctions. Modifications to job characteristics measures are discussed and suggestions are made to begin a new phase of programmatic job characteristics research.     

Research note: The accuracy of group majorities for disjunctive and conjunctive decision tasks

For complex group decision tasks which can be described in terms of establishing the truth value of conjunctive (and) or disjunctive (or) composite propositions, the advantage for group judgmental accuracy of disaggregating the decision task into separate individual evaluations of the truth value of each component atomic proposition in the composite is investigated. For true propositions it is shown that disaggregation is preferable for conjunctive tasks, but not for disjunctive tasks; while the reverse is true for false propositions.     

The development of basic mechanisms of pattern vision: spatial frequency channels

The mature visual system possesses mechanisms that analyze visual inputs into bands of spatial frequency. This analysis appears to be important to several visual capabilities. We have investigated the development of these spatial-frequency channels in young infants. Experiment 1 used a masking paradigm to test 6-week-olds, 12-week-olds, and adults. The detectability of sine wave gratings of different spatial frequencies was measured in the presence and the absence of a narrowband noise masker. The 12-week data showed that at least two spatial-frequency channels with adultlike specificity are present at 12 weeks. The 6-week data did not reveal the presence of narrowband spatial-frequency channels. Experiment 2 used a different paradigm to investigate the same issue. The detectability of gratings composed of two sine wave components was measured in 6-week-olds and adults. The results were entirely consistent with those of experiment 1. The 12-week and adult data indicated the presence of narrowband spatial-frequency channels. The 6-week data did not. The results of these experiments suggest that the manner in which pattern information is processed changes fundamentally between 6 and 12 weeks of age.     

Self-esteem and reactance: Further evidence of attitudinal and motivational consequences

The present experiments were designed to explore further the relationship between self-esteem and reactance within the domains of achievement and persuasion. Previous research in the achievement context has shown that self-esteem and reactance are positively related. Experiment 1 sought to extend this relationship into the persuasion setting. As predicted, a positive self-esteem/reactance relationship was obtained. The second experiment was designed to identify a factor that might moderate the relationship between self-esteem and reactance: degree of freedom threat. Previous research in the persuasion context has shown that the aforementioned self-esteem/reactance relationship is attenuated or even reversed when freedom threat is low rather than high. Experiment 2 sought to extend this relationship into the achievement context. As predicted, the positive self-esteem/reactance relationship was considerably weakened in the low-threat environment of Experiment 2, especially in comparison to previous research in which freedom threat was considerably higher. Taken together, the present and previous studies show consistent relationships between self-esteem and reactance across achievement and persuasion domains, suggesting that the essence of reactance is similar in these two domains. Practical implications are also discussed.     

Sign-tracking behavior in aversive conditioning: Its acquisition via a Pavlovian mechanism and its suppression by operant contingencies

When rats are presented with Pavlovian backward pairings in which shock is the unconditioned stimulus (US) and an elevated platform the conditioned stimulus (CS), they show a strong tendency to approach the platform. Attempts were made at evaluating the nature of the associative mechanisms responsible for the acwuisition and maintenance of the approach behavior. In Experiment 1, following a baseline period when platform presentations were given in the absence of shocks, first (training I), approach to the platform was prevented and subjects were exposed to either backward, forward, or random presentations of shock and platform: this procedure attempted to minimize the effects of response learning on the acquisition of approach behavior. Then (training II), all subjects received backward shock-platform pairings and had access to the platform. Approach to the platform was stronger in animals previously exposed to backward pairings than in the animals of the other two groups. Also, animals preexposed to forward platform-shock pairings showed suppression of approach behavior on the first trial of training II relative to their performance on the last trial of baseline. These data suggest that a stimulus-reinforcer learning mechanism alone is sufficent for the acquisition of approach. Experiments 2a and 2b evaluated the effects of “punishing” operant contingencies on Pavlovian-produced approach behavior. The results showed that approach can be eliminated, but only after repeated exposure to an operant contingency which consisted of the immediate closure of the platform upon approach responding. These data suggest that approach behavior produced by Pavlovian contingencies can be modified by operant contingencies. Taken together, these data provide additional support for a sign-tracking notion in aversive conditioning.     

EEG asymmetry and sleep mentation during REM and NREM

The hypothesis that dreaming is mediated by the right hemisphere was evaluated by monitoring EEG power asymmetry during REM and NREM sleep, and obtaining mentation reports when short-term temporal shifts in the EEG indicated relative left- or right-hemispheric dominance. Content analyses provided no support for the right-hemisphere hypothesis; indeed, some scales showed higher content during relative left-hemispheric dominance. In contrast to earlier reports, no difference between REM and NREM in EEG asymmetry was observed.     

The linkage of work achievement to self-esteem,career maturity,and college achievement

This study tested whether self-esteem and mature career attitudes related to one another and complemented one another in predicting academic and work achievement for 174 college students. Analysis showed both constructs related to achievement and supported the thesis that self-esteem facilitates development of mature career attitudes, which in turn promote academic and work achievement. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for theory and practice.     

The declining job satisfaction of white-collar women in sex-segregated and mixed-sex occupations

The declining job satisfaction of women white-collar workers reported by J. Veroff, E. Douvan, and R. A. Kulka (1981, The Inner American: A self-portrait from 1957 to 1976, New York, Basic Books) is explored through secondary analyses of their data from two national cross-sectional surveys conducted in 1957 and 1976. Analyses were done using data from 258 women in 1957 and 372 women in 1976 in white-collar jobs. Multivariate contingency table analyses were used first to explore the separate effects of type of white-collar employment, whether or not the job was sex segregated, age, birth cohort, and education on job satisfaction declines. The decline in job satisfaction was found to be greater for women in sex-segregated occupations that in mixed-sex ones. In addition, while all white-collar women express increased dissatisfaction with ego-involving aspects of work, those in sex-segregated fields showed the greatest increases in job dissatisfactions in affiliative and achievement spheres. Neither type of white-collar employment nor birth cohort related to differential job satisfaction declines though age and education changes did. The final multivariate analysis demonstrated that the changing age and educational characteristics of job holders in sex-segregated fields accounted for the greater job satisfaction declines for these women, and that sex segregation did not appear to affect job satisfaction beyond changes related to these demographic factors.