Some attitudinal and cognitive consequences of thought

A “reinterpretation of inconsistent cognitions” explanation of the previous finding that thought about an object tends to polarize attitudes toward that object was tested. Under the assumption that ambiguity facilitates reinterpretation, ambiguity of inconsistent information and opportunity for thought were manipulated. Consistent with expectations, (a) thought resulted in attitude polarization and this effect was increased with ambiguity (p < .01) and (b) evaluation (interpretation) of the inconsistent information varied as a function of thought (p < .05) and ambiguity (p < .01).     

Affiliation of opposite-sexed strangers

This study examined the effects of a subject's sex and affiliative tendency and the other's physical attractiveness on the cross-sexual interaction of strangers. Although previous studies showed that one's interest in an opposite-sexed other is a function of the other's physical attractiveness, the actual behavior of individuals in the presence of attractive and unattractive others had not been systematically examined. Subjects were individually placed in a 5-min waiting situation with a physically attractive or unattractive target of the opposite sex who behaved in a standard way. Conversations were recorded and subsequently analyzed; subjects also provided their impressions of the targets following the waiting period. Physical attractiveness of the opposite-sexed other did not significantly influence the subject's verbal affiliative behavior, but the combined influence of a subject's sex and affiliative tendency was predictive of cross-sexual affiliation. Although physical attractiveness did not account for differences in affiliative behavior, subjects preferred attractive over unattractive targets as potential dates or marriage partners.     

Phonemic behavior of aphasic patients with posterior cerebral lesions

The investigation analyzed the phonemic paraphasic errors of 10 asphasic patients with posterior cerebral lesions. The results indicated that paraphasic speech is characterized by complex confusions, often occurring at the ends of words and often involving phonemic transpositions. Many of the unusual and unexpected phonemic errors appeared to be due to simultaneous semantic and phonologic confusions.     

Developmental auditory agnosia in retarded adolescents: A preliminary investigation

Four mentally retarded adolescents who showed little or no expressive or receptive language were given a series of tests to determine if they could respond to meaningful nonlinguistic sounds. The tests required the subjects to respond to sounds on the basis of meaning by classifying the sounds according to the objects which produced them, i.e., the sound sources. The results show that the subject could not classify the sounds on the basis of their source although they could discriminate between them. These results are in contrast to the near perfect classification by another retarded subject who lacked speech due to a motor disorder but, nevertheless, showed good understanding of language. The finding that some nonverbal children have difficulty in responding to the meaning of nonlinguistic sounds suggests the possibility that the failure of these children to develop language may have been due to an agnosia not unlike that found in adult stroke patients.     

Sex,masculinity—feminity,and intelligence

Masculine and feminine subgroups of males and females were selected from samples of high school and college students on the basis of composite scores from several M—F scales. They were compared on intelligence as measured by a verbal test, Terman's Concept Mastery Test, and a nonverbal test, D-48. Results did not support previous findings of sex differences in intelligence but showed that masculine subgroups of both sexes scored higher of the nonverbal test.     

An examination of culture bias in the wonderlic personnel test

Internal evidence of cultural bias, in terms of various types of item analysis, was sought in the Wonderlic Personnel Test results in large, representative samples of Whites and Blacks totaling some 1,500 subjects. Essentially, the lack of any appreciable Race × Items interaction and the high interracial similarity in rank order of item difficulties lead to the conclusion that the Wonderlic shows very little evidence of cultural bias with respect to the present samples which, however, differ appreciably in mean scores. The items which account for the most variance within each racial group are, by and large, the same items that show the largest interracial discrimination.     

A theory of intelligence: I. span and the complexity of stimulus control

A theory of intelligence is couched in stimulus-response terms, bridging the gap between S-R and cognitive psychology. The chief theoretical concepts are span ability (a capacity notion), response string (sequentially cued responses), and complexity of stimulus control (task complexity). Span is equated with the ability to respond appropriately when several cues are conjunctively relevant for correct performance (complex stimulus control). So defined, span is consistently and broadly related to many aspects of intelligent behavior.     

Neutralizing sexist titles in Holland's Self-Directed Search: What difference does it make?

Sex-role stereotyping in the linguistic structure of Holland's Self-Directed Search (SDS) was examined. A revised SDS was constructed involving the removal of all masculine-toned terminology from the items and test-taking instructions, as well as the affixing of the letters M/F and F/M to all occupational titles and terms commonly perceived as gender specific. Subjects were 266 lower division female students at a large state university; 133 subjects completed the standard SDS and 133 completed the revised form. Following SDS assessment, subjects rated their inventory with respect to perceived sexual equality. Comparison variables included: daydreams, occupations' scores, summary codes, and subsequent occupational choices. Occupational choices at each stage of the assessment process were classified as nontraditional or traditional choices for women. Results indicated that across all indices derived from the standard and revised versions of the SDS, there were no significant differences in these subjects' performance. The subjects did perceive the two inventories differently, with subjects completing the standard SDS viewing it as slightly less equitable.     

Concurrent validity of Holland's theory for college degreed working women

The study was designed to explore two areas: (1) the concurrent validity of Holland's theory for employed college degreed women using two different operational definitions (Vocational Preference Inventory and the Self-Directed Search) of vocational orientation; and (2) the relationships among same named scales across the VPI and the SDS. Concurrent validity was studied by administering the VPI and the SDS to 179 women workers in occupational environments consistent with Holland's six vocational environments. In general, the findings indicate that the VPI and SDS scales tend to effectively discriminate among the occupational groups consistent with Holland's theoretical framework. In addition, the correlation coefficients for same named scales for the two inventories were all found to be significant. In sum, the results of the study lend some support to the concurrent validity of Holland's theory for employed college degreed women.     

Criterion-related and construct validity of the Career Maturity Inventory Competence Test with ninth-grade pupils

The purpose of this study was to examine the criterion-related and construct validity of the Career Maturity Inventory Competence Test. The Competence Test, Attitude Scale, and Cognitive Vocational Maturity Test were administered to 260 ninth-grade pupils in a rural junior high school to determine whether the variables were interrelated as hypothesized in theCrites (Theory and research handbook for the Career Maturity Inventory. Monterey, Calif.: CTB/McGraw-Hill, 1973) model of career maturity. The results show that, as predicted, the Competence Test is more highly correlated with the Cognitive Vocational Maturity Test than it is with the Attitude Scale. Also, as predicted, the subscales of the Competence Test are intercorrelated between .40 and .69. However, the correlations of the Attitude Scale with the Competence Test total score and the Cognitive Vocational Maturity Test total score are higher than the theoretical expectation.