Effects of Playing Videogames on Children's Aggressive and Other Behaviors1

Noting the pervasiveness of videogames in American culture, the authors set out to examine the effects that playing videogames has on children. Thirty-one children were matched on sex, randomly assigned to play either a violent (karate) videogame or a nonviolent (jungle vine swinging) videogame, and then observed during free play. The main results were that the children who had played the jungle swing videogame later played more with a jungle swing toy and that the children who played the violent videogame later showed more aggression. The authors interpreted the findings as an indication that young children who play videogames later tend to act similarly to how their videogame character acted.     

A survey of psychologists employed in business and industry

Responses to a questionnaire from 78 members of the Metropolitan New York Association for Applied Psychology provided the following results. A majority of respondents found their first jobs as applied psychologists through informal networking techniques such as personal recommendations or self-starter methods such as sending out resumes. Over 75% of the respondents rated their graduate institutions as good or excellent. However, an increase in the applied focus of these programs was strongly urged, and opinions about graduate faculties were mixed. Obtaining applied work experience or relevant internships was the most often mentioned advice for seekers of similar positions.Appreciation is expressed to Harold Takooshian of Fordham University who first aroused our interests in this topic as an area for research and to Bruce Biskin of AICPA, Dennis Hawver and Tony Zinsser of the Hawver Group, Ted Grant and Michael Secunda of Manufacturers Hanover, and Tom Novak of Young & Rubicam for serving as pre-test subjects for the questionnaire of this study.     

Memory for metaphor by nonfluent bilinguals

The purpose of this study was to investigate memory for metaphors by nonfluent bilinguals under different orientation conditions. In Experiment 1 beginning bilinguals were asked to either (1) translate into English the figurative meanings of metaphors in the second language (L2); (2) translate into English the literal meanings of these same metaphorical sentences; (3) translate these metaphorical sentences into English-no specific instructions as how to translate given; (4) translate into English a similar list of nonmetaphorical sentences; (5) copy in L2 the list of metaphorical sentences; or (6) copy in L2 the list of nonmetaphorical sentences. Subjects' memory for these sentences was measured on a cued recall test. In Experiment 2 monolingual subjects did language tasks similar to conditions 1, 5, and 6 in Experiment 1. In both experiments, recall was best in the first condition and worst in the fifth condition. In Experiment 1 recall was also poorer in the second condition than in the other translation conditions. The implication is that the task for this condition requires subjects to process materials in a counterintuitive manner.     

Fluency versus conscious recollection in the word completion performance of amnesic patients

To examine the relative contribution of fluency and recollection to the word completion performance of amnesics, we administered a task in which patients were told specifically not to utilize previously presented words during stem completion (an Exclusion condition). This condition was contrasted with a standard word completion task in which patients were encouraged simply to complete the stem with the first word that came to mind (an Inclusion condition). Since the exclusion condition necessitated controlled respecification of the initial presentation, it was hypothesized that amnesics would be less able than controls to exclude study list items. Consistent with this hypothesis, the results indicated that the amnesics' performance, unlike that of the alcoholic controls, did not significantly differ as a function of task condition. To examine whether amnesics' conscious recollection could be enhanced, Experiment 2 presented the study list five times. The amnesics now were able to exclude a significant number of items from the study list; however, they still did so considerably less frequently than alcoholic controls. For the alcoholic controls, increasing the number of study trials had little additional effect on their exclusion performance, but it significantly enhanced their inclusion performance. Taken together, these findings suggest that for control subjects, word completion performance is likely mediated by a combination of fluency and recollection, while for amnesic patients, performance is almost exclusively based on the fluency with which an item comes to mind.     

Psychologists' evaluations of individual assessments: A comparison on the basis of graduate training and professional affiliation

Recent research on individual psychological assessments for personnel decision-making purposes has indicated a great deal of variability in practice. This study compared the responses of psychologists who evaluated the same set of assessment protocols on the basis of graduate training and professional affiliation. Results indicated few differences in evaluations of those assessed or in the way assessments were conducted. Concerns about training for and the practice of individual assessment are discussed.     

Reflections upon charitable giving: A comparison of individuals from business, ‘manual’ and professional backgrounds

This paper compares three groups of individuals in their beliefs about charitable giving. Focusing upon their preferences for different kinds of needy recipients, the paper compares the views of 49 people from (a) business, (b) professional and (c) ‘manual’ backgrounds. Their justifications of need provided the basis for comparisons on the basic themes of emotional response to requests for funds, to local versus overseas aid and to the relative roles of charity and state provision. It is argued that distinctions between the groups show the need to examine specific beliefs as well as generally held ideologies about charity. In addition, a further comparison of the groups is used to argue that they exemplify differences in the actual form of the gift relationship. These differences in form show the importance of examining charitable giving within specific social contexts, as well as with reference to the various ways of raising funds.     

Smoking, body weight, and their effects on smoking behavior: a comprehensive review of the literature

This article provides a comprehensive review of the research on smoking and body weight. The relationships between smoking and body weight are evaluated in 70 cross-sectional and longitudinal investigations. The mechanisms responsible for differences in body weight are discussed, the weight-related issues that promote smoking behavior are reviewed, methods for reducing postcessation weight gain are summarized, and future research directions are proposed. A proposed working research model for studying the relationship between smoking, energy balance, and weight gain is offered. It is concluded that smoking and body weight relationships are closely related and pose significant challenges for smoking researchers.     

Behavioral correlates of developmental expressive language disorder

The association of behavior problems with preschool language disorders has been documented extensively. However, researchers have typically failed to differentiate subgroups of language-impaired children, to use observational data in documenting the behavior disorders, or to study children at the youngest ages. Using a multimodal assessment, this study examined parent-child interaction and behavior problems in a clearly defined subgroup of language-impaired children, those with developmental expressive language disorder (ELD). These children exhibit a delay in expressive language compared with receptive language and nonverbal cognitive skills. Subjects were identified and studied at the youngest age at which the disorder can be assessed. A group of ELD children, averaging 27 months of age, was contrasted with a group of normally developing children, matched for age, sex, and receptive language ability. Groups were compared on observed parent-child interactions as well as maternal responses on the Parenting Stress Index, the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory, and a behavior-related structured interview. ELD children, when compared with normally developing children, exhibited higher levels of negative behavior and were perceived as different by their parents.Portions of these data were presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Baltimore, April 1987, and at the annual meeting of the Society for Pediatrie Research, Anaheim, California, April 1987. This work has been supported by NIMH grant no. 1 R03 MH41603 to author Fischel, and by NICHD grant no. 1 ROI HD19245 to authors Whitehurst and Fischel. It has also been supported by grants of equipment from Commodore Business Machines, Inc., Koala Corporation, and NEC Telephones. We thank the Department of Pediatrics at the Nassau County Medical Center for the use of their facilities.     

Characteristics of residential retarded clients as predictors of staff expectations and frustrations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of four client characteristics—functioning level, aggressive behavior, self-injurious behavior, and attractiveness—with staff expectations of and frustration with clients. Forty staff members who worked with severely and profoundly retarded individuals served as participants. Staff members rated each client with whom they worked on the extent to which the client could behave better and learn faster as well as the level of frustration experienced in working with the client. A client's functioning level was related to staff perceptions such that the higher the functioning level, the more the client was seen as having the potential to behave better or learn faster than (s)he was presently demonstrating. Staff frustration was related to client aggression indicating that as aggression increased so did staff frustration in working with that client. Implications of the results are discussed.