Rating scale vs. pair comparison in moral judgment: A replication of the study by von Wright & Niemelä (1966) with a different method

The eight moral story-cartoons used by von Wright & Niemelä (1966) were given to 20 four to six-year old nursery school children who rated them on a six-point scale. The resulting order of mean ratings was identical with the order of scale values constructed from the pair-comparisons of the 10-year-old group in the original study and closer to the order of 13-year-olds than to that of the seven-year-olds.     

Psychophysiological arousal related to Type A components in adolescent boys

The association between psychophysiological responses (heart rate, skin conductance and blood volume) and Type A behavior was studied in adolescent boys (n = 48) in computer-controlled experiments. Although psychophysiological arousal was related to the type of stress-evoking element, task-specificity did not result in significant psychophysiological differences between Type As and Nontype As. The indication is that physiological arousal may be a constitutional characteristic of Type A behavior. The multidimensionality of type A behavior must be considered in any investigation examining the psychophysiological Type A-Nontype A differences. Different Type A dimensions, together with previously found psychological differences, were related to specific psychophysiological reactions.     

An aggression machine I. The intensity of aggressive defence aroused by aggressive offence

PitkÄnen, L. An aggression machine. I. The intensity of aggressive defence aroused by aggressive offence. Scand. J. Psychol., 1973, 14, 56–64.-Sixty 9-year-old boys were tested with an aggression machine (PAM) designed by the writer. PAM allows the variation of both S (light) and R (pressing a button) intensities. The stimuli and responses were given the designations of offensive and defensive aggression, respectively. The following main hypotheses were supported: (1) The intensity of impulsive aggressive defence to an aggressive offence was adapted to the intensity of attack. (2) The intensity of aggressive defence was determined by the authority of the attacker, the defence being strongest when the attacker was a person of the same age and status, and least vigorous when the attacker was a figure of authority or a weaker person. (3) The correlations of the intensity of aggressive defence against different attackers depended on the similarity of their social position; the correlations were higher the closer the position.     

An aggression machine III. The stability of aggressive and nonaggressive patterns of behaviour

PitkÄnen, L. The stability of aggressive and non-agressive patterns of behaviour. Scand. Psychol., 1973, 14, 75–77.-Six extreme groups (overtly aggressive, aggressive-anxious, anxious, controlled extraverts, balanced controlled, and controlled introverts) had been composed on the basis of peer ratings. The differences between the groups were describable in terms of a two-dimensional model including the main dimensions "number of overt responses" and "control of behaviour". Independent teacher ratings after an interval of one year showed that the individual patterns of behaviour adopted for coping with thwarting situations were maintained in spite of the change of class environment.     

The effect of simulation exercises on the control of aggressive behaviour in children

Abstract.— The subjects consisted of two. matched, extremely aggressive (experimental = ExG and control = CoG) groups of twelve 8–year-old boys. and of one criterion group (CrG) of extrovert, well-controlled boys. Video-tape recording of behaviour was used both in pretest (T₁) and post-test (T₂). Between T₁ and T₂ the ExG was submitted to simulation exercises of 8 lessons given in a period of four weeks. The exercises consisted in social problem solutions on the purely cognitive (imaginary and symbolic) level and in role-playing (behavioral level). The hypothesis was that the combination of cognitive training and observational learning with the aim of making children realise alternatives to aggression in coping with thwarting situations and their after-effects. would influence individuals with strong aggressive habits to abandon theiraggressive reactions in favour of more constructive behaviour. As to aggression, the results supported the hypothesis. For constructive behaviour, (1) the ExG maintained the samelevel of control of social behaviour in T₁ and T₂, while a significant drop occurred in the GoC, and (2) the strategies of problem solution improved significantly in the ExG. In T₂, the behaviour of the ExG resembled more closely that of the CoG than the behaviour of the CrG, as hypothesized.     

Auditory processing in developmental dyslexia: An exploratory study of an auditory and visual matching training program with Swedish children with developmental dyslexia

This study examined whether training using a nonverbal auditory-visual matching task had a remedial effect on reading skills in developmental dyslexia. The pretest/post-test design was used with Swedish children ( N = 41), between the ages of 7 and 12. Training comprised twice-weekly sessions of 15 minutes, over eight weeks. There was an improvement in auditory-visual matching during the training period. There were also improvements in some reading test scores, especially in reading nonsense words and in reading speed. These improvements in tasks which are thought to rely on phonological processing suggest that such reading difficulties in dyslexia may stem in part from more basic perceptual difficulties, including those required to manage the visual and auditory components of the decoding task. The utility of the concept of auditory structuring is discussed in relation to auditory and phonological processing skills when a child learns to read.     

NARROW HEDONISM

Narrow hedonism is defined and defended, as a view according to which pleasurable states are individuated as concrete and total experiential situations of a sentient being at a time. Typical of such situations is that, when we are in them, we are at a certain hedonic level. They feel in a certain way for the creature in them. On this understanding of narrow hedonism, which is the only one making good sense of the theory and which was probably also intended by classical hedonists such as Bentham and Edgeworth, standard objections to hedonism, based on the claim that different pleasures have nothing in common, can be set to one side as misplaced and irrelevant. It is also hard to see how this kind of hedonism can be refined, or revised, in the direction indicated by J.S. Mill, when he wants to distinguish “higher” pleasures from “lower” ones. On this understanding of hedonism, we must claim that, those who want to follow Mill will have to rely on non-hedonistic intuitions and thus desert the hedonist camp altogether.