Terror Management and Personality: Variations in the Psychological Defense Against the Awareness of Mortality

Drawing on terror management theory (TMT), we discuss the psychological motivations that shape personality at two levels: the characteristically human personality common to us all and the individual differences that distinguish some people from others. TMT posits that the motivation to protect the self against deep-rooted fears about mortality drives people to maintain meaningful, reliable conceptions of reality and positive evaluations of themselves, two broad tendencies that form the foundation of every person’s personality. We review studies showing that mortality reminders increase efforts to bolster cultural sources of meaning and self-esteem in similar ways across individuals and cultures. TMT also posits that individual differences in personality partly reflect the different sources of meaning and self-esteem that people invest in to assuage mortality fears. We review evidence that individual differences predict the degree and direction of people’s defensive responses to mortality reminders. Directions for future research are discussed.     

The gestural repertoire and its evolution over the second year

The entire repertoire of communicative gestures was documented in a longitudinal, observational study of 10 infants, whose combined ages covered the range from 9 to 22 months. Early in the second year, giving as a request to do something with the object increased, while emotive gestures decreased. Later in the second year, pointing gestures increased, while protest gestures tended to decrease. Combining gestures with vocalization tended to increase only for protest gestures later in the second year. Eye contact showed a small but continuous increase in coordination with gestures over the second year, particularly with comment, request, and emotive gestures. These findings indicate an increasing use of the parent as an agent and of the informative function in non-verbal communication during this period of transition to verbal communication.     

The roles of stimulus repetition and hemispheric activation in visual half-field asymmetries

Hardyck, Tzeng, and Wang (1978, Brain and Language, 5, 56–71) hypothesized that ample repetition of a small number of stimuli is required in order to obtain VHF differences in tachistoscopic tasks. Four experiments, with varied levels of repetition, were conducted to test this hypothesis. Three experiments utilized the general task of object-picture naming and one utilized a word-naming task. Naming latencies constituted the dependent measure. The results demonstrate that for the object-naming paradigm repetition is required for RVF superiority to emerge. Repetition was found to be unnecessary for RVF superiority in the word-naming paradigm, with repetition actually reducing RVF superiority. Experiment I suggested the possibility that RVF superiority developed for the second half of the trials as a function of practice or hemispheric activation, regardless of repetition level. Subsequent experiments, better designed to assess this possibility, clearly refuted it. It was concluded that the effect of repetition depends on the processing requirements of the task. We propose that, for tasks which can be processed efficiently by one hemisphere, the effect of repetition will be to reduce VHF asymmetries; but tasks requiring substantial processing by both hemispheres will show shifts to RVF superiority as a function of repetition.     

The role of spatial-frequency channels in the perception of local and global structure

Adaptation and reaction-time techniques were used to examine the role of different spatial-frequency channels in the perception of local and global structure. Subjects were shown figures consisting of a large C composed of smaller Cs and asked to identify the orientation of either the global C or its local elements. Prior to performing the task subjects were adapted to different spatial frequencies and the effect on subsequent performance was assessed. Two main results were found. First, the adapting frequency that most affected the global task was often lower than that most affecting the local task, suggesting that high and low frequencies independently code the structure of an image. Second, reaction time to global figures was often faster than to local figures at all levels of detectability, again suggesting a role of low-frequency channels in global processing.     

Grouping and short-term memory: Different means and patterns of grouping

Two experiments, concerned with the improving effects of grouping on auditory short-term memory, are described. In the first, temporal grouping was found to improve recall considerably, but non-temporal grouping had a much smaller effect. Temporal grouping reduced the order errors more than other errors; it also changed the pattern of the order errors. Further, it altered the shape of the serial position curve of all errors. In the second experiment, irregular patterns of temporal grouping were found to be inferior to a regular pattern. The results are discussed in terms of the time available for processing previous items during the presentation of a sequence, and the form that this processing may take.     

Dispositional Optimism/Pessimism and Coping Strategies: Predictors of Psychosocial Adjustment of Rheumatoid and Osteoarthritis Patients1

Because rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has a more unpredictable course than osteoarthritis (OA), we hypothesized that generalized expectancies (optimistic/ pessimistic) influence the psychosocial adjustment of RA patients, whereas disease severity influences the adjustment of OA patients. Path analysis (LISREL VI) revealed that pessimistic RA patients (N= 107) and the more physically disabled OA patients (N= 108) reported poorer adjustment. The hypothesized mediating role of coping was supported for the RA but not the OA sample; that is, pessimism was associated with poor adjustment through greater use of wishful thinking coping. Unexpectedly, problem-solving coping was not found to mediate the optimism adjustment relationship.     

Being skeptical about the medical humanities

In this paper the author challenges the prevailing view that contemporary writing in the medical humanities is serving the needs of the various health care disciplines. The current medical humanities literature assumes that physicians are the appropriate target group. This is most notably the case within health care ethics literature. There appears to be an unexamined assumption that physician-centric approaches to clinical ethical decision-making are the standard by which appropriate ethical practice is judged. The author challenges this assumption and addresses the problems that this approach engenders. The medical humanities literature appears to reinforce hierarchical, patriarchal arrangements which are themselves not morally neutral.     

Prenatal gender preference of mothers of feminine and masculine boys: Relation to sibling sex composition and birth order

A mother's (prenatal) wish for a girl has, at times, been implicated as an etiological factor for boyhood femininity or its DSM-III-R diagnostic equivalent, the Gender Identity Disorder of Childhood. In one sample of 52 feminine and 52 nonclinical control boys from Los Angeles, the proportion of mothers who recalled a wish for a girl during the pregnancy did not differ significantly between groups (26.9% vs. 19.2%, respectively); however, in both groups, the maternal wish for a girl was significantly more common in sibships in which all of the proband's older siblings were male. In a second sample of 103 feminine boys from Toronto, the maternal wish for a girl was significantly higher than that found in the Los Angeles sample (43.7% vs. 26.9%), but a control group was not available; as in the Los Angeles sample, the maternal wish for a girl was significantly more common in sibships in which all of the proband's older siblings were male. Implications of these findings for further study of maternal influences on boyhood femininity are discussed.