Personality variables and metabolic control in children with diabetes

Insulin-dependent diabetic children and a group of their nondiabetic peers were compared on measures of self-concept, locus of control and health locus of control. A metabolic measure of long term diabetes control was also obtained on the children with diabetes. Data analyses revealed that metabolic control was not related to any of the personality measures in the diabetic sample. Diabetic and non-diabetic children did not differ on measures of locus of control and self-concept, but diabetics exhibited a health locus of control which was significantly more internal than that of control subjects. A possible explanation for these results was discussed and practical implications for health care providers working with young diabetics were presented.     

Prevalence of weight reducing and weight gaining in adolescent girls and boys

This is a survey of the prevalence of weight reducing and weight gaining in high school children. Our sample of 1,373 high school girls and boys was geographically, racially, and economically diverse. On the day of the survey, 63% of the girls and 16.2% of the boys reported being on weight reducing regimens; 9.1% of the girls and 28.4% of the boys were trying to gain weight. Most female reducers and male gainers were already normal weight. Compared to other racial groups, whites and Hispanics were more likely to be reducing, whereas blacks were more likely to be gaining. Exercise and moderate caloric reduction were most popular for weight reducing, and a small but significant number were regularly using fasting, vomiting, laxatives, and appetite suppressants. The direction of weight modification for girls and boys conformed to stereotyped physical ideals. The rate of weight reducing in female high school adolescents has increased significantly since similar surveys of American youths 20 years ago.     

The Cooling-Out Function of the Junior College

The “disjuncture” between level of aspiration and means of accomplishing it can create serious difficulty for the person. The function of the 2-year college in helping the student to resolve this conflict has been described as a “cooling-out” process. Essentially, it involves a running evaluation of the student's capacities, and guidance in helping him to find the educational and vocational program for which he is best suited. Several ways of facilitating this process are presented. There is need for an integrated guidance program pervading the entire institution as well as the student's career at the institution.     

The stability of individual differences in gender typing: Implications for understanding gender segregation

The stability of individual differences has important implications for understanding the origins of gender-typed behaviors. For example, if some children have a stronger preference for same-sex playmates (gender segregation) than do others, then exploring characteristics that may differentiate these children from their peers (e.g., preference for gender-typed toys or teacher proximity) should prove fruitful. Otherwise, research might be focused more appropriately on group-level processes or situational factors rather than individual differences. In the current study, 57 2 1/2- to 3-year-olds from middle-class Canadian homes were observed repeatedly during free play at their preschools. Four aspects of gender typing (gender segregation, use of masculine and feminine gender-typed toys, teacher proximity) were measured so that the stability of individual differences and relations among the measures could be assessed. Stable individual differences were found for all four measures among boys, and for two of the measures (feminine toy play, teacher proximity) among girls. In addition, boys who played most frequently with masculine toys rarely were observed in proximity to the teacher. However, there was no relation between gender segregation and the other indices of gender typing.     

Inferior temporal lesions do not impair discrimination of rotated patterns in monkeys.

Ablation of inferior temporal cortex in the rhesus monkey produces a visual discrimination learning deficit. The severity of this deficit has often been found to be a function of task difficulty. This report concerns a type of visual discrimination problem that, although difficult, is not sensitive to inferior temporal lesions. Monkeys with anterior, posterior, and complete inferior temporal lesions were repeatedly unimpaired or only slightly impaired in learning to discriminate a pattern from the same pattern rotated 90 degrees or 180 degrees; yet they were very severely impaired in learning equally or more difficult discriminations of two different patterns. This demonstration that discrimination of orientation of patterns is relatively spared after inferior temporal lesions helps specify the pattern-recognition processes that require inferior temporal cortex.     

Strategies of rule discovery in an inference task

It has long been known that subjects in certain inference tasks will seek evidence which can confirm their present hypotheses, even in situations where disconfirmatory evidence could be more informative. We sought to alter this tendency in a series of experiments which employed a rule discovery task, the 2-4-6 problem first described by Wason. The first experiment instructionally modified subjects confirmatory tendencies. While a disconfirmatory strategy was easily induced, it did not lead to greater efficiency in discovering the rule. The second experiment introduced subjects to the possibility of disconfirmation only after they had developed a strongly held hypothesis through the use of confirmatory evidence. This manipulation also failed to alter the efficiency of rule discovery. In the third experiment, subjects were taught to use multiple hypotheses at each step, in the manner of Platt's “Strong Inference”. This operation actually worsened performance. Finally, in the fourth experiment, the structure of the problem was altered slightly by asking subjects to seek two interrelated rules. A dramatic increase in performance resulted, perhaps because information which in previous tasks was seen as merely erroneous could now be related to an alternative rule. The four studies have broad implications for the psychological study of inference processes in general, and for the study of scientific inference in particular.     

A comparison of the Bem Sex-Role Inventory and the Heilbrun Masculinity and Femininity Scales

This study compares two instruments which have recently been devised to measure sex-role identification, Heilbrun's Masculinity and Femininity Scales and the Bem Sex-Role Inventory. Correlations between the masculine and feminine scales of these instruments were significant for male but not female subjects; intrascale comparisons found no relationship between the Bem scales but moderate correlations between the Heilbrun scales for male subjects. There was agreement between the two measures in classifying approximately 47% of the subjects into one of the four sex-role categories. Misclassification occurred primarily on categories which have been found to show considerable overlap in personality characteristics.