Sex differences in anxiety,curiosity, and anger: A cross-cultural study

The major aim of the present study was to examine sex-group differences in anxiety, curiosity, and anger, as states and traits, among Israeli college students, and to compare the data with norms available for American students. The sample was composed of 223 female and 151 male students who were administered the Hebrew version of Spielberger's State-Trait Personality Inventory (STPI/HB). Significant differences in the STPI/HB profile for males and females were observed, with greater sex-group differentiation on the trait scales than on the state scales. Specifically, Israeli females show higher levels of Trait-Anxiety and Trait-Anger than Israeli males, whereas higher levels of State-Curiosity are observed among the latter. Overall, the sex difference profiles are highly comparable for Israeli and American college students. Observed sex-group differences are discussed and explicated.The authors wish to thank Prof. Shlomo Breznitz, of the University of Haifa, and Prof. Charles Spielberger, of the University of South Florida, for their interest in and support of this research. Thanks are also due to Smadar Ashuach and Orli Tamam-Karbi for their help in data collection. The order of authorship was determined alphabetically and both authors contributed equally to this paper.     

GENDER AND CULTURE INTERACTION EFFECTS ON SCHOLASTIC APTITUDE TEST PERFORMANCE: SOME ISRAELI FINDINGS

The major aim of this study was to assess the degree of interaction between gender and cultural group background in determining scholastic aptitude test attainment among college student candidates. The analyses were based on the college entrance aptitude test scores of 1778 Jewish and 1017 Arab student candidates applying for admission to a major Israeli university. A Manova of the subtest scores revealed significant main effects for both culture and gender and a significant gender × culture interaction effect. Separate Anovas for each of the individual subtests show significant gender × culture interaction effects for both the Mathematical and Figural Reasoning subtests, with a larger gender group differential - in favor of the males - among Jews than among Arabs. The interaction effect was attributed, in part, to two complementary culture-specific factors, namely: (a) the positive self-selection of Arab female college candidates of relatively high scholastic ability, thus serving to narrow the gender gap in the Arab group; (b) the varied opportunities for advanced technical training, enrichment and experience available mainly to Jewish males during their period of compulsorly military service, serving to enhance the gender gap in the Jewish group. In sum, the data suggest that culture may serve as an important moderator variable in determining the size of gender group differences in scholastic aptitude test attainment.     

Sex differences in scholastic aptitude: The Israeli scene

The major goal of the present study is two-fold: (a) To assess the direction, magnitude and profile of sex differences in scholastic aptitude test performance among Israeli college student candidates and (b) to test for possible sex bias in the construct validity of aptitude test scores. The analyses are based on the college admissions aptitude test scores of 1088 female and 690 male college candidates, applying for admissions to a major Israeli campus. On the whole, the data are consistent with much previous research, generated mainly from the American scene, showing small but consistent sex differences in favor of male examinees for the test as a whole and for the quantitative subscale, in particular. Also, the sex difference profiles for varying ethnic groups in the sample are surprisingly similar. Furthermore, our data show little evidence for differential construct validity of ability test scores by gender. On the whole, our data lend a greater degree of generality and cross-cultural validity to the bulk of previous research negating the sex bias contention and pointing to negligible gender differences in scholastic aptitude.     

Effects of Perceptual and Conceptual Processing on Memory for Words and Voice: Different Patterns for Young and Old

In two experiments younger and older adults listened to a list of words presented auditorily by two speakers. The subjects processed each word either perceptually (voice judgements) or conceptually (pleasantness judgements), and were then given memory tasks for the words and the presenting voice. In the word-recognition task the two age groups benefited equally from conceptual as opposed to perceptual processing. In the voice memory task, however, conceptual processing improved performance relative to perceptual processing in the younger subjects (significantly so in Experiment 1), but conceptual processing was associated with decreased performance in the older group (significantly so in Experiment 2). These results suggest that whereas older subjects exhibit a trade-off in memory for item and attribute information, younger subjects exhibit a pattern of support, in which conceptual processing benefits memory for both items and their attributes.     

The syntagmatic-paradigmatic shift in dichotic listening

Children at two age levels, 6 to 7 years and 9 to 10 years, listened to pairs of words presented dichotically to the left and right ear either simultaneously or in immediate succession. Their task was to report what they heard after each pair. The experimental pairs involved either syntagmatic relations (e.g., bird-fly) or paradigmatic relations (table-chair). The younger children correctly identified more syntagmatic than paradigmatic pairs (using control pairs as a base) while the older children correctly identified more paradigmatic pairs. There was no difference between associated and nonassociated pairs. The results are taken to mean that pragmatic, serial relations dominate the semantic organization of younger children and that logical, hierarchical relations make their impact later in the course of development.     

Management of a dying patient in group therapy

In the last few years there has been an increased interest in the psychosocial aspect as well as in the therapeutic needs of the dying patient. Although much has been written about the treatment of the dying patient, most of these works were done in the individual setting, either with out-patients or with hospitalized patients. However, relatively little attention has been paid to the treatment and management of the dying patient in a group therapy setting. In this paper the authors describe their experience in working with a dying patient in an ongoing therapy group. The effect on the group, on the individual patient and on the therapist are discussed. Moreover, the conflicting needs of the individual patients versus those of the remaining group members are discussed and compared to similar reports from the group therapy literature.     

Semantic and surface codes in the memory of deaf children

In three experiments, deaf children in the age range of 6 years, 10 months to 15 years, 5 months were presented with continuous lists of items, and for each item they had to indicate whether it had appeared before on the list. Later items were related to preceding items either in surface form or in meaning or were unrelated. False-recognition errors (i.e., “yes” responses to new items) served as an index of memorial coding. In one experiment, the items presented to the subjects were printed words. The results of this experiment showed a false-recognition effect (i.e., more errors to related words than to unrelated words) for both semantically related words and orthographically similar words. In the other two experiments, the subjects viewed a series of manual signs on videotape. In these experiments, there was a false-recognition effect for signs related semantically and for signs related cherologically (i.e., similar in terms of their manual production). These results establish orthography and cherology as effective memorial codes for deaf children. The finding of a consistently strong semantic effect for young deaf children stands in contrast to findings of weak semantic effects in false-recognition studies with young hearing children. The ascendancy of semantic codes for deaf children was attributed to the absence of competition from the speech code which dominates the linguistic memory of hearing children.     

The effects of divided attention on encoding and retrieval processes: The resiliency of retrieval processes

We have recently cast doubt (Craik, Govoni, Naveh-Benjamin, & Anderson, 1996; Naveh-Benjamin, Craik, Guez, & Dori, 1998) on the view that encoding and retrieval processes in human memory are similar. Divided attention at encoding was shown to reduce memory performance significantly, whereas divided attention at retrieval affected memory performance only minimally. In this article we examined this asymmetry further by using more difficult retrieval tasks, which require substantial effort. In one experiment, subjects had to encode and retrieve lists of unfamiliar name-nouns combinations attached to people's photographs, and in the other, subjects had to encode words that were either strong or weak associates of the cues presented with them and then to retrieve those words with either intra- or extra-list cues. The results of both experiments showed that unlike division of attention at encoding, which reduces memory performance markedly, division of attention at retrieval has almost no effect on memory performance, but was accompanied by an increase in secondary-task cost. Such findings again illustrated the resiliency of retrieval processes to manipulations involving the withdrawal of attention. We contend that retrieval processes are obligatory or protected, but that they require attentional resources for their execution.     

Emotional Intelligence: Toward a Consensus of Models and Measures

This article outlines the many different ways that emotional intelligence (EI) has been conceptualized, measured, and used from the early antecedents of emotional abilities such as facial expression research to the recent multimedia assessment paradigms. The divide between models describing EI as a character trait versus modeling EI as a form of information processing or knowledge is described, with both kinds of models evaluated based on theory and empirical evidence. It is concluded that the latter type of model, exemplified by the four-branch hierarchical model of EI, is the only logical construct to bear the label ‘EI’. Potential emendations to the way EI is currently conceptualized and measured are discussed, with this review covering emotion recognition assessments, situational judgment tests, and multimedia assessments such as the empathic agent paradigm. The article concludes with a suggested agenda for future research in the EI field.