Gender-Role Attitudes in University Students in the United States, Slovenia, and Croatia

Determinants of gender-role attitudes were examined in samples of university students from Pittsburgh in the United States, Ljubljana in Slovenia, and Osijek in Croatia. Surveys including items from the Attitudes Toward Women Scale and the Neosexism Scale were administered to a total of 1,544 U.S. students, 912 Slovene students, and 996 Croatian students between the years of 1991 and 2000. As predicted, men held less egalitarian or more sexist attitudes about the appropriate roles for women and men, and those with more frequent attendance at religious services held more sexist attitudes. No changes in attitudes were found for women over time, but Slovene males were found to become more traditional over time.     

Duration of negative practice and the reduction of leg pounding of a traumatically brain-injured adult

This study evaluated the relative efficacy of long (1 minute) and short (15 seconds) durations of negative practice for reducing self-stimulatory leg pounding of a traumatically brain-injured adult. In individual social skill training classes, long negative practice and short negative practice were administered concurrently in an alternating treatments design. Generalization of treatment effects outside of training sessions was assessed during the client's lunch period. The results revealed that both durations of negative practice were equally effective in reducing leg pounding during training sessions. However, the effects of training did not generalize to settings in which the practice contingency was not enforced. Pounding was more frequent and negative practice somewhat less effective during periods of high social stimulation.     

CONVERGING METHODS FOR INVESTIGATING LEXICAL ACCESS

Abstract— In our discussion of the articles in this Special Section, we ask how well the various methods employed in these investigations can be made to converge on a common issue. We review how current evidence from positron emission tomography, studies of event-related potentials, cognitive methods, lesion studies, and network models relates to the mental processing of an ambiguous word. While many puzzles remain, we are impressed by the promising possibility of bringing these different methods together to deal with an issue central to cognition.     

TIME COURSE OF ACTIVATING BRAIN AREAS IN GENERATING VERBAL ASSOCIATIONS

Abstract— Generating a use far a visual word in comparison with reading the word aloud activates frontal attention areas first (170 MS), a left lateral frontal area next (250 ms), and then a left temporoparietal (Wernicke's) area (650 ms). A brief period of practice reduces these activations. If subjects are asked to respond to a word from the same practiced list by giving a novel use, the original activations reappear and are joined by activity similar in location and time to Wernicke's activation but in the right hemisphere. These findings demonstrate the time course of activations of neuroanatomical areas in word processing and indicate a role for the right hemisphere when semantic processing is more difficult, such as in generating a less frequent association in the presence of a highly practiced one.     

THE DEVELOPMENT OF KNOWLEDGE CONCERNING WRITTEN ARITHMETIC: A CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY

This study is concerned with the manner in which Western mathematics is assimilated by children raised in traditional African cultures. It was predicted that after an initial period of difficulty in learning school arithmetic, African children (Baoulé and Dioula from the Ivory Coast) acquire basic concepts, develop invented strategies, and make errors similar to those of American children. Further, it was predicted that Dioula children, since they are members of a commercial culture, perform at a somewhat higher level than the Baoulé, members of a farming culture which does not seem to stress computational activity. To investigate these hypotheses, American, Baoulé, and Dioula children at two age levels were given a variety of arithmetic problems involving basic skills (e.g., reading numbers), number knowledge (e.g., place value), and calculational abilities (e.g., written computation). The results showed that, in general, older African and American children (fifth- and sixth-graders) were quite similar in all respects. The only large and significant differences occurred in the case of younger children (second- and third-graders). At this level American children generally performed at a higher level than Africans, as predicted, and Dioula occasionally at a higher level than Baoulé, also as predicted. At the same time, qualitative aspects of African and American children's performance were similar: for example, both groups made the same types and proportions of errors in written calculations. The results generally support the hypotheses and can be explained in terms of both educational and cognitive factors.     

A new typology of health behaviours for personality-health predictions: The case of locus of control

Psychological investigations of the impact of personality on health behaviours have tended to emphasize fine distinctions among personality variables while failing to distinguish among different kinds of behaviours. For example, theoretical treatments of perceived personal control are quite sophisticated; in contrast, only one well-known analysis of health behaviours exists. We propose four categories of health-enhancing behaviours, which take into account contemporary views of the shift in health care from acute and physician-directed actions to long-term and patient-directed efforts. In addition, we suggest that perceived control (we emphasize locus of control because of its generality and parsimony) is an important predictor variable when combined with other factors common to current models of health behaviour.     

Orthography and familiarity effects in word processing

Both orthographic regularity and visual familiarity have been implicated as contributors to the efficiency of processing visually presented words. Our studies sought to determine which of the internal codes representing words in the nervous system are facilitated by these two variables. To do this, sets of letter strings in which orthography and familiarity were factorially combined were used as the basis for physical, phonetic, semantic, and lexical judgments. The data indicated consistent effects of orthography on the activation of all codes. These effects were seen in same-different matching and in judgments of stimulus orientation, which are based on visual codes; in judgments of pronounceability based on phonetic codes; in judgments of meaningfulness based on semantic codes; and in lexical decisions, which are based on phonetic and semantic codes together. Familiarity, on the other hand, had a clear influence on the activation of semantic codes and to a lesser extent affected phonetic codes. Despite previous positive results found in matching letter strings, however, no influence of familiarity occurred in judgments based on visual codes once evidence for criterion shifting was eliminated. Our negative results included direct tests of facilitation in matching acronyms (e.g., FBI) and in matching both regular and irregular strings familiarized by specific training. It now appears that earlier findings of visual familiarity effects may be attributed to response biases resulting from the activation of higher level codes sensitive to familiarity, and to the use of small sets of training stimuli that allowed subjects to induce orthographic-like rules. The results obtained so far with our methods seem to reconcile an inconsistent literature by showing that speeded decisions based on visual codes are most strongly influenced by rule-governed processing mechanisms sensitive to orthographic structure, whereas decisions based on phonetic and semantic codes are affected about equally by rule-governed mechanisms and by stimulus-specific mechanisms sensitive to familiarity. This conclusion may lead to changes in notions of how effective various kinds of visual training are likely to be at different stages in the acquisition of reading skill.     

Dialectical Behavior Therapy and Motivational Interviewing: Conceptual Convergence,Compatibility, and Strategies for Integration

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) and motivational interviewing (MI) are two widely used and efficacious psychosocial interventions. An immense and growing number of studies examine DBT, MI, or adaptations of these approaches across diverse treatment contexts and across various clinical populations. Because DBT and MI are in high demand, it is probable that trainees and established practitioners will encounter one or both treatments over the course of their careers. Although MI and DBT initially evolved in distinct contexts for different populations, these approaches share a number of common fundamental principles. Each provides distinct and complementary strategies for enhancing clients’ motivation and ability to change. For some, an integrative or sequenced application of MI and DBT may enhance client care. The present article highlights areas of divergence, convergence, and opportunities for integration, and offers practical tips for applying DBT and MI in conjunction.