College athletics, body size, and cancer mortality

Data are presented on mortality from neoplasms as determined from death certificates in a cohort of 8393 college men, according to athletic status in college. Major athletes (lettermen) died significantly more often from neoplasms than nonathletes. Mean age at death from neoplasms (underlying cause) was significantly lower in major athletes than in both minor athletes and nonathletes. After matching major athletes with nonathletes of comparable body size (height and weight), differences in proportional mortality and mean age at death from neoplasms persisted, although not statistically significant for the smaller samples. Correlation coefficients (Pearson r) and partial r's between weight in college and age at death from neoplasms were negative but of low magnitude. Some possible explanations for the differences between major athletes and nonathletes are discussed.     

Occam's razor slices through the myth that college women overachieve.

Notes that college women have been believed to overachieve relative to college men. For a given ability profile, college women, on the average, achieve higher grades than men. A number of personality and work habit explanations have been invoked to account for this phenomenon. The present investigation sought to control sex differences in major field, through semipartial correlation, to determine whether female overachievement is an artifact of major field choice. The multiple regressions of grade point average on the Verbal and Mathematical sections of the Scholastic Aptitude Test were calculated for over 13,000 male and female students at 4 major universities. Differences in regression intercepts, which imply overachievement, were eliminated or drastically reduced when major field choice was controlled through semipartial correlations. Results indicate that the sex difference in overachievement is probably an artifact of the sex difference in major field choice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Subscore patterns on ACE Psychological Examination related to educational and occupational differences.

For a sample of 446 Air Force officers who had taken the ACE Psychological Exam, Q-L difference scores were related to rating (flying or ground), assignment (regular or reserve corps), career field, and college major. It was found that pilots tended to have higher Q scores, non-pilots higher L scores; arts and science college majors higher L scores, applied science college majors (engineering and business) higher Q scores. No difference was found in the Q-L patterns of reservists and regular officers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental increases and decreases in solutions of conditional syllogism problems.

281 students (Grades 8, 10, and 12 and college sophomores) were given a 16-item conditional reasoning test which contained 1 each of the arguments generated by the orthogonal arrangement of (a) stating the major premise in each of the 4 combinations of positive and negative instances of the antecedent or consequent, and (b) stating the 2nd premise in each of the 4 cases of affirming or denying the antecedent or consequent. Analysis of results indicated little development after Grade 8 for the easy affirm-antecedent problems, substantial increase on the deny-antecedent and affirm-consequent problems from below chance at the 8th grade to mediocre performance levels for college sophomores and a surprising monotonic decrease in performance on the deny-consequent problems from Grade 8 to the college sophomore year. An error analysis was performed which revealed that the poor performance of younger Ss and even adults may be partially an artifact of students misinterpreting the "if, then" conditional statements as biconditional ("if and only if, then") propositions. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predictive validity of the Kuder Occupational Interest Survey: A 12- to 19-year follow-up.

More than 1,000 men and women were located 12-19 yrs after taking an early form of the Kuder Occupational Interest Survey either in high school or in college. Satisfactory data were available for 882 Ss. 51% were employed at the time of the follow-up in an occupation that would have been suggested to them had their inventory been interpreted to them. This compared favorably with other validity findings for occupationally scaled interest inventories and represented about 90% of the possible validity as derived from concurrent validity figures. College major scales from a high school level administration correctly predicted 55%. Ss in occupations consistent with their early interest profiles did not report greater job satisfaction or success, but did show greater continuance in their occupational career. Better prediction was achieved when the occupation was one named on the profile and when the person had gone to or graduated from college or entered a high-level or scientific-technical occupation. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Expressed vocational choice and vocational indecision.

Equally divided 232 male and female college students into 4 groups based on their responses to the Occupational Alternatives Question. Groups were composed of Ss who had a 1st choice and no alternatives, a 1st choice plus alternatives, no 1st choice but alternatives, and neither a 1st choice nor alternatives. The hypothesis tested was that these groups would differ on dependent variables related to vocational decision making. No significant differences were found on socioeconomic status or on J. L. Holland's constructs of consistency, differentiation, or congruence with career choice. Significant group differences were found on congruence with college major, total number of Vocational Preference Inventory responses, and scales measuring satisfaction with college major and career choice. Significant differences were also found on 2 recent scales measuring vocational indecision; the Vocational Decision Making Difficulty Scale and the Career Decision Scale. Significant sex differences indicate that females were more congruent and satisfied with their college majors. Implications of the results for future research and vocational counseling are examined. (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Expressed and inventoried interests revisited: Perspicacity in the person.

Studied the relative validities of expressed choice vs inventoried interests for predicting college major and career choice outcomes. A total of 795 male National Merit Scholars in 16 college major categories and 609 male Scholars in 10 career fields provided data before college and 3 yrs later. The total percentage of accurate expressed choice predictions was over 50% for both outcomes, while the SVIB Men's Form (SVIB-M) was accurate for 30.8% of all college major predictions and 40.2% of all career field forecasts. When expressed choice and the SVIB agreed in prediction of outcome, the hit rate rose to over 70%. However, when expressed choice and SVIB predictions were not the same for a given person, expressed choice was found to be 2–3 times more accurate than the SVIB-M. These results highlight the importance of expressed interests in predicting vocational behavior and suggest ways in which expressed and inventoried interests might best be used in counseling. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Counselor reactions to female clients: Type of problem, age of client, and sex of counselor.

88 male and female graduate students in counseling, staff of a university counseling center, and faculty in counseling and clinical psychology viewed videotaped vignettes of 2 35-yr-old women and 2 20-yr-old women who portrayed problems about feared rape, existential anxiety, choice of a college major in social work, or choice of a college major in engineering. Results indicate that the 2 personal-social problems were rated as more serious than the vocational problems on all dependent measures. Additionally, the feared-rape problem was considered the most serious and needing the most counseling sessions, whereas the women with existential anxiety received the most empathy and were perceived as being most able to profit from counseling. The 2 vocational problems did not differ on any of the dependent variables. Other results indicate effects for both client age and counselor sex depending on the particular problem. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive factors in early counseling termination: Social insight and level of defensiveness.

Investigated the relations between 2 cognitive variables and scores on a validated scale for predicting early dropout or continuation in counseling. Social insight, a cognitive skill variable, and psychological defensiveness, a cognitive style variable, were considered for a sample of 48 college males and 86 college females. A 3-way interaction was found for defensiveness, social insight, and sex, confirming the existence of sex differences in the factors influencing early dropout from insight-oriented counseling. The major contributor to the triple interaction was an opposite effect of social insight for males and females under the high-defensive condition, a pattern not apparent for less defensive Ss. Continuation in counseling would be predicted for the highly defended but less insightful male and for the highly defended but more insightful female. Study 2 considered whether these findings are relevant to actual client behavior in 2 ways: (a) counseling readiness scores obtained from clients before counseling predicted not only continuation or noncontinuation but also whether the client obtained any benefits from the service; (b) improvement depends on duration of counseling even in brief treatment. The prediction from Study 1 that improvement in the female client would be associated with high but not with low defensiveness was supported. (48 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivational and judgmental determinants of social perception.

This experiment was designed to demonstrate that motivationally neutral judgmental processes operate in social perception to affect the characteristics attributed to a particular stimulus person. 72 female college students were induced to have either high or low liking for the other girl assembled with them. The S then exchanged 2 messages with her partner on the issue of college fraternities. Previously constructed notes were substituted so that each S received 2 messages that were approximately either 1, 2, or 4 scale units from her initial position (on an 11-point scale) on this issue. 2 major findings were obtained when Ss were asked to estimate the partner's attitude position: (a) Regardless of the objective discrepancy between their own and their partner's views, most of the Ss in the high-liking condition minimized the difference between themselves and the attractive other person. (b) As expected, a judgmental contrast effect occurred in the low-liking condition when the objective discrepancy between S's and the partner's beliefs was relatively great. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Test of the cultural bias hypothesis: Some Israeli findings.

The major aim of this study was to examine the cross-cultural validity of the test bias contention, with particular concern for possible sociocultural group differences in the construct and predictive validity of college entrance scholastic aptitude tests in Israel. The analyses were based on the test scores of 1,538 Israeli college student candidates of varying ethnic group membership, applying for admission to a major Israeli campus. The psychometric properties of the test battery were compared by ethnic group via a variety of internal (factor structure, reliability, etc.) and external (predictive validity, homogeneity of regression, etc.) test bias criteria. On the whole, the data provided little evidence for differential construct or predictive validity of aptitude test scores as a function of ethnic group membership, thus lending a greater deal of generality to previous research on test bias, generally negating the cultural bias hypothesis. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Marijuana usage and hypnotic susceptibility.

Obtained anonymous self-reported drug usage data and Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility scores from 282 college students. Frequent marihuana users (more than 10 times) showed greater susceptibility to hypnosis than nonusers. There were no differences in primary suggestibility between principled nonusers and nonusers or between single-time, occasional, and frequent users. Frequent smoking of marihuana was significantly associated with S's sex, academic major, religion, family income, previous trancelike experience, and the usage of other major drugs. Frequency of drug usage data were compared with other major surveys. Findings are discussed in terms of sensation seeking and previously reported personality characteristics of marihuana users. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex differences in the relationship of attitudes toward technology to choice of field of study.

Investigated whether attitude toward technology would bear the same relationship to choice of college major for female (n = 150) and male (n = 106) college freshmen. Ss completed the authors' Mechanization Scale, an instrument which measures 5 aspects of attitudes toward technology. Ss were classified into a 5 * 2 * 3 (Major Field * Sex * GPA) design. Multivariate analysis of variance revealed significant differences between high-, median-, and low-GPA groups for major field, sex, and Major Field * Sex interaction. A discriminant analysis revealed that the relationship of mechanical curiosity to choice of major field was consistent for both males and females. However, the sexes did not overlap on mechanical curiosity. This finding is discussed as an example of test bias for a nominal criterion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Identifying two potential mechanisms for changes in alcohol use among college-attending and non-college-attending emerging adults.

This study tested whether pro-alcohol peer influences and prosocial involvement account for increases in drinking during the transition into emerging adulthood and whether these mechanisms differ depending on college attendance and/or moving away from home. The authors used structural equation modeling of prospective data from 825 young men and women. For 4 groups defined by college and residential status, more drinking in the spring of 12th grade predicted more pro-alcohol peer influences the following fall, and more pro-alcohol peer influences in the fall predicted increases in drinking the following spring. Going to college while living at home was a protective factor against increases in drinking and selection of pro-alcohol peer involvements. Prosocial involvement (measured by involvement in religious activities and volunteer work) was not significantly related to post-high school drinking except among college students living away from home. Prevention efforts should focus on (a) reducing opportunities for heavy drinking for college and noncollege emerging adults as they leave home and (b) increasing prosocial involvement among college students not living at home. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Vocational indecision in college graduates.

Compared 127 vocationally undecided college graduates matched by sex, age, and college major with graduates who had selected an occupation on a questionnaire survey of graduating seniors. Undecided Ss had a significantly lower GPA than decided Ss, more often intended noncareer activities following graduation, less often were going to graduate school, and were far less satisfied with their university experience. Increases in indecisiveness in high school and college might be countered either through vocational counseling geared more to graduates' academic achievement or through facilitating a nonvocational orientation toward college. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

College experiences and managerial performance.

Studied relationships between various college experiences and management potential, as demonstrated in assessment center performance and later promotions, in 2 longitudinal samples of managers (one graduating in the 1950's and one in the 1970's) and for 386 middle-aged (median age 46 yrs) and 380 young (median age 25 yrs) managers in 10 organizations. The 2 longitudinal samples included (1) 274 male college graduates (median age 24 yrs) and 148 males (median age 30 yrs) who did not have college degrees and (2) 344 college graduates (median age 25 yrs), 158 of whom were female and 107 of whom were of minority status. Five types of college characteristics were studied independently and in combination—level of education, grades, quality of undergraduate institution, major field of study, and extracurricular activities. Results varied according to the managerial quality studied, with college major, extracurricular activities, and higher education accounting for most of the variance in management performance. Grades related specifically to intellectual ability and motivation to do quality work, whereas better-quality schools seemed mostly to produce nonconformity. Humanities and social science majors had the best overall performance, with particularly good interpersonal and verbal skills; in contrast, engineers and mathematics and science majors lacked many important mangerial skills. The Master of Business Administration degree was primarily related to administrative and cognitive abilities. (44 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role of the field-dependent and field-independent cognitive styles in academic evolution: A longitudinal study.

To assess hypotheses derived from field-dependence theory about the role of cognitive styles in students' academic development, a group of 1,548 students was followed longitudinally from college entry into graduate/professional school. The Group Embedded Figures Test was administered at college entry. 1,422 Ss were followed through their college careers, and 831 Ss were identified as having applied to graduate or professional school and 550 as having enrolled. In their preliminary choices at college entry, final college majors and graduate/professional school specialties, relatively field-independent students favored impersonal domains requiring cognitive restructuring skills (e.g., sciences) and relatively field-dependent students favored interpersonal domains which do not emphasize such skills (e.g., elementary education). Ss whose college-entry choices were incongruent with their cognitive styles tended to shift to more compatible domains by college graduation or graduate school; Ss with congruent choices tended to remain with their choices. Some tendency was found for students to do better in domains compatible with their cognitive styles. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Treatment acceptability of alternative therapies for depression: A comparative analysis.

174 college students were presented with the case scenarios of a 19-yr-old college student with either major depression or dysthymia. The treatment used in these case scenarios was described as consisting of behavioral, cognitive, interpersonal, or pharmacotherapy techniques. Ss were then administered a treatment evaluation inventory, the Semantic Differential, and a credibility rating scale to determine which treatment they thought was most acceptable. Interpersonal therapy was repeatedly rated as the most acceptable, followed by behavioral therapy, cognitive therapy, and pharmacotherapy. Ss viewed behavioral and cognitive approaches as equally acceptable across measures, but pharmacotherapy was consistently rated as least acceptable. Ss with evidence of depressive symptoms consistently rated psychotherapies as more acceptable than pharmacotherapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reliability, validity, and preliminary normative data for the Inventory to Diagnose Depression in a college population.

The Inventory to Diagnose Depression (IDD; M. Zimmerman et al; see record 1987-14495-001) was designed to assess both the diagnosis of major depressive episode and the severity of depressive symptoms. When used with a college population, the IDD was a stable and internally consistent measure of depressive symptomatology. IDD total scores correlated significantly with other commonly used depression inventories, and a principal-components analysis revealed a general depression factor associated with IDD responses. Last, the IDD yielded diagnoses of major depressive episode that compared favorably with interview-derived diagnoses, and preliminary normative data for the IDD in a population of college students are reported. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anxiety and the process of deciding about a major and vocation.

Investigated whether general anxiety or anxiety about choice of a college major and choice of a vocation are related to educational-vocational decidedness. 427 college students enrolled in a general studies physics course completed a research instrument tapping 10 independent variables including 6 anxiety type scales plus self-report biographic data. Stepwise multiple regression analysis was used to determine which of the independent variables could predict the measures of educational-vocational decidedness. Of the 10 independent variables, 9 were found to be related to at least 1 of the dependent variables, thus supporting the relationships hypothesized between anxiety and career decision making. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)