Capital B for Black.

Comments on the original article on Jewishness and Blackness by S. Sarason (see record 1974-10936-001) and a comment on the Sarason article by H. Rappaport (see record 1990-57129-001). The present author takes issue with both the Sarason article and Rappaport comment on grounds of racism, and notes that no rule of grammar requires a capital J for Jew in contrast to another group of people in lowercase. The need to refer to Black people with an capital "B" is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Is it, in fact, a fact?

Comments on an article by S. B. Sarason (see record 1984-28403-001), in which he provided an excellent though apparently unintended example of his "proposition that we are as much possessed by as we are possessed of a world view, undergirded by axioms we never articulate and therefore cannot examine or challenge". He cited as a "fact: The preparation for, the conduct of, and the immediate consequences of war have been among the most influential factors contributing to scientific and technological 'progress'". Perkins suggests that Sarason may believe that an overall effect of war is to facilitate scientific progress, but he is not is in a position to claim that his belief is a fact. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

W. Grant Dahlstrom (1922-2006).

Presents an obituary for William Grant Dahlstrom, who died at the age of 83. After teaching at the University of Minnesota, Ohio Wesleyan University, and the University of Iowa, Dahlstrom joined the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1953, initially in the Psychiatry Department. In 1957, he moved to the Psychology Department, where he remained active until his retirement in 1993. Dahlstrom's professional work focused on the assessment of personality, and he was acknowledged as the world's leading authority on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). With his emphasis on individual differences and respect for all persons, Dahlstrom devoted significant energy to trying to understand the role of ethnicity in individual functioning and personality assessment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A dissonance theory approach to defensive projection.

It was hypothesized that cognitive dissonance involving the self-concept leads to the use of projection to reduce the dissonance. Ss were given personality tests, and instead of true results received falisified data indicating favorable or unfavorable personality traits—thereby raising or lowering their self-esteem. In the presence of another S, Ss were shown pictures of men and were told this would be an indicator of their latent homosexuality; GSRs were supported to reflect their degree of anxiety. Ss were asked to estimate the reaction of the other S; Ss with high self-esteem tended to attribute a greater degree of responsiveness of the other S to the pictures. The relationship of psychoanalytic and dissonance theory is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The secure preschooler: Nurturing creativity with courage, wisdom with responsibility.

This article describes an early education program based on the personality theory of William Emet Blatz and his concept of security. It describes the development of the laboratory preschool at the University of Western Ontario, my understanding of security theory as proposed by Blatz, and its relationship to attachment theory as developed by his former student, Mary Salter Ainsworth. The article translates the theory into practice. It describes the critical variables in creating the conditions that allow children to develop the inner strengths and the problem-solving styles that define the concept of security. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Seymour Bernard Sarason (1919–2010).

This obituary describes the life of Seymour Bernard Sarason, professor emeritus of psychology at Yale University, who died on January 28, 2010, in New Haven, Connecticut, at the age of 91. Seymour was the founder and the “conscience” of the field of community psychology, a prophetic and guiding light in the study of school culture and reform in education, and a groundbreaking leader in the field of mental retardation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Schizophrenia research: a biennium of progress. Proceedings from the Sixth International Congress on Schizophrenia Research. Colorado Springs, CO, April 12-16, 1997

The Sixth International Congress on Schizophrenia Research (ICOSR) took place in Colorado Springs, Colorado, April 12-16, 1997, where over 1,000 scientists presented and listened to the latest developments in the search for the cause and treatment of schizophrenia. The ICOSR is sponsored by Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, Case Western Reserve University, and the William K. Warren Foundation. The National Institute of Mental Health and several pharmaceutical companies contributed generously to the meeting. The ICOSR is co-organized by Dr. Carol A. Tamminga, Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, University of Maryland at Baltimore, and Dr. S. Charles Schulz, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. The William K. Warren Research Award is given to a senior investigator, who has made outstanding contributions to our understanding of schizophrenia. The fifth William K. Warren Research Award was presented to Dr. Philip S. Holzman in recognition of his contributions to the identification of eye-tracking abnormalities as a potential phenotypic marker of the illness and also in recognition of his work as a lifelong mentor for schizophrenia researchers. The ICOSR Young Investigator Awards are presented to junior investigators who have demonstrated the potential to make significant contributions to research on schizophrenia. These awards promote scientific development by enabling these young researchers to attend the meeting. There were 30 Young Investigator Award winners. The ICOSR meeting is organized into four sessions: (1) a morning plenary session; (2) a plenary lecture; (3) a poster session; and (4) concurrent afternoon oral sessions. The morning plenary sessions are comprised of a set of 30-minute lectures, which provide an overview of a particular topic area relevant to schizophrenia research. The plenary lecture is an invited lecture on a basic topic related to current research efforts in schizophrenia. The poster sessions provide a forum for the presentation of prepublication reports of basic and clinical science projects. The afternoon sessions are a collection of approximately 10 focused presentations on current research projects related to a specific topic area. The purpose of this report is to provide an account of the proceedings from the plenary and afternoon oral sessions.     

Policy issues relevant to evaluation of interactive health communication applications. The Science Panel on Interactive Communication and Health

James Jeffray, Regius Professor of Anatomy in the University of Glasgow (1790-1848), published his lectures on the heart as a monograph entitled Observations on the Heart and on the Peculiarities of the Foetus (Jeffray, 1835), in which he considered controversies about the adult heart, such as the arrangement of the coronary vessels and the function of the aortic and pulmonary sinuses, and about the fetal circulation. His sources were the works of Senac, Lower, Vieussens, Eustachius, Mery, Haller, Winslow, and Sabatier which were available from the Hunterian bequest. Jeffray supplemented his own material with Hunterian specimens for the illustrations. He supported the theory that blood from the superior and inferior venae cavae crossed in the right atrium, that from the superior cava being destined for the right ventricle and from the inferior passing through the foramen ovale to the left atrium. He also held that the valve of the inferior vena cava directed the bloodflow from that vessel to the foramen ovale. These views conflicted with those of John Bell (1763-1820), a successful Edinburgh anatomist and surgeon whose opinions are attacked several times in the publication. Regarding the placenta, Jeffray may have been deliberately vague about whether the fetal and maternal circulations are continuous or separate, an issue resolved by William Hunter in the previous century.     

The effects of anxiety and threat on the solution of a difficult task.

"Two variables were manipulated in this research, anxiety and experimental instructions administered prior to the subjects' performance on a series of anagrams high in difficulty level. Three measures of anxiety were used: the Test Anxiety Scale (TAS) [Sarason, 1958], the Lack of Protection Scale (LP) [Sarason, 1958], and Bendig's version of the Manifest Anxiety Scale (MAS) [Bendig, 1956]. The two sets of instructions differed in that one set was designed to pose a personal threat to the subject and the other set was designed to reassure the subject. The results showed that TAS and LP, but not MAS, significantly interacted with the instructions." From Psyc Abstracts 36:01:3HK65S. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gold Medal Award for Life Contribution by a Psychologist in the Public Interest: Seymour B. Sarason.

Presents a biography of S. B. Sarason, the 1996 recipient of the American Psychological Foundation Gold Medal Award for Life Contribution by a Psychologist in the Public Interest. Sarason is recognized for changing the nature of the conversation about mental deficiency, community psychology, and public education, as well as about psychology's embeddedness in time, place, and era. His research and writings changed traditional conceptions of mental handicap and exposed the iatrogenic consequences of institutional segregation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On Sarason: Technology, yes; science, no.

Comments on S. B. Sarason's (see record 1984-28403-001) assertion that something should not be investigated or developed just because it can be. The present author suggests that (1) the constraints proposed by Sarason could result in dependence on tradition rather than new knowledge; (2) a distinction should be made between science, whose goal is to uncover knowledge, and technology, whose goal is to develop applications of this knowledge; and (3) constraints should be limited to technology. (2 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

“Interacting with sexist men triggers social identity threat among female engineers”: Correction.

Reports an error in "Interacting with sexist men triggers social identity threat among female engineers" by Christine Logel, Gregory M. Walton, Steven J. Spencer, Emma C. Iserman, William von Hippel and Amy E. Bell (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2009[Jun], Vol 96[6], 1089-1103). The affiliation for William von Hippel is incorrect. The affiliation should have been University of Queensland. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2009-07435-001.) Social identity threat is the notion that one of a person’s many social identities may be at risk of being devalued in a particular context (C. M. Steele, S. J. Spencer, & J. Aronson, 2002). The authors suggest that in domains in which women are already negatively stereotyped, interacting with a sexist man can trigger social identity threat, undermining women’s performance. In Study 1, male engineering students who scored highly on a subtle measure of sexism behaved in a dominant and sexually interested way toward an ostensible female classmate. In Studies 2 and 3, female engineering students who interacted with such sexist men, or with confederates trained to behave in the same way, performed worse on an engineering test than did women who interacted with nonsexist men. Study 4 replicated this finding and showed that women’s underperformance did not extend to an English test, an area in which women are not negatively stereotyped. Study 5 showed that interacting with sexist men leads women to suppress concerns about gender stereotypes, an established mechanism of stereotype threat. Discussion addresses implications for social identity threat and for women’s performance in school and at work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Samuel Fernberger's rejected doctoral dissertation: A neglected resource for the history of ape research in America.

I summarize a never-completed 1911 doctoral dissertation on ape behavior by Samuel Fernberger of the University of Pennsylvania. Included are observations on many behavioral patterns including sensory and perceptual function, learning, memory, attention, imagination, personality, and emotion in an orangutan and two chimpanzees. There are examples of behavior resembling insight, conscience, tool use and imitation. Language comprehension was good but speech production was minimal. The document appears to contradict a brief published article on the project by William Furness in that punishment was frequently used. The document is important for understanding Fernberger's early career, for anticipations of later research, and for understanding the status of ape research at the time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affect and stereoscopic resolution.

A set of nonsense syllables were associated, by the method of anticipation, with pictures previously scaled with regard to pleasantness and unpleasantness. Syllables associated with pleasant and with unpleasant pictures were paired and presented in a stereoscopic binocular rivalry apparatus. Ss seeing relatively more "unpleasant" syllables scored significantly in the shallow-affect direction on a personality scale. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Harold Grier McCurdy (1909–1999).

Memorializes Harold Grier McCurdy, Kenan Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. McCurdy authored basic textbooks in the area of personality, including The Personal World: An Introduction to the Study of Personality (1961), and investigated the writings of William Shakespeare in The Personality of Shakespeare: A Venture in Psychological Method (1953). His involvement with the study of outstandingly creative individuals led McCurdy to try to better understand the sources of creativity by studying the childhoods of individuals who later displayed unquestioned genius. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An empirical study of the issue of sex bias in the diagnostic criteria of DSM-III Axis II Personality Disorders.

Responds to M. Kaplan's (see record 1984-06847-001) assertion that society encourages women to behave histrionically and dependently and then through the use of sex-biased diagnostic criteria, such as the DSM-III, labels these same women as mentally ill. To test Kaplan's hypothesis, the sex ratios of all of the DSM-III Axis II personality disorders were determined in 2 samples of 2,712 and 531 patients. Histrionic and dependent personality disorders were more commonly diagnosed in females, and antisocial personality disorder was more commonly diagnosed in males. The finding that there was no overall tendency for a female S to receive a personality disorder diagnosis more often than a male S provides no support for Kaplan's theory of sex bias in the DSM-III. (7 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Oxidative stress in diabetic rats induced by streptozotocin: protective effects of melatonin

Two years after Kurt Schneider had finalised his thesis qualifying him as a lecturer at Cologne University, he completed his doctorate dissertation in philosophy, also at Cologne University. His advisor was Max Scheler. Schneider published the results of his researches in a short monograph. It appears that at this time Scheler's phenomenology began to influence psychiatry. However, Kurt Schneider made only passing references to Max Scheler in this regard. Nevertheless, Scheler's influence on Schneider remained noticeable even in his most famous book "Clinical Psychopathology". Years after their academic contacts, Scheler, on several occasions, asked Schneider's advice concerning his psychically disturbed son Wolfgang. Schneider's diagnosis amounted to a case of a severely psychopathic personality. He informed Max Scheler on this and, subsequently, Wolfgang Scheler was interdicted, i.e. legally incapacitated.     

Perceived parental social support and academic achievement: An attachment theory perspective.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 66(4) of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (see record 2008-10478-001). This article, which appeared in the Personality and Individual Differences section was accepted for publication by Guest Editor Irwin Sarason. We wish to thank Professor Sarason for his help and to apologize for our oversight in not acknowledging this contribution.] Tested the extent to which parental social support predicted college GPA among undergraduates. A sample of 418 undergraduates completed the Social Provisions Scale—Parent Form (C. E. Cutrona; see record 1990-01422-001) and measures of family conflict and achievement orientation. American College Testing (ACT) Assessment Program college entrance exam scores (American College Testing Program, 1986) and GPA were obtained from the university registrar. Parental social support, especially reassurance of worth, predicted college GPA when controlling for academic aptitude (ACT scores), family achievement orientation, and family conflict. Support from parents, but not from friends or romantic partners, significantly predicted GPA. Results are interpreted in the context of adult attachment theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual and nonperceptual components of implicit memory for pictures.

The transfer appropriate processing (TAP) framework posits that in data-driven tasks, such as picture naming (PN) or picture perceptual identification, repetition priming is greater when perceptual processes engaged at study are recapitulated at test. Thus, priming with pictures is greater after study-phase exposure to pictures than to words (picture names). A. S. Brown, D. R. Neblett, T. C. Jones, and D. B. Mitchell (see record 1991-26453-001) reported that a pure-list format eliminated perceptual priming: Participants who saw either pictures or words in a study phase showed equal priming in a PN task. In the present study, participants showed greater priming after exposure to pure lists of pictures than to pure lists of words in 3 PN and 1 picture perceptual identification experiments. Thus, perceptual priming occurred in 4 pure-list picture priming tasks, as predicted by the TAP framework. Priming also was found after exposure to words. In PN and picture perceptual identification tasks, implicit memory for pictures includes perceptual and nonperceptual components. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)