"Hunger, semistarvation, and ill health": Comment.

Comments on the article by J.P.J. Pinel, S. Assanand and D.R. Lehman (see record 2000-02781-002) which argued that because of the scarcity and unpredictability of food in nature, humans and other animals have evolved to eat to their physiological limits when food is readily available, so that excess energy can be stored in the body as a buffer against future food shortages. The current authors give both support and criticism to Pinel et al's findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Sun, moon and stars": Comment.

Comments on the article by J.P.J. Pinel, S. Assanand and D. R. Lehman (see record 2000-02781-002) which argued that because of the scarcity and unpredictability of food in nature, humans and other animals have evolved to eat to their physiological limits when food is readily available, so that excess energy can be stored in the body as a buffer against future food shortages. The current authors suspect that Pinel, Assanad and Lehman overstemated what most humans will do, while underestimating what some can do. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Primate research, family politics, and social policy: Transforming "cads" into "dads."

The ideology of fatherhood, as it is defined in Western, industrialized culture, assumes that fathers are biologically predisposed to be relatively uninvolved in infant care. This article summarizes recent revisions of both primate research and sociobiological theory. These new perspectives on male parenting behavior shift the focus from a narrow emphasis on the genetic relationship between male primates and their offspring to a broader focus that includes multiple social, demographic, and ecological variables. This paradigm underlines the behavioral flexibility, rather than the behavioral fixity, of male parenting behaviors. The relevance of this new theoretical consensus for social policy that could strengthen fathers' relationships with their children is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comment on "Human Information Processing and Sensory Modality: Cross-Modal Functions, Information Complexity, Memory, and Deficit."

Seeks to correct 2 points made in the article by D. Freides (see record 1974-29128-001) on cross-modal functions. The present authors state that none of the data in their study (see record 1972-25445-001) are in "support of the sensory integration hypothesis"; and brain-damaged children did not do better than controls on haptic-haptic matching. The study yielded no selective impairment of cross-modal functions in brain-damaged children; relative to controls, their greatest deficit was in visual-visual matching. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comment on Wright, O'Leary, and Balkin's "Shame, guilt, narcissism, and depression: Correlates and sex differences."

Commends F. Wright et al (see record 2003-05429-009) for the empirical approach to understanding the roles of shame, guilt, and sex differences in depression and narcissism. However, the lack of construct validity for the guilt scale used renders their conclusions regarding the involvement of guilt in the formation of depression and the prevalence of guilt between the sexes questionable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Affect, sex guilt, gender, and the rewarding–punishing effects of erotic stimuli": A reanalysis and reinterpretation.

Exception is taken at several points to W. Griffitt and D. L. Kaiser's (see record 1980-00280-001) conclusions concerning the relationships among sex guilt, gender, positive and negative affect, and preference for erotic stimuli. It is argued that neither the correlation nor the regression analyses directly tested the models of human behavior proposed by Griffitt and Kaiser. A causal modeling reanalysis of their data contradicts their conclusions but offers some support for their theory concerning responsivity to erotic stimuli. Sex guilt is found to have a direct influence on positive affect, negative affect, and preference for erotic stimuli, as well as an effect on preference for erotic stimuli through its impact on positive and negative affect. It is concluded that researchers must choose statistical models that are consistent with their hypothetical models of human behavior. This is particularly important when the investigation involves intervening variables or mediating factors that are under observation. (6 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Life stressors, social resources, and late-life problem drinking": Clarification.

Reports a clarification in the article by P. L. Brennan and R. H. Moos (Psychology and Aging, 1990[Dec], Vol 5[4], 491–501). The authors wish to note that their study was based on the same sample that was used in the research reported in the article by R. H. Moos et al (see record 1990-14961-001) and that this information was inadvertently deleted in the Brennan and Moos article. (The following abstract of the article by Brennan and Moos originally appeared in PA, Vol 78:10154.) Life stressors and social resources among late-middle-aged problem and nonproblem drinkers were studied. Problem drinkers (n?=?501) reported more negative life events, chronic stressors, and social resource deficits than did nonproblem drinkers (n?=?609). In a comparison of problem drinkers, men reported more ongoing stressors involving finances and friends and reported fewer resources from children, extended-family members, and friends than did women. Women who are problem drinkers reported more negative life events, more ongoing difficulties with spouses and extended-family members, and fewer resources from spouses. Among both the problem and nonproblem drinkers, more stressors were associated with fewer social resources, but only within certain life domains. Late-middle-aged adults' chronic stressors and social resources helped explain their drinking behavior, depression, and self-confidence even after sex, marital status, and negative life events were considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Women's role in psychotherapy": Reply to Solomon, Penzer, and Barber.

Suggests that I. Solomon et al (see record 1984-29323-001) were unaware, in their comment on the work of R. T. Hare-Mustin (see record 1984-07313-001), that others also consider Freud's treatment of Dora as lacking in trust and respect. It is suggested that Hare-Mustin was not confusing family treatment with psychoanalysis but was pointing out Freud's bias in the case. It is concluded that if Solomon and colleagues felt that they had to defend Freud against all criticism, they undervalued Freud's genius. (6 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Goodnight Saigon": Music, fiction, poetry, and film in readjustment group counseling.

Clinicians often wonder what combination of techniques can be maximally effective for individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder. This article describes the use of music, fiction, poetry, and contemporary film with several combat and here-and-now readjustment counseling groups, spouses groups, and family groups. E. H. Erikson's (1985) model of identity informed the group processes and specific homework assignments. The observed effects of these interventions on Vietnam veterans and on their significant others are described. Others may wish to use and to evaluate these techniques in groups for other specific disorders when this particular combination is relevant and appropriate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Clinicians, microcomputers, and confidentiality": Correction to Bongar.

Reports an error in "Clinicians, microcomputers, and confidentiality" by Bruce Bongar (Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 1988[Jun], Vol 19[3], 286-289). In this article, the address given on p. 286 for correspondence to the author is incorrect. The paragraph should read as follows: Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Brace Bongar, Department of Psychology, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts 01610. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1988-33962-001.) Despite the microcomputer's ever-increasing popularity, one of its greatest strengths, the ability to store enormous quantities of text and data on small, concentrated types of magnetic media, could turn out to be an important structural weakness in the wall of client confidentiality that psychologists have so carefully constructed over the years. In this article I examine the possibilities for such breaches of confidentiality when psychologists use microcomputers in their practice or research. Examples illustrate the ease and rapidity with which the microcomputer's magnetic media can be duplicated, damaged, or destroyed. Recommendations are made for guidelines and techniques to ensure and maintain the confidentiality of clinical and research information when one is using a microcomputer. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Iconic memory," location information, and the bar-probe task: A reply to Chow (1986).

Mewhort, Campbell, Marchetti, and Campbell (1981) argued from an analysis of errors in the bar-probe task that the decreased accuracy associated with a delayed probe reflects loss of location information at a postcategorical level, not loss of precategorical data in "iconic" memory. Chow (1986) argued that the error analysis underlying their conclusions is misconceived and that the loss associated with a delayed probe reflects decay of precategorical item information. His position is based on a bar-probe task in which subjects reported both the location (L) and the identity (I) of the item probed. He treated the conditional probabilities p(I?|?L) and p(L?|?I) as measures of identity and location information, respectively. We show that the conditional scores are not measures of identity and location information and that their pattern across probe delay is quite compatible with the late-selection position. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The "never-to-be-forgotten investigation": Luella W. Cole, Sidney L. Pressey, and mental surveying in Indiana, 1917–1921.

The case of Cole and Pressey's mental survey of southern counties in Indiana provides a microhistorical view of intelligence testing and its popularization. Providing fresh insight into the nature and commerce of mental surveying outside of the Army's notorious program during World War I, this case is an example of larger phenomena at that time. Intent on popularizing their products, Cole and Pressey attended to the minutiae of the consumption and production of their psychological apparatus in their attempts to create and satisfy market conditions. Here, markets would dictate the success of their scales, and in turn mediate their psychology. I argue that the popularization of intelligence testing had as much to do with the mundane market practices of psychologists as with the intellectual practices of Army elites. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

More or less "me" in past, present, and future: Perceived lifetime personality during adulthood.

This article examines whether adults perceive different levels of their own personality traits at different target ages, and what the differences are. Using abbreviated versions of assessments of the 5-factor model of personality (NEO-FFI, P. T. Costa & R. R. McCrae, 1989) and of well-being (C. D. Ryff, 1989), 398 heterogeneous participants (age 26–64) described their own personality (a) in the present, (b) when they were 20–25 years old, (c) when they will be 65–70 years old, and (d) in the ideal. Participants' responses across the 3 target ages indicated moderate change across adulthood and more variability than is typically observed in longitudinal studies of adult personality development. Anticipated late adulthood personality contained more losses than gains, although all target ages showed some gains. Participants' perceptions were characterized by early adulthood exploration, middle adulthood productivity, and later adulthood comfortableness. Additionally, older adults reported slightly lower ideals but in other ways responded very similarly to younger and middle-aged adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comment on Berenbaum, Oltmanns, and Gottesman (1985): "Formal thought disorder in schizophrenics and their twins."

Berenbaum, Oltmanns, and Gottesman (1985) reported no significant difference in the concordance for monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) schizophrenic twins in measures of thought disorder. They therefore concluded that thought disorder is not genetically transmitted. Although their data do not provide evidence in favor of genetic transmission, their negative conclusion is weakened because (a) they did not assess mild instances of thought disorder typically seen in nonpsychotic persons and because (b) comparison of MZ and DZ concordances may not be a sufficiently powerful test to detect genetic influences on traits that both contribute to the risk for a disease and reflect the severity of the disease once established. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Balance of power": A transactional analysis of control in mother-child dyads involving socially competent, aggressive, and anxious children.

The authors compared mother-to-child and child-to-mother control exchanges in dyads involving socially competent, aggressive, and anxious children (aged 2.5–6.5 years) observed in a laboratory setting. Competent children and their mothers influenced each other positively and reciprocally, making prudent use of control exchanges and setting firm limits to coercive attempts. Aggressive children and their mothers were relatively positive, but children made regular use of coercive control and mothers responded indiscriminately and failed to oppose more extreme forms of coercion. Anxious children and their mothers were generally aversive: mothers attempted to control their children by being coercive and unresponsive, and children tried to manage their mothers by being resistant and coercive. Results show that young children are active agents who influence and are influenced by their relationship with their mother and who behave—across contexts and with different social partners—in ways that reflect this relationship. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Effect of previously assigned goals on self-set goals and performance": Correction to Locke, Frederick, Buckner, and Bobko.

Reports an error in "Effect of previously assigned goals on self-set goals and performance" by Edwin A. Locke, Elizabeth Frederick, Elizabeth Buckner and Philip Bobko (Journal of Applied Psychology, 1984[Nov], Vol 69[4], 694-699). The third line was left out on p. 696, top right column. The entire section should read as follows: "Figure 1 compares the goals on T-1 with the mean goals chosen on T-2 by the same groups of subjects (i.e., grouped according to T-1 goals). On T-2 the mean goal levels of the seven original groups ranged from 4.8 to 12.9, in contrast with the T-1 range of 2 to 26." (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1985-08583-001.) 231 undergraduates were asked to list from 2–26 uses for common objects depending on the level of difficulty of the section (1 of 7) to which they were assigned. Ss were given a 1-min practice trial after task explanations and were then administered 2 experimental trials. Ss were told they were free to change their goals to a higher or lower level for the 2nd trial if they did not like the goal they had been assigned. Results show that Ss chose more difficult goals, if the assigned goals had been easy, and easier goals, if the assigned goals had been difficult. Ss were heavily influenced in their self-set goals by their previously assigned goals. The performance of Ss with impossible goals did not drop on the 2nd trial. A goal–expectancy interaction was found on the 2nd trial that was due to expectancy being positively related to performance at the higher but not the lower goal levels. (8 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Aging, optimal testing times, and negative priming": Correction.

Reports 2 errors in the article "Aging, Optimal Testing Times, and Negative Priming' by M. J. Intons-Peterson, Paola Rocchi, Tara West, Kimberly McLellan, and Amy Hackney (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 1998, Vol. 24, No. 2, pp. 362–376; see record 1998-00017-007). On page 370, the sentence beginning on line 6 of the Method section should have read as follows: "the younger adults were fulfilling a partial requirement of their introductory psychology courses, and the older group was drawn randomly from participants who served in the normative study and from more recently tested older individuals.' The final phrase of the sentence has been added to more accurately reflect the number of participants in the older group. The second error is on page 368. The entries in the left column of Table 3 were incorrect. The corrected table is presented. A portion of the original abstract follows: The effects of time-of-day preferences on selective attention were tested in 2 experiments after normative work with 975 younger adults and 143 older adults verified C. P. May, L. Hasher, and E. R. Stoltzfus's (1993) finding that most older adults prefer the morning, whereas younger adults prefer activities later in the day. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Trance" versus "skill" hypnotic inductions: The effects of credibility, expectancy, and experimenter modeling.

Compared a hypnotic induction procedure based on social learning principles (skill induction) with a traditional eye-fixation/relaxation trance induction, a highly credible placebo induction, and a no-induction base-rate control. Before inductions were administered, 100 undergraduates completed Rotter's Internal–External Locus of Control Scale, the Rotter Trust Scale, and an absorption scale. The trance induction surpassed the skill induction only on the Hypnosis Inventory. Experimenter modeling did not enhance the effectiveness of the skill induction. Skill and trance inductions elicited slightly higher behavioral scores on the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale: Form C than did the placebo induction. However, this difference was not obtained on other measures of hypnotic responsivity and depth. Significant correlations were found between expectancy, absorption, and responsiveness on all dependent measures. Multiple regression analyses indicated that the relationship between absorption and responsivity was mediated by expectancy. Results support the hypotheses that hypnotic responses are elicited by the expectancy for their occurrence and that induction procedures are a means of increasing Ss' expectancies for hypnotic responses. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Reals", "roles", and demand features: A critical look at interview versus questionnaire measures of subjective states.

Hypothesized that questionnaire self-report measures of altered state experience are, by their very nature, affected by demand features, while interview self-report measures of subjective experience are more resistant to these vulnerabilities. It was hypothesized that an interview measure would distinguish the experiences of actual meditators (reals) from their role-playing counterparts (roles), while a questionnaire measure, the Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory (PCI), would fail to so distinguish. It was also hypothesized that the order in which Ss were to complete the subjective measures would influence their PCI intensity scores, but not the content of their interviews. Data from 51 female undergraduates (aged 18–56 yrs) indicate that these hypotheses were generally confirmed. Findings support the greater validity of more "subjective" interview methods in research on qualitative states. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)