Relation between affective and dispositional guilt.

Administered the Mosher Forced-Choice Guilt Inventory, G. G. Galbraith's Word Association Test, and the Perceived Guilt Index, a trait-state measure of affective guilt, to 48 female undergraduates. Results indicate that while the Mosher and G-Trait scales are independent measures of guilt, taken together they are related to S's tendency to make sexual responses; Ss who scored low on both the G-Trait and the G-State scales made more sexual responses than Ss who scored high on both, or low on one and high on the other. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of diazepam and methylphenidate on the electrodermal detection of guilty knowledge.

60 19–28 yr old male undergraduates were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 groups in an investigation of the effects of antianxiety (diazepam) and stimulant (methylphenidate) drugs on polygraphic interrogation. Ss assigned to the 3 guilty groups watched a videotape depicting the burglary of an apartment through the eyes of the thief. Each S was asked to imagine that it was he who was committing the crime and was given instructions to encourage his becoming absorbed in the videotape. Ss were given either diazepam, methylphenidate, or placebo capsules before a polygraph examination. Control Ss viewed a videotape depicting scenes from the interior of another apartment (no crime was committed) before being given a polygraph examination. Results show that drug status did not affect the validity of the polygraph examination. Ss who remembered more facts scored significantly more in the guilt direction. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of sex guilt, repression, sexual "arousability," and sexual experience on female sexual arousal during erotica and fantasy.

Hypothesized that, among women who were asked to fantasize about sex, erotic preexposure would facilitate arousal during the fantasy, and arousal would be greater among those who had less sex guilt, those who were more arousable, those who were more experienced, and sensitizers. 62 female Ss (aged 18–53 yrs) were randomly assigned to view either an erotic or a nonerotic videotape. All Ss then imagined and wrote out a sexual fantasy. Sexual arousal was measured subjectively by self-report ratings and physiologically by continuous vaginal photoplethysmograph recording. Ss high in sex guilt reported less arousal but showed significantly greater physiological arousal during the erotic videotape than did Ss low in sex guilt. For the high sex-guilt Ss, the erotic videotape facilitated physiological arousal during fantasy. Ss low in sexual arousability and low in sexual experience followed a similar pattern. No significant differences were found for repression-sensitization. Results point toward a pattern of behavioral inhibition that facilitates increased response to forbidden erotica. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anxiety and the variability of word associates.

15 Ss who scored high on the Taylor MA scale and 15 Ss who scored low on the MA scale were given a word associate task. The highly anxious Ss tended to have sets of word associates lower in intersubject variability than the nonanxious Ss for stimulus words that elicited sets of word associates that are low in variability. Highly anxious Ss tended to give sets of word associates higher in intersubject variability than nonanxious Ss for stimulus words that elicited sets of word associates that are high in intersubject variability. A 2nd experiment reports data indicating a relationship between inter- and intrasubject variability of word associates. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of a scale to measure intense ambivalence.

Developed a 45-item true–false scale to measure intense ambivalence using a procedure that ensured high internal consistency with minimal method variance. It has been argued that intense ambivalance is characteristic of Ss who are genetically predisposed to the development of schizophrenia. The scale was first validated by interviewing 72 (of 759 Ss who completed the scale) college students who scored high and in the normal range on the scale. Ss who scored high on the scale spontaneously reported feeling ambivalent and behaved ambivalently more often than low-scoring controls. The scale was then given to 85 schizophrenics (mean age 35.6 yrs), 30 hospitalized depressives (mean age 35.5 yrs), 192 psychology clinic patients (mean age 27.1 yrs), and 139 normal controls (mean age 31.3 yrs). As predicted, schizophrenics scored higher than controls; clinic clients scored in the middle range. Depressives scored the highest of all the groups. (40 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interaction of fear and guilt in inhibiting unacceptable behavior.

80 male college students completed the Mosher Incomplete Sentences Test which was scored for sex guilt. The Ss were assigned by alternation to a fear-reduction or fear-induction experimental condition which preceded a perceptual defense task. The results supported the prediction derived from social learning theory that the inhibitory behavior of Ss who score low on a measure of sex guilt is more influenced by situational cues relevant to the probability of external punishment for sex-related behavior than is the inhibitory behavior of the high-sex-guilt group. The results suggested that the high-sex-guilt S is relatively insensitive to situational cues concerning the probability of external punishment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of a geriatric scale of hopelessness: Implications for counseling and intervention with the depressed elderly.

Evaluated hopelessness, depression, and self-esteem in 138 65–80 yr old subclinically depressed people drawn from community settings. In Phase 1, a factor analysis was performed on the contents of interviews with 60 Ss. Analysis yielded 4 distinct factors of geriatric hopelessness. In Phase 2, a geriatric hopelessness scale (included as a table) was developed on the basis of hopelessness themes suggested by factor analysis and was administered to 78 Ss. Results of this validity study show that Ss who scored high on the geriatric hopelessness scale had significantly higher depression and lower self-esteem scores than Ss who scored low on the scale. It is suggested that the same correlational patterns that exist in youth and adults between hopelessness and depression continue into old age. It is further suggested that identification of clients' latent themes of hopelessness would help counselors obtain more focused insight into clients' pessimism and negative outlooks and would provide the particular kind of encouragement and reinforcement needed. (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Masculine striving" as a clue to skilled-trade interests.

A new verification scale for the Minnesota Vocational Interest Inventory (MVII) was hypothesized to serve as a Masculinity-Femininity scale when Ss answer honestly. Verification scores were compared for 117 Ss who took the MVII under normal instructions and under instructions to affect a masculine- or a feminine-oriented boy of 16. Most of the Ss were arts and science college freshmen, ? were females, and 11 were still in high school. With the normal set, males scored higher than skilled tradesmen, below the mean for chance derived scores, and far below the females. Both males and females with a masculine set scored low, the same as tradesmen. Males with a feminine set scored the same as females under a normal set, but females with a feminine set averaged the same as chance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual differences and autonomic control: Absorption, hypnotic susceptibility, and the unilateral control of skin temperature.

Proposed to (a) replicate earlier findings that human Ss could voluntarily control peripheral skin temperature, (b) test the hypothesis that hypnotic susceptibility and the capacity for absorbed, imaginative attention would enhance autonomic learning and performance, and (c) demonstrate a learning effect, if one exists. A comparison was made with 7 Ss who scored high and 7 Ss who scored low on both a modified version of the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility and the Tellegen Absorption Scale. Auditory feedback was used to train Ss to produce a difference in skin temperature in one hand relative to the other in a direction specified by the E. Large and reliable performance and learning effects were found, but they were unrelated to hypnotic susceptibility or the capacity for absorbed, imaginative attention. Variables that might account for individual differences in learning and performance are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The validity of the guilty knowledge technique: The effects of faking.

In developing an alternative to the lie detector, a questionnaire was given 20 Ss with the GSR. 1 response in each multiple-choice item was a guilty response known to the examiner. Ss were bribed to defeat the GSR after being trained to do so. They failed. Although conventional methods may be used in more instances, this objectively scored, guilt knowledge test offers a valuable alternative. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Discriminating externalizing from internalizing emotionally disturbed children with the Ottawa School Behaviour Checklist.

Examined the Ottawa School Behaviour Checklist responses of 73 latency-aged (mean age = 10 yrs) emotionally disturbed children to determine whether the checklist is equally effective in detecting children who experience various types of emotional difficulties. Results indicate that Ss using externalizing methods of coping scored higher than internalizing Ss. High scores are supposed to indicate more severe disturbance. Internalizing and externalizing styles were determined by independent psychiatric assessment. Discriminate function analyses were used to isolate those items that distinguished both externalizers from internalizers and psychotic from nonpsychotic Ss. Results indicate that the Ottawa School Behaviour Checklist item pool is more effective in screening emotionally disturbed troublesome children than in detecting equally disturbed troubled children. (French summary) (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of atmospheric electricity on some substrates of disordered social behavior.

Epidemiological data indicate that increased small positive air ionization due to changing weather conditions is associated with increases in industrial and automobile accidents, suicide, crime, depression, irritability, and interference with CNS function. Laboratory research is less consistent, with several studies reporting no effects on mood or performance indicative of CNS disturbance. The present study (85 college students 18–60 years) examined individual differences in response to small positive air ions. Data indicate that whereas mood changes (Mood Adjective Check List, Sharav Questionnaire) were present for most Ss when exposed to positive ions, assessment of individual differences in susceptibility was essential for detecting effects on performance and physiological activation. For most Ss, mood changes induced by ion exposure were characterized by increased tension and irritability. For susceptible (ion-sensitive) Ss, skin conductance measures showed depressed activation, and RT increased during exposure to ions. For non-sensitive Ss, skin conductance measures revealed only increased activation. (63 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Need for approval, guilt, and sexual stimulation and their relationship to sexual responsivity.

Describes an experiment in which 111 male undergraduates were given the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability scale and the Mosher Forced-Choice Guilt Scale prior to reading a series of either sexual or neutral passages. Ss rated the extent to which they were sexually aroused, anxious, bored, angry, disgusted, and entertained, and then responded to a sexual double-entendre word association test. Responses indicate that Ss were significantly more sexually aroused after reading the sexual as opposed to the neutral passages. Need approval and guilt scores were not significantly related to stated degree of arousal or any of the other dimensions. Low need-approval Ss showed greater sexual responsivity to the entendres than highs, especially subsequent to reading the sexual passages. For the guilt variable, Ss with low sex guilt demonstrated greater sexual responsivity on the entendres regardless of whether they read neutral or sexual passages. Results suggest that these personality variables affect responding rather than affect arousal. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anhedonia, perceptual aberration, and the Rorschach.

26 college students who scored deviantly high on a scale of physical anhedonia and 27 who scored high on a scale of perceptual aberration were compared with 26 normal control Ss on the Rorschach scored for the delta index of thought disorder and the alpha index of deviancy. The anhedonic Ss and perceptual aberration Ss gave more schizophrenic-like Rorschach responses than the control Ss. This finding indicates the importance of follow-up studies to determine whether Ss who score deviantly high on these scales are at high risk for schizophrenia and/or other psychosis. (42 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An attempt to reverse performance deficits associated with depression and experimentally induced helplessness.

The learned helplessness model of depression predicts that any effective treatment for reactive depression should also reverse performance deficits associated with experimentally induced helplessness, and vice versa. A study was conducted to test this prediction. Ss were 62 college students who were exposed to experimental manipulations designed to induce helplessness or who scored above a group mean on the Beck Depression Inventory. Depressed and helpless Ss were randomly assigned to 4 groups. The 2 treatment groups received either E. Velten's (1968) mood statements for the induction of elation or a set of simple anagrams to solve. The 2 remaining groups were exposed to no-treatment conditions. All Ss were tested for helplessness on a series of concept formation problems. Results fail to confirm the predictions of the learned helplessness model of depression. Although treatment was effective with helpless Ss, the performance of treated depressed Ss was not enhanced. Also, depressed Ss given anagrams performed more poorly than depressed Ss given mood statements. Several possible explanations for the findings are considered. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychiatric symptom correlates of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) Masculinity-Femininity scale.

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) was administered to 72 female and 51 male outpatients, and subjects were rated on the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale. Raw scores on Masculinity–Femininity (Mf) correlated positively with ratings of emotional distress, even with gender effects removed. Male and female patients who scored high (feminine direction) on Mf were rated higher on anxiety, depressed mood, guilt feelings, and tension than were low scorers. Mf was the only MMPI scale to correlate significantly with guilt feelings, and its relationships with anxiety, depressed mood, and tension were largely independent of other MMPI clinical scales. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Low-anxious, high-anxious, and repressive coping styles: Psychometric patterns and behavioral and physiological responses to stress.

A long-standing problem in stress research has been that individuals' reports of their tendencies to become anxious are often inconsistent with relevant behavioral and physiological indices. This study investigated the distinction between (a) truly low-anxious Ss, who report low trait anxiety on the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale and low defensiveness on the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale, and (b) repressors, who report low anxiety but high defensiveness. These groups were compared with a moderately high-anxious one. Heart rate, spontaneous skin resistance responses, and forehead muscle tension were recorded from 40 male college students during a phrase association task. Significant differences in the 3 physiological measures as well as in 3 behavioral ones (reaction time, content avoidance, and verbal interference) all indicated that the repressors were more stressed than the low-anxious Ss despite their claims of lower trait anxiety. The high-anxious group exhibited a 3rd pattern suggesting an intermediate level of anxious responding. These data document the need to distinguish between repressors and truly low-anxious persons in research concerned with relations between self-reported anxiety and behavioral and physiological responses to stress. (42 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Counselor and client personality as determinants of counselor expectancy effects.

78 students enrolled in summer-session college courses were randomly assigned to serve either as counselors or as clients for a 20-min, role-played peer counseling session. Ss completed a battery of standardized personality measures, including the Personality Research Form. Each counselor interacted with 2 clients. Prior to the sessions, the counselor was led to believe that one of the clients was especially introverted and that the other client was especially extraverted. Dependent measures were based on clients' change scores on a mood adjective rating scale administered before and after the peer counseling sessions. Analyses showed that counselors who were more successful at biasing their clients in the direction of their expectancies (a) scored higher on measures of dogmatism, nurturance, and social recognition; (b) scored lower on impulsivity; and (c) were more likely to be female. Clients who were more susceptible to counselor bias scored higher on the Self-Monitoring Scale, its Other-Directedness subscale, and social recognition. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mood changes, physiological responses, and self-statements during social rejection imagery.

Exp I, partially replicating M. Goldfried and D. Sobocinski's (see record 1975-26824-001) methodology, evaluated the cognitive behavioral assumption that one's images and correct verbalizations mediate emotional and physiological arousal. Ss were 32 female university students who scored at the extremes on the importance of social approval scale from the Irrational Beliefs Test. It was hypothesized that relative to the low-irrational Ss, high-irrational ones would emit more negative and fewer positive tasks- and self-referent self-statements, report greater emotional arousal, and exhibit greater increases in physiological arousal while visualizing social rejection scenes. The major finding was that the groups differed significantly in the frequency of negative self-referent self-statements; virtually no support was obtained for the other hypotheses. Exp II, which used 24 females and which did not employ self-statements or physiological measures but was otherwise similar to Exp I, was a more exact replication of the Goldfried and Sobocinski study. Exp III, with 36 Ss, was a complete replication of the Goldfried and Sobocinski study. The data from the latter 2 studies indicate no differences in the reported moods of high- and low-irrational Ss following visualizations of social rejection scenes. Conceptual and clinical implications are discussed. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)