"Measuring deaf cultural identities: A preliminary investigation": Erratum.

Reports an error in "Measuring deaf cultural identities: A preliminary investigation" by Neil S. Glickman and John C. Carey (Rehabilitation Psychology, 1993[Win], Vol 38[4], 275-283). The article "Measuring Deaf Cultural Identities: A Preliminary Investigation" by Neil S. Glickman and John C. Carey were published in the Volume 38, Number 4, Winter 1993 issue with an excessive number of typographical errors. The publisher apologizes to the Journal's readers, the article authors, and Robert Q. Pollard, Jr., the Guest Editor of the Special Issue on Deafness, for the confusion these misprints caused. A revised reprint of the article may be obtained from the Publisher. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1994-26294-001.) Developed an instrument, the Deaf Identity Development Scale (DIDS), to measure how deaf people identify with the deaf community and deaf culture. An identity development model with 4 different cultural orientations with regard to the deaf community was the basis of the instrument. A 60-item instrument, the DIDS was developed and translated from English to American Sign Language (ASL) on videotape. The ASL version was back-translated into English and the 2 English language versions were checked for equivalency. The DIDS was administered to 105 deaf university students and 56 other deaf Ss (aged 27–75 yrs). Results show stong internal consistency with the scales. Initial use of the DIDS for comparing these 2 samples of deaf Ss suggests the DIDS can be used to distinguish different deaf cultural orientations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contributing to a field of investigation.

Comments on the study of parent–child relationships in step-parent families by L. E. Sauer and M. A. Fine (see record 1989-15310-001). Issues related to the use of the deficit family model, insensitivity to the diversity of stepfamilies, and the use of single-source, single-method, and single-measure designs are explored. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A response to Richard Lettieri's "The ego revisited."

R. Lettieri (see record 2005-08806-004) maintained that a modern conflict theory needs a concept of an ego. This commentary is in response to that suggestion. Because the construct of the ego has been seriously criticized in the psychoanalytic literature, such a suggestion must first address the tenability of the criticisms before such a recommendation can be actualized. In this response to Lettieri's paper, I try to do just that. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Another response to "Homosexuality: The ethical challenge."

Discusses the ethical integrity of accepting a voluntary patient's wish to change his sexual orientation, emphasizing G. D. Davison's article (see PA, Vol: 56:Issue 6) which argues that homosexuality is not pathological state. The problem of how a therapist can discriminate between his/her own values and what is a set of symptoms elicited by environment (e.g., social pressures) is examined. Four tasks must be accomplished before a therapist can attempt a sexual orientation change in a homosexual--deciding how the patient's biological state, past learning, access to information, and the impact of the current environment affect him or her. A therapist, behavioral or otherwise, is obligated to engage in a dialogue involving a scrupulous, nonmystical, time-consuming information exchange with the patient, such interchange being directed toward the clarification in the patient's mind of whether in fact he or she really wants to change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A response to "Educational uses of tests with disadvantaged students."

Responds to the paper by T. A. Cleary et al (see record 1976-03505-001) on the use of standardized tests with minorities and notes substantial shortcomings in the article. These include (1) lack of response to the key arguments of many critics of extant testing, (2) lack of recommendations for improving test development, and (3) placement of blame for bad testing on the practitioner. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Population and health psychology": A response.

Responds to a critique by D. C. O'Connell (see record 1987-21818-001) concerning the present author's (see record 1986-19757-001) article on population, development, and reproductive behavior. The author reiterates that individual, family, and community well-being, an improved quality of life, and freedom of choice in reproductive behavior are becoming areas of priority interest for health psychologists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A "humanistic alternative" to "Political ethics."

Challenges E. Gologor's (1978) contention that research concerning positive characteristics of people might be disruptive, as it could be discovered that people possess considerable potential for evil. A paradigm is presented that allows an objective evaluation of the effects of deception-disclosure on a given psychological phenomenon or procedure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Another example of a paradigm clash: A reply to Bixenstine's "criticisms."

Responds to V. E. Bixenstine's (1977) critique of W. W. Tryon's (see record 1977-04654-001) article on models of behavior disorder. The formal analysis paradigm from which Tryon operated is restated, and the way in which Bixenstine operated from the different phenomenology paradigm is demonstrated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Does motor programming necessitate response execution?": Correction.

Reports an error in the original article by A. Osman et al (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1990, Vol 16[1], 183–298). In Table 3 on page 192, 2 responses for high-complexity sequences should read "1 Ri?+?3 Li or 1 Li?+?3 Ri.' (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1990-13808-001.) The complexity of a movement is known to affect the time it takes to initiate the movement. This effect is thought to reflect changes in the duration of processes that operate on a motor program. This question addressed here is whether programming a movement compels the start of its overt execution. If it does, then the programming processes may be said to occur after the "point of no return.' We report results from an empirical procedure and a theoretical analysis designed to study processes before and after this point separately. According to our results, changes in the complexity of a movement affect only the prior set of processes. From this we argue that motor programming does not necessitate response execution and that the point of no return occurs very late in the information-processing system. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Child maltreatment: An ecological integration": In response to Gabinet.

Refutes L. Gabinet's (1981) critique of the author's (see record 1980-12117-001) article on child maltreatment point by point. It is argued that Gabinet's antagonism toward the author's primary prevention and intervention program seems based more on her own basic assumptions than on a careful understanding of the project described. Her conflicted discourse is attributed to a clashing of views rather than a critical analysis of the article. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Response to "A note on the MMPI as a suicide predictor."

Replies to J. R. Clopton's (see record 1979-05119-001) comments on the present author's (1977) article on the MMPI as a suicide predictor. Clopton's viewpoint that patients who attempt suicide are probably all members of the same population regardless of the success of their attempts is discussed. His concern that future research should emphasize the development of useful MMPI indices of suicidal risk and should recognize the need to cross-validate these indices is endorsed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Addendum to "Consciousness."

The author extends his previous discussion (see record 1979-22877-001) to encompass the role of a concept of awareness in each of 7 ordinary concepts of consciousness: joint or mutual knowledge, internal knowledge or conviction, awareness, direct awareness, personal unity, normal waking state, and double consciousness. In each case, the crucial involvement of a certain concept of awareness is brought out and references are included of authors who have used similar scientific concepts that implicate the same concept of awareness. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Two transitions and two crises in youth: A response to P. S. Fry's "Changes in youth's attitudes toward authority."

In a critical discussion of P. S. Fry's (1976) studies, a discussion of psychoanalytic theory's failure to account for the increase of negative attitudes toward authority during the early phase of the identity process is presented. An alternative developmental schema is proposed as more appropriate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Defining a "fair" or "unbiased" selection model: A question of utilities.

Describes a general selection model for selecting minority and majority applicants. The procedure consists of assigning utilities or losses to the "consequences" of selection decisions and deriving acceptance scores which maximize (minimize) the expected utility (loss). The question of "unfair" selection arises when applicants do not agree with the institution's utility (loss) assignment. 5 recently proposed models of fair selection are viewed in terms of an expected loss model and are shown to be procedures which implicitly assign loss values. It is concluded that utility (loss) values are always present in a selection problem, whether assigned explicitly or implicitly. Further, since applicants will probably never agree on a utility structure there cannot be a universal, fair, selection procedure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

DSM-III and the politics–science dichotomy syndrome: A response to Thomas E. Schacht's "DSM-III and the politics of truth."

Contends that T. E. Schacht's (see record 1986-11891-001) definition of politics is so broad in his discussion of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III), science, and politics that no one could deny that there are political dimensions of scientific activities. Employing Schacht's definition, the present author presents other political elements in DSM-III to demonstrate that, as chairperson of the DSM-III task force, he did not suffer from the politics–science dichotomy syndrome. It is suggested that for Schacht the acknowledgment of politics is the end of the analysis, while it should be the beginning. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A discussion of "Homosexuality: The ethical challenge."

Takes issue with G. C. Davison (see PA, Vol 56:Issue 6) who suggests that homosexuality is a normal variant of sexuality and that the problems of homosexuals derive from societal prejudices. It is argued that homosexuality is pathological, being the outcome of adverse experiences with both parents, and that Davison's promulgation of the "new myth" that homosexuality is normal cannot and does not alter societal prejudice. Further, it is argued that if social pressures were entirely absent, homosexuals would still wish to change. Social pressures merely contribute to the suffering of homosexuals by reinforcing what is already there; the individuals hurt by the new mythology are homosexuals themselves in that it robs them of options and undermines the determination needed for a reconstructive, therapeutic experience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's judgments and attributions in response to the "mentally retarded" label: A developmental approach.

140 3rd graders, 188 6th graders, and 97 9th graders viewed a videotape in which a child failed a puzzle task. All of the Ss had identical information about the child's achievement scores and puzzle ability, but half were told that the child was mentally retarded. Consistent with key person perception and social cognition findings, the traitlike retarded label had little impact on younger Ss but strong effects on older Ss. Like adults in earlier research, 6th and 9th graders saw low effort as a less important cause of failure for the retarded than for the unlabeled child, and they saw less need to urge the retarded child to persist. Correlations showed no evidence of logical linkages among attributions, expectancies, and persistence-urging among 3rd graders, but strong linkages among 6th and 9th graders. Findings suggest that label effects are mediated by cognitive processes dependent on developmental level. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Was McGraw a maturationist?": Reply.

Replies to T. C. Dalton's (see record 83:33646) commentary concerned with the labeling of M. B. McGraw as a maturationist as raised in Thelen's (see record 1995-20907-001) study on infant/child motor skill development. The issues raised by Thelen did not depend on whether McGraw was labeled a maturationist; what was evident in McGraw's work was a real tension between her manifest maturational theory on the one hand and her writings expressing the richness of the developmental process on the other. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Whatever happened to psychology as a science of behavior?": Comment.

Comments that there are some fundamental misunderstandings in B. F. Skinner (see record 1988-00027-001). According to the author, Skinner seems to think that there is something inherently objective about behavioral data. The author notes that behavior is subject to interpretation, inference, and bias in conceptualization and measurement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Open letter in response to D. O. Hebb": Reply irrelevant?

Replies to G. W. Albee's (1980) comments on D. O. Hebb's (1978) discussion of the IQ concept. Several of Albee's criticisms are irrelevant to Hebb's point on the social value of intelligence testing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)