Social class, age, and the nature of the incentive in children's lever-pressing performance.

96 middle class (MC) and lower class (LC) 6-, 10-, and 15-yr-old schoolchildren lever pressed for a 2 min. practice, followed by a 5-min session reinforced on a fixed-interval 30-sec schedule with money, a verbalism ("good"), both money plus "good," or nothing. Results indicate that MC sensitivity to verbal incentive and LC sensitivity to monetary incentive become pronounced as the child grows older since no differences between LC and MC were found for the youngest Ss. Data also suggest that sensitivity to the reinforcing properties inherent in a task does not develop as rapidly in LC as in MC Ss. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social class and the nature of the incentive in discrimination learning.

"… it… [was] predicted that an interaction exists between social class and the nature of the incentive. Supecifically, it was believed that a nonmaterial incentive is as effective as a material incentive for middle-class Ss, whereas, for lower-class Ss a material incentive is more effective than a nonmaterial one." This belief was tested and results indicate that middle-class "children learn more quickly when given a nonmaterial incentive than when given a material incentive, while the reverse [was] true of lower-class children." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Thought disorder in schizophrenics and normal controls: Social class and race differences.

Tested the usefulness of a measure of thought disorder, the Thought Disorder Index (TDI), for assessing those other than White middle-class patients. The TDI is based on deviant language patterns. 101 hospitalized schizophrenic patients, first-degree relatives of schizophrenics, and normal controls were compared on TDI scores by social class, race, and diagnosis. There were 53 White and 48 Black Ss. TDI scores accurately distinguished among the 3 psychiatric categories for both Black and White subgroups. Normal language patterns of Black and lower-class people are clearly distinguishable from those conveying instances of thought slippage and those occurring in psychotic patients and in their parents. (11 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social class, treatment attitudes, and expectations.

Administered the Mental Health Attitude Survey (MHAS) to 90 white outpatient psychotherapy clinic applicants from middle, working, and unskilled socioeconomic status (SES) levels. Findings suggest that prior assumptions about differences in help-seeking attitudes and treatment expectations among SES groups must be carefully reevaluated, since no significant effects for sex, SES, or interactions were found on any MHAS dimension. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social class, conditional communication, and egocentric speech.

Studied social class differences in ability to communicate conditional information using 132 5th-grade white children, who were divided into lower- and middle-socioeconomic-status (SES) groups of approximately equal IQ. Dyadic groupings were formed by combining lower- and middle-SES children into the 4 possible speaker-listener combinations. The task required speakers to use a conditional communication in describing the rules of a game to a listener. Results showed that as listeners, lower- and middle-SES children responded equally well to the communications of both lower- and middle-SES speakers. However, as communicators, the lower-SES children performed more poorly than the middle-SES children. Both lower- and middle-SES listeners had equally great difficulty complying with the instructions provided by the lower-SES communicators. The data suggest that SES differences cannot be attributed to lack of comprehension of the conditional logic. Instead, it appears that the lower-SES children were difficult to understand because of strong tendencies toward egocentric communication patterns. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social and psychological resources and adaptation.

Psychology has increasingly turned to the study of psychosocial resources in the examination of well-being. How resources are being studied and resource models that have been proffered are considered, and an attempt is made to examine elements that bridge across models. As resource models span health, community, cognitive, and clinical psychology, the question is raised of whether there is overuse of the resource metaphor or whether there exists some underlying principles that can be gleaned and incorporated to advance research. The contribution of resources for understanding multicultural and pan-historical adaptation in the face of challenge is considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social class, sense of control, and social explanation.

Lower social class is associated with diminished resources and perceived subordinate rank. On the basis of this analysis, the authors predicted that social class would be closely associated with a reduced sense of personal control and that this association would explain why lower class individuals favor contextual over dispositional explanations of social events. Across 4 studies, lower social class individuals, as measured by subjective socioeconomic status (SES), endorsed contextual explanations of economic trends, broad social outcomes, and emotion. Across studies, the sense of control mediated the relation between subjective SES and contextual explanations, and this association was independent of objective SES, ethnicity, political ideology, and self-serving biases. Finally, experimentally inducing a higher sense of control attenuated the tendency for lower subjective SES individuals to make more contextual explanations (Study 4). Implications for future research on social class as well as theoretical distinctions between objective SES and subjective SES are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social control, health risk taking, and psychological distress among the elderly.

Most research on older adults' social networks has focused on the support-providing function of social relationships. Little gerontological research has addressed social control, or the role of social bonds in regulating deviant or risky behavior. Drawing on sociological theory, this study examined the hypothesis that social control discourages risky health practices while provoking psychological distress. Structured interviews conducted with 162 community-residing older adults assessed social control (direct attempts by others to influence participants' health practices and the existence of significant role obligations to others), health risk taking (medication misuse, alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, and the overall level of unsound health practices), psychological functioning (depression, loneliness, and self-esteem), and interpersonal satisfaction (satisfaction with friends and family members). Analyses revealed little support for the hypothesis. Social control was only weakly related to participants' health practices and, contrary to expectation, was generally related to less psychological distress and to greater interpersonal satisfaction. Implications for social control theory and for further research are addressed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rearing social class, education, and criminality: A multiple indicator model.

Controversy exists in the criminology literature over whether rearing social class influences the emergence of criminal behavior. Theoretically, some researchers have argued, a lower rearing class status reflects intellectual and emotional deprivation that motivates later illegal activity. Other researchers argue that intelligence, regardless of rearing status, is the chief determinant of criminal behavior. Using maximum-likelihood path-analytic techniques and a split sample validation design on data from a longitudinal study of a true birth cohort (3,421 adult males in Denmark), the present study finds support for the hypothesis that rearing social class does relate to criminal behavior, indirectly. The model tested and supported in this research is that rearing class status predicts educational performance, which in turn precedes the development of criminal activity. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social support and the course of bipolar disorder.

The current study prospectively examined the impact of social support on symptom severity and recovery from episodes in bipolar disorder, both as a direct influence and as a buffer of life events. Fifty-nine individuals with Bipolar I disorder were followed longitudinally with monthly symptom severity interviews. Social support was measured by the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List and the Interview Schedule for Social Interaction, and life events were assessed using the Life Events and Difficulties Schedule. Individuals with low social support took longer to recover from episodes and were more symptomatic across a 6-month follow-up. Results suggest a polarity-specific effect, in that social support influences depression but not mania. Discussion focuses on theoretical implications of a series of polarity-specific findings within the field. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social class, child age, and parental socialization values.

Upper-, middle-, and lower-class parents were asked to explain a proverb which had both "growth" and "stability" interpretations to their 11- and 16-yr-old sons. The growth interpretation was overwhelmingly endorsed by most parents. With 16-yr-olds, lower-middle-class parents continued to endorse the growth interpretation; most upper-class parents endorsed the stability interpretation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Facial asymmetry as an indicator of psychological, emotional, and physiological distress

Fluctuating asymmetry (FA) is deviation from bilateral symmetry in morphological traits with asymmetry values that are normally distributed with a mean of 0. FA is produced by genetic or environmental perturbations of developmental design and may play a role in human sexual selection. K. Grammer and R. Thornhill (1994) found that facial FA negatively covaries with observer ratings of attractiveness, dominance, sexiness, and health. Using self-reports, observer ratings, daily diary reports, and psychophysiological measures, the authors assessed the relationship between facial FA and health in 2 samples of undergraduates (N = 101). Results partially replicate and extend those of K. Grammer and R. Thornhill (1994) and suggest that facial FA may signal psychological, emotional, and physiological distress. Discussion integrates the authors' findings with previous research on FA and suggests future research needed to clarify the role of FA in human sexual selection.     

试论地震灾害的心理危机干预

地震灾害因其不可预测性、突发性以及巨大的破坏性,对民众的生命财产安全以及心理健康都会造成严重的损害.地震作为重大的应激事件,不论对受灾群众、医护救援人员还是媒体工作者来说都会产生应激反应.如果未能得到及时有效的心理危机干预,这种应激反应就会变成应激障碍,会给受害者造成长期的、难以磨灭的心理创伤.地震灾害对于不同群体危害的影响程度不同,分层次提出相应的心理危机干预方法,进行及时有效的心理危机干预,有助于灾后的心理重建,使受灾群众尽早脱离灾难带来的消极影响.积极开展灾后心理危机干预工作,对维护和促进人类身心健康有重要意义.     

When Gulliver travels: Social context, psychological closeness, and self-appraisals.

Four studies examined how the characteristics of others affect people's self-appraisals. Ss viewed photographs of physically attractive or unattractive targets, then rated their own attractiveness. Study 1 found evidence for a contrast effect: Ss' self-appraisals were more favorable after viewing an unattractive same-sex target than after viewing an attractive same-sex target. Study 2 manipulated psychological closeness by varying the degree to which the S and the target shared similar attitudes and values. Although contrast effects occurred when the S and the target were dissimilar, the reverse tended to be true when the S and the target were related by virtue of their perceived similarity. Two additional studies extended these results, using a different operational definition of psychological closeness. Findings indicate that psychological closeness determines how other people's characteristics affect the self-concept. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Somatic disease and psychological disorder

We present an iterative algorithm that uses randomness and statistical techniques to improve existing methods for recognizing protein structural motifs. Our algorithm is particularly effective in situations where large numbers of sufficiently diverse examples of the motif are not known. These are precisely the situations that pose significant difficulties for previously known methods. We have implemented our algorithm and we demonstrate its performance on the coiled coil motif. We test our program LearnCoil on the domain of 3-stranded coiled coils and subclasses of 2-stranded coiled coils. We show empirically that for these motifs, our method overcomes the problem of limited data.     

Social psychological aspects of computer-mediated communication.

Describes some of the issues raised by electronic communication, including time and information-processing pressures, absence of regulating feedback, dramaturgical weakness, paucity of status and position cues, social anonymity, and computing norms and immature etiquette. An empirical approach for investigating the social psychological effects of electronic communication is illustrated, and how social psychological research might contribute to a deeper understanding of computers and technological change in society and computer-mediated communication (CMC) is discussed. A series of studies that explored how people participate in CMC and how computerization affects group efforts to reach consensus is described; results indicate differences in participation, decisions, and interaction among groups meeting face to face and in simultaneous computer-linked discourse and communication by electronic mail. Findings are attributed to difficulties of coordination from lack of informational feedback, absence of social influence cues for controlling discussion, and depersonalization from lack of nonverbal involvement and absence of norms. (103 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social and psychological variables in learning Hebrew.

Attitudes towards the social group employing the language, reason for studying the language, and intelligence were posited as parameters affecting the learning of a 2nd language. The investigation focused on Jewish 8th- and 9th-grade students learning Hebrew. The results indicated that ability and attitude facilitated learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social desirability and bipolar affective disorder.

Investigated whether the conforming and conventional attitudes of 30 bipolar depressed inpatients were coping mechanisms for their depressions. These Ss were compared on several measures (including the MMPI D and Si scales) to 29 unipolar depressed inpatients. Results show that the 2 groups were significantly different on all 5 of the measures used. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social psychological factors and use of mass publicity.

Among the great multitude of psychological theories and hypotheses regarding road-user behavior and accident causation, social psychological principles have hitherto obtained relatively little attention. It is argued that the latter should be an integral part of any major conceptual framework in the field of road safety research. Some principles of socially induced motivation, cue function and social control of behavior are put forward and empirical examples from the literature and our own research on driver behavior are given. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

National survey of the extent and nature of psychological services in police departments.

In this study, through a national survey of municipal and state police departments, we identified the current use, perceived need, and anticipated future use of psychological services by police agencies. Of the 336 police agencies invited to participate in the survey, 232, which included 193 municipal and 39 state police departments, returned completed questionnaires. We make comparisons with a previous study conducted in 1979, which covered much of the same ground but on a smaller scope. A principal finding of our study is the substantial growth in the current use of psychological services in police departments. Areas of projected change in the use of psychological services are presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)