Similarity of performance as influenced by interaction, self-esteem, and birth order.

"This study concerns the relationship between the amount of interaction between two persons in a group and the acquisition by one of the persons of an attribute of the other. It is hypothesized that the greater the interaction between the two, the more will one acquire an attribute of the other… . Twenty groups of six subjects each (all college students) were formed to carry out a word assembly task so arranged that one of the six would be the center of the interaction." The findings were that similarity to the performance of the central figure was noted for the groups in general. Even more so, the factors of degree of prior attraction to the central figure, degree of prior acquaintance among Ss, S's self-esteem, and S's order of birth in their family influence the experimental behavior. Low attraction, minimal prior acquaintance among Ss, higher self-esteem, and those born later in the sibling series facilitated S's performance in the task. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Frustration, aggression, and murder.

"… 51 male murderers and their 51 nearest-age brothers were investigated with respect to frustration in infancy, childhood, and adolescence… . The central hypothesis was: There is a significant positive relationship between the amount of frustration experienced by persons in infancy, childhood, and adolescence… and whether or not they later commit murder… . [The results showed that] significantly more murderers than control brothers scored high on the Indices of Physical, Psychological, and General Frustration." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Birth order and reactions to frustration.

Areanalysis of an experiment on the relation between frustration and aggression, employing 108 male undergraduates from New York University. The findings indicate that later born Ss react with greater annoyance to a frustrating agent than 1st born Ss. These results appear to contradict those reported in a previous study which found that 1st born males from Yale University react more strongly than later born males to frustrating acts by others. This discrepancy between New York and Yale college students in the domain of hostile behavior appears to parallel a similar inconsistency in the domain of affiliative behavior as reported in 2 recent studies. We suggest the consideration of sociocultural factors in any effort to interpret these differences, since we regard birth order, like birthplace, etc., as an "ecological" variable rather than a psychological one. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

No increased mortality in later life for cohorts born during famine

Nutrition early in life may influence adult mortality. The fetal-origins hypothesis suggests that nourishment before birth and during the individual's infancy programs the development of risk factors for several important diseases of middle and old age. The present study was designed to evaluate the impact of extreme nutritional deprivation in utero and during infancy and early childhood on mortality in later life. The authors analyzed the survival of the cohorts born in Finland during the severe 1866-1868 famine and during the 5 years immediately preceding and 5 years immediately following the famine. The study included 331,932 individuals born prior to the famine, 161,744 born during the famine, and 323,321 born after the famine. The authors assessed survival by cohorts from birth to age 17 years and from age 17 to 40, 60, and 80 years, as well as average length of life after age 80 years. Survival from birth to age 17 years was significantly lower in cohorts born before and during the famine than in the cohorts born after the famine (males, 0.566 vs. 0.671, a difference of 0.105 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.102-0.108); females, 0.593 vs. 0.692, a difference of 0.099 (95% CI 0.096-0.102)). At subsequent ages, including old age, mortality was practically identical in the famine-born cohorts and in the five cohorts born before and after the crisis. For both males and females, survival from 17 to 80 years and mean remaining lifetime at age 80 years were very similar across the 13 cohorts studied. These findings suggest that, although cohorts subjected to prolonged and extreme nutritional deprivation in utero and during infancy and early childhood suffer an immediate rise in mortality, after the crisis has passed, they carry no aftereffects that influence their survival in later life.     

Resistance and conformity under reward and punishment.

"An experiment was designed to compare influence by means of rewards and punishments for differential effects on motivation to conform… and motivation to resist… and the resulting change in actions." Conformity is positively related to measures of "increase in speed following a sanctioned induction to go faster… . Influence by means of punishment produces a greater resistance force than influence by means of reward." (20 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attitudes toward special loyalty oaths at the University of California.

In 1951 "… the attitudes and backgrounds of a number of persons who declined to sign one or both of two special oaths then required at the University of California… " were examined and compared "… with comparable data from a sample of persons, similar in other respects, who had signed both of these oaths." Similarities and differences between signers and nonsigners are indicated. F-Scale results indicated that "… the nonsigners were markedly less authoritarian than the signers." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What price intelligence?

One study "investigated the effects of prolonged labor with instrumentation, precipitate labor, and normal spontaneous delivery upon the later development of the child… . There were 120 children examined with 40 in each of the three groups. Each group consisted of 20 males and 20 females and each of these subgroups had 10 colored and 10 white children." It was "found that precipitate labor can produce the most deleterious effects on later development as far as the intelligence is considered as measured by the Stanford-Binet… . In another study… the effects of severe and prolonged anoxia at or immediately following birth was investigated… . The results appear to indicate that the superior children come from those groups studied who also showed the greater incidence of feeblemindedness." The meaning of the results "is difficult to rationalize." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impulsive closure as reaction to failure-induced threat.

"Some persons impose meaning and pattern—closure—on ambiguous stimuli more readily than other persons… the hypothesis is proposed that closure generally acquires a self-esteem enhancing reward value and that persons experiencing greater need to maintain or enhance self-esteem are… likely to impose more impulsive closure. Self-esteem was manipulated by causing some subjects to experience failure on an ego involving task and others… to experience failure on a noninvolving task or to experience success. Ego involving failure resulted in more impulsive closure." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Resume, analysis and critique of Evaluation of Nursing Education (I)

Circulating glucocorticoids play a role during the immediate postnatal period in adapting the neonate to extrauterine life and are also thought to influence tissue development and function in the later postnatal period. In the present study we have used a rat model to test whether birth by cesarean section (C-section), either alone or with an added period of acute anoxia, affects the development profile of basal corticosterone secretion during the first 5 wk of life. Plasma levels of total corticosterone and of corticosteroid-binding globulin were measured at various times after birth in rats born vaginally, by C-section, or by C-section with 15 min of added anoxia. These measures allowed for calculation of levels of free, biologically active, corticosterone. Under all conditions, total corticosterone appeared to accurately reflect levels of free corticosterone. Plasma corticosterone levels measured immediately (< 5 min) after birth were similar in male rat pups born vaginally, by C-section, or by C-section with added anoxia, whereas female pups born by C-section showed a significant increase in free corticosterone at birth, in comparison with vaginally born females. Both male and female animals born by C-section showed a reduction in plasma corticosterone at 1 h (male: 31% of control, p < 0.01; female: 45% of control, p < 0.05) and at 7 d (male: 61% of control, p < 0.01; female: 55% of control, p < 0.05) after birth, in comparison with vaginally born controls. In animals born by C-section with added anoxia, significant reductions in plasma corticosterone were observed for males at 1 h (58% of control; p < 0.05) and for females at 7 d (62% of control; p < 0.05) after birth. At 14 d of age, corticosterone levels were higher in male rats born by C-section either with (227% of control; p < 0.05) or without (239% of control; p < 0.05) added anoxia, in comparison with vaginally born controls. Thus C-section birth produces an early rise in plasma corticosterone on d 14 away from the low values associated with the adrenal quiescent period in the first 1-2 wk in the rat. By 35 d of age, there were no differences in plasma corticosterone attributable to C-section birth and/or acute birth anoxia, in either male or female rats. It is concluded that, in a rat model, birth by C-section has significant effects on the profile of plasma corticosterone during the early weeks of development, a period though to be critical for effects of corticosteroids on developing tissues. Because the rat at birth is developmentally less mature than is the term human neonate, these findings may have implications for development of the premature human neonate.     

Opiate dependence, comorbidity and seasonality of birth

OBJECTIVE: In contrast with the non-opiate dependent population, persons biologically-dependent upon opioids display an excess life-time prevalence of affective and anxiety disorders. Many of these addicts state that opiates, particularly methadone, relieve or diminish the severity of their dysphoria. The purpose of this study is to explore this phenomena by analyzing how a specific population of long-term addicts (mean years of addiction 16.9, SD 3.8) differs from a non-opiate dependent population regarding seasonality of birth. METHODS: Birth months were determined for 457 opiate dependent patients, placed onto methadone maintenance for intractable opiate dependence, born between 1930-1970 (sorted by sex, race, year and place of birth), and compared to normal US birth statistics. Affective and anxiety disorders were screened for using psychometric testing, verified by structured clinical intervals. RESULTS: A significant difference was noted when comparing monthly births rates for patients and normals. Grouping the monthly data into birth trimesters (Oct-Jan; Feb-May; Jun-Sep) clearly shows this difference: opioid dependent persons--38.5/29.8/31.8%; normals--33.4/32.0/34.7%. As a group, intractable, opioid dependent patients demonstrate an increased life-time prevalence, relative to normals, of anxiety (27.8 vs. 13.9%), dysthymia (23.4 vs. 6.4%) and combined anxiety + dysthymia (17.9 vs. 1.5%); opioid dependent persons born between Oct-Jan demonstrated more anxiety (32.0 vs. 25.1%), dysthymia (29.3 vs. 19.5) and combined anx + dys (23.3 vs. 14.4) than those born in the other two trimesters. CONCLUSION: Persons entering methadone maintenance for opiate dependence with comorbid anxiety, dysthymia or combined anxiety + dysthymia are more likely to have been born in the period of Oct-Jan. This may be due to a higher risk of developmental aberrations occurring in infants born during the light-limited portion of the year creating a later propensity for intractable, opiate dependence.     

Birth order and personality.

Investigated 6 personality variables for birth order differences in 339 male and 447 female and 210 male and 266 female undergraduates. Ss in the former were studied for dogmatism, ambiguity tolerance, and rigidity. Measures of (a) internal-external locus of control, and (b) social responsibility were administered to the latter. Both samples were given the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. Data were analyzed in 2 * 3 factorial analysis of variance design: 2 levels of sex and 3 levels of birth order (only child, 1st born, and later born). It was found that (a) later borns from 2-child families were more external than those from larger families; (b) later borns from 2-child families were more external than only children or 1st borns from 2-child families; (c) only children and 1st borns were more socially responsible than later borns; (d) 1st borns were more rigid than only-child and later-born Ss; and (e) only-female Ss manifested higher need for approval than only males. (26 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A motivational factor in conformity.

"Two groups of women college students were placed in a judgmental conformity situation… to test the hypothesis that persons with high social-approval and low self-approval motivation would yield to a unanimous, but erring, majority in judgment of length of lines more frequently than would persons with the opposite motivational profile… . The results were in accord with the major hypothesis." 17 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Time judgment, aesthetic preference, and need for achievement.

"We have shown that persons who anticipate future conditions before they arrive also tend to recall past events as more recent than they really were… . we may tentatively propose a dynamic triad, relating 'parsimonious' time attitudes, achievement motivation, and ascestism of aesthetic taste, which has historically found its manifestation in Puritanism." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A cross-cultural replication of an experiment involving birth order.

The hypothesis that first born would tend to volunteer for group psychological experiments more often than later born, already found true for Yale freshmen, was also found to be true for 4th-yr. Uruguayan high school students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Changing patterns of infections in patients with AIDS: a study of 279 autopsies of prison inmates and nonincarcerated patients at a university hospital in eastern Texas, 1984-1993

Reports on autopsies of 279 persons infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) were reviewed retrospectively to determine changes in survival rates and infections and to identify differences between prison inmates and nonincarcerated patients. The 78 cases from 1984 through 1988 were compared with 201 from 1989 through 1993, on the basis of use of antiretroviral therapy and (after 1988) prophylaxis against Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP). Risk factors for HIV infection were homosexuality/bisexuality (30%), injection drug use (IDU; 22%), transfusion (5%), heterosexual contact (4%), and combinations of the above or unknown factors (38%); 95% of patients were males and 41% were state prison inmates in Texas. IDU was more common and homosexuality/ bisexuality was less common among inmates than among nonincarcerated patients. Mean survival time was 12 months in the first period studied and 23 months in the later period (P < .05). Cytomegalovirus infection was the most common type in both periods. The number of cases of PCP declined and the number of cases of bacterial infections increased significantly in the later period. Tuberculosis was significantly more common in inmates than in nonincarcerated patients. Tuberculosis and disseminated histoplasmosis (noted at autopsy) and deaths due to disseminated Mycobacterium avium complex and histoplasmosis were significantly more common among injection drug users than among homosexuals/bisexuals. Invasive candidiasis was more common in homosexuals/ bisexuals and in those who survived > 3 years. Antiretroviral therapy, prophylaxis for PCP, and risk factors for HIV infection appear to influence the mortality rate and prevalence of certain infections found at autopsy.     

The effect of aversive stimuli on reaction time in schizophrenia.

"… the experiment was to assess the motivational role of aversive stimuli in modifying the performance of normal and… schizophrenic… males… [on] a visual reaction time task… . During… [one] series Ss responded under… experimental conditions… [part of which] involved the use of intense noise as an aversive stimulus. None of the experimental conditions appreciably altered the performance of normal Ss. However, schizophrenic Ss performing under… [conditions involving noise] displayed greater improvement than control Ss." 22 refs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Encouragement, anxiety, and test performance.

"To determine the effect of encouragement on the individual test performance of Ss with varying amounts of anxiety, two anxiety scales were first administered to a sample of college students… three groups of Ss were selected and designated low-, medium-, and high-anxiety. To each S was individually administered the MacQuarrie Test for Mechanical Ability… . On the basis of scores on this test, each anxiety category was divided into two equated groups. Six weeks later the test was again individually administered to each S, this time encouraging comments being offered between subtests to one group in each category but not to the other. Two-tailed t tests revealed only one significant finding: the performance of the low-anxiety Ss displayed increased variability under encouragement." 23 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reactions to unfavorable personal evaluations as a function of the evaluator's perceived adjustment.

"Pairs of Ss listened to two… persons… evaluate the personality of one member of the pair. One of the stimulus persons made derogatory remarks about the 'involved' member, the other was… noncommittal… . In one experimental condition the derogator was pre-identified as… maladjusted, the nonderogator as well-adjusted. In another condition the identifications were reversed." The hypothesis was supported that the combined information, maladjustment and derogation, summate for the bystander to produce a negative impression, but that for the involved S there is a tendency to cancel out hostility that would be arounsed by the derogation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Achievement motive and test anxiety conceived as motive to approach success and motive to avoid failure.

"… the following hypotheses are investigated: persons in whom the motive to achieve success is stronger than the motive to avoid failure (a) should prefer tasks of intermediate difficulty, (b) should show greater persistence in working at an achievement related task, and (c) should show more efficiency, or a higher level of accomplishment, than persons in whom the motive to avoid failure is stronger… . [Results] support the hypotheses." 3 measures of achievement related motives were not found to be correlated. "These results highlight the importance of discovering why different methods of measuring apparently the same human motive do not yield comparable results." 30 refs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Identification and changes in prejudice and in authoritarianism.

Ss "were first given the F Scale and a measure of anti-Negro prejudice… . Four weeks later they read a case history of a person who was prejudiced and authoritarian. Half of the subjects were told that the person in the case history was similar to themselves in background and objective personal characteristics. The other half… that the person was dissimilar to them. Three weeks later the F Scale and the anti-Negro prejudice scale were readministered. It was found that those low in prejudice at the first administration became more prejudiced but only if they were told the case history was about someone like themselves… . These results were interpreted in terms of the social support for suppressed 'wrong' feelings and in terms of the pressures to achieve cognitive consistency in one's self-concept." From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4GD65S. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)