Use of tests manifesting sex differences as measures of intelligence: Implications for measurement bias.

Very narrow tests measuring knowledge of specific information from Project TALENT were combined into two composites on the basis of between-group differences for high-school-age boys and girls. These composites were analyzed to determine what happens when specific, nontrait components of variance are included in measures of general intelligence. The two composites were heavily advantageous to either males or females and were made up of very narrow, mostly nonacademic, information-dependent subtests. Correlations were computed between the sex-advantage composites and general intelligence scores. Very large validities were obtained, indicating that the composites were acting as excellent measures of general intelligence for both sexes. Results are discussed in the framework of multiple determinants of responses and group differences in item and test performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Tactile measures in the structure of intelligence.

This study investigated the relationship of tactile abilities within the framework of a hierarchical structure of mental abilities. Data were analysed from 229 participants who were administered tactile measures from the Dean-Woodcock Sensory Motor Battery along with a battery of conormed cognitive measures representative of the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) model of intelligence. Multiple measures of tactile performance were used including Palm Writing and Object Identification, and each measure included a lateralized measure (i.e., right/left). Factor analytic results suggest tactile measures have a significant relationship with measures of cognitive ability. In this study, tactile measures involving object identification were more related to cognitive measures of visual processing-speed and overall processing speed; whereas, tactile measures involving the recognition of numbers written on the palm of the hand produced high loadings on a separate factor. Results from this study suggest different tactile measures may differentially load on cognitive factors depending on the common processing demands of the tactile and cognitive measures. Suggestions for differentiating common processing demands between tactile and cognitive measures are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of anxiety and sex on neuropsychological tests.

Studied the effects of anxiety and sex on performance of 30 male and 30 female right-handed college students on the Finger Tapping (FT), Form Board (FB), and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory tests. The original cutoff points for brain damage on the neuropsychological tests resulted in numerous false positives. Females performed significantly slower on the FT than males, and for females, trait anxiety was negatively correlated with FT performance and positively correlated with time to complete the FB. Implications for testing psychiatric patients are noted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of sex and intimacy level on self-disclosure.

The reciprocity hypothesis was investigated within a sex-pairing counseling context using a role-play paradigm. 60 male and 60 female undergraduates exchanged written self-disclosures with an unseen counselor who disclosed items of low, medium, or high intimacy. Results strongly support the reciprocity effect and indicate that females are more willing to disclose than males. Specific suggestions for future research are offered. (11 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of sex on commitment and conflict resolution.

Supervisors rated 106 subordinates' use of 5 conflict resolution strategies identified by R. R. Blake and J. S. Mouton (1964). The relationship between the commitment measures and conflict resolution strategies depended on the sexual composition of the supervisor–subordinate dyad. For example, males reporting to females used smoothing, compromise, and confrontation when they were committed to the position. (8 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The locus of adult intelligence: Knowledge, abilities, and nonability traits.

Some intelligence theorists (e.g., R. B. Cattell, 1943; D. O. Hebb, 1942) have suggested that knowledge is one aspect of human intelligence that is well preserved or increases during adult development. Very little is known about knowledge structures across different domains or about how individual differences in knowledge relate to other traits. Twenty academic and technology-oriented tests were administered to 135 middle-aged adults. In comparison with younger college students, the middle-aged adults knew more about nearly all of the various knowledge domains. Knowledge was partly predicted by general intelligence, by crystallized abilities, and by personality, interest, and self-concept. Implications of this work are discussed in the context of a developmental theory that focuses on the acquisition and maintenance of intelligence-as-knowledge, as well as the role of knowledge for predicting the vocational and avocational task performance of adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of college attendance on locus of control.

Determined the stability of the social-psychological concept of locus of control (LOC) and measured the extent to which LOC changes with the acquisition of postsecondary education. Because measurement errors could affect naive measures of stability and change, the common regression approach was avoided in favor of LISREL, a general method for the analysis of covariance structures that is appropriate for the analysis of panel survey data. Data were obtained from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972, which involved a stratified national probability sample of 22,652 students. The analysis reported here was confined to data on 8,650 White males. Results show that education beyond high school had little or no effect on LOC. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of sex guilt on interpersonal pleasuring.

Two experiments (120 undergraduate males) investigated whether conceptualization of sex guilt could be extended to an interpersonal physical pleasuring paradigm. In Exp I, low-guilt (as determined by the Mosher Forced-Choice Guilt Inventory) Ss administered more overall pleasure to a female confederate than did high-guilt Ss. In Exp II, in addition to a main effect for guilt, high-guilt Ss administered significantly lower levels of pleasure when they anticipated further interaction with the confederate than when they did not. Low-guilt Ss administered slightly more pleasure when they anticipated further interaction with the confederate. Results are not consistent with D. L. Mosher's (see PA, Vols 39:9269 and 40:4236) hypothesis that low-guilt Ss are more sensitive to situational cues than high-guilt Ss. It is suggested that the inconsistency was a function of the reinforcement value of interpersonal pleasuring. Although previous research required Ss to make responses that had little apparent reinforcement value, the nature of the pleasuring response did appear to have reinforcement value for both low- and high-guilt Ss, since they increased their levels of pleasuring over trials. A 3rd experiment (24 Ss) that failed to find a relationship between hostility-guilt and pleasuring provided strong support for the relation between sex guilt and interpersonal pleasuring. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of sex of subject and sex of interpreter on responses to test feedback.

100 undergraduates received falsified psychological test results that were discrepant with their own reports on self-referring attitudes. They were then given a chance to change their self-reports and/or derogate the source of the interpretation. A significant interaction between sex of S and sex of interpreter was found on the change in self-report measure. Both female and male Ss changed their self-reports more when the interpreter was of their own sex. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of aging and pathology on the factorial structure of intelligence.

A factor-analytic study of the structure of intellectual functioning as measured by Wechsler tests was carried out on 4 samples of varying pathologies and 4 normal samples of varying ages. Applying objective analytical oblique rotation and statistical measures of factorial similarity, 3 main factors and 1 quasi-specific described most groups. In distinction to previous studies, both pathology and normal aging were found to introduce some degree of factorial variability, with the effect of age seemingly more pronounced. Thus, pathological samples did not differ from age-matched normals, though normals of different ages varied from each other. The results were discussed in terms of the relative importance of the different factors, process-reactive distinction in schizophrenia, and the particular vulnerability of the Memory factor. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of variation of profile format on intelligence and sociability judgments.

In a variety of laboratory and practical settings, persons are confronted with a profile of scores from which a more global judgment is required. Profile scores are commonly displayed in either a percentile or T score format. This study investigates the effects of variation of these 2 formats upon judgments of intelligence and sociability. 2 similarly designed experiments were conducted in which 36 undergraduate Ss each made 600 judgments from profiles in the 2 formats. A regression model was fitted to the data for each judge. Relative to T scores, the percentile format was found to be associated with greater variance of judgments, higher reliability, and higher multiple correlations. These findings support a view that judgments from profiles are influenced not only by the underlying meaning of the plotted scores but by their graphical location as well. From Psyc Abstracts 36:05:5HE14K. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of differential rewarding and sex on math performance.

In an attempt to merge the reinforcement and competition approaches and test the relative efficacy of reward structures, 2 levels of differential group rewarding were paired with 3 levels of differential rewarding within groups to form 6 reward structure treatments. 144 college students worked on math problems under the reward structures for a series of performance–pay trials, receiving performance feedback after each trial. The math performance of females was consistent with the differential rewarding hypotheses, whereas that of males was consistent with an alternative spontaneous competition hypothesis. Suggestions for reducing the sex gap in math performance are made based on the findings. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

More on the sex?×?race interaction on cognitive measures.

A. R. Jensen (1971) proposed a Sex * Race interaction in cognitive ability to account for similar differences on measures influenced by ability. Recently, L. G. Humphreys et al (1976), analyzing one data source, concluded that sex differences themselves may account for a Sex * Race interaction. The Humphreys et al study, however, involved a possibly biased sample with limited ranges of socioeconomic status (SES), an important element in Jensen's proposal. The present investigation analyzed 3 sources of data: (a) the standardization sample for the WISC-R (1,870 White and 305 Black 6-16 yr olds); (b) Project TALENT (3,371 White and 208 Black 9th graders); (c) Educational Quality Assessment of the State of Pennsylvania (152, 944 5th, 8th, and 11th graders--95% White). Analysis failed to reveal a Sex * Race or Sex * SES interaction. It is suggested that Sex * Race differences in income, education, and so on could be the result of racially related sex role expectations or cultural prejudice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Correspondence of brief intelligence measures to the Wechsler scales with delinquents.

Examined the relative utility of the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, the Quick Test, and the Revised Beta as measures of intelligence in relation to the WAIS and the Revised WISC (WISC-R). 69 juvenile offenders (mean age 15.6 yrs) were selected by a sampling procedure that produced a group representative of the offenders in all of Virginia's state institutions. Although the correlations among the measures were significant, mean differences and percentage-of-classification-agreement tallies indicate that the brief measures are not acceptable Wechsler substitutes with juvenile delinquents. The best overall predictors (the 3 Quick Test forms combined and the Revised Beta) were accurate only about 50% of the time. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of sex and sex role attributions on the ear advantage in dichotic listening.

The Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) and a dichotic listening task were administered to 30 participants in order to investigate the effect of polar sex (male, female) and spectral sex (masculinity, femininity) on hemispheric interactions. The dichotic pairs consisted of the consonant-vowel syllables Bee, Dee, Gee, Pee, Tee, and Kee. Although overall performance was the same across groups, women demonstrated smaller right ear advantages than men, due primarily to smaller right ear scores. Less masculine men also had smaller right ear advantages than more masculine men, but this difference was due primarily to greater left ear scores. These results were interpreted both in terms of the callosal relay and direct access models of hemispheric processing. Based on these interpretations, it was suggested that sex and sex role attribution have similar, but not identical effects on interhemispheric relations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship between locus of control and other personality measures in drug users.

Data from 60 self-identified heroin users who completed a battery of personality tests show that previous findings relating locus of control to adjustment and self-concept among nondrug users are valid for narcotics users as well, and that locus of control in drug users is not a function of the length of drug use or age of the user. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of counselor sex and sex role and client sex on clients' perceptions and self-disclosure in a counseling analogue study.

Studied the effects of client sex and counselor sex and sex role on the counseling relationship, using an analogue format in which 35 male and 39 female undergraduate students participated in simulated counseling interviews. Ss were stratified by sex and randomly assigned to 1 of 4 treatment conditions: (a) masculine male counselor, (b) feminine male counselor, (c) masculine female counselor, and (d) feminine female counselor. At the conclusion of the interview, the S completed the Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory (Form OS-M-64) and a questionnaire assessing the S's satisfaction with the counseling session. The audiotapes of the sessions were rated by trained judges for (a) positive affective self-references, (b) negative affective self-references, and (c) total non-affective self-references of the Ss. Male Ss were more satisfied with the counseling process than female Ss. Male Ss indicated greater satisfaction and a higher level of counselor regard with feminine counselors than with masculine counselors, regardless of counselor sex, but female Ss indicated greater satisfaction and a higher level of counselor regard with masculine counselors than with feminine counselors, regardless of counselor sex. Male Ss talked most about themselves with feminine female counselors and least about themselves with masculine female counselors, while female Ss talked most about themselves with feminine male counselors and least about themselves with masculine male counselors. These findings are related to the feminist pleas for same-sex pairing in the counseling relationship. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of differential feedback on opinions of and responses to intelligence tests.

On 2 separate occasions, 160 college Ss were administered both an IQ test and a test opinion scale in counterbalanced orders. Ss received differential feedback information presumably drawn from their earlier IQ test's performance before the 2nd administration. Feedback significantly affected subsequent retest IQ test score and opinion scale scores. Order of testing was a significant variable in the test-feedback-retest condition. It is concluded that when the testing situation is viewed as a complex interaction of stimuli, S, and situational variables, the variables investigated can systematically and significantly affect the performance of the examinee. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of anxiety on timed and untimed intelligence tests: Another look.

Administered the timed subtests of the WAIS to 48 undergraduates, only 1/2 of whom were aware of being timed. Ss were divided into 4 groups on the basis of their response to 15 worry items and 15 emotionality items taken from the Taylor MA scale. Low-worry Ss who were timed were superior to those who were untimed, whereas high-worry Ss tended to perform more poorly under the timed than the untimed condition. This Worry * Timing interaction closely parallels the "Anxiety" * Timing interactions found by others. Emotionality was not found to interact with the task variables. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of sex, illness, and hospitalization on daydreaming.

200 Ss matched for sex, in- and outpatient status, and for medical-psychiatric nonpatient status were administered a self-rating daydreaming questions to daydreams. Strong sex differences in content emerged, with males engaging in flamboyant, action-oriented daydreams, while the daydreams of women were passive, reality-oriented, and somewhat less frequent. Very few emerged on the illness dimension, with psychiatric Ss engaging in more improbable, ideational, and highly affect laden daydreams, but reacting with little concern. Although daydreaming less than psychiatric Ss, medical Ss were more frightened by and absorbed in their daydreams. Generally, psychiatric Ss had a greater tolerance for emotional fantasy than did medical patients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)