Evaluations of older and younger adult speakers: Influence of communication effectiveness and noise.

University students (N?=?96) performed 3 communication tasks presented to them either by young men (mean age?=?26 yrs) or by older men (mean age?=?77 yrs). In counterbalanced order, students heard speakers in 3 message conditions (effective, ineffective, and noise). The messages of older men and the older men themselves were evaluated less positively than were younger men. In line with the hypothesis of age-biased behavioral interpretation, older adults speaking effectively were not accorded the same evaluative benefits over their less-effective guises, especially on competence ratings, as were younger speakers. Furthermore, the noise condition was predictably more detrimental to ratings of the older speakers, who were more vulnerable to generalized negative affect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction.

As we continue on our journey of capturing some aspects of an oral history of professional psychology in writing, we selected three articles that address different aspects of the field. Dr. Leona Tyler, past president of the American Psychological Association and pioneer in the field of counseling psychology, shares with us how counseling psychology has changed over the years from being concerned with helping individuals understand themselves, make important choices, and plan their lives to being more concerned with issues traditionally in the realm of clinical psychology. The second article is written by Dr. Grant Dahlstrom, one of the "greats" in the field of objective testing. He reviews for us why he and George Welsh embarked on the writings of their books on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and what they used in their preparation of guides for clinicians. In the third article, Drs. Lillie and Barry Weiss, clinical psychologists who met and married while in graduate school in the late 1960s, to reflect on the uniqueness of the married couple experience in professional psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction.

For this issue, we have selected remembrances of three psychologists (two clinicians and one industrial/organizational) who were pioneers in various aspects of their fields. Marguerite R. Hertz, the most senior of these writers, shares her memoir of the Rorschach test's development into a major diagnostic tool for clinical psychologists. Mary Tenopyr shares how her entrance into the field of industrial psychology was almost accidental, as was true for many psychologists in that field. Larry Abt reviews the changes in clinical psychology that he experienced throughout his career, noting how psychotherapy started to dominate the field and recalling the early conflicts in psychoanalytic training institutes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction.

In the articles presented in this issue, developments in professional psychology following World War II are described. Elizabeth B. Wolf recounts her experiences as a graduate student in clinical psychology in the period just before the "psychotherapy revolution" and gives us a glimpse of clinical psychology in action during the 1940s and how she bartered her way into an internship. Dr. Wolf, still active in clinical psychology training, also discusses the early evolution of clinical psychology training programs. Milton F. Shore chronicles the rise and fall of the community mental health movement in our country and addresses the strengths and weaknesses of these programs and psychology's contributions to them. Robert Perloff, who characterizes himself as an "applied generalist," relates how his training in industrial psychology set the stage for his role in the development of consumer psychology and led to his interest in knowledge utilization. Each of these reminiscences catches the enthusiasm and optimism that pervaded professional psychology in the postwar years. These articles challenge us to recapture that optimism and commitment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dominance and conflict in the interactions between parents of normal and neurotic children.

Employed the Revealed Differences Technique to study dominance and conflict patterns in the interaction of 30 neurotic and 30 normal children of both sexes. 2 measures of relative dominance indicated that neurotic boys have dominant mothers and neurotic girls have dominant fathers. 2 measures of conflict indicated a more hostile interaction between the parents of neurotic children. In the neurotic group, there was a relationship between the areas of husband-wife conflict and independent clinic ratings of corresponding problem areas in the behavior of the child. Results were interpreted in terms of an identification learning conflict. (26 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Illusions of control, underestimations, and accuracy: A control heuristic explanation.

The illusions of control area is reviewed, and 5 conditions that influence control judgments are identified: skill-related factors, success or failure emphasis, need for the outcome, mood, and the intrusion of reality. It is proposed that individuals use a control heuristic that includes perceptions of intentionality and connection. Judgments of intentionality are based on foreseeability, ability to produce the effect, and valence of the outcome. Judgments of connection are based on the perceived association between the action and the outcome, which includes temporal, shared meaning, and predictive association. Effects of motives to overestimate, underestimate, and have accurate assessments of control are explained, using the concepts of hindsight bias, connection, and counterfactuals. In addition, the relation between the control heuristic and illusory correlation research and applications of the control heuristic to coping with chronic illness are explored. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impact on survival by method of recurrence detection in stage I and II cutaneous melanoma

Immunoaffinity columns were made with specific egg yolk immunoglobulin (Ig) Y against bovine IgG1 and IgG2 and were used to isolate pure IgG1 and IgG2 from Cheddar cheese whey or colostrum. About 10% of the IgY was specific for IgG, and 3% of the IgY was subclass-specific after hyperimmunization of laying hens with either IgG1 or IgG2. Up to 38% of the potential binding capacity of IgY was obtained after immobilization by reductive amination. The IgY columns were stable, and one column could be reused for more than 50 times for over a year with minimal loss in binding capacity. Milk that was free of either IgG subclass was successfully produced by the selective removal of IgG1 or IgG2 subclasses. Double-immunodiffusion analysis confirmed the isolation of subclasses from whey and colostrum and also confirmed that their removal from milk was specific.     

Psychology and the juvenile justice system.

In recent years psychology has applied its accumulated knowledge to broad problems affecting all levels of society. Some of the contributions of American psychology to the well-being of children under the jurisdiction of the juvenile justice system are described. Important areas for further research, theory building, and program development are highlighted. It is suggested that psychology's greatest potential for contributions to the juvenile justice system and to the welfare and well-being of children and youth is through the continued use of psychological theories, research and evaluation data, and techniques of service delivery based on psychological principles in the development of public policies. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Postservice mortality of US Air Force veterans occupationally exposed to herbicides in Vietnam: 15-year follow-up

The US Air Force continues to assess the mortality of veterans of Operation Ranch Hand, the unit responsible for aerially spraying herbicides in Vietnam. The authors of this study found that the cumulative all-cause mortality experience of these veterans was not different from that expected (standardized mortality ratio (SMR) = 1.0). Overall, cause-specific mortality did not differ from that expected regarding deaths from accidents, cancer, or circulatory system diseases, but the authors found that there was an increased number of deaths due to digestive diseases (SMR = 1.7, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.9-3.2). When analyzing by military occupation, they found an increase in the number of deaths caused by circulatory system diseases (SMR = 1.5, 95% CI 1.0-2.2) among enlisted ground personnel, the subgroup with the highest dioxin levels. Most of the increase in the number of deaths from digestive diseases was caused by chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, and more than half of the increase in the number of deaths from circulatory system diseases was a result of atherosclerotic heart disease. In the subgroup of Ranch Hand veterans who had survived more than 20 years since their military service in Southeast Asia, the authors found no significant increase in the risk of death due to cancer at all sites (SMR = 1.1) and a nonsignificant increase in the number of deaths due to cancers of the bronchus and lung (SMR = 1.3).