Intellectual and personality correlates of test anxiety.

Ss were administered: Sarason's True-False Test Anxiety Scale, Bendig's 20-item version of the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale, Sarason's Lack of Protection Scale, and Edwards' Social Desirability Scale. These data were intercorrelated with 13 measures of intellectual performance. "Although all correlations between anxiety and intellectual measures were small, there was a consistent, significant tendency for… [Sarason's True-False Test Anxiety Scale] to correlate negatively with the intellectual measures. No similar tendency was observed for the… [other scales]." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship between symbolic and manifest projections of sexuality with some incidental correlates

TAT stories were taken from Ss under four conditions: after Ss were sexually stimulated, after Ss were sexually stimulated under the influence of alcohol, after no stimulation, and after no alcohol (control conditions). The results show that under nonalcoholic conditions the aroused group expressed significantly more symbolism than the control group. Under conditions of alcohol, the groups gave very little symbolism. The results are interpreted as in line with the Freudian hypothesis that inhibited sexuality finds an outlet symbolically in fantasy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality correlates of social conformity.

A group of 89 female social welfare case workers were administered the Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey and a social conformity scale developed by the author. The latter comprised 37 items utilizing the direction of perception technique of attitude measurement. For the selected sample, the relationship between the two scales appeared to be limited to a correlation of -.47 between the social conformity scale and the Objectivity scale of the GZ. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychopathy and community violence among civil psychiatric patients: Results from the MacArthur Violence Risk Assessment Study.

Although psychopathy is recognized as a relatively strong risk factor for violence among inmates and mentally disordered offenders, few studies have examined the extent to which its predictive power generalizes to civil psychiatric samples. Using data on 1,136 patients from the MacArthur Violence Risk Assessment project, this study examined whether the 2 scales that underlie the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV) measure a unique personality construct that predicts violence among civil patients. The results indicate that the PCL:SV is a relatively strong predictor of violence. The PCL:SV's predictive power is substantially reduced, but remains significant, after controlling for a host of covariates that reflect antisocial behavior and personality disorders other than psychopathy. However, the predictive power of the PCL:SV is not based on its assessment of the core traits of psychopathy, as traditionally construed. Implications for the 2-factor model that underlies the PCL measures and for risk assessment practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Abnormal Activation of Temporoparietal Language Areas During Phonetic Analysis in Children With Dyslexia.

Event-related magnetic fields were recorded using magnetoencephalography in children with (n=12) and without (n=11) dyslexia while they discriminated between pairs of syllables from a voice onset time series (/ga/-/ka/). Nonimpaired readers exhibited left-hemisphere predominance of activity after the resolution of the N1m, whereas children with dyslexia experienced a sharp peak of relative activation in right temporoparietal areas between 300 and 700 ms post-stimulus onset. Increased relative activation in right temporoparietal areas was correlated with reduced performance on phonological processing measures. Results are consistent with the notion that deficits in appreciating the sound structure of both written and spoken language are associated with abnormal neurophysiological activity in temporoparietal language areas in children with dyslexia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Demographic correlates of psychological strain.

Indexes of psychological strain are related to demographic variables in a population of 8,234 industrial employees. The strain indexes refer to: (a) job-related strain, (b) economic strain, and (c) psychosomatic symptoms. The demographic variables are age, sex, and education. It is shown that: (a) each of the demographic variables independently of the others is related to strain rates, (b) the relationships of demographic variables to strain are different for each of the indexes, (c) there are complex interactions among the demographic variables which produce striking deviations in strain rates in some subpopulations. The results are interpreted with reference to the methodological problems in using strain indexes when comparing unmatched populations, and with reference to representative hypotheses drawn from physiology, social psychology, and economics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Edwin E. Ghiselli: Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award.

Recognizes the receipt of the American Psychological Association's 1972 Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award by Edwin E. Ghiselli. The award citation reads: "A remarkably multifaceted set of distinguished contributions spanning a 40-year career. He began his scientific life as a neurophysiological psychologist and, in the absence of an established literature or technology to guide him, pioneered in the study of subcortical mechanisms. He has provided the same definitive guidance in applied psychology. Ghiselli and industrial psychology are virtually synonymous. Few issues concerning the behavior of people at work, from the conceptualization of performance to the measurement of values, have not been touched by his influence. Psychometric theory has also felt his impact. No one can approach a problem in psychological prediction without taking into account his work on prediction models. In sum, Ghiselli is one of the few who have productively spanned the two disciplines of scientific psychology." A brief biography and listing of the recipient's scientific writings are included. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Processing the Facial Image: A Brief History.

The study of the neural basis of face perception is a major research interest today. This review traces its roots in monkey neuropsychology and neurophysiology beginning with the Klüver-Bucy syndrome and its fractionation and then continuing with lesion and single neuron recording studies of inferior temporal cortex. The context and consequence of the discovery of inferior temporal neurons selective for faces is described and current lines of research on inferior temporal cortex and face processing in both monkeys and humans are outlined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Callous-unemotional traits and developmental pathways to severe conduct problems.

One method for defining pathways through which children develop severe conduct problems is based on the presence or absence of callous-unemotional (CU) traits. This study investigated potential differences between nonreferred children (mean age = 12.36 years; SD = 1.73) with and without CU traits (n=98). Children with conduct problems, irrespective of the presence of CU traits, tended to have significant problems in emotional and behavioral regulation. In contrast, CU traits, irrespective of the presence of conduct problems, were associated with a lack of behavioral inhibition. Hostile attributional biases were associated with conduct problems but only in boys and in the absence of CU traits. These findings suggest that the processes underlying deficits in emotional and behavioral regulation in children with conduct problems may be different for children with CU traits. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What's in a Name?

The necessity of cross-validating the results of an item analysis has been cogently and humorously demonstrated by Cureton (Educ. psychol. Measmt., 1950, 10, 94-96; see record 1951-00682-001). By using more predictor items than subjects and by computing his validity coefficient on the original group, Cureton obtained a validity coefficient of .82. The writer undertook an experiment which was designed to be equally illustrative of the importance of cross-validation, but which used a somewhat different design. The "test" in this case consisted of a checklist of 81 adjectives describing personality and 22 items relating to personal characteristics, habits, and preferences. The subjects were 59 students in an introductory psychology course at Cornell University. Twenty-nine subjects' tests were chosen at random from this group for preliminary analysis, and the remaining 30 were put aside as the cross-validation group. The answers to the group of 22 items were examined to find an item which split the group of 29 nearly in half. The "number of letters in last name" was chosen as the criterion solely on this basis, leaving a total of 102 predictor items. The criterion was dichotomized between six or less, and seven or more letters. Tetrachoric correlations were computed between each item and the criterion for the group of 29. Discriminant weights were arbitrarily assigned to each item that correlated .36 or better with the criterion. Using this scoring key, 27 out of 29 correct "predictions" were made as to the number of letters in each subject's last name. The over-all tetrachoric correlation was .97, although the split-half reliability coefficient was only .67. Those subjects with long (seven or more letters) last names tended to be less: charming, impatient, stimulating, gay, happy-go-lucky, and impulsive than those with short (six or fewer letters) last names. The subjects with long last names also tended to be more: cautious, persistent, forgiving, quiet, kind, persuasive, talented, direct, humane, conservative, precise, and God-fearing. The results suggested that if the procedure were reversed, and the criterion were used as a predictor, it might have great promise as a quick, economical, and unfakeable personality test. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)