Group atmosphere and memory.

Subjects were read a story and then asked to recall it individually, in a group, and then individually again. During the group recall two variations in group atmosphere were employed: (a) cooperative vs competitive, and (b) democratic vs authoritarian leadership. General results included: (a) the group recall was superior to the average initial and final individual recall, and (b) the group recall in the cooperative atmosphere was superior to the group recall in the competitive atmosphere. Failure to provide adequate experimental conditions did not allow conclusions regarding the democratic-authoritarian variable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Julia Randall Vane (1918–1988).

Julia R. Vane, Chairperson of the Psychology Department at Hofstra University, died of cancer at age 69 on December 8, 1988. During her 45-year career, Julia made significant contributions to both practice and training in clinical and school psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contact with and attitudes toward persons with disabilities: The measurement of intergroup contact.

Introduces a contact with disabled persons (CDP) scale that uses 20 items and 5 response categories to measure contact. Reliability data from 238 Ss indicated a corrected median split-half reliability coefficient of 0.93 and a median alpha coefficient of 0.92. Validity was examined by correlating CDP scores with scores on the Attitude Toward Disabled Persons Scale. 10 correlation coefficients ranged from –0.26 to +0.40, with a median correlation of +0.10. Most coefficients were attenuated because of the limited range of scores on one or both measures. The range of correlations indicates the complexity of the relationship between contact and attitudes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Are height and weight nonsensitive?

Criticizes S. J. Ceci et al (see record 1986-12806-001) for labeling discrimination based on height and weight as nonsensitive compared with discrimination based on race and sex in their article on human Ss review board decisions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The lack of a stable order of preference for disabilities: A response to Richardson and Ronald.

Questions conclusions reached by S. A. Richardson and L. Ronald (see record 1982-09638-001) using data obtained in a series of experiments performed during the period 1961–1977 by Richardson and his colleagues, who used the Picture Ranking Task to elicit a preference order for several types of disabilities. The data were interpreted as indicating that there is a stable order of preference for handicaps, that this order of preference is not influenced by contact with disabled persons, and that disabled children show the same order of preference as nondisabled children. In view of findings from the literature, it is concluded that the interpretations obtained through the use of the Picture Ranking Task are, at best, applicable only to data obtained using this task and should not be generalized. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Disability and the law: Attitudes of police, lawyers, and mental health professionals.

A literature review on the attitudes of police officers, lawyers, and mental health professionals toward the disabled indicates that police officers' attitudes are related to the extent of their formal education and the amount of information they have about relating to persons with various types of disabilities. Lawyers who have disabled clients tend to be more knowledgeable and to have more positive attitudes than lawyers without such clients, but it is not easy to turn lawyers into advocates for disabled clients. Mental health professionals, who may be called on to provide advice to police officers or lawyers or to testify in court cases, have some negative aspects that may impair their helpfulness, but their attitudes are more positive than those of less educated persons. Data also indicate that the attitudes of psychologists are less negative than those of psychiatrists. It is concluded that rehabilitation psychologists need to undertake studies of the attitudes of these groups and to set up programs designed to change the attitudes of members of these professions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)