Style of adaptation to perceived aversive maternal stimulation and selective attention to evaluative cues.

Tested the hypothesis that given sustained exposure to aversive maternal control, the male child tends to adapt by 1 of 2 coping styles: (a) a closed style involving social avoidance and narrowed attention to evaluative cues, and (b) an open style embracing manipulative social approach and heightened attention to evaluative cues. 49 experimentally defined closed style and open style aversive-control male undergraduates were compared in their ability to recognize briefly exposed evaluative words. The closed style group correctly identified fewer words than the open style group as predicted. Incorrectly identified words reflected a tendency toward evaluative self-enhancement for both groups. Control comparisons revealed neither difference. Some promising relations between coping styles, breadth of attention to evaluative cues, and paranoid behavior are noted. (16 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An analogue study of disattentional strategies in schizophrenia.

Attentional disorders in schizophrenia are commonly described in terms of stimulus flooding, the breakdown of filtering mechanisms that results in an overflow of sensations and cognitive disruption. In contrast, schizophrenics have also been observed to disattend to relevant environmental stimulation, possibly as a defense against unmanageable levels of arousal or aversive information. Two experiments were conducted to explore the mechanisms by which the schizophrenic would be able to attenuate the registration of unwanted environmental information. In Exp I, laboratory analogs of selective disattention, suggested by 3 theories of attentional disorder in schizophrenia, were used with 112 normal male undergraduates to determine how effectively they could disengage from relevant visual and auditory information. Exp II replicated the auditory condition in Exp I, with 2 changes: (a) Strategies were tested by requiring the recall rather than the recognition of words, and the experimenter was a male instead of a female graduate student. Results show that the holding strategy by which the S maintained concentration on an early stimulus and the switching strategy by which concentration was deployed to stimulation from another sensory modality reduced subsequent retention of relevant information. A release strategy by which the S refrained from rehearsing previously exposed information was ineffective. Auditory information was generally more susceptible to disattentional strategies than was visual information. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

SEX ROLE, INSTRUMENTAL-EXPRESSIVE BEHAVIOR, AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGY IN FEMALES.

INVESTIGATED THE PREVIOUSLY EQUIVOCAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SEX-ROLE IDENTITY IN LATE-ADOLESCENT FEMALES AND ADJUSTMENT. PEER RATINGS OF 30 COLLEGE SS, OBTAINED AFTER A PERIOD OF SMALL GROUP INTERACTION, INDICATED THAT MASCULINE GIRLS TENDED TO BE BOTH GOAL ORIENTED AND SOCIALLY SENSITIVE, WHEREAS FEMININE GIRLS TENDED TO BE SOCIALLY SENSITIVE BUT LACKED A GOAL ORIENTATION. COMPARISON OF THE PERSONALITY ATTRIBUTES OF THESE MASCULINE AND FEMININE GIRLS WITH THEIR MALADJUSTED COUNTERPARTS FOUND LITTLE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE FEMININE GROUPS. HOWEVER, COMPARISON OF THE MASCULINE GROUPS IDENTIFIED MORE EXTENDED DIFFERENCES, PRIMARILY INDICATING A LACK OF INSTRUMENTAL BEHAVIOR IN THE MALADJUSTED GROUP. MASCULINITY IN THE MALADJUSTED GROUP MAY APPEAR AS SOCIAL INDEPENDENCE WHICH MAY ACTUALLY MASK SOCIAL ALIENATION AND SOCIAL APPROACH-AVOIDANCE CONFLICTS. (21 REF.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Forensic psychology and forensic science: A proposed agenda for the next decade.

The field of forensic psychology has matured as a discipline, having made considerable progress toward the goal of a close integration of foundational science with practice. Substantial challenges remain, however. This article first reviews the progress of the discipline over the past 3 decades by considering the recommendations made by previous commentators (Grisso, 1987; Otto & Heilbrun, 2002; Poythress, 1979) and the extent to which identified priorities have been met. Next, it analyzes a recent multidisciplinary report addressing the current state of forensic science in the United States (National Research Council, 2009), using the recommendations from this report as another source of guidance for tracking the progress in forensic psychology. Finally, it identifies important priorities for the field of forensic psychology for the next decade in light of this discussion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prediction of college achievement from the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule at three levels of intellectual ability.

The scores on the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule (EPPS) were correlated with the semester grade point average on a sample of 357 undergraduates, 206 males and 151 females, with the variance attributable to a brief vocabulary test estimate of scholastic ability partialled out. While the results of the analysis of the total male and female groups were essentially negative, further analyses which followed a subdivision of each of the 2 sex groups into low, middle, and high ability groupings yielded more promising results, especially for the middle ability male subgroup. Following a comparison of the obtained results with previous studies, the importance of using levels of intellecutal ability as a control variable in studies of nonintellectual factors in achievement was noted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Tolerance for ambiguity in female clients: A further test of the catharsis model for predicting early counseling dropout.

Expanded a catharsis model for predicting early counseling dropout in female clients by considering the relations between tolerance for ambiguity and indices of responsiveness to counseling. According to the model, females who leave insight-oriented counseling after experiencing cathartive relief from merely presenting their problems to a sympathetic counselor will be higher in ambiguity tolerance, since they are willing to leave counseling without resolving the uncertainties that accompany personal problems. Study 1, with 95 undergraduates who were administered the Adjective Check List, confirmed this prediction when female nonclient Ss showing high tolerance for ambiguity on a laboratory task were found to be lower on a validated scale of counseling readiness than low-tolerant females. This result was replicated in Study 2 on a sample of 228 actual female counseling clients. Higher tolerance for ambiguity in female clients was associated with earlier departure from counseling and with less improvement. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interviewer style, client satisfaction, and premature termination following the initial counseling contact.

57 female and 38 male clients at a university counseling center were interviewed by 1 of 4 interviewers (3 male and 1 female) to test 2 alternative explanations for early defection of female counseling clients. One explanation proposes that the dependent, self-disclosing female is frustrated by nondirective, initial interviews which fail to provide the structure she needs to formulate her problems. Dissatisfaction leads her to leave counseling. The 2nd alternative is that nondirective, initial interviews are satisfying because they provide the dependent, self-disclosing female with the opportunity for cathartic relief. She subsequently terminates because she feels better. Likeliness to defect was measured by Adjective Check List scores prior to the interview, and evaluations of interviewer directiveness and interview satisfaction were obtained from clients immediately following the initial interview. Greater satisfaction with nondirective interviewing by females more likely to defect was found, which favored the catharsis alternative. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adaptation to aversive maternal control and perception of simultaneously presented evaluative cues: A further test of a developmental model of paranoid behavior.

The adaptive style theory proposes that given a sustained aversive maternal control experience children will come to adopt 1 of 2 perceptual orientations toward evaluative cues. The open-style adapter maintains vigilance to negative evaluative cues, whereas the closed-style adapter defends against negative cues. This postulate, also critical to a narrower model for paranoid development, was tested by exposing 78 male undergraduates to an array of evaluative words, which they were told came from a maternal source. The words were composed of favorable, neutral, and unfavorable adjectives. After a period during which the S could freely scan a display of these words, retention was tested by recognition procedures. As predicted, open-style Ss, considered to be predisposed to paranoid behavior, extracted the most negative meaning, and closed-style Ss were the most defended against negative meaning. This effect held only for cues having a maternal source. (20 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of briefing upon client satisfaction with the initial counseling contact.

Administered the Counseling Readiness scale of the Adjective Check List to 44 male and 41 female student naive clients at a counseling center. Half of the Ss were then provided relevant information about therapist directive-nondirective behavior prior to initial contact. Results show female Ss who had been briefed and were high in counseling readiness were most satisfied with initial contacts, and able to elicit more directive interviewer behavior. While briefing failed to influence the initial subjective satisfaction of male and female clients with low-counseling readiness, it did significantly reduce the incidence of early termination in this group. (20 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)