Previous research indicates that women are judged on the amount of food eaten and that both men and women are judged on the type of food eaten. This study is an attempt to determine whether meal size or type predominantly accounts for these findings on the variables of masculinity, femininity, attractiveness, thinness, fitness, and likability. Physical activity was also included to determine its effect on these variable. Subjects used were 313 undergraduate students. Results indicate that meal type is more influential than meal size and that physical activity significantly influences judgements of others. The results are discussed in terms of future research and relatedness to socio-cultural theories of eating disorders.

Organizational commitment is most commonly defined as a measure of an employee's commitment to the company or larger organization. In a longitudinal study, the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire was administered to 123 first line manufacturing supervisors in a defense contracting firm. After a one year check, subjects were grouped into categories of voluntary and involuntary turnover. The results suggest that significant relationships exist among the variables of departmental commitment, turnover and tenure. However, the study failed to show any relationship between organizational commitment and turnover.

The Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia-Change Version (SADS-C), the Social Adjustment Scale-Patient Version II (SAS-PATII) and the Command Hallucination Questionnaire (CAQ) were administered to 86 psychotic inpatients to investigate the relationship between command hallucinations, aggressive behavior, and compliance. Two SADS-C items ("severity of hallucinations" and "depersonalization") were useful as indicators of command hallucinations. Ninety-two percent had complied with their command at least once in the past month. Three SADS-C variables related to compliance with command hallucinations were identified: middle insomnia, the belief that the voice was acting in your best interest, and overt irritability. The patients' level of distortion of reality did not appear to influence compliance rates. Results also indicated that patients who experience command hallucinations were not significantly more or less dangerous than other psychotic inpatients.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between anorexia nervosa and several personality traits. Past research in this area has been contradictory for several reasons. Sociocultural theories have described the media's role in promoting eating disorders by portraying a thin body-type as the ideal. However, they have neglected to describe the personality ideal which our society promotes in women. It is proposed here that anorexics incorporate and oppose this ideal. Therefore, the anorexic personality is one filled with conflict.

Eighty-nine single, sexually active, heterosexual college students (ages 17-24) participated in one of two intervention conditions. Experimental groups were taught skills specific to condom use and sexual communication via a multimedia presentation. Control groups viewed a video on an unrelated topic. Individuals in the experimental conditions were expected to show higher levels of self-efficacy, greater knowledge concerning diseases, and improved attitudes about condoms immediately following the intervention. They were also expected to report safer sexual practices at the one month follow-up. Findings reveal that improved attitude and knowledge scores did not translate into behavioral changes.

In the present project racial differences in female achievement motivation and motivation to work were examined, and related this information to the theory that African American females, when compared to White females, are less likely to marry someone equal to themselves in the areas of education, employment, and earning potential because of an assumed shortage of suitable African-American males. It was hypothesized that African-American females would score higher on assessments of achievement motivation and motivation to work, and rate lower the likelihood of meeting and marrying a partner equal in education level, employment level, and earning potential than would White females. Data analysis supported all hypotheses. The results were discussed in the context of the female achievement motivation literature as well as the literature concerning female motivation to work.

A Magical Contagion and AIDS Scale was developed to address problems with existing Contagion and AIDS measures. Magical Contagion is an influence that exists after contact is terminated. It is comprised of Permanence, Holographic Effects, Moral Germ Conflation and Backward Action. Data from 280 undergraduates revealed low mean levels of Magical Contagion and AIDS. Contagion effects did not differ on demographic variables. Content validity, criterion-related validity, discriminate validity, and internal consistency were evaluated. Significant correlations were found between the Contagion Scale and Merging/Separation and Homophobia Scales. Negative correlations were found between the Contagion scale and the AIDS knowledge and social desirability scales. Alpha reliabilities were high (a > .93) for the Contagion scale and subscales. Factor analysis suggested the existence of a single factor and mixed support for three factors.

The use of scales on the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) to detect defensiveness in criminal and nonclinical samples was evaluated. Forty-five male inmates of a county jail and 38 male undergraduate psychology students were provided with incentives to complete the PAI under two conditions: standard instructions and experimental instructions to feign a specific, positive role. The sequence of instructions was counterbalanced in both samples for the purpose of examining ordering effects. A repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was performed, yielding significant main effects of condition, group and order. Additionally, a step-wise discriminant function analysis significantly predicted group membership (i.e., subjects under honest and faking conditions) with a hit rate = 84.4%. Finally, a more effective cutting score for the Positive Impression scale was recommended.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the teams that received interpersonal training would function more effectively as a team than the teams that did not receive training. Individuals from a large division of a major defense contractor in the southern part of the United States served as subjects. Data were collected using the Team Effectiveness Profile designed to measure team effectiveness. This survey measures the overall score as well as five sub-scores. It was hypothesized that the teams that received training would function more effectively than the teams that did not receive training. The hypotheses were not supported. Results were explained, among other things, by the internal and external changes that hampered the transition towards self-managed work teams.

Five models for designing work teams from the Work Group Design Measure (Campion & Medsker, 1992b) and the models7 relationships to effectiveness criteria were compared using 30 self-directed work teams (SDWTs) in a manufacturing/production setting of a large defense contractor. The models which are from social psychology, socio-technical systems theory, industrial engineering, and organizational psychology include Job Design, Composition, Context/Resources, Potency/Interdependence, and Process. The study also examined distinguishing demographics, team characteristics, and interpersonal processes within the teams that differentiate higher performing teams and/or teams with higher job satisfaction. Effectiveness criteria were performance and job satisfaction. Among the findings, four of the five team design models (i.e., excluding the Composition Model), and the team-oriented interpersonal group processes correlated with performance and SDWT member job satisfaction.

This study is intended to analyze employee acceptance of an alternative reward system that reinforces continuous learning, teamwork, major expansion of individual capabilities, business knowledge application, and business unit (team) performance. This system is in contrast with traditional pay systems that reward seniority and individual performance determined by the subjective ratings of a direct supervisor, with pay increases based mainly on current job grade (and the availability of higher job grades within the company) and comparison with market value of the job. Individuals from three areas of a major electronics manufacturing company in the southwestern part of the United States served as subjects.

The training needs of managers in the public and private sectors were investigated and compared. Future trends in training that are foreseen by these managers were also researched. Forty-four public sector managers and 34 private sector managers completed a questionnaire covering such topics as: current training needs, current training efficiency, and future trends in training. Topics covered included an overview of the problem, identification and explanation of current trends in topical literature, results of the research, and conclusions drawn from the findings. The results indicated a small difference in current training needs of the two sectors. Recommendations for future studies included a larger sample population and a follow-up study of the private sector managers.

This study examined the relation between level of rape acknowledgement and levels of PTSD symptoms reported in female college students. Subjects were administered the Sexual Experiences Survey (SES), the PTSD Interview, and a demographics questionnaire. Subjects were then grouped into the following categories based on their responses to the SES: reported rape victims, acknowledged rape victims, unacknowledged rape victims, and a control group of non-rape subjects. Small sample analyses did not reveal the expected linear relation between the two variables. Only the acknowledged group showed greater PTSD symptoms. The unacknowledged and control groups did not significantly differ on overall PTSD symptom severity, or on any cluster of PTSD symptoms. Naturalistic selection factors are discussed that could have affected the outcome of the study.

This study was conducted to examine the experience of unwanted sexual aggression from both the male and female perspectives. Questionnaires were distributed to 325 students, and of these, 142 wrote free-response narratives describing their most sexually aggressive experience. Two raters scored and analyzed the narratives on the basis of 19 categories for male responses and 16 categories for female responses. Differences between the male and female perception of the experience of unwanted sexual aggression were found on several categories. The results of this study suggest that date rape awareness and prevention programs should emphasize the point that dating and sexual encounters can easily be fraught with miscommunication and misinterpretation, and encourage clearer communication and better understanding.

Children and adolescent psychiatric inpatients (n = 25) versus staff (n = 35) milieu perceptions were measured with the Ward Atmosphere Scale (WAS) Form K (Kids). The perceptions were compared with previous data collected in 1981, 1982, and 1984 on the same unit. The 1993 staff and patients continued to perceive the unit as a therapeutic environment despite recent restrictions on length of stay due to health care reform. The views of the staff and patients were found to be divergent but less so than in previous years. Additionally, the more seriously ill a patient was determined to be, the more negatively he or she perceived the environment. Differences in perceptions between day shift versus night shift and administrative versus non-administrative staff were also found and discussed. Staff perceptions versus their ideal conceptions were also investigated and compared with those of the 1984 staff. The 1994 staff was found to more closely approximate their ideals than the 1984 staff.

A specifically oriented instrument was used to partially replicate a study by Dietz (1988) in an effort to compare the utility of the phi coefficient and Rescorla index measures of perceived contingency of reinforcement in children and examine the relationship of these measures to locus of control, teacher ratings of helplessness and academic performance.

Using the Defense Mechanism Manual (Cramer, 1991), Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) stories of 29 sexually abused female subjects and 28 non-abused female clinical control subjects were rated for the frequency of use of denial, projection, and identification.

Locus of Control (LOC) is operationalized as a dispositional trait remaining stable throughout life, but may also be conceptualized as a domain specific state. Widowed persons' support groups, consisting of recently conjugally bereaved older adults (N=22) and one high functioning, long-term widowed peer group leader, were utilized to test LOC malleability. A significant increase in one State measure subscale, Desire for Control, was noted. Trait LOC remained stable. The change in State and Trait LOC change did not significantly relate to psychological symptom reduction. However, Trait LOC Internality related to fewer symptoms whereas State LOC Internality related to more symptoms.

Evaluations of the Georgia Court Competency Test - Mississippi Version Revised (GCCT-MSH) and the Competency Screening Test (CST) have supported their use with pretrial defendants. The present study evaluated the efficacy of the measures with an inpatient population. Both measures were factor analyzed in an attempt to replicate; previously identified factor structures. Neither factor structure was replicated however, a distinct factor structure was identified for the GCCT-MSH. In addition, the relationship between sociodemographic variables, clinical variables, current symptomatology, and competency status were evaluated using discriminant functions analyses. The results suggest that the best predictors of incompetency in this sample are a diagnosis of a psychotic disorder or a non-psychotic affective disorder and a low measured IQ. Current symptomatology, as measured by the SCL-90-R, was not an effective predictor of competency status in this sample.

Social support has been shown to lessen the negative effects of life stress on psychological and physical health. The stress buffering model and the main effects model of social support were compared using two samples of women over the age of 50 who were either married or recently widowed. These two groups represent low and high uncontrollable major life stress respectively. Other life stress events were also taken into account. Measures assessed current level of life stress, perceived social support, satisfaction with social support, and psychological symptomatology. Results using overall psychological health as the dependent variable support the main effects model.

It has been suggested that the use of standardized intelligence tests is biased against minorities. This study investigates the newly revised Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III in which Wechsler states that the new scale has eliminated biased items. Comparisons of the scores on the WISC-R and the WISC-III of a clinical population of sixteen African American and eighteen Caucasian males, ages ten to sixteen, revealed significant differences between the two groups on the WISC-III. The minority scores decreased predictably from the WISC-R to the WISC-III, but the Caucasian scores increased rather than decreasing. The findings of this study do not support the predictions and goals of revision as stated in the manual of the WISC-III.

Contributions of home environment and family socioeconomic status (SES) on the intelligence test performance of 24 exceptional children aged five through seven years were investigated. It was hypothesized that higher SES would enrich the children's environment providing a more stimulating learning experience, and would reflect a positive correlation with measures of the home environment. Additional hypotheses were that both HOME scores and SES scales would show a positive correlation with intelligence test performance. The positive association found between SES and HOME Inventory scores suggests that families with a higher SES have the ability to direct more resources toward their children. However, according to the present study, this does not affect the intelligence test performance of exceptional children.

Personality characteristics of spousal and adult children and active potential caregivers of persons with Alzheimer's Disease were studied in order to better predict caregiver burden and aspects of well-being. Contrary to prediction, no differences were found between spouse and adult children active caregivers on measures of well-being. Additionally, adult children potential caregivers indicated feeling less control over their lives than spouse potential caregivers. When social desirability was controlled, active caregivers reported greater fluctuations in affect than did potential caregivers. As predicted, personality characteristics of individuals were found to have the biggest role in determining which individuals experience stress or burden.