This study examined college undergraduates' intercultural experiences and attitudes at the beginning and the end of a semester-long course on multicultural issues. Participants were 290 undergraduate college students at the University of North Texas , 202 of whom were enrolled in one of the university's core global studies, cross-cultural, or diversity courses for the fall 2001 semester, and 88 of whom were enrolled in courses outside the core. It was hypothesized that the multicultural group's Positive Inventory of the Consequences of Multicultural Experiences scores would increase and Social Dominance Orientation Scale scores would decrease more than they would for the control group. Findings did not support these hypotheses.

Research has indicated that balancing work and family is on the minds of college-age women long before they are married. At the same time, women continue to choose occupations that do not fully utilize their abilities and often fail to follow their original career goals. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of perceived career barriers and supports on young women's career planning. Utilizing Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) and recent literature as a basis, this study conceptualized career goals using the two constructs career salience and career aspirations. Based on information garnered in this student's thesis and on studies examining pathways in the SCCT model, the current study used a hierarchical regression model and hypothesized that barriers related to work and family conflict and sex discrimination would have the most impact on the career aspirations and career salience of young women. Career supports were hypothesized to add significantly to the prediction of these variables, and coping self-efficacy for these types of barriers were hypothesized to depend on the level of these types of barriers perceived and the interaction effect was in turn expected to add significantly to the prediction of career aspirations and career salience. None …

It has been shown repeatedly that many people hold personality stereotypes of stutterers. The attitudes of psychotherapists regarding stutterers have never been investigated. The present investigation assessed the degree to which psychotherapists-in-training hold stereotypes of stutterers as compared to normally fluent speakers. Two groups viewed a videotaped vignette of a male. In one, the male interviewee displayed stuttering behaviors. In the other, the same male spoke fluently. Participants then rated the male interviewee on several personality dimensions. Contrary to previous findings, the group viewing the stuttering interviewee rated him no differently than did the group viewing the fluent interviewee. Greater knowledge of stuttering was associated with more positive ratings of the person who stuttered. The clinical and research implications of these findings are then discussed.

The financial cost for health care and lost productivity due to chronic pain has been estimated at over $70 billion per year. Researchers have attempted to discover the psychosocial and personality factors that discriminate between people who learn to cope well with chronic pain and those who have difficulty adjusting. The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of perceived locus of control and dispositional optimism on chronic pain treatment outcomes. Subjects reported significantly lower post-treatment pain levels as compared with pre-treatment levels (M = 0.66, SD = 1.58), t(45) = 2.85, p = .007 (two-tailed), but decreased pain was not associated with scores on the internality dimension of the Pain Locus of Control Scale (PLOC) or on the Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R) (a measure of dispositional optimism). Overall, participants' increased coping ability was associated with scores on the LOT-R, but not with scores on the internality dimension of the PLOC. Subjects with the lowest pre-treatment scores on the LOT-R demonstrated significantly greater increases in post-treatment coping ability than those with the highest scores (F(2,40) = 3.93, p < .03). Participants with the highest pre-treatment scores on both the PLOC internality dimension and the LOT-R demonstrated greater …

Following the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, many turned to the field of psychology for greater understanding of the impact of such events and guidance in supporting our citizens. This study sought to gain greater understanding of the differential impact of the September 11th attack on individuals by investigating the influence of age, psychological hardiness, and repression versus sensitization as forms of coping behavior on psychological health. Both an initial cross-sectional sample (172 young adults & 231older adults) and a short-term longitudinal follow-up (39 young adults & 58 older adults) were included in the study. Older age, psychological hardiness and the use of a repressing coping style were found to each individually relate to greater resilience/less dysfunction at both time one and two. For young adults, high hardy repressors faired best, followed by high hardy sensitizers. Low hardy young adults demonstrated similar levels of dysfunction regardless of coping style (repressions/sensitization). For older adults, coping style impacted both high and low hardy individuals equally, with high hardy repressors demonstrating greater functioning. This study attempted to gain greater insight into explanations for these and previous findings of greater resilience among older adults. In explaining the greater resilience …

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effects of a multidisciplinary pain management program on five measures of subjective psychosocial factors. Ninety-five participants in the comprehensive multidisciplinary treatment group and the standard medical intervention control group were surveyed about various psychosocial factors using Axis II of the West Haven - Yale Multidimensional Pain Inventory (MPI), pre- to post-treatment. It was hypothesized that post-treatment levels would be significantly lower than pre-treatment levels for all five psychosocial variables. Additionally, gender and ethnicity variables were examined. Based on preliminary analyses indicating pre-treatment differences between the experimental and control group, five 2 x 2 x 3 analyses of covariances (ANCOVAs) were used to examine the above hypotheses. Results indicated significant differences between the treatment conditions on measures of control, with the comprehensive group feeling more in control than the standard group at post-treatment. No other significant main effects for treatment condition were found on the measures of pain severity, interference with daily activities, negative mood, or social support. However, a significant gender main effect was found for social support at post-treatment, with females reporting more social support than males. A significant gender x ethnicity interaction was also found for post-treatment control, …

This study investigated the effect of cognitive factors on competency to stand trial. Previous researchers have investigated how psychological variables --such as psychosis and intelligence--contribute to incompetency. Although several researchers have established that intelligence contributes to incompetency, very few have investigated the role of specific cognitive abilities within the realm of intelligence. This study investigated the performance of 55 defendants referred for competency restoration on neuropsychological measures. Specifically, competent defendants and incompetent defendants were compared on several measures assessing functioning in seven cognitive domains. Competent defendants performed significantly better than incompetent defendants on measures of verbal comprehension, social judgment, verbal memory, and executive functioning. Competent and incompetent defendants did not differ on attention, visual spatial skills, or nonverbal memory.

Failure to acknowledge their mental illness occurs in approximately half of all psychotic patients. Interest has been recently been refocused on insight (i.e., awareness of mental illness), and its associations with treatment compliance and better prognosis. Researchers have called into question the traditional factor structure of insight, instead viewing and defining it as a multidimensional and continuous construct. While factor analytic research has suggested that insight is an independent feature of psychotic disorders rather than a secondary manifestation of psychotic symptoms, several factor analytic studies have identified only one higher-order factor. Furthermore, a significant amount of the research literature has assessed insight or analyzed its relationships using only a single insight score. The current study evaluated the structural model of insight and assessed the associations between the different proposed dimensions of insight and psychotic symptoms. One hundred and six participants recruited from both inpatient and outpatient settings with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, psychotic disorder NOS, or bipolar disorder with psychotic features were rated on David's Schedule for Assessing Insight-Expanded Version (SAI-E), Birchwood's Insight Scale (IS), and the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) or the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was utilized to provide …

Social and cognitive skill acquisition were evaluated in 33 (male=24, female=11) outpatients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. A social skills training treatment group (n=19) was compared to a wait-list control (n=14). Participants' mean age was 41 years, mean number of hospitalizations 10.4, and mean number of years with diagnosis 15.8. Assessment measures included WAIS-III Picture Arrangement subtest, Social Cue Recognition Test, COGLAB, WMS-III Word List subtest, and SADS-C. Results did not support the main hypotheses of improved social and cognitive skills in the treatment group. Participants with better memory and attention at pre-testing also did not show an advantage in social skills improvement. Contrary to hypotheses, the control group improved the most on some social and cognitive measures. Several supplemental hypotheses yielded the following results: lack of volunteer participation from paranoid schizophrenia individuals; evidence that schizoaffective disorder participants may be less cognitively impaired and better able to benefit from social skills training; and younger, less chronic participants with better attentional capacities may benefit most from social skills training. Findings are discussed in light of the possibility that improving social skills might not improve social and cognitive functioning, at least with the dosage of social skills training provided in this study. …

The present study examined the relationships of organizational justice and the psychological contract with four outcome variables in a downsizing context. Multinational data were gathered from survivors representing a variety of organizations and industries. The main focus of the current study examined the relationships between survivors' perceptions of procedural, interpersonal, and informational justice and organizational commitment, job satisfaction, turnover intentions, and trust in management. Correlational data indicated that procedural, interpersonal, and informational justice all demonstrated significant correlations with the outcome variables with interpersonal justice demonstrating higher correlations with the outcome variables than procedural justice. Additionally, the results of two structural models indicated that, although both models fit the data equally well, interpersonal justice was the dominant predictor of the outcome variables. Finally, moderated multiple regression analyses indicated that the psychological contract did not act as a moderator on the relationships between the justice and the outcome variables. However, supplemental confirmatory factor analysis suggested that the justice variables might act as a mediator of the psychological contract - outcome variable relationships. Possible explanations of the results as well as implications for practice and future research are provided.

The purpose of the present study was to study the relationship of MCMI-III clinical scales with MMPI-2 clusters in a chronic pain population. Data was obtained through assessment data (N = 242) from the Dallas Spinal Rehabilitation Center (DSRC), that included MMPI-2 and MCMI-III, as well as pre-and post-assessment information (n = 21) and follow-up questionnaires (n = 19). Subjects' age ranged from 18 to 64. Each patient had a primary diagnosis related to a back and/or a cervical injury, a chronic pain diagnosis, and often medical prescription dependency and/or addition. Each has experienced back pain in the lumbar region (L1 to L5) or cervical region (C1 to C7) for an average of 32 months. Patients with thoracic (mid-spine) and carpal tunnel pain were excluded from this study. A multivariate cluster analysis procedure was performed that yielded 3 homogeneous female MMPI-2 clusters and 4 MMPI-2 homogeneous male clusters. Seven multiple regression analyses were performed to determine which MCMI-III clinical scales predicted cluster membership in the MMPI-2 clusters. Results indicated that MCMI-III clinical scales "7" Compulsive, "X" Validity and "C" Borderline were predictors for membership in the male MMPI-2 clusters. Membership in the female MMPI-2 clusters were predicted by MCMI-III clinical …

A review of literature indicates limited effort to understand and explain employees' acclimation to, and adoption of, new behaviors required by organization change initiatives. Psychological theories of individual behavior change have, in restricted instances, been applied into organizational environments. The transtheoretical model of change (TTM) offers a comprehensive explanation of behavior change uniting multiple theories of individual change. TTM describes change as a series of stages that individual progress through before arriving at the decision to implement a change in behavior. Movement through the stages is facilitated by processes which increase the probability of a behavior change effort's success. The present research investigated the potential applicability of TTM for explaining individual level change within a new context, specifically, an organizational environment. To examine if individual change in the context of an organization occurs in the fashion described by TTM, measures of core TTM constructs were delivered to employees in a water department of a city in the American southwest. The water department was immersed in an organization change initiative necessitating individual behavior change by its employees. Results of TTM core construct measures and their relationships with each other and the stages of change were examined. Initial findings are indicative of …