Gene M. Smith

Usefulness of Peer Ratings of Personality in Educational Research

ALTHOUGH PEER RATINGS WERE NOT REGARDED AS vA!!r INDICATORS IN TrcT ,TV^!ES. rKUJECT DEMONSTRATES THAT PEER RATINGS OF PERSONALITY CAN BF HELPFUL IN CLARIFYING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERSONALITY AND ACADINIC SUCCESS. TEST CONDITIONS WERE DESIGNED TO AVOID METHODOLOGICAL PROBLEMS. PERSONALITY VARIABLES WERE CAREFULLY ANALYZED, AND A FORCED-CHOICE PROCEDURE WAS ADOPTED. TEST SUBJECTS WERE CAPABLE OF EFFECTIVELY RATING ONE ANOTHER BECAUSE THEY INTERACTED FREQUENTLY. PEER RATINGS WERE COLLECTED BEFORE THE FIRST MIDTERM EXAMINATIONS IN ORDER TO PREVENT AN ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE BIAS. THE RESULTS OF RELIABILITY AND FACTOR ANALYTIC STUDIES PERFORMED ON PEER-RATING DATA DEMONSTRATED A POSTIVE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERSONALITY AND ACADEMIC SUCCESS. THE STUDY SHOWS THAT PERSEVERANCE,

Pain of first-trimester abortion: its quantification and relations with other variables.

Among 2,299 patients on whom first-trimester abortions were performed after administration of local anesthesia, 97 per cent reported experiencing some degree of pain. Independent ratings of the pain severity were obtained from the patients and also from the doctors and counselors who observed them. Although the rating procedures used by patients from those used by doctors and counselors, the three sources agreed significantly in evaluating pain levels of individual patients. Data from all three sources indicated that pain produced during the abortion procedure tended to be minor in severity. The ranking of relative painfulness of the eight stages of the aborton procedure based on average ratings obtained from doctors was nearly identical to that based on average ratings obtained from counselors. (Patients did not rate the separate stages.) On average, the patients rated the pain as being less than earache or toothache, but more than headache or bachache. The youngest patients experienced the most pain, and the oldest experienced the least. Both gestational age and cervical dilatation were related to pain in a curvilinear fashion, i.e., for both variables, patients in extreme categories experienced more pain than those in intermediate categories. Preprocedure fearfulness was positively related to intraoperative pain. No support was found for the expectation that oral administration of 5 mg. of diazepam reduces pain during this procedure.

Consequences of adolescent drug use and personality factors on adult drug use

This study examined the stability of adolescent drug use into young adulthood and explored the possible influence of personality on adolescent and adult drug use. Participants in this longitudinal study (N = 640) completed questionnaires which assessed multiple indicators for latent constructs of tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, and hard drugs, and also for the personality constructs of Socialization. In addition, the effects of obedience and extraversion were examined. Results showed that a general drug use factor in adolescence significantly predicted young adult drug use. A particular effect of adolescent obedience on adult drug use was noted. Within adolescence, obedience, extraversion, and the construct of Socialization were significant predictors of drug use. Early onset of smoking predicted adolescent drug use. The implications of these findings for early drug use education and intervention are discussed. Additional analysis explored the possibility of treating obedience as another indicator of Socialization. This model could not provide as good a fit as the original model. The measure of obedience acted as a better predictor of drug use than an overall factor of Socialization. Gender differences are discussed.

Experimental production of pain in man: Sensitivity of a new method to 600 mg. of aspirin

The acetylsalicylic acid equivalent of two standard commercial aspirin tablets significantly delays development of ischemic pain induced experimentally in man by the submaximum‐effort tourniquet technique. Results of the present study, in confunction with previous findings, indicate that a wide range of analgesic potency may be assessed with this method, and thus a long‐sought procedure for testing, in man, the potency of new analgesics, studied under controlled experimental conditions, is provided. Efforts are presently under way to refine and sensitize the method in order to increase its practical usefulness for study of analgesics with only modest potency.

Consequences of adolescent drug use on young adult job behavior and job satisfaction

Longitudinal data (N = 785) collected during Ss high school years (1971-1973) and in 1981 were used to assess the influence of adolescent drug use on adult job behaviors, job satisfaction, and adverse terminations while accounting for concurrent adult drug use, years of drug use, and adolescent achievement motivation. Relationships were minimal between adolescent drug use and adult work-related indicators in confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) and predictive path models. Although significantly related in the CFAs, higher adolescent achievement motivation did not predict less adult drug use when adolescent drug use was included as a control. Less achievement motivation in adolescence significantly predicted more negative job behaviors and less job satisfaction, but not terminations. Correlations were significant between more adolescent drug use and less adolescent achievement motivation and between adult job problems and adult drug use.

Teenage Drug Use: A Search for Causes and Consequences

To evaluate the relationship between early nondrug measures (grade point average, cigarette smoking, attitudes toward cigarette smoking, and personality) and later use of illicit drugs in data obtained in a fiveyear longitudinal study of teenage drug use. The final year of the fiveyear annual survey was conducted in 1973 and data analysis is still in progress, but work already completed and reported here does help clarify certain aspects of the psychodynamics of drug use.

The influence of adolescent substance use and socialization on deviant behavior in young adulthood

This study examined the impact of adolescent substance use on adult substance use and criminal behavior. Longitudinal data from 657 participants were assessed over 12 years (1969-1981). Latent variable models were used to determine what effect, if any, adolescent drug use had on later deviance. In addition, constructs relevant to traditional theories of social control, such as the extent of socialization and obedience to rules, were also included as predictors. The results showed that a general drug use factor in adolescence significantly predicted adult illicit substance use, theft, and interpersonal aggression. Drug-related accidents (automobile and other) were also predicted from adolescent drug use. These findings are consistent with several theories suggesting that different forms of deviance may influence each other over time.

Adolescent socialization and use of licit and illicit substances: Impact on adult health

Abstract This study examined the impact of adolescent substance use on young adult health. Longitudinal data from 825 participants were assessed when the participants were junior high school and high school students (1969-1973) and again in 1981. Latent variable models were used to determine what effect adolescent drug use had on later health. General substance use, which included tobacco, alcohol, stimulants, sedatives, and other hard drugs, had a small effect on adult health problems associated with substance use, and also predicted accidents related to substance use. In addition, the specific use of tobacco and cannabis in adolescence predicted later respiratory problems, while cigarette smoking during adolescence also predicted decreased physical hardiness. Lower adolescent socialization predicted post high school accidents (automobile and other) serious enough to require medical attention, and predicted increased psychosomatic and seizure symptoms, as well as general psychiatric distress. Implication...

Toward the development of a potent, nonsedating, oral analgesic

The separate and combined analgesic effects of 10 mg of oral amphetamine sulfate and 25 mg of oral anileridine dihydrochloride were studied in 24 healthy, adult, male volunteers. Tolerance of progressively increasing pain produced by the Submaximum Effort Tourniquet Technique was tested four times in each subject: after amphetamine, after anileridine, after the combination, and after a matching placebo. Treatments were administered double blind and in counterbalanced order. Elapsed time to report of slight, moderately distressing, very distressing, and unbearable pain was recorded on each trial. The four oral treatments differed significantly for very distressing and for unbearable pain. At each of the three upper pain levels, the mean tolerance times for anileridine and amphetamine were similar; each was longer than placebo but shorter than the combination; and the effect of the combination was approximately the sum of the effects of the two components.

Use of subjective responses to evaluate efficacy of mild analgesic-sedative combinations.

Effects of mild analgesic‐sedative combinations on sleep and pain were studied in 420 hospitalized patients, most of whom were young postpartum patients with mild or moderate evening pain who expected to have difficulty sleeping. Each patient took an analgesic‐sedative or a placebo at bedtime, on a double‐blind, random basis, and evaluated its effects the following morning. Two dose levels of chloral hydrate (250 and 500 mg), each given with aspirin (650 mg), were compared with placebo and with each other. Three other analgesic‐sedative combinations, containing methapyrilene fumarate (42 or 50 mg) combined with aspirin and/or aspirin‐like analgesics, were also studied. The combinations containing methapyrilene are similar to ones sold over the counter and are not as subiect to abuse as are medications usually prescribed to induce and maintain sleep. The patients estimate of number of hours slept significantly differentiated each experimental treatment from each other treatment with which it was compared; other subiective criteria did not differentiate as successfully. The influence of question format, response options, and other such methodological details is illustrated and discussed in this report.