K. Roger Van Horn

Interpersonal relationships in Brazilian adolescents

Interpersonal relationships were evaluated in 260 middle-class Brazilian youths aged 11–12, 15–16, and 19–20 years, using the Network of Relationships Inventory (Furman & Buhrmester, 1992). Participants rated four dimensions (support, conflict, relative power, and punishment) of relationships with five social network members (mother, father, teacher, sibling, and same-sex friend). Ratings were consistent with ecological models predicting culture-specific characteristics of relationships. In contrast to previous research on US adolescents, Brazilian adolescents reported high levels of both support and conflict and there was no shift from parents to peers as the primary source of support. Differences between early and late adolescents were not consistent with the processes of individuation and rapprochement. One of the few significant sex differences resulted from females rating support higher than males in relationships with siblings and friends.

Developmental levels of social cognition in head-injury patients

Ten adults, who had sustained a closed head injury, were interviewed regarding their self-understanding, concepts of persons, and interpersonal negotiation strategies. Responses were evaluated in terms of developmental levels of social cognition. Levels of interpersonal negotiation strategies were significantly lower than levels of self-understanding, descriptions of psychological characteristics of self were at a significantly higher level than descriptions of active and physical characteristics of self. Within interpersonal conflict situations, proposed solutions were at a significantly lower level than the justifications offered for the solutions. In general, developmental levels of social cognition were comparable to levels exhibited by non-clinical samples of adolescents. The two areas in which the head-injury patients appeared to perform at a significantly higher level than adolescents were their justifications for their proposed solutions to the interpersonal conflict situations and their ability to express the emotional consequences of interpersonal conflict.

Binge Drinking Among Underage College Students: Role of Impulsivity and the Transtheoretical Model

&NA; A major public health problem facing American colleges is binge drinking by students with adverse effects on academic achievement and self‐fulfillment. The short‐term negative consequences of binge drinking include memory loss, hangovers, and blackouts. Binge drinking has been related to campus problems, suicides, violence, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), heightened aggression, automobile accidents, property damage, and academic failure. This study investigated the relationship of impulsivity to readiness to change binge drinking behavior among college students attending a 4‐year university. The theoretical formulation for the study was based on Prochaska and DiClementes transtheoretical model. Participants were volunteer undergraduate college students from a state‐supported Southeastern University. The students were recruited from undergraduate classrooms, fraternities, and sororities. The volunteer participants were 248 undergraduate college students enrolled in a 4‐year university in the southeastern United States. This study consists of a subgroup, 131 of the 248 participants which were 93 binge drinkers and 38 nondrinkers. Three surveys were administered: the Student Alcohol Questionnaire (SAQ), Barratts Impulsivity Scale (BIS‐11), and the Brief Readiness to Change Questionnaire (BRCQ). Impulsivity was significantly correlated with binge drinking and the transtheoretical stages of change. Impulsivity can result in a lack of inhibitory control, which is a risk factor for binge drinking. The results of this study suggest that impulsivity may interfere with intentional behavioral change. This study may have valuable implications for the current and future design of alcohol prevention programs at institutions of higher education.

Learning style, judgements of learning, and learning of verbal and visual information

The concept of learning style is immensely popular despite the lack of evidence showing that learning style influences performance. This study tested the hypothesis that the popularity of learning style is maintained because it is associated with subjective aspects of learning, such as judgements of learning (JOLs). Preference for verbal and visual information was assessed using the revised Verbalizer-Visualizer Questionnaire (VVQ). Then, participants studied a list of word pairs and a list of picture pairs, making JOLs (immediate, delayed, and global) while studying each list. Learning was tested by cued recall. The results showed that higher VVQ verbalizer scores were associated with higher immediate JOLs for words, and higher VVQ visualizer scores were associated with higher immediate JOLs for pictures. There was no association between VVQ scores and recall or JOL accuracy. As predicted, learning style was associated with subjective aspects of learning but not objective aspects of learning.

Concurrent validity of the WISC-IV in eligibility decisions for students with educable mental disabilities.

Concurrent validity of the WISC-III and WISC-IV was conducted using a sample of 35 students classified as educable mentally disabled. Full Scale IQ scores of previously administered WISC-III correlated .91 with WISC-IV Full Scale IQ scores when adjusted for restricted range. Of the previous eligibility decisions, 80% were confirmed by the WISC-IV scores. Implications of the findings and suggestions for research are discussed.

Cultural Differences in Asymmetric Beliefs of Interpersonal Knowledge in Vertical and Horizontal Relationships

ABSTRACT Previous studies have reported that our interpersonal knowledge shows an asymmetry; that is, we tend to believe that we know and understand other peoples thoughts and feelings better than other people know and understand our own thoughts and feelings. In the present study, the authors compared American (114 men, 192 women) and Korean (99 men and 98 women) students to examine whether the asymmetry is greater in collectivistic than in individualistic culture in two types of relationships: horizontal (with best friends) and vertical (with parents). On all three items—Know, Understand, and Visibility—asymmetry was found for both horizontal and vertical relationships. Further, the Understand and Visibility items showed greater asymmetry for the Korean group than for the American group. It was concluded that asymmetry is greater in collectivistic than in individualistic culture. The cultural differences can be explained by self-consistency, sensitivity to social consequences, parent–child interaction, and living arrangement.

Multiple Response Selections in Children's Perspective Taking

The present study re-examined Salatas and Flavells (1976), “Perspective taking: The development of two components of knowledge.” Twenty Kindergarten, 20 second, and 20 third grade children were tested on two components of knowledge concerning views, (a) one observer has one view and (b) different observers have different views. Our results are consistent with traditional descriptions of the development of perspective taking but do not support the conclusions reached by Salatas and Flavell regarding the two components of perspective-taking knowledge. Contrary to that report, our study suggests that the “different observers-different views” concept is acquired earlier than the “one observer-one view” concept.