Philip J. Mohan

Sensation seeking and disclosure to close and casual friends

Abstract After filling out Zuckermans sensation seeking scale, participants were asked 34 questions about how likely they were to disclose personal thoughts and feelings to casual and close friend, how comportable they were in doing so, and how likely they were to encourage casual and close friends to reveal themselves. A positive relationship was found between sensation seeking and the tendency to disclose personal thoughts and feelings and the tendency to encourage others to disclose feelings. The results are consistent with the idea that high sensation seekers are inclined to be more uninhibited and open in their interactions with other people, a tendency which may help them to not only make new friends but maintain existing friendships.

Effect of asymptomatic lead exposure on childhood intelligence: A critical review

Abstract Criteria for evaluating studies of asymptomatic lead exposure and childhood intelligence are outlined. When these criteria are applied to nine recent studies on the intellectual consequences of asymptomatic lead exposure, all of the studies are found to have significant deficiencies. The reviewers conclude that the intellectual consequences of asymptomatic lead exposure are simply unknown. Suggestions for improving future research by assessing information processing capacities are offered.

Relationships among Attitudes toward Children, Women's Liberation, and Personality Characteristics.

Replication and extension of a 1973 article, Who Wants the Children?, were undertaken. Attitudes toward child rearing, ones own remembered childhood experiences, views of womens liberation, and personality characteristics were assessed for 76 college students and 63 community residents. Some of the earlier findings were replicated: individuals with highly positive attitudes toward child rearing considered it a more creative and socially valuable activity and anti-liberation women expressed greater personal interest in child rearing than pro-liberation women. The failure to replicate other results suggests that attitudes have changed, with attitudes of the sexes converging. The inclusion of a sample of community subjects here clearly points to the need to employ a representative sample when studying attitudes of far-reaching social significance. Analysis of personality differences between pro- and anti-liberation women revealed some differences but also pointed to contradictions in literature.

Smiling in Photographs: Childhood Similarities between Sexes Become Differences Constant in Adulthood

Contemporary published photographs of 1639 children, 200 older teenagers, and 304 adults in North America were analyzed for the smiling pattern (full, partial, or none) exhibited by individuals by sex. For each of the three age groups and for both sexes, most individuals posed with a full smile. No statistically significant differences in smiling pattern were present between the sexes for photographs of children at preschool and grade-school age. By teenage years, and even more for the adults, there were statistically significant differences between the sexes with regard to a smiling facial expression. In those cases, more female than male subjects smiled fully, whereas more male than female subjects did not smile. Examination of photographs of well-known persons longitudinally through adulthood showed that individuals tended to be consistent in smiling pattern. There was no significant sex difference for this relative constancy of facial expression in posed photographs.

Child-Raising Attitudes, Family Size, and the Value of Children

Summary Attitudes towards having and raising children were assessed in a two-county survey in northern Idaho. Ss, 360 women and 258 men of various ages and educational level, completed a questionnaire designed to measure the degree to which the respondent: (a) manifests a negative and punitive stance towards children, (b) is overprotective, (c) thinks children should be pushed in acquiring social skills, and (d) believes that children are essential for the well being of a family and marriage. In support of earlier research negative attitudes towards children were associated with younger women who had three or more children in a relatively short time. However, it seems that educational level of the respondents as well as the value they place upon children may offset negative attitudes towards child-rearing attributed to family size or density.

TYPE-A BEHAVIOR AND CALCIUM CONSUMPTION BY COLLEGE STUDENTS

The daily calcium intake of Type A (21 men, 49 women) and Type B (37 men, 95 women) college students was compared. No difference appeared between these groups, although men exhibited significantly higher daily milk and calcium consumption than women, contrary to earlier studies. The implications of this finding for further research were briefly discussed.

RULES FOR CHOOSING ERROR TERMS IN FACTORIAL DESIGNS

Rules are presented for choosing error terms in complete factorial designs with equal replications. Since the paradigm from which they were derived can be generalized to designs with any number of factors, the same would appear to be true of these rules, if one accepts the Anderson-Bancroft position and follows the “never pool” procedure.