Robert D. Singer

Children of problem gamblers

An anonymous 37-item Health Survey was administered to 844 randomly selected ninth- to twelfth-grade students in four Southern California public high schools. Systematic information was gathered about their general health, quality of life, school and work adjustment, involvement with a range of potentially addictive substances and activities, and indications of psychosocial maladjustment, including difficulties with the law and suicide attempts. A series of self-ratings of students who characterized one or both of their parents as having a compulsive gambling problem (N=52) were contrasted with those of their classmates who reported no gambling problem among their parents (N=792). Findings have been grouped into three major areas: (a) comparative levels and reported effects of involvement with health-threatening behaviors (i.e., smoking, drinking, drug use, overeating, and gambling); (b) comparative incidence of psychosocial risk indicators (i.e., broken home, unhappy childhood and teenage years, legal action pending, overall quality of youth rated as “poor”); and (c) comparative incidence of dysphoria, school and work problems, and suicide attempts. Across each of these areas children of parents said to gamble excessively were found to be at consistently greater risk than their classmates who did not describe their parents as having a problem with compulsive gambling. These findings strongly suggest that without early and competent intervention, children of parents who gamble excessively: (a) will be seriously disadvantaged when attempting to solve their present adolescent and future adult problems of living; and (b) as a consequence are, themselves, high-risk candidates for developing one or another form of dysfunctional adjustment, including an addictive pattern of behavior.

Psychological Issues in the Care of Critically-Ill Respirator Patients: Differential Perceptions of Patients, Relatives, and Staff

Using questionnaire rating scales, 21 ventilator patients, 17 family members, and 31 members of the medical staff who cared for the patients indicated their perceptions of the ventilator care situation with particular attention given to factors that may be sources of psychological stress for respirator patients. As expected, patients who reported problems in communicating with staff and family due to inability to talk and, in some cases, to write while on the respirator also reported strong feelings or negative emotions, e.g., anger, frustration, fear. The perceptions of staff, patients, and family differed significantly concerning problematic aspects of the respirator care situation. These results have implications for future research dealing with psychological issues of patients in critical care settings

Overcontrolled Hostility, Empathy, and Egocentric Balance in Violent and Nonviolent Psychiatric Offenders

Psychiatric offenders, divided into five groups on the basis of their criminal charges (murder, assault with a deadly weapon, rape, pedophilia, nonviolent property offenses), were administered the overcontrolled hostility scale, a measure of emotional empathy as well as a self-focus sentence-completion test. Data were also obtained regarding aggressive behavior of the 115 subjects during the course of hospitalization. Contrary to predictions, none of the paper-and-pencil measures discriminated significantly between offender groups and the canonical correlation between criminal charges and scores on the personality measures was only of low moderate value. Implications of results regarding suitable measures and future research strategies are discussed.

The Effects of Real-World Status and Manipulated Status on the Self-Esteem and Social Competition of Anglo-Americans and Mexican-Americans

A 2 x 3 factorial design was employed using ethnic background (Anglo-American and Mexican-American) as the blocking variable, and status rank (no status, low status, and high status) as the independent variable. The dependent variables were the components of self-esteem as measured by a factor analysis of the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory; and social competition, as measured by Tajfels matrices. One hundred and thirty-two subjects rated an ethnic in-group and out-group after being told that their ethnic group was superior, inferior, or no status information. ANOVAs indicated that all subjects exhibited higher self-esteem in the high-status condition than in the low-status condition, F(2, 125) = 3.85, p = 0.02. Mexican-Americans had lower social-power self-esteem, F(2, 125) = 4.03, p = 0.02, and higher family self-esteem, F(2, 125) = 3.61, p = 0.03, than Anglo-Americans. A MANOVA indicated that all subjects competed most in the high-status condition, F(2, 105) = 10.469, p = 0.002, and thatMexican-Amenrcans were more competitive overall than Anglo-Americans, F(1, 106) = 3.604, p = 0.03.

The Function of Television in Childhood Aggression

Considerable focus has been placed on the issue of whether television programs in general, and specifically programs with a high content of violent behavior, play a causal role in the aggressive and violent behavior of children and adolescents. Put most simply, the issue has been: “Does T.V. cause aggression and violence?” For those who were convinced that T.V. causes aggression and/or violence, the next issue became delineating the psychological mechanisms which accounted for the assumed causal link. Modeling, disinhibition, imitation, vicarious reinforcement, activation, and habituation, were invoked in various combinations by different theoreticians (Bogart, 1980).

Perceived characteristics of “competent” people

Abstract The purpose of this research was to determine the specific behaviors and cues which 104 assessors perceived as indicating the presence of psychological variables shown to be related to competent job behavior. The cue systems utilized were found to be reminiscent of theory Y conceptions of effective job behavior. Implications of the lack of correlation of cue utilization with assessor characteristics are discussed.

The generality of the characteristics of “competent” people☆

Abstract The purpose of this research was to determine the degree to which positive relationships between self-descriptions and/or interpersonal descriptions and ratings of competence generalized over different situations. Generality was found for the interpersonal descriptions but not for the self-descriptions. Three possible explanations for the results were suggested.

Social perception of caloric value.

Studies on obesity and overweight measure the actual caloric amount in the foods selected or consumed. However, the food choices of individuals partly depend, if weight is a concern, on their social perception of caloric values of various foods. The study concerned the accuracy of 53 males and 82 females of various weight categories in their perception of the caloric content of various types of food. The more females weigh the more calories they perceive in food while the more males weigh the less calories they perceive in food. Both males and females overestimate the caloric content of desserts, particularly in comparison to main dishes like meat and potatoes.

Effects of Medium and Presentation Style on Evaluation of a Communicator

To examine some aspects of the effects of channel and speech delivery style upon evaluations of a communicator, a 2 × 2 (channel × style) independent groups design was used. 32 high school boys and 72 girls heard a political speech presented by a professional actor over either simulated radio or television. Half the subjects heard the actor give an excited, emotional (hot) presentation of the speech; the others heard the speech presented in a relaxed, unemotional (cool) style. The subjects then rated the speaker on 44 dependent measures. Significant results were obtained for both the channel and the style factors. In general the speaker was evaluated more favorably after he had given the cool presentation than after he had presented the speech in the hot style. The television presentation was followed by more positive evaluations of the speaker than the radio presentation. In support of Marshall McLuhans theory the cool speaker was evaluated more favorably than the hot speaker when on television but less favorably when on radio.

How Do mental health paraprofessionals form judgments about patients? The development of a patient evaluation scale

Current trends in mental health imply increased use of mental health paraprofessionals in a variety of mental health settings. The present investigation was an attempt to explore the semantics of paraprofessionals judgments about patients. Psychiatric technicians in a public mental hospital were asked to make evaluative judgments about patients in their wards. In addition, they were asked to rate the patients on a 22-item scale concerned with specific behaviors or first-order inferences about behavior. The pattern of correlations as well as regression weights between evaluations and behavioral ratings were used to infer the “meanings”of the paraprofessionals evaluations of patients. Results indicated that most paraprofessionals tended to look for similar behaviors in making evaluations of patients. The semantic framework was simple and intelligible. Training uses of the research method were also discussed.