Robert H. Deluty

Factors Affecting the Acceptability of Suicide

The present study examined whether attitudes toward suicide vary as a function of the age and gender of the suicide victim, the gender of the evaluator, and the type of illness that precipitates the suicide. The participants in the study were 780 college students who were administered a questionnaire consisting of one of twelve scenarios describing a fictitious individual who has decided to commit suicide, as well as a series of evaluative scales and questions about the individual and his/her decision. The scenarios varied in terms of the age of the victim (i.e., forty-five vs. seventy), the gender of the victim, and the precipitating illness (i.e., chronic depression, chronic physical pain, or terminal bone cancer). Evaluations of suicide tended to be significantly more favorable when the evaluators were male, when male victims were being judged, when elderly victims were being evaluated, or when terminal cancer was the precipitating illness.

Adaptiveness of aggressive, assertive, and submissive behavior for children

Abstract The present study explored the relationships between aggressive, assertive, and submissive response styles and three measures of adjustment in 223 children aged 8 to 10 years. Significant positive associations between assertiveness levels and self‐esteem, popularity, and peer‐ratings of behavioral adjustment were found for boys, but not for girls. Significant negative correlations were obtained between levels of aggressiveness and peer‐ratings of popularity for both boys and girls; in addition, highly aggressive children were found to be significantly less popular than both highly assertive and highly submissive youngsters. No significant relationships between submissiveness levels and the three adjustment measures were obtained.

Consistency of assertive, aggressive, and submissive behavior for children.

The interpersonal behavior of 50 third- through fifth-grade children was assessed over an 8-month period in a wide variety of naturally occurring school activities. The consistency of the childrens behavior was found to vary as a function of the childs sex, the class of behavior examined, and the similarity/dissimilarity of the contexts in which the behaviors occurred. Boys demonstrated remarkable consistency in their aggressive expression; 46 of 105 intercorrelations for the aggressiveness dimensions were statistically significant. In general, the consistency of assertive behavior for both boys and girls was unexpectedly high.

Physical Illness, Psychiatric Illness, and the Acceptability of Suicide

The present study assessed whether attitudes toward suicide vary as a function of the type of illness that precipitates the suicide. The participants in the study were 455 college students who were administered a questionnaire consisting of one of seven scenarios describing a fictitious man who has decided to kill himself, as well as a series of evaluative questions about the man and his decision. The man was portrayed as suffering from chronic, severe depression in five of the scenarios (the scenarios differed in their descriptions of the depression); from chronic, severe physical pain in the sixth scenario; and from terminal bone cancer in the seventh. Evaluations of the suicide were most favorable when it occurred in response to terminal physical illness, less favorable in response to chronic, non-terminal physical illness, and least favorable in response to chronic psychiatric illness.

Assertiveness in children: Some research considerations

Abstract This article highlights five major areas in the field of childrens assertiveness that have received insufficient attention by researchers and clinical practitioners. These areas include the nature and components of verbal and nonverbal assertiveness; cognitive and affective mediators of assertive expression; the influence of parental values, attitudes, and practices; the adaptiveness and successfulness of assertive vs. unassertive behavior; and the assessment and treatment of specific assertiveness deficits and inhibitions. A critical review of existing research and suggestions for future inquiry in each of these areas are provided.

Behavioral validation of the children's action tendency scale

The concurrent validity of the Childrens Action Tendency Scale (CATS), a self-report measure of aggressiveness, assertiveness, and submissiveness, was assessed using behavioral observations in naturalistic settings. Forty-five third- to fifth-grade children were observed over an 8-month period in a wide variety of school (and school-related) activities. Scores on the CATS sub-scales were found to correlate significantly with a variety of behavioral indices of aggressiveness, assertiveness, and submissiveness; these correlations tended to be higher for boys than for girls. Explanations for these sex differences and recommendations for the questionnaires use are offered.

An Evolutionary Psychological Investigation of Parental Distress and Reproductive Coercion During the “Coming Out” of Gay Sons

The lack of success of the “coming out” studies over the last three decades to explain and predict parental responses has motivated an evolutionary psychological reconceptualization. According to this reconceptualization, it was predicted that (a) biological mothers would experience more distress and apply more pressure on gay sons to change than would biological fathers and; (b) obligate investment for fathers on dependent sons would cause fathers to experience more distress and apply more pressure on gay sons to change than it would fathers without this obligate investment. In contrast, a cultural-norm hypothesis predicted that fathers would experience more distress and apply more pressure on gay sons to change than mothers. The majority of predictions were tested using 787 participants from two-biological parent families, who were drawn from a total sample of 891 participants from various family backgrounds. As predicted by the evolutionary hypothesis, biological mothers were reported to have been more distressed and coercive than biological fathers, in spite of a strong, societal expectation to the contrary. Furthermore, the results supported the obligate investment argument for paternal reactions. The model not only correctly explained and predicted parental behavior during coming out, but also was shown to unify within its theoretical framework discrepant results from the literature previously considered inconsistent.

West Meets East: Processes and Outcomes of Psychotherapy and Haiku/Senryu Poetry

This paper addresses the commonalities between the creative processes and products of psychotherapists and haiku/senryu poets. These commonalities exist in the realms of awareness/insight; genuineness; “here-and-now” experiencing; interdependence of events; humor; use of blank space; and parsimony.