Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology

Harmatz, Morton G.

doi: 10.1037/h0026612pmid: N/A

In an attempt to understand the relationship between test anxiety and perception of performance feedback, 27 high (HA) and 27 low (LA) test-anxious female undergraduates were told they were to teach a pupil a difficult learning task by choosing 1 of 10 shock levels for incorrect responses. Ss were informed during the learning sequence that their pupil was performing either average (A), above average (AA), or below average (BA). Results showed that the LA Ss increased the shock level most toward the BA pupil, a moderate amount toward the A pupil, and least toward the AA pupil. The HA Ss gave the smallest increase in shock of any group to the BA pupil and the next greatest to the AA pupil. They exceeded all groups in shock increase and absolute shock level to the A pupil.

Shostrom, Everett L.; Riley, Clara M.

doi: 10.1037/h0026596pmid: 5745750

Presented the series of films "Three Approaches to Psychotherapy" to 16 judges in Australia and 24 judges in California to observe and analyze the therapeutic techniques of Carl Rogers, Frederick Perls, and Albert Ellis as shown in the films. A comparison of the findings of both the Australian and California studies leads to the following conclusions: (1) Rogers scored highest on "Caring" and "Feeling," (2) Perls scored highest on "Encountering," "Feeling," and "Interpersonal Analyzing"; and (3) Ellis scored highest on "Value-orientation" and "Pattern Analysis." The study confirmed the hypothesis that every therapist may be described as an emerging eclectic, since each of the therapists included all of the parameters to some degree in his work as judged by all 40 raters. The study offers a method of quantification, providing a numerically descriptive analysis of psychotherapy. (34 ref.)

Kish, George B.; Busse, William

doi: 10.1037/h0026581pmid: 5745751

Reports 3 studies relating individual differences in the Sensation-Seeking scale (SSS) score to various measures. Using hospitalized alcoholics, hospital employees, and college students as Ss, the following relationships were found: (1) sensation-seeking was positively related to educational attainment, intelligence level, and perceptual, spatial, and numerical aptitudes, and was negatively related to age; and (2) no relationship was found between the SSS score and rural-urban factors. Results support the validity of the SSS and have implications concerning the nature of stimulus-seeking motivation and its role in human behavior.

Eisenman, Russell

doi: 10.1037/h0026578pmid: N/A

Based on research in personality and creativity, it was predicted that Ss who preferred simpler polygons would react differently to a threatening statement than would Ss who preferred more complex shapes. This expectation was supported in an experiment with 62 undergraduates in that (1) verbalizations and (2) pre-post change in ratings were significant in the predicted direction: Ss who preferred simpler shapes reacted more negatively to the threatening information.

Gynther, Malcolm D.; Brilliant, Patricia J.

doi: 10.1037/h0020432pmid: N/A

Reports an error in the original article by Malcolm D. Gynther and Patricia J. Brilliant (Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1968[Oct], Vol 32[5, Pt. 1], 616-617). On page 617, the note to Table 1 should read as follows: "Note.-Abbreviations: P = psychotic; N = neurotic; BD = behavior disorder; O = organic; S = single; M = married; D = divorced; O = other". Examined the generality of the correlates associated with 1 of Marks and Seeman's actuarially derived MMPI profile types. No support was found for their results, which suggests that actuarial procedures produce results of local significance. The implication is that each setting will have to develop its own actuarial tables to ensure optimal validity.

Levine, Frederic J.

doi: 10.1037/h0026579pmid: 5745752

Performance on the Color-Word Test (CWT) has been considered to reflect individual differences in constricted-flexible control, which is a dimension of styles of controlling and expressing drives. In Part I of this study, comparisons were made among CWT performances of groups which differ in such styles: 26 mathematicians, 24 creative writers, and 25 physicians. Several intergroup differences were found, but could not be accounted for in terms of constricted-flexible control. In Part II, CWT scores were compared to independent (mostly TAT) measures of drive regulation. Results were negative. It was concluded that CWT performance is relevant to molar adaptive behavior (vocation), but constricted-flexible control does not adequately account for variance on the test. More differentiated analysis of the CWT is recommended. (18 ref.)

Mordkoff, Arnold M.; Rand, Melvin A.

doi: 10.1037/h0026610pmid: 5745753

Investigated the psychological and personality correlates of mode of adaptation to coronary artery disease (CAD) in an experiment in which 3 groups of 31 patients were distinguished on the basis of the amount and direction of change in their general activities subsequent to the development of CAD. In addition to various personality assessment procedures, a battery of experimental and paper and pencil devices intended to measure the several forms of psychological flexibility-rigidity were administered to all Ss. Results revealed numerous personality differences among the groups, but only 1 measure from the several tests of flexibility-rigidity, the Jar test, related to the S groupings. It was concluded that Ss exhibited a form of adaptation to CAD consistent with their general personality makeup, but that psychological flexibility-rigidity was not a dimension which was particularly related to reaction to the illness. (22 ref.)

Johnson, Dale T.

doi: 10.1037/h0026594pmid: 5745754

46 psychiatric inpatients estimated the duration of an experimental session which included assessments of levels of characterological trait anxiety (A-trait) and transitory, fluctuating state anxiety (A-state) before and after a period of muscle relaxation training. In the prerelaxation period 2 of the 3 scores from the paper-and-pencil A-state measure correlated significantly with the estimates; the postrelaxation period anxiety measure scores did not. 17 of the 18 possible relationships between anxiety measure scores and the estimates were nonlinear rather than linear in form. The results indicate that transitory, phenomenological state anxiety, rather than individual differences in anxiety-proneness (A-trait), influences estimates of elapsed time. (20 ref.)

Tuddenham, R. D.; Blumenkrantz, J.; Wilkin, W. R.

doi: 10.1037/h0026583pmid: 5745755

Tested 164 men retiring from the Army after 20 yr. of service on the Army General Classification Test-3a. The results were compared with their scores earned 20 yr. earlier, as recorded on their Form 20s. Group means showed very small declines over time. Only on the pattern analysis subtest, a measure of perceptual reasoning, was the decline significant at the 1% level. Individual patterns of change varied widely from man to man. Gains on 1 or more subtests were common. Only 2% of the Ss showed a substantial decline on all subtests. In this sample, changes in test score correlated near 0 with age, with interval between tests, and with a health questionnaire.

Jones, Stephen C.; Shrauger, J. Sidney

doi: 10.1037/h0026572pmid: N/A

21 male and 21 female undergraduates took Rotter's internal-external (I-E) scale, then participated in a group test with 2 peers during which they exchanged evaluations of one another's answers. The evaluations Ss received were experimentally controlled so that they received mostly positive evaluations from 1 peer (positive evaluator) and mostly negative evaluations from the other peer (negative evaluator). As a manipulation of the perceived controllability of others' evaluations, 1/2 of the Ss were told that the test measured an ability and that there were right and wrong answers to the items (ability condition), and 1/2 were told that the answers represented personal opinions and that there were no right and wrong answers (opinion condition). Differences in Ss' evaluations of the answers given by the positive and negative evaluators showed that externals reciprocated more than internals and that this difference tended to be stronger in the opinion condition than in the ability condition. (16 ref.)