Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology

Siegelman, Ellen; Block, Jack; Block, Jeanne; von der Lippe, Anna

doi: 10.1037/h0030093pmid: 5489463

Attempts to develop some understanding of the antecedents of psychological health from a major set of longitudinal studies. 171 adult Ss were described by means of the California Q set. These empirical descriptions were compared with an independent hypothetical Q description of the optimally adjusted personality. A number of measures were analyzed to identify the antecedent circumstances that differentiated the 48 high optimal adjustment from the 50 low optimal adjustment adults of both sexes. Although obtained by different techniques and at widely different times, the findings univocally indicate healthy, democratic, value-oriented homes among high optimal adjustment Ss. Good adult adjustment was associated with a cognitively competent and integrated mother. Poor adult adjustment was associated with a neurotic, anxious mother for both boys and girls, and additionally with a neurotic father for girls.

Miller, Daniel R.

doi: 10.1037/h0030258pmid: 5489464

As a basis for interpreting the impressive findings by E. Siegelman, J. Block, J. Block, and A. von der Lippe (see PA, Vol. 45:Issue 3) relating optimal psychological adjustment in adults to observations made of their families when the Ss were children, it is postulated that mental health be defined relative to sex, generation, epoch, and culture. An analysis of items included in the criterion of optimal adjustment suggests that it is most pertinent to families whose breadwinners have managerial or professional jobs in bureaucratic organizations, and that it might be misleading if applied to top executives, employees of entrepreneurial organizations, or members of the working class.

Bronfenbrenner, Urie

doi: 10.1037/h0030089pmid: N/A

E. Siegelman, J. Block, J. Block, and A. von der Lippe (see PA, Vol. 45:Issue 3) are complimented for exploiting an important research opportunity, but also criticized for employing a relatively inefficient design, equating clinical judgments with objective reality, and failing to examine possible components in the global index of optimal adjustment. It is noted that most of the shortcomings can be rectified in subsequent analyses.

Moos, Rudolf H.; MacIntosh, Shirley

doi: 10.1037/h0030109pmid: 5489466

Replicates and extends the work of R. H. Moos and S. R. Clemes and F. van der Veen . Each of 6 patients saw each of 4 therapists twice. The variables total activity, feeling words, action words, reinforcements each was scored separately for patient and therapist for each interview. Patient problem expression and therapist accurate empathy were rated for each interview. Consistent differences between patients accounted for substantially more variance than consistent differences between therapists on all variables. Patient * Therapist * Session interactions generally accounted for large proportions of the total variance. Results indicate that the therapist behaviors studied were not the result of a trait, of a given tendency to be empathic, or of a consistently applied therapeutic technique, but rather were very substantially situationally or patient determined. (23 ref.)

Fischer, Edward H.

doi: 10.1037/h0030115pmid: 5496129

51 student volunteers for a companionship program each visited a mental hospital patient 1 hr/wk, for an average of 18 wk. Ss' ratings of certain aspects of patients' appearance and behavior correlated with psychiatric aides' ratings of patients' contact. But only the behavior ratings (rather than appearance ratings) correlated significantly with Ss' liking for the relationship. Patients' sex, education, years of hospitalization, and age were the best predictors of Ss' interest in future companionship. Some implications are that the Ss' apparent discouragement in relating to chronic patients might be lessened if experienced students were assigned to long-term patients and if the period of companionship were shortened.

Dies, Robert R.

doi: 10.1037/h0030094pmid: N/A

Investigated the relation of the need for social approval (as measured by the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale) to the attribution of blame. 40 dyads of female psychiatric nursing students worked on a cooperative task. Both dyad members were exposed to an induced failure experience and made subsequent ratings whereby blame could be ascribed to features of the experiment, transient personal states, and/or to one's partner. As predicted, approval-dependent persons were more likely to rationalize or excuse the "failure" by blaming various experimental factors and/or their partners, but this was always done within the limits of a generalized tendency to seek social acceptance by expressing attitudes complimentary to other persons or situations.

Parsons, Oscar A.; Klein, Helen P.

doi: 10.1037/h0030268pmid: 5489467

A nonverbal concept identification task involving easy and difficult subtests was given to groups of process and reactive schizophrenic, brain-damaged, and control patients. The same test was administered twice. Brain-damaged and process schizophrenic groups had poorer overall performance than the other 2 groups but did not differ from each other significantly. However, patterns of improvement on the easy and difficult subtests were different for the schizophrenic vs. brain-damaged groups. Implications for "organic" vs. "functional" explanations of process schizophrenia were discussed.

Cotler, Sheldon; Quilty, Robert F.; Palmer, Richard J.

doi: 10.1037/h0030100pmid: N/A

Help-seeking dependency was defined in terms of requesting assistance which was not objectively necessary for attaining a specific goal. 30 undergraduate female Ss answered, in writing, each of a series of 40 factual questions. Ss then had an opportunity to request help from a confederate before providing a final oral answer to E. S's responses were classified in 1 of 4 categories: independent correct, independent incorrect, incorrect answers for which Ss appropriately sought help, or correct answers for which Ss sought help unnecessarily. The procedure yielded a reliable and unambiguous distinction between appropriate and unnecessary help seeking which served as an operational definition of help-seeking dependent behavior. Results indicate that help seeking was not related to the Ss' knowledge of the answers, and that Ss made significant discriminations among all 4 categories of responses on a confidence scale. (20 ref.)

Wolf, Martin G.

doi: 10.1037/h0030267pmid: 5489468

J. Masling and S. Harris interpreted their findings on the relative frequency of usage of TAT Cards 4 and 10 as being indicative of voyeuristic personal-sexual needs on the part of male graduate student Es intruding into a serious clinical situation. Their findings are felt to violate the principle of parsimony and to cast unwarranted aspersions on the students who served as Es. Data are reinterpreted as showing that the male students were simply applying sound clinical principles in an attempt to do as well as possible on the task given them.

Masling, Joseph; Harris, Sandra

doi: 10.1037/h0030266pmid: N/A

Compared M. G. Wolf's (see PA, Vol. 45:Issue 4) interpretation to the authors' interpretation of the data, which makes fewer assumptions and discards fewer data than Wolf's and is able to integrate the results of several different types of experiments.