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Biomedical subjects

A Tolor

Publications and source records attributed to A Tolor.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Torque behavior in schizophrenics, elderly persons, and other special groups.

The incidence of clockwise drawing (torque) was compared for 90 schizophrenics, 57 institutionalized elderly individuals, 24 general medical patients, 50 adults functioning well in the community, 71 graduate students, and 72 undergraduate college students. In view of Blau's (Blau, T. H. Torque and schizophrenic vulnerability: As the world turns. Am. Psychol., 32: 997-1005, 1977) previous finding that torque behavior in children is substantially associated with subsequent schizophrenic pathology an attempt was made to verify the pathological significance of torque. Results indicated that for all Ss combined 38 per cent produced torque. Only the elderly as compared with undergraduate students displayed a significant difference in incidence of clockwise circling, with the elderly producing more torque. The absence of any significant differences between adult schizophrenics and any of the other comparison groups raises serious doubts about the pathological importance of torque in adults. Moreover, since groups who would be expected to be neurologically more intact performed no different from those who would be expected to be less intact, the neural integrative defect explanation proposed by Blau would seem to be unwarranted.

Adult

Personaltiy correlates of the joy of life.

Hypothesized that greater diversity of joy and more intense levels of joy would be associated with low hopelessness, high sensation seeking the perception of the world as just, and high sensitization as compared with high repression. It also was predicted that female Ss would score higher in sources of joy and in intensity as compared to males. One hundred and thirty-four college students were administered the Joy of Life Scale, Hopelessness Scale, Sensation Seeking Scale, Just World Scale, and Revised Repression-Sensitization Scale. The hypothesis was supported for sensation seeking in that High Sensation Seekers assigned significantly (p less than .05) higher mean intensity ratings to experiences that produced joy of life, than did Low Sensation Seekers. Contrary to expectation, there was a nonsignificant trend for sensitizers, when compared with repressors, to select fewer joy-related experiences and to evaluate these experiences as less joyful. The experiences that most often led to high levels of joy were those referrable to positive emotional events.

Adolescent

Women's attitudes toward forcible rape.

This study assessed the attitudes of women with diverse backgrounds toward possible responses to an attempted sexual assault and also ascertained their beliefs about how society should handle a convicted rapist. Additionally, the role which the personality dimensions of assertiveness and internal-external expectamcy play in shaping attitudes toward rape was investigated. Seventy-seven women and 25 men were administered the Rathus Assertiveness Schedule, the Rotter I-E Scale, and a Rape Inventory. Women relied on a narrow range of options to deal with a rapist's attack, depending mostly on less active modes. They advocated humane approaches be taken with convicted rapists. Personality played only a minor role.

Animals

The body image of pregnant women as reflected in their human figure drawings.

Drawings of female figures made by women in their first (N = 54), second (N= 51), and third (N = 56) trimesters of pregnancy and post-partum (N = 55) women were compared with each other and with a control (N = 76) group of gynecological patients. There were no major differences in the drawings of women during the three major stages of pregnancy or between the pregnant women and those who had delivered recently. However, the pregnant women differed significantly from the gynecological controls in that they made more nude drawings, emphasized the genitals, distorted the drawn figures, and made the drawings smaller in size. It was concluded that somatic and psychological changes associated with pregnancy are reflected in the human figure drawings.

Adult

Sexual attitudes and behavior patterns during and following pregnancy.

Changes in sexual attitudes and behavior patterns that might be associated with pregnancy and childbirth were investigated. The subjects were 216 women seen by a group of obstetricians and gynecologist in office practice. While there was a wide range of individual responses, in general a decline in sexual interest, activity, and satisfaction was reported as pregnancy progressed. The desire for body contact remained at a very high level throughout. Some changes in body zones regarded as most erogenous during the course of pregnancy were indicated. Following childbirth the women's sexuality seems to have returned to a normal level. The degree of liberal vs. conservative attitudes toward sex expressed by these women was not affected by the pregnancy, nor did this dimension relate significantly to other behavioral variables.

Adult

Sex differences in alcoholics: a comparison of male and femal alcoholics' self and spouse perceptions.

Self-perceptions of male and female alcoholics and the perception of them by their respective spouses were investigated in an attempt to study sex differences in alcoholics. The subjects were 20 male and 20 female hospitalized alcoholics and their spouses. Subjects were administered a modified Katz Adjustment Scale and the NIMH Mood Scale applied both to states of sobriety and intoxication. The results indicated that the female alcoholic is more likely to characterized by her spouse as guilty and depressed both in states of sobriety and intoxication than is the male alcoholic. The therapeutic implications of these and other findings are discussed.

Adult

Introversion-extraversion and topological representations of self and others.

This study indicates that the vertical ordering of self-social others is a potent measure of individual differences in social orientations. Since the extravert is the more sociable, excitement-seeking, carefree individual, while the introvert is more retiring, aloof and introspective, it would be worthwhile in future research to determine whether the dominance, vs. submissive or the high vs. low status dimension is the essential correlate of these spatial differences.

Adolescent

The effects of self-concept, trust, and imagined positive or negative self-disclosures on psychological space.

This study focused on some of the determinants of schematic interactional distance based on an analysis of social learning processes. It was hypothesized that closer interpersonal constructions would be associated with a more positive rather than negative self-concept, a greater rather than lesser degree of trust, and a covert positive rather than negative self-disclosure to a significant other. One hundred fifty-nine male and female undergraduate students were administered the Tennessee Self Concept Scale and Jourard's Self-Disclosure Questionnaire. Of these Ss, 82 were also given either positive or negative covert self-disclosure conditions. Interactional distances consisted of "Self" placements in relation to several key social target representations. The results supported the hypothesis regarding the relationship between self-concept and psychological distance, but only for females. There was also a tendency for more trusting females to produce closer distances than less trusting females. These results, as well as the obtained significant sex differences in distancing responses and in renditions of vertical displacements, were discussed within the context of culturally determined sex role differences.

Hierarchy, Social