Perceptual and motor skills
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A questionnaire designed to measure psychological abuse and kindness was responded to by 90 college women involved in dating relationships. Analysis indicated that, while many relationships were low abuse/high kindness, a substantial number were characterized by high abuse/low kindness, high abuse/high kindness and low abuse/low kindness. ⋯ Finally, a comparison of past versus present relationships showed proportionately few significant differences in behaviors but many significant differences in feelings. The major finding, that some college women are in dating relationships characterized by psychological abuse, was explored, and comparisons to the literature on wife abuse and courtship violence were also included.
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To assess temporal variations in the perception of "phasic" heat pain stimuli a psychophysical tracking procedure was developed that enables repeated assessment of the pain threshold at short intervals. This "double-tracking" procedure produces two tracking curves simultaneously, one that approaches the pain threshold gradually from above, the other from below. The threshold for phasic heat pain was measured in 80 tracking trials with stimuli at temperatures near the pain threshold. ⋯ Hence there was no long-term adaptation or sensitization. However, there were random variations (random walks) in the tracking curves, which we interpret as resulting from a stochastic relationship between stimulus and sensation. In agreement with other reports, discrimination seemed to be better at painful than at nonpainful temperatures.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Depressive and elative mood inductions as a function of exaggerated versus contradictory facial expressions.
Two studies concerned the relation between facial expression cognitive induction of mood and perception of mood in women undergraduates. In Exp. 1, 20 subjects were randomly assigned to a group who were instructed in exaggerated facial expressions (Demand Group) and 20 subjects were randomly assigned to a group who were not instructed (Nondemand Group). All subjects completed a modified Velten (1968) elation- and depression-induction sequence. ⋯ It was concluded that the primary influence on emotion came from the cognitive mood-induction sequences. Facial expressions only seem to modify the emotion in the case of depression being exacerbated by frowning. A contradictory facial expression did not affect the rating of an emotion.
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The present study investigated the neuropsychometric correlates of the Mini-Mental State Examination. 12 consecutive neurological referrals were administered the Mini-Mental State Examination, the Wechsler Memory Scale, and the WAIS--R. Pearson product-moment correlations suggest moderate association between scores on the Mini-Mental State Examination and Wechsler Memory Scale but less robust relationships between scores on the Mini-Mental State Examination and WAIS--R Full Scale, Verbal, and Performance IQs.
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This study investigated the relationship between measured levels of masculinity-femininity, social desirability, and responsivity to pain in men and women. The literature suggests that the two personality variables might provide an explanation for the common findings of higher pain thresholds and tolerances in men than in women. ⋯ However, this finding did not account for the sex difference in pain threshold. The sex of the subject remained a significant predictor of both pain thresholds and tolerances after allowing for the influence of masculinity-femininity, social desirability, and their associated interactions.