Predicting three mood phenomena from factors and facets of the NEO-PI.

The relationship between transient mood phenomena and enduring personality characteristics was studied. Eighty-one women completed the NEO Personality Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1985) and provided daily unidimensional mood ratings for 20 days. Average mood was negatively related to Neuroticism (N) and positively related to Extraversion (E). More fine-grained analyses revealed that Positive Emotions, a facet of E, was a better predictor of average mood than was the overall E factor score. The greater a facet's loading on N or E, the better it predicted average mood. Within-day mood variability (mood fluctuation) was positively related to Openness to Experience (O), particularly to the facet, Fantasy. Across-day variability (mood swing) was positively related to both E and O. No relationship was found between any of the mood variables and Agreeableness (A) or Conscientiousness (C). The 3 mood variables were virtually independent of one another, but each showed moderately high temporal stability across the 4-week period.

Effect of "wet nights" on daytime behavior during concurrent treatment of enuresis and conduct problems.

The case study reported in this paper focuses on the relationship between bedwetting and misconduct after the implementation of behavior therapy for both problems. A 6 1/2-year-old girl was treated for enuresis and subsequently for conduct problems (lying, aggressiveness). After both bedwetting and misconduct displayed substantial and stable improvement, it was found that occasional nightly relapses in bedwetting were strongly associated with the occurrence of misconduct the following day. Implications of this finding are discussed.

Effects of television on children and adolescents.

The average child born today will, by age 15, have spent more time watching television than going to school. Research has shown that heavy doses of TV violence viewing are associated with the development of aggressive attitudes and behavior. TV viewing also appears to cultivate stereotypic views of gender roles and race. Finally, television commercials often capitalize on children's naivete, and also can foster and reinforce overly materialistic attitudes. All of these adverse effects can be minimized if parents restrict the amount of overall viewing, encourage some programs and discourage others, and talk to children frequently about the meaning of what they see on television.

Voluntary control of reversible figures.

This study was designed to demonstrate that voluntary control of the perception of reversible figures is possible. Within the context of a fully counterbalanced design, some subjects were given instructions as to which side of a reversible screen or staircase to keep closer while others served as no instruction controls. As predicted, voluntary control was clearly demonstrated over both figures. Voluntary control instructions did not influence the frequency of reversals directly, but frequency of reversals and voluntary control were inversely related. Moreover, subjects' voluntary control over one figure was highly correlated with their control over the other, suggesting the presence of stable individual differences in ability to control perception voluntarily.

A delivery system for the treatment of primary enuresis.

To illustrate how to deliver underutilized psychological treatments, a comprehensive, low-cost treatment for primary enuresis was developed consisting of bell-and-pad training, cleanliness training, retention control, and overlearning. Sixty primary enuretic children and their parents attended 1-hour group training sessions and implemented treatment in the home. Each case required 15 minutes of professional time, and net cost to each family was +50. Forty-eight (81%) achieved initial arrest of bedwetting and only 11 (24%) relapsed at 1-year follow-up. Significant association between relapse and prior treatment failure with imipramine was noted. The outcome was found to compare favorably with previous treatments that required more professional time.