Pattern A, achievement striving, and scientific merit: does pattern A help or hinder?

Clinical observations and recent theorizing offer two opposing predictions about the relationship between Pattern A and the merit of one's work: (a) Pattern A helps; (b) Pattern A hinders. To test these two possibilities, male members of the Society of Experimental Social Psychologists completed a measure of Pattern A behavior, and citation scores were derived for each man from the Social Science Index 1973-1975. Assuming that citations are a rough measure of meritorious work, the results revealed that Type A behavior by men is associated with superior scientific work. Thus, it is unlikely that Pattern A hinders meritorious work. Rather, it may help.

The prevalence of antisocial behavior among U.S. Army DWI offenders.

This study compares arrest records for three groups of male soldiers. The first group of 76 had been arrested for DWI, completed a 5-day, in-patient evaluation/education program and were subsequently re-arrested, all within the period from January 1985 through December 1987. The second group of 76 was composed of a random sample, matched by age and ethnicity who had completed the 5-day program following a DWI but had not been re-arrested. The third group was a control group of 76, matched by age and ethnicity, but with no record of DWI, who were randomly selected from the same military units as the initial two groups. Soldiers with one DWI had significantly more arrests than did soldiers in the control group; soldiers with two DWI arrests had significantly more arrests than either of the other groups. The data indicate that soldiers apprehended for DWI are more likely than non-arrestees to be arrested for a wide variety of antisocial behaviors.

Dental esthetic self-evaluation and satisfaction.

Four hundred eighty-one 10- to 13-year-old children answered questions to determine their skill at self-evaluation and their level of self-satisfaction with their own dental appearance. Their answers were correlated to dental-orthodontic variables measured for each child. Findings indicate that while subjects were objective in self-evaluation, there were sex-specific correlates between particular dental variables and self-satisfaction.

The diagnostic value of BAC for identifying alcohol-related problems among DWI offenders: another look.

The present study examines the association between breath alcohol concentration (BAC) at arrest and problem drinking for a sample of 1,283 male DWI offenders in the US Army. The results indicated a moderate but statistically significant association between BAC at arrest and DSM-III diagnosis. BAC's ability to indicate problem drinking was also compared with the diagnostic ability of three well-known, paper-and-pencil instruments designed for that purpose. BAC performed as well in identifying problems with alcohol as did the MAST, the MacAndrew Scale of the MMPI, and the Vaillant.

Reading disabilities: the case of Chinese, Japanese, and English.

A common hypothesis has considered apparent differences in the incidence of reading disability in Asian and Western languages to be related to orthographic factors. A reading test was constructed in English, Japanese, and Chinese to assess the validity of this proposal. Large samples of fifth-grade children in Japan, Taiwan, and the United States were given the test and a battery of 10 cognitive tasks. Strong evidence was found that reading disabilities exist among Chinese and Japanese as well as among American children. In discriminating between groups of poor and average readers by means of the cognitive tasks, the combined effects of general information and verbal memory proved to be the most powerful predictors in Japan and Taiwan. General information and coding emerged as the most effective predictors for American children. The results cast doubt upon the crucial significance of orthography as the major factor determining the incidence of reading disabilities across cultures.

Cognitive performance and academic achievement of Japanese, Chinese, and American children.

Chinese, Japanese, and American children at grades 1 and 5 were given a battery of 10 cognitive tasks and tests of achievement in reading and mathematics. Samples consisted of 240 children in each grade in each culture. 2 major purposes of the study were to determine possible differences in cognitive abilities of Japanese, Chinese, and American children and to investigate the possible differential relation of scores on cognitive tasks to reading by children of the 3 cultures. Similarity was found among children of the 3 cultures in level, variability, and structure of cognitive abilities. Chinese children surpassed Japanese and American children in reading scores; both Chinese and Japanese children obtained higher scores in mathematics than the American children. Prediction of achievement scores from the cognitive tasks showed few differential effects among children of the 3 cultures. The results suggest that the high achievement of Chinese and Japanese children cannot be attributed to higher intellectual abilities, but must be related to their experiences at home and at school.