Authoritarian Avoidance of Ambiguity

Authoritarian people can be expected to manifest intolerance of ambiguity in the autokinetic situation by responding in ways that are consistent with their own prior responses, and reporting movement of the autokinetic light sooner. 30 Ss receiving high scores on the California Fascism Scale formed the authoritarian group; 30 Ss receiving low scores formed the nonauthoritarian group. No sex differences were found. Both expectations were supported by the data, discussed in terms of authoritarians' avoidance of stimulus ambiguity, responding in terms of available anchorage points. </jats:p

Understanding One's Clients: An Attempt to Improve Sensitivity and Morale in Police Recruits

Recognizing that effective police work demands sensitivity to human behavior and motivation, the importance of police selection and training procedures as they affect human interactional skills becomes apparent. A program of assessment was described. Recruits beginning training were somewhat alienated and possessed no unusual sensitivity to people. Academy training, buttressed by additional experiences (cognitive training in the behavioral and social sciences for one group; affective-experiential training for conflict management for a second group) did not affect sensitivity, alienation, or police cynicism, as measured. The recruits, however, judged the latter training experience as more worthwhile for policemen. Recruits' lack of trust in authority was among the considerations discussed. </jats:p

Rorschach Responses of Police Applicants

Rorschach responses of 53 police applicants yielded information about their perceptual, cognitive, and ideational characteristics not obtained from personality inventories. Many applicants manifested personality characteristics, evident on the Rorschach only, that might reduce their ability to protect and serve the public. These findings add to the potential value of the Rorschach in selection of employees and argue against complacency about reliance upon personality inventories for screening out applicants. </jats:p

Effect of Reverie on Recall of Word Associates

It has been considered that amnesia for childhood events may in part be due to differences between the child's and the adult's states of consciousness rather than repression alone. 12 male undergraduates underwent each of 2 experimental conditions, one designed to foster alertness, the other a reverie state. Prior to each experimental condition Ss studied stimulus words, each paired with one of two associates. Half had one associate more typically a child's response and one associate more typically a young adult's response. After each experimental condition S named the first associate he recalled for each stimulus word. As predicted, more child-associates were recalled after the reverie condition than after the alert condition. </jats:p

Neuropsychological Characteristics of Young Adult Chronic Psychiatric Patients: Preliminary Observations

Psychological evaluation included tests of brain-behavior functioning and academic level for 110 young adults (16 to 39 yr. of age), each a moderate to heavy user of mental health services. The composite patient manifested borderline, diffuse brain dysfunction with deficiencies in language, visuospatial, motor, concentration, and higher-order problem-solving skills, together with below normal performance on tests of intelligence, reading comprehension, arithmetic calculation, and spelling. Standard mental health services appear inadequate for habilitation or rehabilitation of many such people. The findings suggest that one reason for these patients' lack of response to conventional mental health treatments is that clinicians fail to identify patients' fundamental deficiencies and to incorporate this knowledge in planning treatments and evaluating progress. Suggestions for further studies are offered. </jats:p