Are left-handers less violent?

Previous work has shown that left-handers are overrepresented among juvenile offenders. The present study was designed to test whether left-handers are also overrepresented among violent juvenile offenders. However, opposite to expectation, the results showed that left-handed offenders scored lower than right-handed offenders on the Violence Scale, a measure of the violence potential of offenses read from the legal record. The unexpected effect was consistent over four sex-ethnicity subgroups. Possible explanations concerned sex-handedness interactions and hemisphericity effects.Received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from University of California, Los Angeles. Major research interests are delinquency, violence, and coping under stress.     

The self-image of adolescents: A study of four cultures

This paper describes the utilization of the Offer Self-Image Questionnaire (OSIQ) for research purposes on a variety of adolescent populations and demonstrates the OSIQ's effectiveness in meaningfully separating normal, juvenile delinquent, and emotionally disturbed adolescents; older and younger teenagers; males and females. It also considers the utilization of the OSIQ in four different cultures (United States, Ireland, Australia, and Israel) and concentrates on the results obtained when the OSIQ is given adolescents in these four cultures. It discusses the findings and points to some of the methodological problems which are inherent in doing cross-cultural research.Presented at the American Educational Research Association meeting in San Francisco, California, April 20, 1976.Received his M.D. from the University of Chicago. He interned at the University of Illinois and took his psychiatric residency at Michael Reese Hospital and University of Chicago. He is a graduate of the Institute for Psychoanalysis in Chicago. Major interests have been concept of mental health and the developmental psychology of adolescence.Received his Ph.D. in human development from the University of Chicago. Research interests are adolescence and delinquency.Received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Chicago. Major interests are psychotherapy research and adolescence.     

An intellectual and personality study of juveniles who are petitioned for waiver of juvenile jurisdiction

Forty-one juvenile offenders against whom petitions were filed to try them as adults were examined on various psychological tests and compared with typical adolescents. These certificands tend to be of low intelligence and have much difficulty in performing academically or in any situation without structure. The data indicate that these juveniles tend to act impulsively and without great concern for conventional social standards. A major discrepancy in their self-perception and in the way they are seen by others produces a confusion and distrust of others. From the data it appears that there are differences between the typical adolescent and these juveniles, but the difference is in the extent of the certificands' problems and is not a qualitative one. When questions of the efficacy of rehabilitation in the adult or juvenile system are left aside, the typical certificand is qualified in terms of psychiatric or psychological criteria to stand trial in either juvenile or adult court.Received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Louisiana State University in 1969. Current research interests are psychology training and crime and delinquency.Received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Georgia in 1970. Current research interests are professional issues, crime and delinquency, and forensic psychology.     

Transcultural comparisons of self-image in German and United States adolescents

Based on the Offer Selfimage Questionnaire (OSIQ), the selfimage of German and United States adolescents was compared. The German study was based on OSIQ protocols from 365 adolescents in West Berlin while the American sample comprised adolescents drawn from seven cities in the United States. With respect to three scales, United States adolescents report better adjustment than do the German adolescents. These scales were Mastery of the External World, Vocational and Educational Goals, and Superior Adjustment. In general, these two Western societies share more similarities than differences in the selfimages of their adolescents.Received M.D. and Ph.D in Psychology from the University of Hamburg, Germany. Research interests are high-risk studies, child psychiatric epidemiology, and adolescence.Received M.D. from the University of Chicago. Major interests are concepts of mental health and the developmental psychology of adolescence.Received J. D. from the University of Chicago School of Law; received Ph.D. in Human Development from the University of Chicago. Research interests are adolescence and delinquency.Received Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Chicago. Major interests are psychotherapy research and adolescence.     

The “impulsivity index”: Its application to juvenile delinquency

An objective, composite index of impulsivity, made up of three measures of reactivity to color on the Rorschach and amount of discrepancy between performance and verbal IQ on the Wechsler Scales, is proposed. It was predicted that impulsiveness as measured by this index would be associated with self-perception of impulsivity. Moreover, it was predicted that impulsiveness, whether objectively or subjectively measured, would tend to be associated with a history of greater and more frequent delinquency. The major hypotheses were confirmed. In addition, the data suggested that delinquents from higher socioeconomic levels may be more impulsive than their lower class counterparts. Additional work on refining and validating the impulsivity index is indicated.This work has been supported by Grant No. A70-15 from the Illinois Law Enforcement Commission.Currently a Ph.D. Candidate in Human Development at the University of Chicago. Major research interest is in cognitive development during adolescence.Received M.D. from the University of Chicago. Major research interests are the developmental psychology of adolescence and the etiology of juvenile delinquency.Received M.D. from Marquette University. Major research interests are in juvenile delinquency and psychotherapy of adolescents.Currently a Ph.D. Candidate in Human Development at the University of Chicago. Major research interest is in juvenile delinquency.     

Hungarian adolescents' self-concept

Hungarian and United States adolescents' self-image was studied using the Offer Self-Image Questionnaire (OSIQ). In Hungary, 1,163 younger and older male and female adolescents were studied using a Hungarian translation of the OSIQ. Analyses of endorsement patterns of OSIQ items showed that Hungarian and American adolescents endorsed many items in the same way. Similarities in endorsement patterns were much more common between the two countries than were differences. Analyses of OSIQ scales showed that for most scales younger Hungarian adolescents reported better adjustment than younger American adolescents. Differences were not as great or reversed in the older age groups. Implications for cross-cultural studies of adolescent self-image were drawn based on these results.Received M. D. from the Semmelweis Medical university in Budapest. Research interest is complex somato-mental health care of adolescents.Received M. D. from the University of Chicago. Major interests are concepts of mental health and the developmental psychology of adolescence.Director, Forensic Psychology, Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center. Received J. D. from the University of Chicago School of Law; received Ph. D. in human development from the University of Chicago. Research interests are adolescence and delinquency.Professor of Psychology, Northwestern University. Received Ph. D. in psychology from the University of Chicago. Major interests are psychotherapy research and adolescence.     

Rorschach differences in normal and delinquent white male adolescents: A discriminant function analysis

Rorschach productions from 38 normal and 30 delinquent White male adolescents were scored by three Ph.D. clinical psychologists according to the method given by Beck. The groups were equated for IQ, social class, and age at the time of testing. Rorschach scales representative of various personality dimensions, i.e.,R, M, F, F+, FC, CF, C, FC: CF + C, Sum C, Affective Ratio, Shading, H, andA, were subjected to a linear discriminant analysis. The results showed highly significant and accurate differentiation between the groups (p<0.0005, correct classification rate =86.8%); however, theAffective Ratio was the only scale that heavily contributed to the discrimination. The difference between the groups on this scale was attributed to the delinquents' passive cognitive style. The results also lend support to the notion that delinquents differ from normals along the dimension of impulsivity, a finding relevant to psychodynamic theories of delinquency as reflective of serious ego deficits. Fuller consideration of Rorschach symbolic content and qualitative features of response is recommended.The first two authors' contributions were equal.Currently a Ph.D. candidate in education at Loyola University, Chicago. Major research interests are psychometrics, psychodiagnostics, and statistics.Received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Loyola University, Chicago. Major research interests are psychodiagnosis, psychotherapy evaluation, and the etiology of delinquency.Received his M.D. from Marquette University. Major research interests are juvenile delinquency and the process of psychotherapy.     

Aggression and delinquency: Family and environmental factors

Juvenile delinquency has become an increasing concern to society; aggressive behaviors are particularly harmful. This study examined parent and youth behaviors and personality types that may influence delinquent and aggressive behaviors. Youths were referred by the court to an intervention program; ratings of delinquency and aggression were derived from parent reports, self-reports, and court referral data. Results showed that high parent ratings of youth aggressiveness were related to high turmoil in the home and to youths' positive opinions of delinquent peers, while high aggressiveness of the youths' referring offenses was related to lax punishment. Developmentally, this suggests that in adolescence both the peer group and home influences are important in shaping different aspects of the youths' aggressive and delinquent behaviors.This study was partially conducted under University of Virginia Research Policy Council Grant No. 199505. The study was funded in part by a NICHD Training Grant (HD07289) to Dr. D. W. Fulker. Preparation of the paper was facilitated by grant RR-07013-20 awarded to the University of Colorado by the Biomedical Research Support Grant Program, Division of Research Resources, National Institutes of Health.Received Ph.D. in psychology from University of Virginia. Current research interests are intelligence and prosocial and antisocial behaviors from a developmental behavior genetics perspective.Received Ph.D. in psychology from Michigan State University. Current research interests are developmental pathways to problem behaviors of youth in high-risk communities.Current research interests are volunteer interventions with adolescents at risk for delinquency.Current research interests are clinical applications and intervention with adolescents and families.     

Verbal giftedness and sociopolitical intelligence: Terman revisited

This paper reports on a three-year study of sociopolitical intelligence-defined as the ability to formulate viable solutions to moral, social, and political problems—in adolescence. From an initial sample of 659 intellectually gifted 12- and 13-year-olds, 58 students with the highest SAT-V scores were selected for study. From a later sample of 506 equally gifted 13- and 14-year-olds, 120 students were selected using measures of verbal intelligence (DAT), social insight, and creative potential, as well as academic and nonacademic achievement. On the basis of a variety of personality and cognitive measures the students in both samples were found to be unusually mature and well adjusted but to vary considerably in sociopolitical intelligence. These results suggest in partial agreement with Terman's earlier findings concerning the gifted, that above a certain level of tested intelligence the critical determinants of effective, practical performance may be personality and biographical variables.This research was supported by a grant from the Spencer Foundation to the first author.Received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of California at Berkely. Major interests are personality theory and moral developmentReceived her Ph.D. in psychology from The Johns Hopkins University. Major interests are personality theory and medical psychology.Received his Ph.D. in psychology from The Johns Hopkins University. Major interests are education and developmental psychology.Graduate student in psychology, The Johns Hopkins University. B. A. University of Oregon, 1973. Major research interest is personality correlates of high-level achievement.Main research interest is the development of sociopolitical achievement.     

Memories of menarche: Age,preparation, and prior knowledge as determinants of initial menstrual experience

The relationships between age at menarche, preparation for menarche, and initial experience of menarche, were assessed in a retrospective questionnaire administered to 97 college-aged women. The more knowledgeable a girl was prior to menarche, the more adequate she perceived her preparation for menarche to have been; and the older she was at the time of menarche, the more likely she was to report a positive initial experience. These data support clinical anecdotes describing initial responses to menarche, and provide information about the factors which can moderate the extent to which menarche is experienced as a traumatic and disruptive event.Portions of this research were presented at the annual meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, Hartford, Conn., April 1980.Received Ph.D. in psychology from Tufts University. Major interests are psychobiology and adolescent development.Received Ph.D. in psychology from Clark University. Major interests are clinical psychology and personality development.Received Ph.D. in psychology from Harvard University. Major interest is cognitive development.     

From trust on intimacy: A new inventory for examining erikson's stages of psychosocial development

A new inventory for examining the first six of Erikson's psychosocial stages is described. The self-report questionnaire, developed in a pilot study of 97 adolescents and tested in a study of 622 adolescents, has 12 items for each subscale. Measures of reliability and validity are reported. It is concluded that the Erikson Psychosocial Stage Inventory (EPSI) is a useful measure for researchers interested in development from early adolescence and in mapping changes as a function of life events.This research was supported by a grant from the Education Research and Development Committee.Received Ph.D. from University of Melbourne. Current research interests are adolescent adjustment, ethnicity, and sex-role psychology.Received Ph.D. from University of Melbourne. Current research interests are effects of unemployment and adolescent adjustment.Received Ph.D. from Florida State University. Current research interests are sex-role psychology and adolescence.     

Peer knowledge of and reactions to adolescent suicide

Questionnaire data were obtained from 120 high school students on their (1) knowledge of risk factors that identify potential suicidal behavior in peers, (2) attitudes toward peers who attempt or commit suicide, and (3) ability to respond appropriately to suicidal messages from peers. Overall, relatively few adolescents possessed accurate information, and many had misinformation concerning various warning signs. Furthermore, respondents expressed negative attitudes toward peers who attempt or commit suicide, and generally were unable to respond sensitively and appropriately to suicidal communications. These results have implications for suicide education programs for adolescents.This study was based on a Masters Thesis conducted by the first author under the direction of the latter two authors. Preliminary results of this investigation were presented at the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, 1988.Received M.A. in clinical psychology from Loyola University. Current research interests include bulimia and alcoholism.Received Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Vanderbilt University. Primary research interests involve community psychology, prevention programs, and child psychology.Received Ph.D. from University of Chicago. Research interests include issues in adolescence and eating disorders.     

Defendant characteristics and judgment behaviors of adolescent mock jurors

Fictitious court cases involving child abuse were presented to 140 male undergraduates and 140 male junior high school students to determine if the tendency to deal harshly with alleged criminals is dependent upon certain defendant characteristics. Results indicate that younger adolescent jurors give longer sentences than older adolescent jurors, and male defendants receive longer sentences than female defendants. While no significant main effects for case content were found, younger jurors gave longer sentences and attributed more responsibility to a parent who beat his/her child, while older adolescent jurors attributed more responsibility and prescribed longer sentences to a parent who burned the child. Implications for future research with adolescent jurors are discussed.Received Ph.D. from Lehigh University, Major interests include adolescent and adult personality and social development, developmental abnormalities, and jury behavior.Received Ph.D. from Lehigh University. Major interests are personality and sex-role development, and psychology and the law.Received Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati. Major interests are cognitive development, guilt feelings, and jury behavior.     

Delinquency as a symptom of adolescents' orientation toward status and success

In this paper, we follow the premise that delinquency in adolescence is a by-product of struggles with developmental tasks. In an empirical analysis of a survey of 1717 West German adolescents aged between 12 and 16, we found evidence that delinquency was associated with adolescents' conformity to society's standards of prestige and success. Data are presented that show a relationship between delinquency and inability to succeed at school, on the one hand, and failure to achieve full recognition of status and prestige in the peer group, on the other hand. The findings provide evidence that difficulties and problems connected with the integration into the network of academic performance, as well as difficulties and problems connected with recognition within the peer group, are associated with delinquency.This research was supported by the Center for Prevention and Intervention in Childhood and Adolescence at the University of Bielefeld, funded by grants from the German Research Association (Deutsche Forschungs-Gemeinschaft).Received Ph.D. in social psychology, from University of Münster, Federal Republic of Germany. Research interests: developmental problems in adolescence and prevention of problem behavior.Received Ph.D. in sociology from University of Hanover, Federal Republic of Germany. Research interests: research methods and problem behavior in adolescence.     

Maternal employment and adolescent sexual behavior

This study investigated whether maternal employment would be associated with teenage sexual attitudes and behaviors likely to increase the probability of teenage pregnancy. Female subjects whose mothers were employed outside the home during the high school years (a) had a greater tendency to begin sexual relations before age 19, (b) expressed less concern regarding the risk of unintended pregnancy, and (c) scored lower on an objective test of their practical knowledge about contraception.Received Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Washington. Research interests include personality and environmental influences on adjustment.Received Ph.D. from University of Georgia. Current research interests are in behavioral teratology.Received Ph.D. from Oklahoma State University. Research interests are in loneliness and adjustment.Received Ph.D. from North Carolina State University. Research interests are in population and urban sociology.     

Consistency of adolescents' self-report of sexual behavior in a longitudinal study

This study examines three issues relevant to adolescent self-reported sexual behavior: the extent to which adolescents rescind reports of sexual intercourse, changes in reporting of lifetime sexual intercourse, and changes in reported age at first sexual intercourse. Data come from a three-year longitudinal study of health-compromising behaviors among a cohort a 758 rural adolescents. Students completed a self-administered questionnaire on health behaviors annually in eighth, ninth, and tenth grades. Findings show that 88.8% of students in eighth grade and 94.3% in ninth grade who reported having had sexual intercourse gave the same answer in a subsequent year. Approximately 15% of students reported fewer numbers of lifetime sexual intercourse experiences in tenth grade than they did in ninth grade. Age at first sexual intercourse was reported inconsistently by 67% of the students. Inconsistency rates differed by racial-gender groups, question sensitivity, and prior sexual experience.Received Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. Research interests include adolescent health and early adolescent development.Received Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. Research interests include personality, stress, and coping.Received Ph.D. from University of Chicago. Research interests include adolescent delinquency and substance use.Received Dr. P.H. from Johns Hopkins University. Research interests include rural adolescents and international health issues.Received Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. Research interests include adolescent sexuality and contraceptive decision making.     

Selective attention and self-control in delinquent adolescents

Research studies are briefly reviewed to examine the hypothesis that delinquent adolescents may process information in a different manner than non-delinquents. Studies suggest that delinquents may have less control over which information they attend to, may expose themselves to more stimulation, may process information more slowly, and may selectively attend to different information than matched controls. Findings from a recent study are presented in support of the latter hypothesis. A clinical example illustrates how these attention differences may appear in the course of treatment.This work was conducted while Dr. Rosenthal was a Clinical Research Training Fellow in Adolescence in a program jointly sponsored by the Adolescent Program of the Illinois State Psychiatric Institute, the Institute for Psychosomatic and Psychiatric Research and Training at Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center, and by the Departments of Behavioral Science (Human Development) and Psychiatry of the University of Chicago. The training program was funded by Public Health Service grant T32MH14668.A version of this paper was presented at the Conference on the Psychology of Adolescence, Chicago, June 20–21, 1980. Portions of this article are based upon the doctoral dissertation submitted by Frank Lani in partial fulfillment of the Ph.D. degree, Loyola University, Chicago, Illinois.Received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology at Vanderbilt University. Current research interests include delinquency, hyperkinesis, and evaluation of hospital treatment.Received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology at Loyola University. Current research interests include social cognition in delinquency.     

Personality,cognitive, and interpersonal factors in adolescent substance use: A longitudinal test of an integrative model

This study tests a multidimensional model of adolescent drug use. The model incorporates sociodemographic variables, personality variables (state and trait anxiety, depressive mood, and sensation seeking), cognitive variables (knowledge, attitudes, and intentions), interpersonal factors (relationships with peers and parents), and the availability of drugs. The model was tested in a longitudinal study, comprising two phases. A total of 1446 high school students served as subjects. The role of cognitive (attitudinal) and interpersonal factors (relationships with parents and peers) was confirmed. In addition, sensation seeking proved to have significant predictive power. Anxiety, depression, and sociodemographic factors, by contrast, had virtually no influence. Availability had a minor effect. The multidimensional explanation was validated longitudinally. The factors related to drug use at the first phase predicted use at the second. This multidimensional explanation accounted for the use of various substances, suggesting that different substances—whether legal or illegal—share a common multidimensional explanation.This work is based on the doctoral dissertation of Zipora Barnea supervised by Meir Teichman and Giora Rahav, and submitted to the Tel-Aviv University. The research was partially supported by a grant from the National Interministerial Committee on Substance Use and the National Research and Development Foundation.Received Ph.D. from Tel-Aviv University. Research interests are substance use, delinquency, and social deviance.Received Ph.D. from University of Missouri. Research interests are drug and alcohol abuse, and family violence.Received Ph.D. from Indiana University. Research interests are substance use, delinquency, and cross-national studies of deviant and violent behavior.     

The psychological impact of menarche: Integrative versus disruptive changes

Ninety-four seventh- and eighth-grade girls, 49 premenarcheal and 45 postmenarcheal, produced male and female human figure drawings. These drawings were scored for sexual differentiation, sexual identification, and anxiety related to aggression-hostility and insecurity-lability. Postmenarcheal girls were found to evidence greater sexual differentiation and clearer sexual identification than premenarcheal girls of the same age. Postmenarcheal girls did not differ from premenarcheal girls in level or class of anxiety, however. Together, these results provide evidence for viewing the impact of menarche as primarily integrative, rather than primarily disruptive. Implications of these findings for understanding menarche as a normal developmental crisis are explored.This research was supported in part by Wellesley College Faculty Development Awards to each of the two authors.Received Ph.D. in psychology from Clark University. Major interests are clinical psychology and personality development. Correspondence should be addressed to this author.Received Ph.D. in psychology from Tufts University. Major interests are psychobiology and adolescent development.     

Why do adolescents use drugs? Age,sex, and user differences

This paper makes four points: (1) There is substantial substance use among adolescents in our large rural southwestern sample. (2) Adolescents explain their drug use with five kinds of reasons (i.e., Belonging, Coping, Pleasure, Creativity, and Aggression). (3) Different reasons for using drugs are related to frequency of substance use. (4) There are age, gender, and user differences in the reasons adolescents have for their drug use. After summarizing traditional ways of thinking about drug use, we describe an alternative way for examining such behavior. We use this approach to study relationships between drug use reasons and age, gender, and substance use in 2637 6th–12th-grade students. We then discuss prevention and treatment implications of this research.Received Ph.D. from University of California at Berkeley in personality psychology. Research interests include school dropouts, substance use, delinqueccy, personal commitments, health, and identity.Received Ph.D. from University of California at Berkeley in personality psychology. Research interests include at-risk youth, substance use, delinquency, narcissism, and identity.Received Ph.D. from University of California at Berkeley in personality psychology. Research interests include moral development and personality.